![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/socast-superdesk/media/2021071923070/ef72a0c5-6d45-4cd0-910a-c92b541f9bec.jpg)
Pilot project at Athabasca Sand Dunes focused on Dene health
It was a meaningful six-day trip for 35 youth from Fond du Lac Denesuline First Nation, who ventured out to their ancestral lands at the Athabasca Sand Dunes.
It was arranged by Michelle Zinck, who is currently a master’s student in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. The project was part of community engaged research she’s completing on her thesis focused on Indigenous and Dene health.
“I wanted to find a health framework for the community and through Dene story work,” Zinck said. “I wanted to do it out on the land because, from a Dene perspective, health has a lot to do with the land. It encompasses everything.”
Zinck explained the purpose of the project was to promote protective cultural factors, so the kids were taught how to offer tobacco, plant medicines and the creation story of the Athabasca Sand Dunes. She hopes the youth who attended, which were between 11 and 18, use the knowledge to cope with stress they are feeling in their lives.