The Tl'azt'en Learning Circle (TLC) is a multifaceted project that aims to engage the community in the preservation and perpetuation of our language and cultural practices , catalogue and digitize our audio and video archives for use in curriculum development and the treaty process and finally to promote community health.

The production research assistants (PRAs) consist of five young people that are learning both Internet technology (IT) and Dakelh and traditional practices. They have learned various web development programs such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flash as well as graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop and Coral Draw/Paint and a variety of office programs in order to build this web site and to preserve materials from our archives. The students have become adept at capturing and manipulating digital images in both still and video formats. The PRAs are yet to learn programs and skills that will allow us to transfer and transform analogue audio and video images into digital images for storage and use in the development of language and curriculum materials.

In addition to the technical skills, the production research assistants also spend one and a half hours a day learning the language and are learning about medicinal plants, fishing methods and food preparation. The youth go on at least one field trip per week with our elders to learn traditional skills. Our language teacher also teaches much of the traditional practises and assists in the research.

The TLC is working in partnership with the University of British Columbia-Continuing Medical Education to identify health issues via a community engagement process. We began this process in January 2004 and will work with UBC-CME until the end of March 2005 to further develop this process.

All of the infrastructure and much of the project development guidance was through the support from the Ministry of Management Service in that departments commitment to narrow the digital divide between southern and northern B.C. We are presently connected to the web as the result of the generosity of Telus.

The PRA’s training is also supported by the University of Northern BC and the John Prince Research Forest through the CURA (Community-University Research Alliances project (Building Sustainable First Nations Communities through Co-Management Partnership).

You will be able to monitor our growth and development as this project evolves over the coming months.