In a special ceremony Prince George Secondary School (PGSS) celebrated the completion of its new student-made smokehouse.
Drummers from Nusdeh Yoh elementary performed as students gutted salmon and waited for the first lighting of the smokehouse.
Lheildi T’enneh Elders and School District No.57 (SD57) teachers and staff were also in attendance to honour the completion of the smokehouse which has been a two-year-long process to build.
The project which was first approved in May 2019, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think the very important thing here to see is that we are involving Indigenous culture within the school for people who may not have access to that. It is showing that we can use Indigenous ways of knowing to become the standard not the exception,” said Lheidli T’enneh Councillor Joshua Seymour.
“We can connect children who may not have a connection to their people or their communities to have a connection here at school where they can study their culture as well as share their culture with other people. I think that is the ideology of all of the Indigenous content that we bring to the schools today.”
Pam Spooner, Indigenous Education director, spoke about how the province has passed legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
“It acknowledges the fact that Indigenous people have the right to practice their culture and language,” said Spooner. “This is the first action to see and show that our culture and our language belong in our schools and I think it will be one of many actions moving forward.”
The smokehouse will be utilized in the PGSS’s EPIC program (Experiential Project-based Indigenous Community Program) which is a pilot project in its first year.
“This is a really unique program where we get to learn from different communities, learn from different knowledge holders and maybe build some skills students have never had the chance to develop,” said EPIC program teacher Aleah Johnson.
She said the students are currently learning how to gut and clean fish to prepare it for canning and while they familiarize themselves with the new smokehouse.
“Having a tool like this is so valuable because not only do we have something at our disposal, we don’t have to pay for busing so it takes away a lot of those barriers when we have programs like this,” said Johnson.
“There’s all of these different ways of bringing people together and by having smokehouses and different learning tools onsite you are enriching that and solidifying how interconnected we can be and how we can learn from each other.”
Johnson said the students in the program are all excited about having the smokehouse ready to use.
“I really like learning more about the land and the Lheidli T’enneh people and all that kind of stuff,” said Ranen Pratt, a grade eight student in the EPIC program.
“Today we were able to gut fish. We cut off all their fins, opened them up, and took their guts out,” said Pratt, adding that it was important to him to learn about Indigenous culture.
Johnson said some of the other projects the students will be doing in the EPIC program include camping, canoeing, hiking, and land-based shelter building.
"As a school district, we are committed to honouring and respecting the land on which our schools reside," said acting superintendent Cindy Heitman.
"It is important to us that we provide opportunities for the youth and communities to learn traditional ways. It is also important for us to learn from the Indigenous communities as we demonstrate our commitment to truth and reconciliation and UNDRIP."
