British kids learn Native ways

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In the battle against the anti-fur lobby Native people are turning to modern technology to teach British children about native survival and hunting traditions.

Georges Erasmus, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says an "interactive video game" will be part of an education package for British children.

The game will be based on the type developed for European children by Saudi Arabian officials who wanted to teach westerners about Saudi culture.

Information official for Indigenous Survival International Cindy Gilday says the Native lobbying group will ensure the game will be "state of art" and will include a touch-screen method.

The game will be based on hunting in the bush and surviving under adverse conditions. To succeed the player must first learn from an Indian Elder.

"If they don't learn the tricks of tracking animals or the conditions of the land or how to take heed of experienced people . . . then they'll lose the game," said Gilday.

The game will be used to teach school groups touring the exhibition called The Living Arctic which will be open in London for the next 18 months.

The show was officially opened by Canada's High Commissioner Roy McMurtry. As part of the opening ceremony, John Kim Bell, a Canadian Indian, became the first North American Native to conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert that included Inuit throat singers and Dene drummers.

The message of the exhibition is that hunting and trapping sustain a Native way of life that dates back thousands of years and to destroy the fur trade would also destroy Native culture.

Erasmus says the exhibition has cost $500,000 so far, plus $100,000 for related projects. It has been financed with grants from the governments of the Northwest Territories, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and the federal government.