Survivor series given a First Nations twist

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First Nations youth are being invited to star in their own version of Survivor this summer, spending a week living off the land in the northern Manitoba wilderness.

Each week throughout the summer, two six person teams from different First Nations will be transported to Waywayseecappo First Nation, where each team will be given a small amount of food, materials to build a shelter, and little else.

Unlike the Survivor television series, however, the aim of this Survivor experience isn't survival of the fittest, but learning how to survive as a team.

Anishinabe Survivor is the brainchild of Greg Mentuck, a member of the Waywayseecappo First Nation, who has been working with the youth of the community for all of his adult life. It was those youth that inspired him to come up with the program, he explained.

"I guess it came from the fact that there was a lot of youth in my community, in Wayway. There were a lot of youth that weren't doing too much, especially during the summer. I've supervised kids before, when they were doing their summer jobs. And a lot of the time, a lot of them ended up doing very menial jobs. So I tried to think of what would be the best things to do for them, the most productive things to do with them during the summer."

The result was Anishinabe Survivor.

While the program was initially inspired by the Survivor television show, Anishinabe Survivor takes a different approach, Mentuck explained.

"I decided to totally change the idea around. In our culture, nobody is eliminated from anything. That's how the show Survivor goes. Usually they eliminate somebody once a week from their own tribe. But I took a new twist on that. I said, 'What happens if they go tribe to tribe . . . and what they'll do is they'll get stuff to help them make it through, because we don't give them anything. We just give them a little tiny bit of food, and enough materials to build their own shelters. And that was it," he said.

As with the TV version of Survivor, Anishinabe Survivor participants will take part in challenges to earn rewards such as food, tools or equipment. Participants will take part both in tribal challenges, in which one tribe competes against the other, and reward challenges, where each participant is in competition against the others.

"I thought it would be a good idea to turn it into something that teaches them about leadership and team building. Because I thought that's what's lacking in a lot of communities, is that there's not enough focus on youth, for stuff of this nature anyway."

The Anishinabe Survivor camp is set up within the Waywayseecappo reserve, which is located in northwest Manitoba, about a three-hour drive from Winnipeg.

Mentuck did a trial run of Anishinabe Survivor last summer, running one Survivor program for boys and one for girls. That's when he came up with the idea of videotaping the program as a way to show the organizations funding the participants what they're getting for their money. All participants in this summer's Survivor program will receive a videotape-a compilation of highlights from all eight weeks of the program edited into a one-hour presentation-as will their band, or whichever organization gave them funding to attend the program.

Mentuck is inviting First Nations from across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario to take part in Anishinabe Survivor by selecting a team of six youth age 14 to 17 to take part in the program. Eight separate sessions will be held throughout the summer, with half the sessions designated for male participants, and the other half for female participants. The cost of the program is $6,500 per six-person team. The First Nations are also responsible for transportation costs for getting the participants as far as Winnipeg, where Mentuck will be picking them up in the band-owned bus and transporting them to the Survivor camp site.

Participating First Nations are welcome to send chaperone's along with their team members ifthey wish, but are responsible for their travel arrangements as well.

"A chaperone would stay out there and basically help, if they wanted to chaperone their kids. But we've got a pretty tight crew to look after them," Mentuck said.

Mentuck has hired some youth to work with him in running the program, and while Mentuck doesn't go in to the survivors' camp itself, he said he always knows what's going on there.

"We do have security during the night to watch. We have a pretty big acreage where the Survivors are. It's in the middle of a valley. So it's pretty much contained, and we know if something's happening. And we set up perimeters. And the youth, we tell them to be careful during the night, and they do," Mentuck said.

"They're supervised. We're not actually at their camp, but we know exactly what's going on."

While the participants will be required to sign a waiver, acknowledging the limits to the organizer's liability for any injuries, Mentuck said precautions are taken to help ensure the safety of the youth, including putting out tobacco to help ensure only good things happen during the program.

"It's pretty safe out there. There are animals out there, and you can never be too careful, because there's coyotes out there, and bears, and everything like that. But what we teach them, we teach them that these things are part of our lives. They always have been," Mentuck said.

And if anything does happen, help is never very far away, Mentuck explained. The Survivor camp site is located on reserve, and a nurse is always on call, he said. The reserve also has a volunteer fire department and ambulance service, and both the neighboring communities of Russell and Rossburn have hospitals. Last year, during the Anishinabe Survivor trial run, the most serious thing the nurse had to deal with was a case of poison ivy.

As part of the program, participants are taught things that will help them during their week in Wayway, including how to make bannock, and basic water sfety. But the focus of the program goes beyond learning basic survival skills, Mentuck explained.

"During the evenings at tribal council, I try to teach them a little bit about the land, especially its historical relevance. Today, especially, that's all you hear about, is land claims, and the resources off our land. That's what First Nations want. We want a share in the resources of the land. We try to bring these issues to them. And they're very important to First Nations people. That's one of the elements of the tribal council.

"We also teach them about co-operation and team building and cohesion in a group, and getting along. And that everybody has a part to do," he said. Cultural components, such as sweats, are also available to youth wanting to take part.

"It wasn't too long ago that we were all living like this, with barely anything, out on the land. A lot of it is history. And a lot of it is self-realization, too."

The Anishinabe Survivor program is being run by Mentuck through the company he formed, Maiingun and Associates. The company also does work helping First Nations set up new programs, helps them evaluate existing ones, and organizes workshops and seminars. Right now, though, Mentuck is concentrating all his efforts on the Anishinabe Survivor program.

"It's needed. I see a lot of youth out there who are lost. I see a lot of identity crises, too. A lot of youth don't know about the issues-don't find out about the issues until they're adults," Mentuck said. "So I want the youth to know, because it's going to be tougher in the future. It's going to be very tough on the Indian people. And I think somebody has to be out there to teach them the basics of what we're going to be dealing with. And what's important to us, and that's living on the land, getting back to our roots, and finding out who we are as people."

More information about Anishinabe Survivor can be found on the Web at www.maiingun.com, or by calling Greg Mentuck at 1-866-206-5651.