Dinsmore Composite School continues reconciliation efforts through almost lost art

A unique experience has Dinsmore Composite School students taking class outside this week.

They have been playing host to a four-day 'moose hide camp' courtesy of Tommy Bird and his tanning crew. The group travels throughout western Canada, and Dinsmore students are lucky to have the experience as Bird and company are actually heading to Alaska afterwards to share the nearly lost art.

Today's lesson will revolve around the smoking process as you can see below.

Showcasing the special process to students was a no-brainer for DCS Principal Jade Ballek, as work around reconciliation is one of their school goals.

"Over the past few years our staff and students have participated in different activities to try and increase our own awareness around indigenous worldview and cultures."

The crew of 'knowledge holders' they brought in come from Southend, Saskatchewan up north, and are in Dinsmore until the end of the week to share the entire step-by-step process using traditional items.

"Grizzly bear bones, moose bones, and just scraping the hide, learning about the tanning process from start to finish really. The kids have had a really great hands-on learning experience." said Principal Ballek.

The West Central school is happy to be bringing land-based education into their lessons.

Earlier this year they had another similar experience as dog musher Charlie Conner paid a visit to show off the utility of yet another almost-lost-art. That experience was a tad bit colder than what's taking place here during the first week of June, as Ballek shared a bit more on the special guests this time around.

"What Tommy does is he brings the moose hides to schools and communities to show the whole process. He's got four moose hides, and they are all at different stages of readiness."

The students have been getting some real hands-on experience.

"Started on Monday by scraping the inside of the hide, and then it sat in the sun to dry over the afternoon. Then on the second day, we took different tools, and we scraped the hair off the other side."

The next step was what's traditionally known as a "brain solution", though a slightly more modern process was used in this instance.

That brought students to Wednesday where it was time to smoke the hides, as seeing things each step of the way likely opened some young eyes.