Transcript
| Dialogue | Text on Screen |
|---|---|
| Come work for the Aboriginal Youth Work Exchange Program at the Ministry of Natural Resources | |
| First of all, I'd like to say thanks for giving me the opportunity to express our appreciation for the Aboriginal Youth Work Exchange Program. The involvement in programs like this is a first step towards developing leadership for your community. And the youth are the ones that are going to be leading this community in the very near future. | Chief Keith Knott Curve Lake First Nation |
| In my culture, it's Mother Earth we're really preserving. We're just making sure something is being put back into the earth because something was taken away. | |
| Mariah Wigwas Gull Bay First Nation Thunder Bay District Office Year 2 | |
| Bringing together western science as well as having our cultural values come together to support the environment is very valuable. | Melanie Quinn Eagle Village First Nation Aurora District Office Year 1 |
| I applied for a naturalist position and they wanted an Aboriginal youth to assist on some of the research so they would have those kinds of teachings being brought into the actual work that was being done here. | Maple McDermott Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation Algonquin Provincial Park Year 1 |
| It's a three-year job. I'm in my first year working at the ministry right now. Next year I will be working on the reserve. I'm really excited to be doing that because then I can have a chance to apply my knowledge in my own community. | |
| Breann Whetung Curve Lake First Nation Peterborough District Office Year 1 | |
| It's really important to know your heritage and to bring it "out of the closet" basically. You don't keep that stuff at home in the community. | D.J. Fife Curve Lake First Nation Petroglyphs Provincial Park Year 3 |
| The AYWEP program is a really good program for giving Aboriginal students some hands-on experience in natural resources… which is something Aboriginal communities have really been needing for quite some time. | David Beaucage Johnson Curve Lake First Nation Lands Officer Curve Lake Lands Department |
| Government and communities and people are all one and the same and we have a lot of shared interests. | Alfred Gay Gull Bay First Nation Northwest Aboriginal Liaison Ministry of Natural Resources |
| It's the largest concentration of petroglyphs in the world, basically…900-something carvings in the rock…located here in the middle of the woods | |
| People come to me and ask questions. | |
| And, uh, you might have noticed around here there are these plants. There are four of them -- one for each of the directions : north, west, east, south. And it's tobacco, sage, cedar and…sweetgrass. (Tourist exclaims "Sweetgrass…!" and his voice trails off) | |
| Having someone from the community, I know, some people really enjoy that. Because I can bring some facts from our community to this park, to tell people about the site from our point of view. | D.J. Fife Curve Lake First Nation Petroglyphs Provincial Park Year 3 |
| Connectivity between the physical world and the spiritual world…They thought the spirits were talking to them so that's why they put it there... (mumbles and volume trails off at the end) Tourist mumbles at low volume "They put it there…" | |
| I was helping the broadscale monitoring team today. And what we do is we collect fish and do a broadscale of different tests of them…And it's helped me overcome my fear of fish a little bit and I have a better understanding of them now…and it's just fun for me | Mariah Johnson Curve Lake First Nation |
| Peterborough District Office Year 1 | |
| On Georgina Island we do beachwater testing, and some invasive species work identifying the invasive species on the island as well as stewardship work. | Melanie Quinn Eagle Village First Nation |
| My name is Tia Charlotte Tarbell…My Mohawk name is "Kionkwhthatha". It means "She hangs the drying tobacco" | Tia Tarbell Mohawks of Akwesasne Kemptville District Office (Cornwall) Year 1 |
| We did one project out at a property putting up Wood Duck boxes there. Hopefully creating a more diverse environment for animals that are at-risk species. | |
| I've been really, really lucky. I've gotten to do some amazing programs: I did turtle research on nesting and radiotracking, aerial surveys of moose aquatic feeding, some bear measurements and small mammal research. | Maple McDermott Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation |
| So part of my job is to do guided hikes and part of that is to explain the different connections within ecosystems. | Algonquin Provincial Park Year 1 |
| So this is Indian Pipe and it's one of our wild flowers here. But it's different than other wild flowers in the fact that it doesn't need chlorophyll, which is this green stuff that plants use for food to survive. | |
