Embracing Indigenous Knowledges
Post by Hannah
When many of us got our ECE diplomas there was very little included in the curriculum about diversity. Even less about Indigenous knowledges. I completed my diploma in 2008, and our main discussions on diversity were centred around having photographs and books about other people and places (not Canada and not white people), and the ethics around celebrating holidays in the centre. I don’t remember learning anything that was specifically about Indigenous cultures.
Because of this, some educators, myself included, have had a lot of learning and un-learning to do in recent years (Calderon, et al., 2021). As the BC Early Learning Framework (ELF) (2019) strives to include more Indigenous philosophies, educators must attempt to find a way to respectfully adapt their practice. If we do not do this difficult work, we risk continuing to perpetuate the “dominance of western knowledge systems and erasure of Indigenous ones” (Lees, et al., p. 281, 2021). I include myself in this as a Métis educator, as I was trained in a colonial institution and have therefore worked using primarily western/colonial methods for the bulk of my career as an ECE.
The ELF (2019) discusses building “connection and reconnection to land, culture, community, and place” (p. 21). When it mentions children developing a sense of place, they are referring to an emotional (and sometimes spiritual) bond to a place (Raffan, 1993). James Raffan wrote that in his conversations with Indigenous people he realized that this sense of place is something “that touches the heart more than the mind” (p. 44). This is something that I believe we all hope the children in our care will carry with them when they remember their time at UVic Child Care Services.
The First Peoples Principles of Learning, as outlined in the ELF, discusses children developing a sense of place as part of their holistic learning. It explains that holistic learning in this context is very relational, focusing on connectedness, reciprocity, and sense of place. Fikile Nxumalo (2020) writes about disrupting colonial human-centred ways of relating to the more-than-human world and the need to move towards “pedagogies that foreground radical relationality and reciprocity with the more-than-human beings, including water, animals, plants, and land” (p. 39). Common worlding is a very good place to start, especially for settlers, as it recognizes the interdependent relationship we have with more-than-human beings (Cullen, et al., 2021), and shares many values with Indigenous ways of knowing. Helping children recognize this interdependence is very important as we live through these times of human-caused environmental crises, as they will soon be the ones working towards affecting change.
Over the last few months (or perhaps years?) I have asked myself how we (Indigenous, Inuit, and Métis peoples) can communicate effectively to settlers the connection we have with the land. How can we teach this to those that do not share the same spiritual beliefs? I feel (along with many others) that if settlers had a better understanding of the interconnectedness of the land, humans, and more-than-humans living here, we would have more people calling for changes in how capitalist entities are permitted to work. In a recent conversation with one of my nêhiyawak cousins, I told her about the connection I have always felt with the land, and the relational values I have held, even before I knew I was Métis (that’s a whole other story). She told me that it’s innate (M. McDermott, personal communication, March 7, 2023). It’s a connection that we just have in us, which is likely why I struggle to verbalize it.
As my practicum comes to a close, I am very grateful to have spent time learning with and from all the staff and children at the centres here. I have learned a lot about how the ELF can be put into practice, and really examined my own professional practices. Thank you all for having me, and I look forward to working with you again.
References
British Columbia Ministry of Education, Ministry of Children and Family Development, and Ministry of Health. (2019). British Columbia Early Learning Framework. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/early-learning/teach/earlylearning/early_learning_framework.pdf
Calderon, D., Lees, A., Swan Waite, R., & Wilson, C. (2021). ‘Crossing the bridge’: Land education teacher professional development. Professional Development in Education, 47(2–3), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2021.1891957
Lees, A., Tropp Laman, T. & Calderon, D. (2021). “Why didn’t I know this?”: Land education as an antidote to settler colonialism in early childhood teacher education. Theory Into Practice, 60(3), 279–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2021.1911482
Nxumalo, F. (2020). Place-based disruptions of humanism, coloniality and anti-blackness in early childhood education. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 8(SI). https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v8iSI.269
Raffan, J. (1993). The Experience of Place: Exploring Land as Teacher. Journal of Experiential Education, 16(1), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/105382599301600109
Taylor, A., Zakharova, T., & Cullen, M. (2021). Common worlding pedagogies: Opening up to learning with worlds. Journal of Childhood Studies, 46(4), 74-88. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs464202120425