Starting Off On the Right Foot
Week 1 of the #MNOExpedition: Midland Training
On May 1st 2017 over 50 youth gathered in Midland, Ontario to do the very first week of training for both the Canoe Expedition and the Summer Youth Cultural Program. This week of training was designed to give us an overview on Métis culture through presentations, workshops and discussions. Throughout the week we learned a lot about our ancestors and how they lived during the fur trade era. Amidst the paperwork and PowerPoint's, we learned traditional skills and crafts. Learning the artistic ways of Métis cultural is very valuable because we use it to represent our people and teach others the skills and beauty the Métis people displayed. The artistic things we learned were bead-work, embroidery, finger weaving, dot art, capoté making and of course we were taught Métis jigs and songs.
During this training we also learned about our voyageur roots, which was an incredibly humbling experience. The fur trade and history lessons definitely left an impact, especially when we were discussing the triumphs and hardships of the voyageurs. These lessons helped us to prepare mentally for some of the inevitable discomforts of the upcoming weeks.
In the evenings in Midland we did canoe expedition specific training. We spent several hours a night discussing the trip and planning for things such as the equipment we need to bring, how to properly meal plan and some safety protocols. The most valuable things we worked on developing were our teamwork skills. We spent a good deal of time doing group activities to better know each other and to learn how to overcome any mini challenges as a team. Within the first few nights of our Midland training we formed so well as a group it already felt like we were coming together as a family.
