Trappers engage youth at annual convention
- Linda Mikolayenko | April 26, 2016
When the Northern Saskatchewan Trappers Association gathered for their 2016 convention and annual general meeting, they began with their first-ever Youth Day.
“We want the youth to carry on the organization and make the industry strong,” said organizer Robin McLeod.
The Youth Day was held at the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Centre on April 21.
“Youth have always been welcome and encouraged to come,” said Simon Bird, who acted as emcee for the day. “The purpose of the Youth Day is to make sure they have a place.”
Among the guest speakers for the day was Mylan Tootoosis of the Poundmaker Cree Nation and a PhD student at the University of Saskatchewan doing research on climate change.
“My main message was to motivate the youth,” said Tootoosis, “to encourage them to maintain who they are and their vital connections to landscape, and the traditions involved with that. In my research, the climate is changing very rapidly. Our young people really need to be engaged with the land and the land-based practices, and be aware of what our old people and our traditions tell us.”
When it comes to changes in the environment, says McLeod, “Trappers are the ones that have their ear to the ground.”
In addition to listening to presentations, the young people had the opportunity to view displays and participate in a number of hands-on activities including skinning a beaver, fleshing an otter pelt, and making wooden stretcher boards.
Lyndon Cook is a student in the Northern Teacher Education Program who came with his Cree language class. Cook took a turn at helping to skin a beaver, something he had only done once before, and not for a long time.
A few of the tips he picked up, he said, included “how to angle the knife and how to put your hands under the fur, so that you don’t cut through the fur.”
When he finishes his studies, the 25-year-old from Southend hopes to return to his home community to teach Cree and show his students how to trap and fish.
To obtain a trapper’s licence in Saskatchewan an individual needs to complete a Hunter Education Course and have a Humane Trapper Certificate, says Ministry of Environment Conservation Officer Mark Oliver. The Humane Trapper Certificate can be obtained by completing a course or by taking a Saskatchewan Trapper Exam, which requires a minimum of 70% to pass.
That day, a number of youth successfully challenged the exam which consists of 50 multiple choice questions on traps, fur, wildlife identification and humane standards. That’s an encouraging sign for the future.
“If trapping is to be sustainable, we need to bring along the youth,” said Bird.
The day concluded with karaoke, animal calling, and jigging competitions.