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Mino Bimaadiziwin Partnership

Spring Ice Break-up 2019 Newsletter 
Boreal Homebuilding Students win big to benefit Wasagamack community 

A recent huge victory for  Wasagamack First Nation was achieved thanks to the hard work of two students from the Boreal Home Builders Program and their coaches.  Roxanne Harper and Trenton Harper proposed and defended a food, education, culture, and business incubator in their community, to be funded for $550,000 with the help of Ernie Harper, Phyllis Harper, Rezwanul Hoque and Shirley Thompson.

This Wasagamack team placed third out of 60 communities against much older students. These youth have a vision of a future with opportunity through community-led education although they are only 18 years old for Roxanne and 19 years old for Trenton.  

See their presentation, their proposal and a video of their dragon's den presentation at http://ecohealthcircle.com/students-2/.  Also on this web-page you can see the great things other students are doing.   Learn more about student achievements of the Mino Bimaadiziwin project and see all the names of all the students getting funding from this partnership at this same website.
 

University of Manitoba toured by students from Remote communities


Nine students from the fly-in community of Wasagamack First Nation spent a week at the University of Manitoba. They attended a sustainable building workshop called Green Buildings 101, toured the Alternative Village to see stickwall and other sustainable building techniques and learned about the Access program. They were able to tour and learn about the architecture, chemistry, natural resources and environmental buildings. One registered for the University of Manitoba, wanting to be an interior designer using what she learned with the Boreal Homebuilding program.
Films by Youth and Elders from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation Tell their History.
 

Powerful films have been created by youth and Elders from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, Baaskaandibewiziibiing in a training program, which Mino Bimaadiziwin partnered on. Over 36 hours course  basic film making skills were learned to allow community members to tell their own stories of culture and history.
The training  focused on building employment skills in youth by teaching them to use film cameras including lighting, sound, and editing. The workshop included ceremony, teachings, and traditional drumming and dancing to show the strength of the community and culture.  Chief Deborah Smith and James Queskekapow were the organizers of the workshops and the feast.

By the end of the training, students made four short films documenting the life stories of two community Elders and sharing the legend of how Brokenhead got its name. In celebration, these films were shown at a community film premiere and feast. Over 100 people attended to view the films and honour the youth who received a 36 hour intensive film training certificate from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and the University of Manitoba. 



Chief Deborah Smith officiated as the master of  ceremonies. 21 students graduated from the intensive film course with a U of M Certificate of Film Production and a gift bag. Congratulation to all the great students.
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Sawmill and Housing Corporations earn Start-up funds from Community Futures  

Team members for the Waaka’ Iigan Inc. and/or Mitik 299 Corp proposals and business plan 


Proposals and business plans from Mitik 299 Corp (Mitik means Wood in Anishinimowin) in Wasagamack and Waaka’ Iigan Inc. (Waaka'Iigan means Log House) in Garden Hill were approved. The two companies submitted very strong proposals with business plans having cash flow analysis, income statements, work plans and governance plans to Community Futures and then defended them in a dragon's den situation. These proposals both show a return of investment of less than 1 year and hundreds of thousands in inkind and cash contributions including the Mino Bimaadiziwin partnership. 

Funding these not-for-profit sawmill and housing corporations will help curb the housing crisis. There are economic, social and environmental benefits and a great need for the housing and jobs that would be produced. It is great to see funders shifting from their treatment of reserves as economic dead zones to recognize and reconcile that First Nations need economic resources to build their development, just like other communities. See the successful proposals and business plans on our website.
Partnership Students and Educators do  Dragon's Den. 


Almost all funding on First Nations' reserves requires a proposal. These proposals are competitive and so First Nations have to have skilled writers to succeed at proposal writing to get basic infrastructure for their communities. Proposal writing is an important skill to learn. The learning was enriched by having to developed and defend this proposal and receiving meaningful feedback from funders.  See the educational Dragon's Den presentation by Shirley Thompson. 
 
A workshop on March 6th and 7th taught all the key components (vision, SMART objectives, team description, budgets, timelines and pitch) over two days. We had both educators and Boreal Home Builders from Wasagamack and Garden Hill First Nation, as well as many other communities (Little Saskatchewan, Lake St. Martin, Pinaymootangetc First Nations, etc). Katie Damon from Community Futures - Churchill and Julie Price from Tides Canada provided feedback and chose the winners.

This workshop had 50 people coming together forming 9 teams that each wrote and defended their proposals. The ideas and proposals were all amazing. One team from Lake St. Martin won IPads based on their recycling proposal. Another team applied what they learned to help them win the $550,000 for the college/food centre in Wasagamack.