To kick off Indigenous Heritage Month, citizens from the Barrie South Simcoe and Moon River Metis catchment areas came together to participate in the largest community council event in Region 7. The third annual Metis Youth Camp, was held May 31 to June 2nd at Bayview Wildwood Resort in Severn Bridge, Ontario. This year’s event was the largest year yet with over 75 families in attendance with one third of those families having their first time participating in camp events this year.

Barrie South Simcoe Metis Council’s Women’s Rep. Arlene Merkley helps to organize the camp. Regarding the purpose of the camp, she said, “the focus of the weekend is to have children participate in cultural learning, as well as some land based activities and come together to do things like the sacred fire and drumming, share meals together, and of course, learn.”

Some of those activities included, beadwork, archery, fishing, finger weaving and a special Media Training activity held by Simcoe Community Media.

Host of Metis Minute, Samantha Loney, attended the event on behalf of Simcoe Community Media, offering the media training activity for Metis youth to learn how to share their stories with the community. The activity was for children aged 10 to 18 where they learned about the different types of video and recording equipment, how to do a pre-interview and construct questions for guests, and to produce a video for air on Metis Minute. Youth heading into post secondary schools, were able to ask about the different career and educational opportunities for Indigenous youth in media.

If you know an Indigenous youth looking for free media training, contact Metis Minute host Samantha Loney at metisandmeprogram@gmail.com