The 2023-2024 school year saw the first fully operational year of Akinomaagayegaamikong, the site of UGDSB’s Land-Based and Indigenous Education Centre at Island Lake Conservation Area. This is a partnership between UGDSB and the Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) and a collaborative initiative between the Indigenous Education Department and the Program Services Department. 

At Akinomaagayegaamikong, all programming has been co-developed with the Indigenous Education Team and treaty partners in UGDSB to meaningfully and appropriately weave Indigenous Knowledges and pedagogies into student offerings across all grade levels. Some of the programming options offered to students were: Kindergarten Forest Play, Indigenous Ingenuity, Navigation and Mapmaking and Water (nibi & ohné:kanos) is Life. 

Several residencies were also hosted with Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and community partners, which are vital to the program offerings. During residencies, Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and community partners spend extended time at Akinomaagayegaamikong and offer specific programming to UGDSB students to help them learn about, and develop an understanding of, Indigenous Peoples and the diverse and distinct Knowledges they hold. Some of the offerings that students participated in included: Indigenous Games with Dallas Squire (Six Nations of the Grand River), the Story of Birch Bark with Anishinaabe artist Naomi Smith (Chippewas of Nawash), and the Sweetwater program with Bill Morrison (Métis/Chapleau Cree Fox Lake). For all residencies hosted at Akinomaagayegaamikoong, priority access was, and continues to be, given to classes with Indigenous students in them.

For the 2023-24 school year, 235 UGDSB classes participated in programming, with a total of 5,471 participants. 

The learning at Akinomaagayegaamikong was not limited to the students who visited throughout the school year. Each semester, the school hosted a secondary co-operative education student and during the summer, secondary Indigenous students in UGDSB participated in an Indigenous arts course (NAC1O) offered in collaboration with local Indigenous artists to learn about woodworking, beadwork as well as basket and moccasin making.