The Athabasca Denesuline Education Authority celebrated independence in education on Thursday, cutting a caribou hide ribbon in their main offices in Prince Albert. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Indigenous Education

Caribou ribbon has been cut on Athabasca Denesuline Education Authority

Jun 17, 2022 | 11:05 AM

Cutting a caribou hide ribbon Thursday afternoon was a message that the Dene of Saskatchewan’s Athabasca region are now in control of their own education.

Chiefs of all three participating bands, staff and guests celebrated at the main offices in Prince Albert yesterday, an emotional moment for Director of Education Gerry Guillet.

“When I look at and feel so proud of this day and where we’ve come in a short three years, my heart fills with emotion because I’m so proud,” he said.

The ADEA, as it is being called for short, has an agreement with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and the participating bands also have agreements with each other that give them complete control over the schooling of children in four schools.

With their own education act, their own board of education, their own staff and including their own culture and language, the change has been a positive one, said Guillet.

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“Parents were telling us they want a better education for their children, and I put my life on the line to say we promise we’ll deliver that, and we have been,” he said.

The authority includes Hatchet Lake, Fond du Lac and Black Lake Densuline First Nations. Their central office is located on Industrial Drive in Prince Albert, a decision that also allows them to deliver services to their many urban residents.

Chief Coreen Sayazie of Black Lake First Nation said she believes that they can now be help their students — who have been behind compared to their peers across the province — catch up.

Students in the Athabasca region speak Dene as their first language and face extra challenges when they must learn in English.

“English language is our second language because of our culture and language. Our students usually have cultural shock when they move down south for their university,” she explained.

Hopefully this will open doors for our future children to have better education and to bring more services to our schools,” said Sayazie.

One thing they have been able to do that makes a difference is train their own teachers. Sayazie said that 80 per cent of the education staff are local, something that was accomplished by having their own teacher training program.

Cultural teachings are part of the everyday learning experience and combined with the same curriculum every other school in Saskatchewan follows.

“A lot of our teachers, Dene is their first language and it helps keep our language in our schools,” she explained.

When added to the fact that culture and language are also in the home, the students are learning in both locations.

This has led Black Lake to have a very high rate of language retention in the community.

In 2017, the federal government said it would make changes to how education is delivered for Indigenous people, giving them three options: they could choose to be independent, they could choose to join a provincial authority, or they could amalgamate and create their own authority.

Joining the province was not an option and remaining independent was tenuous, so the Athabascan people created their own authority.

What they have created mirrors a provincial authority but considers the unique geography of the area it serves.

It was a big job to go from a point of “not even having a box of paper clips” to finding a building, renovating it so it served their needs and creating the framework so that students had a learning environment that prepared them for the future while still keeping their unique culture, said Guillet, but they have done it and he feels it is working.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow