This time of the year, young people all over the world celebrate achievements, capping their experiences on graduation day.

Every community feels hopeful for the future, with a new crop of young people to take on the challenges.

This is in many ways, a preparation, a beginning to start exploring post-secondary goals. A lot of our inner strength comes from what we have experienced by looking into ancient scrolls.

Way before contact, people migrated to the barren land to hunt caribou for the hides, so there would be clothing, dry meat and pemmican to bridge the fall season with winter.

On the canoe trail to the barren land, there is a lake called "T'si k'e miiti," meaning "points north net lake." On the north side, close to shore, is an island with a rock outcrop of sheer rock with a ledge. It has two rocks leaning against each other and a crevasse to crawl into.

It is protected from birds in the air to animals on the ground. It is called "asii deda t'setsa;" we store something for the way back.

Going towards the barren land, there is much energy, especially among the younger people who would take on the bulk of labour, guided by elders. Everyone stops at "asii deda t'setsa" to put into fresh birch bark scrolls a little something for the way back. For some, it would be a thought that can be retrieved.

The stories shared by the elders close to the Barrenlands become much more focused, These are times for listening, about being cautious, to look after one another, but most of all about being responsible.

Every step retraces the footsteps of people that have gone before you, and for those that the elders remember and express, they become much more imbedded in the memory for future retrieval.

Sitting around the campfires, stories are told over and over, selected for the occasion and reflective of the challenges of the day. Stories of earlier youth, remembering the old, seeing sites and reflecting on the experiences unfolded - one can only feel the sense of pride and accomplishment.

Returning from the barren land, everyone stops at "asii deda t'setsa" to retrieve the much more weathered birch bark scrolls, wrapping morsels of dry fish or meat, a bit of tobacco. Some would be thoughts, memories of childhood, questions of ability to once more be looked at with much more knowledge and wisdom. The scrolls received today by graduates have a deeper meaning that goes beyond the writings. It really is about repeated traditions of societies once more accomplished.

• John B. Zoe is the acting executive director with Tlicho government and former land claims negotiator. He holds an honorary doctorate of law.