At Clearwater River Dene Nation, students from the CRDN Kodiak School are learning through a seasonal land-based learning model. CBC explains that the students have had the opportunity to talk to scientists, go sampling, and, recently, go snare fishing. The model was introduced after the COVID-19 pandemic, when attendance was low at the school. “After the pandemic, it just seemed like there was more anxieties, there were more attendance issues, there was more apathy towards education,” said CRDN Kodiak School Land-based Educator Paul Haynes. “A lot of people had a hard time adjusting from going from that online learning to back in the classroom, and the motivation just didn’t seem to be there.” CBC reports that students are motivated to go to school with the program, and that the older schools now help teach skills to the younger students. In the most recent experience on the land, students learned how to snare and handle fish, as well as about their inherent rights to hunt and fish. Elders Doreen Louise Moise and Pauline Fontaine showed the youth how to clean the fish they caught.
