Our team travels throughout all of Nuu-chah-nulth to bring medicine making and food preservation workshops to Warrior youth and their communities. Pitch-salve workshops, pouring candles, soap making, and canning foods are all fun ways to learn new skills together and create gifts to be shared with one another. We continue to tailor these workshops to address the interests and requests of each Nation, so please let us know what you’re interested in learning! Supplies, equipment, and ingredients are left in the village so that the youth warriors and supporting community can continue to hone their new skills and teach others.
Often the Warriors are called upon to support their Nation with projects that require some additional capacity. Whether it be building a trail network, a new community camp area, or a clam garden, the Warrior youth have repeatedly come together to collectively work on projects for each other’s Nations. This spirit of working together was inspired by the traditional teachings that root the approach this model takes.
In order to ensure success, we have collaborated with provincial organizations such as Chee Mamuk and the Food Skills for Families team from the BC Centre for Disease Control, ICBC and Parks Canada. We have also fostered partnerships with other non-profit organizations such as the Nature Conservancy, the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada and, more locally, the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust.
We take young men on exchanges to other villages in BC and beyond to inspire them, and show them what other youth are capable of. Exchanges to inspiring places enable us to share the Warrior model with other Nations that are asking for similar work in their villages. Through our network of supporters and allies, we are lucky to facilitate these trips for young people merited by their contributions to their own communities.
In the past we have taken our youth to territories of many Nations including Old Massett, Nuxalk, Lil’wat, Fountain, Kahnawake, and Taku River Tlingit First Nations to share ideas and be inspired. Other Nations have come to Nuu-chah-nulth territory to see the building projects, clam gardens, and other land-based sites that our youth have supported multiple Nuu-chah-nulth Nations to create.
