Alberta First Nations school wins prize from U.A.E. for a hydroponics garden

A First Nations school in Alberta has won US $150,000 from an international sustainability prize to build a hydroponics farm.

Mamawi Atosketan Native School in Ponoka, Alta., about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton, was one of six winners in the high school category of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, given by the United Arab Emirates.

Grade 11 students Elias Mykat and Kenyon Bull and two school co-ordinators travelled to Abu Dhabi last week.

“We flew all the way over and we got ready for the conference and award ceremony and when they picked our name, I was just shocked and surprised,” said Bull, who is from Louis Bull Tribe.

Awarded since 2008, the Zayed Sustainability Prize is aimed at promoting sustainable development worldwide.

For the high school prizes, there were over 7,000 applicants from 132 countries and 32 projects selected as finalists.

The school will use the money to build a year-round modular hydroponic farm, aiming to produce over 1,100 kilograms of vegetables annually. It will be part of a for-credit agriculture program combining Indigenous values and sustainability science.

The school has 250 Indigenous students.

Principal Kim Harrington said the school started a garden five years ago and last year they won a grant from ATCO to start a small indoor hydroponics program, to garden all year.

“During the few short months that they had the gardening program, we were able to give students food to take home and they just really loved that idea,” said Harrington.

Harrington said the boys were leaders in the program from the beginning so choosing them to represent their school was easy.

“These boys just took this whole hydroponics program with more vigor and passion than anybody else at our school had,” said Harrington.

Passing on skills

Bull said the garden helped with the school’s lunch program and usually every month the school would host a soup kitchen, to feed those struggling in the community.

“It kind of ignited a passion for gardening for me,” said Bull. 

Bull said both of them are going into Grade 12 next year, so they will need someone to take over the garden.

“I just want to help other students get to know how it works, so when I graduate, there will be other students to keep helping the other generations, so it'll just go on and on,” said Bull.

Elias Mykat, from Ermineskin Cree Nation, said he didn’t have much experience in gardening but when they learned about hydroponics, he got into it.

Mykat said it was a once in a lifetime experience — when they won and got called to the stage, he was the one who went up.

Mykat said U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed presented the award and took the time to talk with them after.

Ray Fankhauser, sustainability lead at the school, was one of the people behind entering the school for the award.

Fankhauser said that with the level of interest from the students to work the garden, they needed something bigger, so they looked at developing a modular hydroponic farm using Canadian technology called Growcer. 

“All you need is electricity, water, and obviously a level piece of ground, so that project became a dream for us,” said Fankhauser.

Fankhauser said the garden program can instill a sense of stewardship and responsibility, and maybe students will take it further to a career.

The communities of Louis Bull First Nation and Ermineskin Cree Nation held a thank you ceremony once the boys returned home where they were presented with blankets, sweetgrass and eagle feathers.