A First Nation in Saskatchewan has a unique way of teaching students about the world around them.
Clearwater River Dene Nation, about 520 kilometres north of Saskatoon, uses a seasonal land-based learning model to keep the students engaged in learning.
“It gives us a lot of opportunities to do stuff that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise,” said Grade 11 student Landon Moise.
“Like go talk to scientists, go sampling, go work with NexGen up in their future mine, and work alongside people we would have never had a chance to beforehand.”
This week, the students have been learning about the little-known method of snare fishing.
They start with a long branch — taken from a poplar or birch tree because they’re more flexible — and use rabbit snare wire to create a snare at the end, said Paul Haynes, the school’s land-based educator.
The pole can be anywhere from four to 12 feet long, depending on the location.
The next part is crucial: find the fish.
“Seeing the fish becomes an art form, and then catching the fish becomes an even bigger art form because the perception changes when you’re looking at the water and where the fish actually is in the water, and you’re trying to line your snare up with the fish,” Haynes said.
“There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get that learning curve down … some of the kids are like pros.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance was low and the school had to re-evaluate its teaching methods, Haynes said. It used to offer camps twice a year, but needed a new way to engage students again.
“After the pandemic, it just seemed like there was more anxieties, there were more attendance issues, there was more apathy towards education,” he said.
“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.”
Now, students like Landon enjoy going to school instead of avoiding it. They can appreciate the usefulness of what they’re learning.
“It is such a great experience, and something that we should continue teaching the future generation,” Landon said. “It’s a good source to put food on the table for many families as well, and to feed the kids in our school.”
The school partners older students with younger ones to help mentor them, and also keep them safe while they’re out on the land.
“Our programming is now in place where we’re using our junior high and high school kids who have come up in the last several years, working with us and have gained skills, to share those skills and knowledge with,” Haynes said.
“We’re at the point now where we get to stand back and admire that … it’s a great sense of accomplishment because it’s like there’s this full cycle going,” he said.
“Every age is there and participating, just like it should be … from little kids to teenagers to adults to elders, it’s the full cycle, and I think that provides for a very, very powerful learning environment.”
Snare fishing is an old, traditional way of fishing, but it’s also a good way to teach kids western science as well as Indigenous science, Haynes said.
Kids are learning about the protective slime on the fish, and the proper ways to handle them as gently as possible to ensure they’re protected from bacteria, fungus or parasites when they’re released back into the water.
“We’re doing it in an ethically and conservation minded-way,” Haynes said.
“We’re showing our kids how to do this not only by sexing the fish and releasing them, but also on the handling of the fish.”
Lessons about exercising their inherent rights to hunt and fish are included, and students are taught to do these things in an ethical manner, so all the fish they keep will be distributed amongst them to their families, he said.
Any extras are used at school to make lunches for the students, and nothing is ever wasted.
The program also has two elders, Doreen Louise Moise and Pauline Fontaine, who the students simply call “hama,” which means grandmother. They show the kids how to clean the fish they catch.
“It’s like teaching my own children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Moise said. “I don’t get anything out of it, but I just want to pass on what I have learned, and what the kids can keep doing for the new generations.
“Because if we lose this, nothing’s going to be taken back once we lose it.”
Fontaine said teaching the kids and seeing their joy makes her happy.
“When you see them smiling and being happy with the project that they accomplish with our help, they do it themselves,” she said.
“We just let them take hands on and it feels good for them and also makes us more proud of them to keep the tradition going.”
High school student Carmen Haineault said although fish snaring is time consuming, she enjoys seeing the little kids happy when they catch one.
Her father showed her how to do it, but others don’t have those teachings at home, she said.
“It’s good because some of these kids can’t come out here on their own and learn properly. So it’s good to teach them how to handle fish, treat them properly and with respect.”
