Indigenous youth incorporate culture into projects at Canada-Wide Science Fair

Indigenous students from across Canada were at the University of Reginaall week, and most of them were competing in their first science fair.

According to organizers, more than 25 Indigenous students from Grades 7 to 12 are in attendance from regions as far away as Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut for theCanada-Wide Science Fair.

Eighteen-year-old Edwin Aggark is one of the students who made the trip from Nunavut and he couldn't be more thrilled to be at the national science fair, which highlights the work of some of the country's brightest science students.

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"I was pretty stoked!" said Aggarkwhen asked about winning his regional science fair.

"It's been pretty awesome meeting new friends."

Although the Indigenous students' projects are all unique in theirapproach to science, each one has a similar themeIndigenous culture and the land.

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Peepeekisis First Nation student Madison Kishayinew, 17, said she never appreciated science until the project she and her science partner createdwas selected as a winner in regionals.

"I wasn't a big fan of science myself, but once we came here everything turned out to be much more than we thought it was," said Kishayinew, who said she got encouragement from her grandmother.

I didn't think we'd be able to get top three out of all 400 students that were there.- Skylin Desjarlais

"My kookumbasically pushed us to go forward it started off with a small science project and it ended up becoming [a]bigger thing that we didn't expect," she said.

Kishayinew and her science partner,Creedance Bird, focused on the medicinal properties of the red willow tree and how Indigenous peoples consider the planttraditional medicine.

Two Grade 7 students from a reserve just outside Dauphin,Man., were also surprised by the Manitoba First Nations Science Fair win that catapulted them to the Canada-Wide Science Fair.

"We thought we wouldn't win," said Skylin Desjarlais, from Crane River First Nation.

"But I didn't think we'd be able to get top three out of all 400 students that were there. We were very lucky," he said.

Desjarlais andhis Grade 7 partner, Deshawn McKay,used what they call "worm juice" to improve soil for farming.

"In our community, it's rough and you can't grow crops very well. We wanted to try and find a way to grow better crops."

The science fair is open to the public all day Saturday at the U of R Kinesiology building. Admission is free.