The remote community of Cross Lake, Manitoba declared a state of emergency when 146 youth in the community attempted suicide within a few weeks.
Cross Lake has an unemployment rate of some 80% and hope for young people has been as rare a commodity as a nutritious meal in this community of 5000.
A new program has been implemented in Cross Lake to train young people in the community in the development and creation of documentary television so that these young people can tell the story of their community to the world. A seasoned crew of documentary television producers has come to Cross Lake assisted by local film makers and successful indigenous media creators from all over Canada.
This program will not only train these youth to tell the story of Cross Lake (the Pimichikamak Cree Nation) but also to be able to train other youth willing to keep the story going. The history of Cross Lake has never been recorded in this form and passing on history and traditions has been primarily done through the oral tradition by Elders. These Elders are now connecting with the youth of the community through this program to pass on key information that would otherwise be potentially lost.
This training and the content of these documentaries can therefore be updated over time and can be augmented by new programming initiatives within the community and throughout the country through Internet sharing and social media. In this way, the whole country can learn this history as told by the residents themselves who created the programming with their own skills.
The skills of production are transferable to any job experience where organizational and communication skills are important. As part of a production team, each individual learns leadership skills, planning, communication skills, conflict resolution and stress management.
.
