The Alberta Mentoring Partnership

Program Description

Currently we operate language classes to both administration employees for the Piikani Nation as well as an evening language class for families. We have two pilot projects starting up this Fall: A Horse culture program & Traditional Hunting and Fishing. Both classes utilize ancestral teachings that help youth learn cultural identification through self-actualization that allows youth to learn the importance of becoming successful contributing members of society. There is an on-going program that allows our elders to be documented and these interviews are then archived with partnerships through the University of Lethbridge; these recordings are then shared with the community. During the school year we go into the schools and provide educational resources to Junior and Senior High Schools in Brocket and the surrounding communities, which include Fort Macleod and Pincher Creek. During the summer months we operate a learning by place course that takes youth, and community members to Sacred Sites within the Blackfoot Terrritory. There is a youth society called the Niipomakiiks, which is aged 8-16 that runs day camps and over night camps, learning extensively about Blackfoot stories, ceremonies and cultural identity.