Matt Baker, Project Venture and Tataskweyak Cree First Nation

by Cassie Landrum

Imagine leaving home on a plane that will take you to a cold land a thousand miles away. It’s your first time leaving the country, and you’re traveling alone. That’s what Matt Baker did when he flew to Manitoba Canada to reconnect NIYLP with a Tataskweyak Cree First Nation Tribe that had adopted Project Venture, NIYLP’s flagship program months earlier. Although the Tataskweyak Cree already had previously been introduced to Project Venture, they had such a fun-filled learning experience that they allocated their remaining funding for the year to bring Matt for another workshop of activities and experiential exercises.

Matt, a trainer and consultant for NIYLP, did more than lead activities and share information with the Tataskweyak Cree —he exchanged culture in a way that redefined experiential learning for both parties. Matt said his plan for the trip was to observe their progress since their first training and “refine what they have learned.” He hoped to help the Tataskweyak Cree further integrate the experiential learning model, which Matt explains “focuses on how the experience becomes a learning experience.” An example of experiential education is service learning, in which students enrich their communities through service projects while gaining self-confidence and bonding with their peers.

Matt also gave the group a chance to learn new activities that they didn’t have the opportunity to do in the initial training program. A group favorite, Stepping Stones, was a group-oriented task requiring two groups to make it across six stepping stones, or islands, using a narrow board—all without interfering with the other team, or falling off their islands. A defining moment, Matt explained, came when they saw how the activity related to the Full Value Commitment they had learned, which encourages the group to be here, be safe, speak your truth, care for self and others, set goals, and be able to let go and move on.

Matt was able to interact with both the students of the Tataskqeyak Cree’s Project Venture program and the staff. This was a welcome occasion to bring the concept of experiential learning to life for the students, an added motivation for Matt. “When you’re working out there away from home, or when you’re all alone, working with kids gave me a boost,” he explained.

In the freezing Canadian temperatures, the students could hardly imagine the hot arid deserts of Mexico, where they believed Matt was from. “They were really receptive and really curious about where I came from,” said Matt. “When I say New Mexico, they leave out the ‘new’, and think old Mexico.” Using their knowledge as an opportunity to illustrate experiential learning, Matt had the students map out the United States, using their bodies to represent the states that they knew. He found that New Mexico was one of the least known states, and began to change that, sharing aspects of New Mexican culture with the Tataskweyak Cree. Matt explained that New Mexico, being on a high desert plain can get snow, though it can indeed get hot. He explained what chili was and that “we eat a lot of it—red or green.”

The group had a piece of culture to share with him, too. While the thermometer hovered around -12° C/10°F during the day, and dipped to -26°C /-15°F at night, the locals stayed warm with mittens and boots made of moose hair and moose skin. In addition to their stories, they shared a delectable part of their own tradition— fresh moose. This was Matt’s first time trying moose, which was sautéed and prepared traditionally, and he described it as “tast[ing] gamey, a bit like Elk.”

This week, Matt will have company as he returns to Canada, accompanied by his wife, Tasha, the Direct Service Manager and a trainer at NIYLP. NIYLP employs ten trainers who travel the country and share the Project Venture program. Matt’s next trip to La Ronge, Saskatchewan, Canada will be one of several to First Nation groups that have received grants for preventing substance abuse and alcoholism in Native Indigenous communities.

The groups that Matt and Tash are training have limited experience with Project Venture, though some have already developed a basic foundation of experiential education. Trainers typically lead a two-and-a-half day training, to immerse program leaders an immersion in Project Venture Model and in the theory behind it. The training is rich with interactive activities and initiatives that drive home the principles that guide Project Venture. Project Venture has upcoming trainings in New Mexico, Hawaii, New Hampshire, California, Nebraska Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and elsewhere in Canada.

Where ever they go, NIYLP’s trainers are sure to share, and receive, a taste of other cultures.

To learn how to bring Project Venture to your community, contact NIYLP at info@niylp.org.

Cassie Landrum is an outdoor adventure and experiential educator living in Texas and volunteering for NIYLP. Cassie has been interviewing NIYLP staff to help us document and share the experience of being a Project Venture training and educator. When she's not writing or facilitating an outdoor ed program, Cassie also enjoys mime, improv, juggling and fitness.