New programs for and by northerners launched in NWT

Three programs have recently been launched in the Northwest Territories to build northerners’ skills. Journalists for Human Rights and the Google News Initiative have partnered to launch The Northern Journalism Training Initiative, a four-week training program through which northerners can develop their journalistic storytelling skills. “We really just want to see more northerners — more Indigenous northerners — telling their own stories, in their own communities, from their own communities, about their own communities,” said program lead Kaila Jefferd-Moore, a Haida journalist and professional communications consultant who grew up in Inuvik. The Dene Wellness Warriors healing group and Rhodes Wellness College in Vancouver are collaborating to offer an Indigenous counselling training program. The two-year program, which was first trialed in May 2022, aims to prepare Indigenous counsellors to provide services to residential survivors and their families. NWT has also announced that it is launching small-scale pilots of Northern Studies 30—a high school course that covers land, governance, wellness, and reconciliation. The course was developed through engagement with Indigenous governments and other education partners. The territorial government is also working with the Gordon Foundation to launch three pilot treaty simulations in high schools.