PROGRAM INITIATIVE

Mochik Ania - Camp Turtle

Gain Connection and Tools for Articulating Your Voice

"slow down like a turtle and connect to the rhythms of the earth"

We host a Native cultural camp for Native youth, 7th grade and up. Where cultural practitioners teach traditional lifeways and Arts; and Media Makers teach tools for sharing our stories.

Camp participants are engaged through interactive and participatory activities which include:

storytelling
developing media skills
go on nature walks to explore ways to restore plant, land and water health
building relationships with the plants and water
creating art
learning traditional Indigenous meal preparation
mediation techniques
enhance writing and public speaking skills
be introduced to Indigenous languages
and more!

Named in honor of **Ralph “Turtle” Panaro**, a Seneca bowmaker and outdoorsman. He loved sharing his passion for nature and traditional ways with all ages, but especially young people.

Why is the Mochik Ania - Camp Turtle Program Important?

The camp aims to empower youth, so each youth feels proud to identify as Native and rooted in our original teachings as land stewards.

The camp provides them with opportunities of self discovery and expression grounded in the land, Indigenous knowledge, and cultural traditions.

Media Arts and Traditional Arts are a main part of the camp experience, extensions of the storytelling we do in relationship to the lands each camper comes from and where the camp is held.

The confluence of tribes represented in the diversity of the program participants, coming from urban areas to reservations enriches the experience.

This diversity enhances their connection across Indian Country and promotes the youth feeling seen as they share their experiences with each other.

Understanding themselves as a part of a larger community builds a larger support network for each of the campers.

What happens at camp?

Native youth have an opportunity to immerse themselves in a fun, supportive, empowering, and creative environment, where they can re-member their relationship with the land, learn practices for self and community care, experience hands-on learning with media arts, visual storytelling, and various traditional practices from a variety of practitioners.

There are medicinal plant walks and teachings; activities and discussions about agriculture, the environment and conservation; daily water offerings; and media technology training.