Exchanges. Verdde TN exchanges have included both individual exchanges of students and Verdde members as well as collegial group visits. Recent examples of exchanges include Sámi instructors visiting the University of Alaska Fairbanks (2023); an Ilisimatusarfik PhD student visited UAF; Sámi instructors and students recently visited the Nunavut Arctic College in northern Canada, and NAC instructors visited the Sámi University (2024); and a group of faculty, students, and Inuit educators from the Labrador Campus of Memorial University visited the Sámi University (2023). In addition to this, the Verdde TN developed the course An Introduction to Indigenous Education in Newfoundland and Labrador to support the preparation of students visiting Memorial University. The course provided network member institutions with a template to develop a similar course for exchanges.

Network meetings, symposia, and conferences. Verdde TN meetings are held online each semester. When possible, there is also a face-to-face component or a hybrid network meeting as the one that took place during the UArctic Congress in Bodø, Norway (2024). At that time, many Verdde members, including students, were at the Congress and presented in various sessions. Verdde members also joined both the Labrador Research Forum (2022) and the Memorial University Research Week (2022) to present on the Verdde TN.

Workshops and research. Verdde members participated in a collaborative writing and sharing workshop at Memorial University’s St. John’s campus (2018); collaborative research development meetings are held online; Sámi colleagues visited the Labrador Campus of Memorial University for a hybrid research workshop (2022); online research and scholarly writing sessions have been held bi-weekly over the course of a year (2022-2023), and some members were able to join online for the Sámi Education Conference (2023). The Sámi University hosted a three-day seminar and workshops on Learning for Educators: Nurturing Indigenous Pedagogies (2023) was organized by the Verdde TN.  

Group of Labarador visitors in Guovdageaidnu spring 2023.

From back on: Shelley Tulloch (University of Winnipeg), Colleen Pottle (Memorial U), Sylvia Moore (Memorial U), Sarah Townley (Torngat Secretariat), Doris Dicker (Memorial U), Ola Andersen (Memorial U), and Shannon Dicker (NL School Board). Photographer: Shannon Dicker