7 The Rediscovery Session

A program that includes Kailey Boan,

Ranch Ehrlo Society

Ranch Ehrlo Society is a non-profit organisation based out of the Regina / Pilot Butte area, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert. It provides services to people from all across Canada who are in need of supportive housing, family support, counselling, mental health and addictions support, and beyond. One of the services offered by Ranch Ehrlo is their emergency receiving services for youth. Kailey Boan, a youth worker, explains the program is unique, as some youth struggle with addictions, mental health, anger, and cultural loss. Though emergency receiving at the Ranch Ehrlo Society provides shelter and support for youth, a new cultural support program called the “rediscovery session” has been implemented to engage youth from all backgrounds with Indigenous Elders. Residents can engage with Elders and ask questions about culture, identity issues, and cultural practices. Elders have discussed with youth the importance of smudging for health, wellness, and cultural connection. They have discussed beading with the residents and explained the meaning behind colors used in beading and the cultural importance of beadwork. The Elders have also shared their knowledge with the youth on why hair and braids are so important to their sense of cultural awareness.

The objective of the cultural support worker and the rediscovery sessions are to reconnect youth with their cultural roots, since some kids grow up in the city or in situations apart from opportunities to engage with and reappropriate living heritage. They hope to pass on traditional views of relationships, self-identity, lifestyle, and respect. Kailey said that, “[the youth] are very open to sharing their ways and teaching other kids, we actually just had a youth – two youth – who were working on a beading project together because we had one who wanted to learn and another one was able to teach them.”

The program has been in place since early 2021 and Ranch Ehrlo is looking to expand it into more homes and residences on its campuses. The ability for youth to reach out to a cultural support worker allows for information to be transferred in a culturally appropriate manner. Kailey said that the majority of youth in the Ranch Ehrlo program are Indigenous, as opposed to only a handful of staff members. The latter thus also have an opportunity to learn in the process, as this initiative is also providing staff with information and tools regarding Indigenous living heritage. Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, there was weekly drumming and dancing at the Ranch Ehrlo campus where Indigenous leaders passed on knowledge and practices to the clients and residents of the Ranch. The Ranch also hosts an annual powwow. The current cultural support program mentor is a past employee of the Ranch Ehrlo Society who was active in the implementation of the drumming circles hosted by the Ranch. He is also a First Nations advocate on his First Nation  in Alberta and a cultural educator. Resources and teaching such as picking sage, skinning to make a drum, sweats, and other practices are taught through the Ranch (though the pandemic has forced a pause to some of these practices).

This program not only allows for youth to develop ties to their cultural practices, it allows them to be active members of the safeguarding of their living heritage. They can then teach others the information they have been given through the Rediscovery Session.

Ranch Ehrlo presents its programs and approach on its website.