Portage College students learning at the Saddle Lake Cree Nation now have an upgraded building to call home.
An official community open house for the new, 1,984 square foot building will be held on February 12, but students, staff, band officials and Portage College representatives held a sacred pipe ceremony to bless the new building on January 12.
The ceremony featured stories of hope, opportunity, and future learning, with moments of both laughter and tears.
Following the ceremony, Saddle Lake Cree Nation Chief Dale Steinhauer said the emotions reflected more than appreciation for a new building that replaces the original trailer built in the early 1990s.
“It’s a sacred space. It’s a safe space, and it’s a space of consistency,” she said. “It’s about knowing students can come here and be accepted, and they will be supported to achieve their end goals.”
Currently, the Saddle Lake campus provides the 17- week Pathways to Learning program and academic upgrading classes to a cohort of 24 Portage College students. Portage College programming has been available at Saddle Lake since 1992.
‘A stepping stone … a new beginning‘
Chief Steinhauer has been encouraged by the results from the campus over the decades, seeing local students graduate and move on with their academic or employment journeys. She hopes to see more of those successes for her community members.
Recent 100 per cent graduation rates are “encouraging and precedent-setting,” she said, adding they remind young people of the importance of education, cultural learning, and self-determination.
“I believe in our young people, and I believe in our elders, and there is a bridge there that needs to be strengthened. Our young people have double responsibility to learning, and some of them re-learning, what was lost over generations,” she said.
The Saddle Lake Chief calls the opportunity for students to learn in their home community “a stepping stone, a start, and a new beginning.”
Pathways instructor Gale Nahnepowisk says the new building, the Portage College programming and the determination of the students create a “homefire” atmosphere.
“To me, ‘homefire’ is place where you live or feel safe, a place where you can share any emotions — that’s your homefire, like your home. It is also the fire that is lit within you when you are at a place like this. When our students come here, they feel safe and they can share,” said Nahnepowisk, explaining that the Saddle Lake students learn in a wholistic way, interweaving the set curriculum with personal experiences and traditional culture. “It’s important to have that balance, a balance within themselves and with the program.”
Both Nahnepowisk and Chief Steinhauer say the hands-on instruction, the mindfulness towards reconciliation and the personalized learning provided by the Portage College instructors helps to strengthen the students and the community.
The magnitude of what the campus and programming mean for the students and the Saddle Lake community isn’t lost on Portage College President and CEO Dr. Stephen Price. He said the pipe ceremony amplified how important the new building will be to the community.
“It was emotional for many people, and that emotion has to do with the possibilities this space is going to provide to Saddle Lake students,” he said. “We are so grateful to have been invited to take part in the ceremony.”
Price said the idea for the new building — a modern eight-room trailer with a kitchen area, meeting space, classroom area, and office space – came about from a conversation with staff who said it would be nice to see some upgrades. Portage faculty and administration took the request and began working to create what Price called a more comfortable home base.
“Portage is about learning where you are at – both in the developmental cycle and geographically too. We wanted there to be comfort for the students learning in their home community,” said Price. “We worked with the Nation to create a space that belongs to them and the students, to make it home to them.”
The open house for the new-look Portage College campus in Saddle Lake takes place on Thursday, February 12 from 10 am to 2 pm. The open house will offer the public a look at the new building and offer prospective students a chance to apply for Portage College programs.