Community Harvest
Nov 1, 2018 | Caitlin Pawlett, Experiential Learning Project Leader
Students from the second-year Environmental Technician Protection and Compliance program participated in a community harvest and learned about some First Nation traditions with community members from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory.
This is the second year Gerard Peltier has coordinated this experiential learning opportunity for Canadore students. The students set up camp on a part of the Traditional Territory of Wiikwemkoong, near Point Grondine (off Killarney Highway 537). Faculty member, Stephen Romaniuk stated that the community offered “incredible hospitality, learning, and connection for sharing opportunities”. Participants slept in canvas prospector tents, chopped their own firewood and tended their own fires. Students practiced traditional crafts, pursued and ate wild game, participated in a Traditional Medicine Walk and had the opportunity to learn about edible and medicinal plants. Cooking was done communally and many stories and teachings were shared throughout the experience, around the campsite as well as around campfires in the evening. Jeremy St.Onge said, “This was a fabulous immersion into land-based learning, traditions, and ceremony”. As with any community gathering, a lot of fun, laughter from stories shared, lessons learned, and new experiences were had.
