Keepers of the Athabasca are set to begin a new workshop series in the Town of Athabasca on the fourth Thursday of each month from September to February at the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre.
According to project manager Jule Asterisk, the first workshop of the Flowing into Right Relationship series is on community climate action. She said it will examine the difference between climate and weather, and will also review emergency preparedness.
Asterisk added workshop participants will also learn methods for designing a solar installation, and creating, distributing and evaluating solar requests for proposals.
“It’s a tool that we’re offering to people free of charge that they can then use if they want to do a solar installation, and it will make their installation better, guaranteed,” she said.
Asterisk was the executive director of the Keepers of the Athabasca. She recently stepped down from her position to have someone of Indigenous ancestry fill the role.
“I am not the appropriate person to do this because we are an Indigenous-led organization,” she said.
Asterisk said Keepers of the Athabasca have developed a free solar request for proposal template that can be uploaded to the Solar Energy Society of Alberta and receive quotes from solar installation companies free of charge.
“You’ll get companies sending you a description of what they would do to build your project,” she said. “You just have to fill in the blanks, like how high is the roof? What’s the slope? Where is it facing? That sort of thing.”
According to Asterisk, the template was developed over a number of years working on solar installations in partnership with First Nations.
One of the nations the Keepers of the Athabasca worked with was Beaver Lake Cree Nation, in collaboration with Alberta Indigenous Solar Program and Kuby Renewable Energy Ltd.
Speaking in an Alberta Native News article published July 3, Asterisk said with the Keepers’ support, Beaver Lake Cree Nation was able to mount 94 solar panels on the Amisk Community School.
“One of the reasons to consider a solar install on your house is emergency preparedness,” Asterisk said. “For example, the power goes out and you have some battery backup, then you’re set.”
She added there are also environmental benefits.
“Any power that’s produced by renewable energy is going to cut down on our greenhouse gas emissions and help combat climate change,” said Asterisk. “And we do talk about that in the workshop.”
She said the Flowing into Right Relationship series is funded by the provincial government’s Anti-Racism Community grant of $25,000. She added it will help pay for space rental, catering, posters, the workshop co-ordinator, outreach team and the workshop facilitators.
The workshop series poster details other events, including the KAIROS blanket exercise, exploring the treaties, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous water governance and state of the watershed.
The intention of the workshop series is to bring the community together, Asterisk said.
“We have really noticed communities fragmenting over the past few years, really since the Canada 150th,” she said. “How can we celebrate Canada when there’s such incredible disparity?”
