Youth and staff have connected with Piapot First Nation to further infuse Indigenous culture into the lives of participants, providing more opportunity to enrich the cultural identity of Indigenous youth.

More than 10 group living programs from Regina and Pilot Butte are now engaged in traditional sweat ceremonies at Piapot First Nation.

The relationship first developed in May 2023 and continues to deepen as the interest of the youth steadily grows.

“This wasn’t intentional, but it has started to grow in a bigger way than we ever expected,” said Damon Wiegl, caseworker at Wilson House.

As part of his master of social work degree, Damon developed an Indigenous assessment tool to evaluate the efforts and initiatives of Ranch Ehrlo to engage participants in cultural opportunities. Within this work, Damon connected with Jamie Lerat, Indigenous advisor. The pair engaged elders in sharing circles and visited First Nations communities, and in support of the work, Jamie planned a sweat for programs to participate in at Piapot First Nation.  

“The idea of growing these cultural opportunities is to engage kids that want to be a part of them,” said Damon. “It’s very important that they want to be there and want to participate.”  

Following a few sweats, additional dates were planned and the relationship between Damon and the lodge keepers, Alphones Obey and Jeremy Lavallee, continued to grow.

Fast forward 18 months and the sweats have gained significant popularity amongst youth and staff. In January this year, the agency will double its number of sweats at Piapot First Nation and introduce an additional three programs to the traditional ceremonies.    

“We’ve been planning sweats once per month but are moving to twice a month because we’ve grown so much – our last two sweats had over 20 youth attend,” said Damon. “We’re at the point where we can’t all fit in the lodge at the same time.”

Consistent sweat ceremonies on Piapot First Nation have created a positive connection between the community and the agency, explained Damon, with community members showing tremendous gratitude for Ranch Ehrlo’s effort to connect youth to meaningful cultural practice.  

Programs will participate in their first sweat of the new year on January 9^th, moving their visits from weekends to Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Damon said the evening sweats are a great opportunity for both participants and staff to wind down after a long day of school and work.

“The sweats are extremely therapeutic and help participants connect their therapy to their identity,” said Damon. “Having the youth connect with these communities, participate in these traditions, and grow positive Indigenous images, I think, is beyond important – it’s necessary for their development.”