UNIVERSITY GEOGRAPHY INSTRUCTION WITHIN BUNTEP: A DREE PROGRAM IN NORTHERN MANITOBA

SUMMARY The BUNTEP programme has established itself as a successful innovator and purveyor of higher education to a hitherto neglected segment of the Canadian mosaic the isolated lndian reserves of northern Manitoba. BUNTEP comes at a time, however, when the reserves isolation from the outside world is breaking down. Combined with the stresses imposed by the post-war nuclear settlement policy of the government and the stresses of the population explosion, the formerly isolated bands are confronting challenges they are ill-equipped to meet. Television (which reached some reserves as recently as December 1977). the telephone, airplanes, motorboats, snowmobiles, and all the convenience goods sold at the local Hudson's Bay Company stores are steadily undermining whatever traditional culture is left. It is hoped that BUNTEP, and the successful graduates of BUNTEP, may provide these isolated communities with a means of coming to terms with the increasingly intrusive greater Canadian society.