First Nations members have the skills to support each other through emergencies and now they’re teaching their communities those skills.
During the Mushkegowuk Emergency Response Summit held in Timmins this week, the newly formed emergency management department and First Nations-owned contractors offered First Nation members options for their emergency education.
Mushkegowuk Council and ISN Maskwa each offer courses.
The emergency management department does training for firefighting, water and ice rescue, wilderness and urban search and rescue, wilderness EMTs, health and safety, as well as the equipment needed to do the jobs the training is for.
“It’s great that I can teach you search and rescue, but if I walk away and don’t give you the equipment and the tools necessary to carry out those tasks, it’s just a classroom lesson,” Wilbert Wesley, Mushkegowuk Council EMS manager, said during his presentation to the gathering.
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A pilot program this summer saw 30 volunteers from three communities trained in wildfire fighting. The team from Moose Factory was able to help during the Fort Albany fire and more training for the other four Mushkegowuk communities is in the works.
ISN Maskwa, an Indigenous company owned by Missanabie Cree First Nation, was also at the summit, offering training options in incident management and community and laying out their ability to act as a host community in future evacuations.
There is a genuine want to help said Jason Smallboy, emergency planning and community engagement co-ordinator for ISN Maskwa.
“You see outside communities offering that support, so it’s us trying to figure out how to do that,” he told the summit.
Ernie Louttit, ISN Maskwa’s emergency planning and community engagement co-ordinator, told the summit that the people who take the training get hands-on experience.
During the flood and fire seasons this year, their most recent graduates shadowed the teams on the ground to learn firsthand what goes into an evacuation.
The next graduates are ready to go, said Louttit.
“A lot of people we mentored during the spring and the fire season, I think they’re ready to assume roles without having to shadow,” he said. “But we’ll see how that rolls out.”
Missanabie Cree First Nation Deputy Chief Jutta Horn spoke to the gathering about her experience with training through ISN Maskwa and how education flowed both from the instructors and the community members.
“We have so much to learn from each other,” Horn told TimminsToday. “Bringing community leaders together with people working in these fields is important because a lot of people don’t know this exists.”
While there can be a bit of trepidation with new processes, she said that it’s essential for First Nations to be able to know and help develop the skills needed in an emergency.
“The difference is something being developed for us and us being able to develop something for ourselves,” she said. “It’s very consistent, it meets our values, and it adapts to the cultural way we are.”
New facilities are currently under construction on Missanabie Cree First Nation land around 340 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie to accommodate community evacuations. It’s expected to be completed by summer 2024.
Wesley said that getting communities on board and aware of available options, both in training and during evacuations, is a huge step forward.
“Summits like this to bring everyone at the same table, at the same level, and make them realize the changes that are happening,” he said. “Hopefully, they will come up with solutions and directives that I can follow to help them.”
