Published on:
October 6, 2023
Who We Are
The Oẏateki Partnership
The Oẏateki Partnership aspires to lead and facilitate transformative processes to generate more dynamic, integrated, ‘wholistic,’ state-of-the-art, and responsive education and employment systems that will change the lives of Indigenous youth for the better. By inspiring these developments, we envision a stronger Saskatchewan for all of us.
The Oẏateki Partnership is a unique collaborative between the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI), Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT), and the University of Saskatchewan (USask) alongside First Nations and Métis youth, communities, and organizations. The Partnership builds on a history of collaboration across the three partner institutions, the unique strengths, and the relationships that each institution holds.
The Oẏateki Partnership consists of four distinctive and collaborative groups of leaders that help determine the vision of the initiative.
The Leadership Circle
The Oẏateki Leadership Circle provides high-level oversight for the Oẏateki Partnership as per by the three institutions, Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI), Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT), and the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). This direction is guided by the principles and practices of the Mastercard Foundation (MCF) in its capacity as the primary funder. Each institution is equally represented.
The Leadership Circle oversees strategic planning, implementation, and progress of the projects, and external collaborations that support the projects. They are accountable to the Mastercard Foundation and stakeholders for reporting and compliance-related activities, as well as alignment of institutional policies.
Kahté-ayak (Knowledge Keepers) Advisory Circle
The role of the Kahté-ayak Advisory Circles is to provide ‘Kahté-ayak-guided’ advice to offer their guidance to the Oẏateki Partnership in planning and implementation of activities designed to transform the education and employment systems to better service Indigenous youth.
Participating Kahté-ayak are recognized by their communities for their wisdom and knowledge. One representative is referred from each institution, and the Circle includes Kahté-ayak who gifted the Partnership vision and provided high-level guidance to the work. They also recommended that others will be brought into the circle as well, to share their journeys and advice for the Oẏateki Partnership.
Youth Advisory Circle
The role of the Youth Advisory Circle is to Provide the perspective of youth to the work and projects, and to support and encourage Youth engagement in Oẏateki programming. They provide advice and recommendations on the policies, services and programs that may impact their demographic. As well, they help identify gaps and barriers that exist on journeys to education and employment and suggest solutions to improve them.
The Youth Advisory Circle supports the development of spaces and events that inspire dialogue between youth, partner institutions, communities, education practitioners and employers.
Members can be a student, a recent graduate or be considering furthering their education/training and are between the ages of 15 and 30. Each Youth is appointed by one of the three institutions, and serves a term of two years.
Central Office Support
The Oẏateki Partnership central office is a support team that acts as an extension of the three institutes. The team is responsible for providing resources and research required by project leads and stakeholders to implement the initiatives timely and efficiently.
The support includes administrative work, project coordination, and communications and marketing.