SA国际影视传媒

When you think of academic studies, usually long formulas and even longer papers come to mind but in the North, students can learn traditional knowledge towards a degree.

Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning is hosting a two-week urban hide camp from Aug. 18 to 29, offering up to six university credits through two classes.

"This is the second hide camp we've accredited in this region, it's really exciting," said program development director Kyla LeSage. "The dream is to make these programs more accessible to different regions so our students aren't having to travel down to Yellowknife but can instead can be out in their own region, learning from traditional knowledge holders and Elders from their region.

"In our normal camps, it's really hard for people to come visit and have access to a boat. But in this case, anyone from town can come check it out. We've had people come out and share stories with the students."

Credits are honoured by the University of British Columbia and any institution which has a transfer agreement with it.

Hosted at the Inuvik Native Band's cultural space, the two-week course will run as a day class, which is a bit of a departure from the immersive wilderness camps Dechinta normally hosts.

But this way, LeSage noted, participants who would be unable to leave their community are able to participate. While much of Dechinta's programming is held just outside of Yellowknife, LeSage said the sheer number of students from the Beaufort Delta who attend programs justified using Inuvik as a second campus of sorts.

It also helps reclaim the land for its original purpose, as much of the area was used for a residential school throughout the last century. Using the land for learning traditional crafts helps the land itself heal.

Hides were donated by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, which had an excess of old material in an old community freezer.

"They had some hides they wanted to see if locals would want to work on before they sent them down to be commercially tanned," said LeSage. "So we jumped on that so we could develop a hide tanning program in the region.

"This course will focus a lot on self determination and what it means to be working on a moose hide. Talking about what the moose hide is teaching us. One of the biggest teachings with hide camps is while you're working on the hide, the hide is also working on you. It's a healing process."

A test-course was held in May to work out any kinks in the curriculum with six alumni as participants. LeSage said she was hoping for a class of eight to 10 students.

Meals are included and participation is free. Priority will be given to locals first, since the course is being hosted in Inuvik to help develop on the land capacity in the region.

But LeSage said people further out should also apply, as funding for travel is also available.

"With Dechinta, you bring your family," she said. "We actually had one student whose from Inuvik but her family moved to Fort Smith. We flew her up to do the program, paid for her to do the program and she brought her two little boys. They stayed at her mom's place in Inuvik and the two boys came every day to the camp and got to experience the same teachings as all the other students.

"Seeing little kids run around at a hide camp instead of thinking about what happened years ago with residential schools is important."

The deadline to apply to the program is June 9. Email studentsupport@dechinta.ca to apply and for further information.