Welcome Spring!
The Board of NFTC / SINC wishes you a great season ahead whether you’re planning and leading walks, training to be a guide, or just deepening your own personal nature connection. As we build this organization, we continue to look for ways to help you develop and be successful as a guide and to build our community in Canada. Here are two great examples…
Writing Land Acknowledgements Workshop (English)
Save the date: April 24, 2022
Land acknowledgements have become a common practice in Canada. However, guides often express concern about how to do an acknowledgment that is not simply a “checklist” item at the beginning of a walk. These statements can also end up being delivered in a rote format, without any recognition of the speaker’s positionality or reason for including the acknowledgment.
Dr. Troy Patenaude, a cultural educator and hiking guide in Alberta, has created a workshop titled “Writing Land Acknowledgements.” The intention of this online workshop is to provide guides with an opportunity to reflect on their own positionality and to engage in learning, thinking, and writing to help them come up with a meaningful land acknowledgment. A Zoom link for the workshop will be provided in an email closer to the date.
Dr. Troy Patenaude, Director of Cultural Development, holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Calgary. He is a cultural and art historian, with research interests spanning environmental, narrative, Indigenous, and cultural studies. Troy is an experiential educator and professional hiking guide with a passion for projects that help make Canada a more just and resilient place. He is a descendent of a community currently referred to as the Georgian Bay Métis Community, and has been involved with initiatives concerning the effects of colonization for 20 years.
Discount on Yervana, a new outdoor experience booking engine
Yervana is an outdoor experience marketplace that makes it easy for outdoor enthusiasts to find incredible experiences with qualified guides. For guides, Yervana provides marketing, booking, processing (waivers, payment processing, calendar management), plus analytics to help inform guides about the engagement their activities generate.
Yervana has no sign-up fees or membership fees of any kind. They take a commission on the bookings they generate for you. Through a new partnership with NFTC/SINC, they are offering a discounted commission rate for Forest Therapy Guides this summer! If you’d like to learn more about their services, please reach out to Bernard at Yervana via phone (613-703-3527) or email b.moisan@yervana.com.