Twelve Indigenous women from Barren Lands First Nation in Brochet, Manitoba have been busy measuring, sawing, drilling screws, and having a very good time learning carpentry skills as part of MCSC’s framer micro-course which is accredited by the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology. This industrious group of students started by building their own sawhorses, then constructed new front steps for a local elder’s house, scaffolding, and a dormer, a roofed structure, over the Barren Lands band hall entrance – complete with roofing shingles! The students are also getting ready for the upcoming Treaty 10 gathering in Brochet this July by building more than six picnic tables and a dance floor riser inside the band hall. The students graduated on June 23, 2023. Chief Michael Sewap says after graduation the students will be recruited to help build five new houses on the reserve in the coming months, plus help with other local building and renovation projects.

Watch MCSC’s framer micro-course video!