| My job is basically just to help around the warehouse...Say if we have a big order, like it'll be really busy and you just need a bunch of stuff to put in one of the trucks. People everywhere -- you have people wrapping, you have people on the forklifts, you have people taking more orders and helping other firefighters out and stuff. | |
| Brendan AngeconebGull Bay First NationDryden Fire Management CentreYear 2 | |
| I grew up outdoors camping, fishing, hunting, so this…and I actually love…actually respect the work they do here. | |
| Nathan Esquega Gull Bay First Nation Thunder Bay District Office Year 2 | |
| We get them acquainted with the forest management planning process …. We teach them navigational skills using both a compass and a GPS, basic plant identification. | |
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To apply for the Aboriginal Youth Work Exchange Program you must be: • An Aboriginal Youth • Between the ages of 15 and 24 (up to 29 for persons with a disability) • Eligible to work in Canada You do not need to be a student |
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| This is our future -- the youth is our future. And that's the key in order to succeed is work beyond your community and see what the other side of the fence looks like… | Chief Keith Knott Curve Lake First Nation |
| We've met a lot of people. I just happened to meet a man who was talking about having a person do a presentation for basketmaking. I was like "My mother does basketmaking. She makes Black Ash baskets ...handy baskets." And the more we talked about it, he was like "Well, I was going to ask someone on the reserve..." Basically getting the community involved. There's only more opportunities that can come from it, this experience, but, I think it can help the community a lot. And my mom's happy! | Tia Tarbell Mohawks of Akwesasne Kemptville District Office (Cornwall) Year 1 |
| I've actually gained a lot of self-confidence working with the MNR. Basically, because the people are so great it's really hard to feel shy to ask questions because they're so supportive here. | Breann Whetung Curve Lake First Nation Peterborough District Office Year 1 |
| I think aside from what a lot of people think you learn -- about the fish, about the shrubs, the different trees, everything -- you learn, you gain a lot more respect for working in a group. | |
| Tia Tarbell Mohawks of Akwesasne Kemptville District Office (Cornwall) Year 1 | |
| All bias aside, honestly, we have the best team. Because we can joke around, we're all friends. | |
| I was really afraid of bears for a really long time and this summer doing the bear measurement stuff it is interesting to see them up close and to see different features of their body instead of just this, you know, something to be scared of. A really good lesson for me. I definitely have a healthy respect but I'm not unnecessarily timid anymore. | Maple McDermott Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation Algonquin Provincial Park Year 1 |
| Very pleased my grandson was able to be part of this here program… | Chief Keith KnottCurve Lake First Nation |
| It's kind of sparked more of a fire to learn my language. | D.J. Fife Curve Lake First nation Petroglyphs Provincial Park Year 3 |
| "This means "megwiich giijamnadoo" and that means "thank you great spirit" or "powerful spirit" actually." | |
| Actually, my dad is an airplane mechanic and I have always wanted to do that, so it's given me just a little bit of an outlook on how everything works around here. | Brendan Angeconeb Lac Seul First Nation Dryden Fire Management Centre Year 2 |
| It's not a classroom setting and I think that's great. But I also think that's great because you're up here, you're around the reservation if you want to be and that's nice. Go home and tell my uncle "Oh, I held a fish today" .Just different experiences. Fun. It's good. | Tia Tarbell Mohawks of Akwesasne Kemptville District Office (Cornwall) Year 1 |
| They're all really proud of me. Mostly because I think they see me doing this as looking at my future. | |
| My family loves it. I go home and tell them about it. They think it's great that I'm learning a lot of stuff. And "keep at 'er"! | Nathan Esquega Gull Bay First Nation Thunder Bay District Office Year 2 |
| My little cousins look up to me as a role model, and I found that my brother has been searching for jobs with the ministry. | Mariah Wigwas Gull Bay First Nation Thunder Bay District Office Year 2 |
| My relatives on the reserve are pretty proud that I just grabbed this opportunity by the horns. And they're really interested to see what will happen next year. | Breann Whetung Curve Lake First Nation Peterborough District Office Year 1 |
