STEPHENVILLE, N.L. — Students in the Community Leadership Development program at the College of the North Atlantic in Stephenville are collaborating on a project with the People of the Dawn Indigenous Friendship Centre that is helping educate others as much as themselves.
Ashleigh Long of St. Teresa is one of the second-year students working on a series of podcasts with the centre that focus on Indigenous culture.
It’s for a project in the second-year change leadership course.
“The whole goal of the project was to connect with a community partner and develop a 12-week project with them,” said Long.
The students reached out to a couple of places, but with the COVID-19 pandemic had to work around a lot of restrictions.
“So, we had to make sure whatever we did had to be online.”
They narrowed their list down and reached out to the friendship centre to propose a partnership.
With the centre on board, Long said they really didn’t know what to expect. “What kind of project could we do in the middle of a pandemic, what can we do online and realistically in 12 weeks.”
Since the pandemic started the centre has been finding other ways to connect with people like beading classes with people in class and online through Zoom and Monday morning Facebook Live sessions with Paul Pike, the centre’s director of community and cultural programming.
The centre had already been looking at the idea of doing a podcast and put it to the students to take it on and kick start it.
"... whatever we did had to be online.” — Ashleigh Long
It’s something Long said none of them had done before, but were up for the challenge.
“And we’re learning new things along the way.”
The second-year students are also getting some help from the program’s first-year students as part of their media and public relations course.
The first podcast was posted on the friendship centre’s Facebook page on Feb. 15 and features an interview with Pike, who is also an accomplished Mi’kmaw musician and performer. He spoke about Indigenous music and how it relates to culture.
Over the next four weeks the students will release two more podcasts, one on the history that’s taught in the school system and how cultural teachings can be incorporated and the final one on the topic of two-spirit.
Long said she’s learned a lot through the experience. Because Indigenous culture isn’t really taught in the schools she didn’t feel like she had a huge understanding of it.
“So, having the opportunity to speak to Paul, to speak to Jordan, and the future people that we’re going to, not only are we getting the message out to the public but we’re also learning ourselves.”
And it ties into lot of topics they have learned about in other courses.
“It’s kind of nice to expand on our knowledge. Ask the questions that everyone is wondering.”
Pike said the centre has had a great relationship with the college, so when it was approached by the class it wanted to be sure to do something that the students could also benefit from.
“The end result is we want them to learn more about Indigenous culture, especially with regards to this region here.”
“Podcasts are just another avenue, another vehicle, to deliver cultural information and sharing.” — Paul Pike
He said the centre wanted them to learn about what’s on “our own front doorstep,” as very few know about where they’re actually living.
He calls the partnership a win-win.
“We could get more information out there in the community and these students could get a whole new form of education.”
Reaching people virtually as well as in person is something that will have to be the centre’s way forward to keep people connected.
“And that’s really a big part of what we’re about is building that connection or reconnection in some cases.”
He said the hope is to extend the reach of the podcasts as more people learn about them.
“Podcasts are just another avenue, another vehicle, to deliver cultural information and sharing.”
And while they are Indigenous focuses they are beneficial for everyone.
“For people who aren’t Indigenous to learn about where they’re living.
There is no plan right now to continue the project after the initial four shows have been completed, but Pike said the centre will assess the project to see if it’s something that the community sees value in for possible continuation.
Diane Crocker reports on west coast news. [email protected] | Twitter: @WS_DianeCrocker
