A teacher and students from Cumberland House have put together a book, which will be used as a curriculum resource in Saskatchewan schools.
Muskrats and Fire was written by Renée Carrière, who was assisted by students at Charlebois Community School to produce the book.
“I received a research grant from the McDowell Foundation and I asked if I could present the findings of my research in a book,” Carrière says. “This work has fundamentally changed me. To truly appreciate it, you have to experience it. I encourage other Saskatchewan teachers to get involved with the McDowell Foundation and to conduct their own classroom improvement projects.”
Carrière and the students conducted research for two years on why muskrats in the area were disappearing and what could be done to change this.
She said the research shows that reinstating Indigenous cultural wildfire practices in the spring is good for muskrats and the ecosystem as a whole.
Carrière says that schools in the province have committed to using the book as a curriculum resource.
“They have a commitment from every band school and every school library will have a copy of it and there have actually been class sets ordered as well so they can use it in classroom settings,” she says “It’s important to create user-friendly ways of sharing place-based research that’s authentic and easy to understand.”
The book was illustrated by Carrière’s daughter Michela and the students.
(PHOTO: The primary image for Muskrats and Fire by Michela Carrière. Photo courtesy of the McDowell Foundation.)