By Bryan Eneas

Youth gathering in La Ronge for eco-conference

Mar 8, 2017 | 5:00 AM

Students from across the North will be coming together on March 11 and 12 to discuss environmental stewardship.

The inaugural North Saskatchewan Eco-Conference is the brainchild of Melissa Cromarty from the Churchill Community High School and Theresa Huntley from the La Loche Dene High School.

“I liked the idea of teaching students practical hands on approaches, as well as a social activist kind of mentality,” Huntley said. “The idea that they can make a change and take charge and work together to create something positive in their own communities.”

She billed the gathering as a chance to empower students while engaging in the environment, which is important because of the volume of natural resources coming from the northern regions of Saskatchewan.

“There has to be a mindfulness about sustainability but also economic sustainability as well as economic options and futures for communities in the north,” Huntley said. “It goes hand and hand; it works really nicely to make sure our kids are aware of environmental issues that are out there, but also to explore options for their own employment and the betterment of their communities economically.”

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During the conference, students will be asked to produce an environmental action plan to bring back to their communities. Huntley said the objective of the plans is the encouragement of idea sharing within the communities involved in the conference.

Once the environmental action plans have been finalized, a student from La Loche will act as a webmaster and upload the strategies online.

According to Huntley, the Northern Lights School Division is made up of a high amount of Cree and Dene peoples. Because of this population representation, Cree and Dene environmental stewardship will be looked at during the gathering.

“It’s a more traditional approach to the environment and looking at the environment from an Indigenous perspective,” Huntley said. “Not as land to be used, but land to be engaged with and worked with.”

She explained as this is the first conference of its kind, more perspectives will be explored in the future.

While in attendance, students will participate in seminars and workshops focusing on upcycling, recycling, clean water, composting, invasive species, habitat preservation and more. There will also be a tour of the SARCAN and recycling plants in La Ronge.

“Lots of gross, hands on things,” Huntley said. “I think someone’s even bringing worms for composting… We’re hoping to give them a taste of what can be done.”

Teams of four to six students from high schools in the Northern Lights School Division will be heading to the Churchill Community High School to participate. Huntley said she hopes to get students who expressed interest in the sciences and careers in the science fields involved in the gathering.

Huntley said four schools have confirmed attendance, with a number of schools awaiting confirmation.  

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @BryanEneas