| I just wish that we had some now that we could start teaching them, you know, to take over the leadership role. And get involved with youth council, get involved with committees, this type of thing. This is what I'd like to see some of the youth get involved with so that they get the experience of what happens when you start sitting around this table. That's just like crawling before you can walk. And I think programs like this may assist them to get that interest. | |
| Chief Keith Knott Curve Lake First Nation | |
| I liked working in our community and I got to know people better actually in my community. I've learned a lot about our history there and the history of the area. | |
| The AYWEP program Is good for Aboriginal communities because they can go back and teach others…their peers, younger siblings and stuff….. and as a community they can better the environment. | Mariah Wigwas Gull Bay First Nation Thunder Bay District Office Year 2 |
| As we know this year two more youth have signed up for this program for the next three years. So that's showing that the program is working within our community. | |
| It really gives them a chance to have a joint effort between the MNR and Aboriginal communities. There's not really a lot of data in the database regarding the reserve. Next year if we can just plan our own projects and start collecting data, it will definitely help out both parties. | Breann WhetungCurve Lake First Nation |
| The student we have who will be working for the First Nation next year ...Mariah. Some of the projects that I think we'll be working on are: setting up some policies and guidelines for how to manage our natural resources on reserve. And I think that the experience she'll get from MNR, working in Peterborough, she'll bring some of that and we'll be able to use that to help us. But also, I think that the experience that she'll get on the First Nation level she'll be able to take that back to the Ministry of Natural Resources so it becomes sort of like a learning-sharing relationship. | |
| David Beaucage Johnson Curve Lake First Nation Lands Officer Curve Lake Lands Department | |
| If someone was interested in the program or wasn't sure, I would suggest talking to someone who has been in it because on paper it doesn't seem as interesting as it really is. Once you start working you get to know people and you just fall in love with the job…pretty much. | The Ministry of Natural Resources gratefully acknowledges the following persons and organizations for their contributions to this video: |
| The program participants, their families and their communities, for donating their time and efforts to this video. | |
| Digging Roots, for their consent to the use and inclusion of their song “Spring to Come” in this video. Digging Roots won the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards Best Group of the Year in 2009. www.diggingrootsmusic.com | |
| As an AYWEP student you're with them for three years. But after those three years you could pretty much go and apply for any other job within the MNR. There's a lot of cool jobs there. | |
| I would advise any other community, whenever the opportunity arises, whether it's the Aboriginal Youth Work Exchange Program or another program that will assist the youth to receive the knowledge that is necessary to move forward…The community will benefit -- maybe not today, but they'll benefit from it in the future when they all come back as leaders of our community. They'll reflect back on the experience that they received with this exchange program. | The Grand Council of Treaty #3, for their consent to the use and inclusion of their traditional songs in this video. |
| Curve Lake First Nation and The Learning Place, for their consent to the use and inclusion of their art, community members and teaching rocks in this video. | |
| The Mohawks of Akwesasne and The Ronathahon:ni Cultural Center for their consent and assistance in featuring their art in this video. | |
| In particular, the ministry would like to thank Darren Bonaparte and Brad Bonaparte for sharing their art. | |
| Even if you're totally hesitant to participate in this program, I would say: ABSOLUTELY DO IT! This is the best summer you're going to have. The things you're going to learn, you have no idea. Sign up and actually do it! It's the best thing for you. | |
| MNR URL and Visual Identity | |
| Search the vast range of career opportunities available across dozens of ministries and agencies in the Ontario Public Service and learn more about our suite of youth and new professional employment programs. For more information, go to: ontario.ca/careers. Select 'Youth and New Professionals'. |
