{"id":47,"date":"2018-06-21T15:35:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T15:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/indigenizationinstructors\/?post_type=chapter&p=47"},"modified":"2018-06-27T19:10:49","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T19:10:49","slug":"how-indigenous-peoples-are-reconnecting","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/indigenizationinstructors\/chapter\/how-indigenous-peoples-are-reconnecting\/","title":{"raw":"How Indigenous Peoples are Reconnecting","rendered":"How Indigenous Peoples are Reconnecting"},"content":{"raw":" \r\n
I\u2019m speaking for Okanagan Indigenous peoples in terms of the way we think about land. We never have ever thought of it, I don\u2019t think, as anything static. As anything physical. We\u2019ve always thought about it as a process of interactions, a process of changes and a process that\u2019s ongoing \u2026 And so a lot of things that we think about as Okanagan people is how those systems should inform us, in terms of our interactions and the principles that we need to think about and adhere to. In the process of learning in our society, one of the things that we have come to understand is that there always needs to be that connection to and from the individual, and the connection of the family, and the connection to community, and how that intersects to the natural world.\r\n\r\n\u2013 Jeanette Armstrong (as quoted by First Nations Studies Program, 2009)<\/blockquote>\r\nIn Indigenous epistemologies, interconnections with every living being and with place (the land) provide power and self-determination. They are remembered and passed on through language and stories. Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing, and relating (epistemology, axiology, and pedagogy) are reaffirmed through resilience of spirit, resilience of knowledge retention, and the ability to share and transfer these gifts to subsequent generations.\r\n\r\nThese knowledge systems are now being brought into post-secondary education through experiential and on-the-land courses and programs. Course design and delivery rest with the partner Indigenous communities, and the institution creates a space within its programming to enable learning in a different way. Here are two examples of courses that support reconnection with the land:\r\n