Four Similkameen Elementary Secondary School students are involved in a year long, national water conservation project funded by the Canadian Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources titled “Our Water, Our Future.”
The school based project, which partners with the Lower Similkameen Indian Band and the Okanagan Nation Alliance, will be hosting one of four week long workshops during the week of November 25 - 28. The four workshops, one of which has already taken place in Ontario, represent Canada’s watersheds - the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Hudson’s Bay.
The Keremeos workshop will look at water issues in the Similkameen, with participation coming from four groups of four youths and their chaperones, project leaders and guest speakers.
“Each group identifies water issues in their community,” explained SESS Aboriginal instructor Sandy Terbasket, “the students become emerging water leaders, developing a community water action plan that is broad in scope.” Terbasket cited such local issues as agricultural water use, water licensing, the proposed Similkameen dam and mining as Similkameen based issues that the workshops will discuss. At the conclusion of the workshop, students will develop a digital story which will be posted on the CIER website.
The students recently attended a workshop hosted by the Beausoliel First Nations on Christian Island in Georgian Bay, Ontario. Part of the student’s work there included taking part in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.
“They heard about the water issues dealt with by the people in that community, who are faced with flucuating water levels, which affects ferry transport to the island. It really helps the students increase their awareness about water and its importance to everyone when they hear what other communities’ issues are,” Terbasket added. “The ultimate goal for the students is to develop an action plan for the community and implement it.”
The timing for the project is ideal, as the Similkameen Valley Planning Society moves into the second phase of its Similkameen Watershed Study. Lower Similkameen Band Cheif Rob Edward has indicated that there may be a role for the students in that study as it moves forward.
Other workshops will be held in Shoal Lake, Manitoba, and Yellowknife, Northwest Territory.
CIER is a national, First Nation-directed environmental non-profit organization with charitable status and is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Steve Arstad, Editor