That's a great question.
One of the things we're doing here is land-based learning. We developed a nationally renowned program called “Take It Outside”. It's a way of getting our children back out onto the land. It's not just a matter of taking them out on the playground. We take them to an old-growth forest with very natural environments, and it's also a great way for us to teach them their language in that environment.
One of the challenges we face is that families are living in substandard housing. We have really poor air quality and overcrowding, so all of those things lead to really poor health, especially for our children.
Those are some of the things we're trying to do. We actually had a bit of a kickback from the province here around our “Take It Outside” program during COVID. They called it a field trip. It's not a field trip. It's a part of our curriculum to get our kids back outside on the land. What's more healthy—being stuck in a classroom or being out on the land?
Those are some of the challenges we face, which is why it's really important for us to be delivering some of these programs as opposed to the mainstream programming. I know the mainstream has wonderful intentions, but it doesn't always work out well for indigenous families, so these kinds of programs become really valuable to the community.
One of the things we're doing is this land-based learning, but we're also now bringing it to adults. We have land-based learning for university students. All of that we think is really important. It also connects non-indigenous students with indigenous students, which speaks as well to wellness and some of the issues we have to deal with here. We have families living in poverty and substandard housing, and they're being faced with a multitude of really poor health issues. We care about healthy food, but how do you afford to buy healthy food when you're living on a fixed income?
Those are some of the things we're trying to get a little further upstream on before folks end up in the health care system.