Guards-parks will proceed with the mountains

Emy-Jane Déry

Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 20:46

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Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 20:49

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SEPT-ÎLES | guards-parks will learn how to steer with the mountains and the basics of medicinal plants in the context of a DEP park ranger tailored to aboriginal people.

The diploma of vocational studies (DVS) Protection and exploitation of territories, wildlife is the subject of a pilot project within the Centre for adult education (CREATED) from the innu community of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam in Sept-Îles.

A “First Nations” has been added to the typical training of the ministry of Education, which aims to train guards-parks, guides, hunting and fishing, or assistants to the protection of wildlife. This is a first in Quebec for this training.

In the module ” technical fishing on ice “, for example, the basic training includes learning with a fishing line. However, with the bonus of the program, a technique of ice fishing using nets will also be taught.

In the part “way in the forest” of course, it is expected that methods of use of GPS and a compass are provided to the students. In the enhanced program, they will learn more to orient themselves thanks to the shape of the mountains and the sun’s positioning, the techniques that are specific to the ancestral practices of the Innu.

To heal by the plants

Concepts of medicinal plants will also be included in the section “identifying a forest” by the DEP, through which one learns usually to identify the flora, and not to be used for giving care.

Students will learn how to plug the leaks of a canoe with the gum of fir tree, or even how to make a shovel and a paddle from a tree trunk.

Retention of students

In this way, the CREATED made the bet that it will get better retention of students while improving their knowledge in relation to their own culture.

“It allows them to see that in the context of a school setting, said conventional educational institutions can convey and recognize the values of First Nations,” said Hermel Bégin, coordinator in training at CREATED. “It is adapted to their reality, they feel recognized, and that is motivating for the students “, he said.

The meeting of the two cultures within the framework of the training will be beneficial to everyone, considers for its part, Marc-Andre Racine, the only teacher non-native the training. The latter gave the DEP a traditional for the past ten years in Saguenay, before asking to take part in the pilot project of Seven-Islands.