Teenage Adolescence: Traditional Canadian Camp Bridges Puberty and Culture

Culture and puberty come together in the Sts'ailes summer puberty camps for boys and girls in Canada. Adolescents learn about the Sts'ailes tradition as a way to cope with the changes that puberty brings.

Sts'ailes is a reserve that is a two-hour drive from Vancouver. The reserve is surrounded by the Coast Range mountains. According to the Sts'ailes Healing Retreat Centre website, the Sts'ailes community is made up of 564 indivuals. 

Up to 30 adolescents from 11 to 16 attend the summer puberty camps, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said. The girls' camp is called Natural Changes and the boys' camp is called the Warrior camp.

The Sts'ailes Puberty Camps 

The elders said that these camps mix in culture with health as the adolescents learn traditional skills such as cedar weaving and hunting. This helps them "deal with the pressures and angst of puberty," according to CBC. "Everything we did came with a teaching," camp attendee Hailee Leon said.

CBC reported that the reserve receives $4,000 from the provincial government every summer. Camp organizers try trimming down the costs through deer hunting and berry gathering.

Sts'ailes puberty camps make it okay to be an awkward teenagerhttps://t.co/fcQ9iu10A0 - great idea! pic.twitter.com/ezfVcGJ9xm

— Kirsten Morozov (@TLkirsten) April 23, 2016

What Is Puberty?

"Puberty is the period of sexual maturation and achievement of fertility," Dr. Melissa Conrad Stöppler wrote in Medicine.net. Stöppler added that puberty also affects a person's psychosocial and emotional development.

While the exact beginning of puberty is different for everyone, puberty usually occurs earlier in girls. Girls experience puberty between the ages of 10 to 14 while it occurs between the ages of 12 and 16 for boys.

For some African-American girls, puberty begins at about age 9. Stöppler said that nowadays, adolescent girls begin puberty earlier than ever. Nutritional and other environmental influences are seen as possible causes of early puberty.

Physical Changes in Puberty

The first change girls experience during puberty is usually the development of their breasts, the National Health Service (NHS) said. Pubic hair and hair on legs and arms also starts to grow.

As puberty continues, girls experience menstrual flow. Girls also grow underarm hair and some even grow hair by their upper lip. Acne, growth spurt, weight gain also happens to girls during puberty. 

In Sts'ailes spiritual beliefs, menstruation is a woman's "power time," CBC reported. The duration of the period is called moon time, a sacred time for a woman.

For boys, the first sign of puberty is the enlargement of their testicles, according to the NHS. The scrotum becomes darker eventually. 

Boys may also have "wet dreams." Wet dreams are involuntary ejaculations of semen while sleeping. The voice also "breaks" and becomes deeper. Acne, growth spurt and development of muscles also occur in boys.

Still, Sts'ailes elders admit that their beliefs do not hold all the answers. Nurses help adolescents answer their questions about puberty.