Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, something very close to my heart is ontheland education. In my previous life, I worked with Bush Kids NWT. We started with a simple wall tent and a fire pit out behind the Yellowknife fieldhouse, along with a bucket of tools like an axe, a saw, rope, tarps. Our team always included Indigenous elders and knowledgeholders. We would spend all day outside with kids, anywhere from three years old to high school age, even in the coldest days of winter. Our mantra was that we were learning to take care of ourselves, take care of each other, and the land. It sounds simple and in some ways it is, yet we put up barriers to making ontheland education happen in this territory partly because of our own fears. What if they get cold? What if they burn themselves on the fire? What if they fall and hurt themselves? What if they get attacked by wild animals? What if the wall tents get vandalized? It's easier just to keep the kids safe and keep them inside. But are the kids really safer inside?
We assume the status quo is risk free yet our kids are not attending school, they're disconnected from their cultures, they're struggling with mental health and even suicide. We overcomplicate things by creating these huge budgets for ontheland camps thinking we need to build big facilities and travel way out into the wilderness, but then we can only afford to do it maybe once a year.
Kids need to go outside on a regular basis close to home. When a kid is labelled a troublemaker but then they get to go outside and they're trusted with an axe, supervised of course, and the responsibility for keeping the camp warm, they suddenly feel important. They have a role. They have a sense of identity. I've seen incredible transformations in kids when we let them be curious, come up with their own questions, get excited about exploring the land on their own terms, when they learn about Indigenous culture not in a theoretical way but do it in a hand's on way, it's incredible to see the selfconfidence that they gain. And when the group experience conflict in that setting, I mean all kids are going to be jerks sometimes, let's be real, but there's something about being on the land that brings out our instinct to be kinder to one another. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, these kids are our future public service. Imagine the transformation in this government if we raise our future civil servants to be confident in their Indigenous identity, to be curious, to take initiative, to explore new paths, to take risks not out of recklessness but skillfully with careful preparation, to be kind and take care of one another? What an investment in our future, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Range Lake.
