Educators contribute to the profession.
June 23rd, 2023
Signature Pedagogy
“People, Place, and Land”
Duneneh (people), Hoonzoo (a nice place), and Keyoh (land)
On June 12th, 2023, I was invited from UNBC education program to be a representative for the BEd elementary stream. I was provided with the opportunity to share my experience with land-based learning and learning from the people and the place. During this time, I was able to listen and learn more about learning from the land and what that means through multiple perspectives. I also was fortunate to be able to listen to elders speak about what it means to them and the steps I can take as a future teacher to not Indigenize but decolonize my own teaching practice.
One of my biggest takeaways from this retreat was the importance of being an ally to all Indigenous including our local Indigenous group and that we need to stop “Indigenizing” everything. Instead, we need to decolonize and this was a very eye-opening realization for me. I had noticed that throughout my journey thus far, I have been working on how can I Indigenous this lesson, and how can I authentically include Indigenous ways of knowing and being. When what I should be doing is decolonizing. I truly believe that is the best way we can be authentic and achieve reconciliation in the education system. By expanding our learning, including more experiential/land-based learning opportunities and taking advantage of opportunities such as retreats, we can learn how to decolonize our practice and in doing so, we are contributing to the profession.
I plan on attending more learning opportunities and coming back to this page to reflect on my take-aways! So, stay tuned and thanks for reading!