Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we drove to Stellako River – about an hour and 40 minute drive from Prince George. Over the course of 3 days, the Stellat’en First Nations has a Salmon Festival, day one (the day we attended) consisted of a beautiful opening ceremony of drumming and dancing, a nature hike, an inviting lunch, and finally the opportunity to try and prepare a salmon!
The day was beautiful, warm, and informative entirely.
The opening ceremony concluded with the bones of the first salmon caught being released into the river.
The nature hike was on the David Louis Memorial Trail and took about 75 minutes, including a wonderful discussion about land-based learning, integrating math and science to the outdoors, as well as learning about how different animals interact with their landscape. For example, many of the birch trees in the area had claw marks on them pretty far up the tree where bears climbed the trees for food. Another is how beavers had gnawed parts of the tree almost to the point of falling before stopping short. The setting was absolutely immaculate and beautiful, we had both a local guide as well as a professor from UNBC who studies water and nature (wildlife biologist).
Lunch was served from the community, with a very fun bannock taco – which was fantastic – and was a lovely discussion about how to engage with the outdoors in the classroom!
The preparation of salmon was well-beyond my comfort zone, but after some encouragement, I tried my best! The care and kindness shown towards the salmon and the process was amazing. It was a one-of-a-kind experience and indescribable. The definition of hands-on/experiential learning!
This experience was amazing and has left me with so many questions and ideas for my future classroom, and allowed me to have personal/professional growth!
