Absolutely.
Many indigenous communities—not, all of course—are in rural communities. Not all, but most of the forest sector is in rural communities as well.
First of all, there's just this geographic alignment. The forest sector depends on trees, forests and the land. Indigenous communities have traditional ties to forests as a way of life. There is this sort of natural geographic connection as well as this love of forests, nature and dependence on forests. It puts forward indigenous people's ability to engage in the forest sector and to develop forest resources within their communities as part of the solution.
In COVID times, it's quite interesting. We had to shift our model. Earlier, we would work with camps and youth organizations and bring indigenous youth together for six-week experiences to learn basic skills. These are often at-risk youth. They would learn basic skills and get a driver's licence. They'd learn how a tree nursery works, how to grow seedlings and things like WHMIS and health and safety. We would get them some certifications and then show them the career pathway, like what tech school they could go to, such as Confederation College, Sault College or BCIT.
Then we would show them role models. We did this indigenous guide of career voices. We connected with different indigenous leaders in the forest sector in all sorts of different jobs and showed the pathway they took to get there—their traditional ways of knowing coupled with western education. Essentially, they learned that there is a pathway for them no matter what, because we were demonstrating all these different pathways.