Research Digest: Translating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

June 2023

In This Issue

THEME ONE: Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and knowledge systems
THEME TWO: Indigenous ways of being in relational reciprocity with people and the natural world

Translating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

The Children & Nature Network’s 2023 Inside-Out International Conference in Estes Park, Colorado, held this past June 12-15, centered Native American leaders and Indigenous culture.

As we saw throughout the event, Indigenous ways of knowing have myriad benefits for both Native and non-Native Peoples, not to mention the planet and its non-human inhabitants. Recent research has explored the subject and affirms this finding.

To further highlight the vital role of Indigenous wisdom, the focus of this month’s Digest is on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and the role it can play in restoring culture, enhancing connection to nature, addressing colonialist consciousness, improving health for both Native and non-Native Peoples around the world and addressing climate change.

Sincerely,

Cathy Jordan, PhD
Consulting Research Director

Six evidence-based suggestions are offered to assist translation of the research on TEK to pedagogical theory and practice. The suggestions are grouped around two major themes: (1) Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and knowledge systems and (2) Indigenous ways of being in relational reciprocity with the natural world. These themes and related suggestions are based on some of the major concepts and ideas discussed in the studies included in this Digest.

The themes are also consistent with “land-based pedagogies” designed to challenge colonial systems of power. For more information about these pedagogies, see the works of Simpson (“Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation”) and Corntassel & Hardbarger (“Educate to perpetuate: Land-based pedagogies and community resurgence”).

Readers may also be interested in the November 2022 Research Digest focused on Indigenous Studies for Native American Heritage Month.

THEME ONE: Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and knowledge systems

A critique of both formal and nonformal outdoor and environmental education programs indicates that it’s not unusual for curricula and practices to reinforce the idea that Indigenous knowledge is primitive and in need of improvement. Such programs tend to socialize students into settler colonialism and the erasure of Indigenous culture.

The following recommendations and related studies address this concern and call for attention to and appreciation of Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and knowledge systems

1. Integrate native children’s culture into their formal educational curriculum.

Indigenous Māori culture includes a strong connectedness to place and a deep spiritual relationship with the natural world

A critique of current forest school models used in Aotearoa, New Zealand indicates that they lack pedagogical connections with the historical, cultural and spiritual meanings that forests and other aspects of the natural environment may carry for Māori children. A newly revised curriculum for Aotearoa makes traditional Māori worldviews integral to the education of young children. The new curriculum, if incorporated into the imported forest schools, could give meaning and contextualized authenticity to those schools.
Alcock & Ritchie, 2018. Early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa New Zealand.
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Integrating Maya environmental knowledge into formal academic lessons promotes social justice and the wellbeing of a community

A curriculum developed by a team of educators, researchers and other community members in Belize integrates traditional Maya environmental knowledge into academic lessons. The implementation of this curriculum in a formal education setting provides opportunities for Maya students to reach their full potential within their environment and equips them with tools needed to address potential threats to their desired ways of life.
Baines & Zarger, 2017. “It’s good to learn about the plants”: Promoting social justice and community health through the development of a Maya environmental and cultural heritage curriculum in southern Belize.
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2. Include Indigenous voices and perspectives in planning programs, pedagogy and protests.

Addressing settler colonialism and Indigenous erasure in educational programs requires the incorporation of Indigenous perspectives

Two Indigenous studies scholars worked together to develop and implement a workshop to help outdoor educators address concerns about how their programs reproduce stereotypes of Indigenous peoples and appropriate Indigenous knowledge systems. While some educators remained “invested in white ignorance,” others were committed to rethinking and revising their programs.
Brooks et al., 2023. “We should have held this in a circle”: White ignorance and answerability in outdoor education.
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Indigenous involvement contributed to the development of a nature kindergarten reflecting Aboriginal ways of knowing

An advisory committee with Indigenous representation played a key role in developing a framework for a nature kindergarten located on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish First Nations people in Canada. The nature kindergarten, while being inspired by forest school and nature preschool models in Europe, reflects local values and beliefs.
Elliot & Krusekopf, 2018. Growing a nature kindergarten that can flourish.
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A sustainable development curriculum developed in collaboration with an Indigenous community increased students’ sense of place

Researchers in Taiwan worked collaboratively with Indigenous Elders, other community members and teachers in the design and assessment of a year-long place-based Indigenous education for sustainable development course. Assessments indicated that the students gained increased familiarity with the local environment, and teacher feedback indicated that students’ motivation to participate in class activities improved.
Li & Shein, 2023. Developing sense of place through a place-based Indigenous education for sustainable development curriculum.
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A “two-eyed seeing” approach can support Indigenous self-determination and “wholistic” health

The strengths of “Indigenous Knowledges” were integrated with the strengths of western knowledge in the development of a wellness program for Indigenous children in Canada. Findings from related research highlight the importance of social relationships among the collaborators and material relationships with land and place. The approach used for this program supports Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty while also fostering “wholistic health” and wellness across the lifespan.
Riley et al., 2023. Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) in Nature’s Way-Our Way: Braiding physical literacy and risky play through Indigenous games, activities, cultural connections, and traditional teachings.
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Inuit-articulated interests and priorities contribute to place-based education for Indigenous children

Consultations with Inuit parents and Elders in Canada were used to develop a place-based early childhood educational curriculum informed by an Inuit worldview. Photos, videos and stories depicting the experiences of young children engaged in this program attest to its effectiveness in confronting inequities inherent in the normalization of settler colonial practices.
Rowan, 2017. Rethinking relationships with curriculum by engaging with foxes and sharing stories in early childhood spaces.
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Intergenerational visual storytelling can address issues relating to Indigenous rights and sovereignty

Visual storytelling is used in this research as an alternative to more Eurocentric ways of seeing and interacting. Photos and stories shared by Indigenous youth and Elders in a community setting in Canada highlighted ways in which a proposed pipeline project would disrupt traditional practices connected to the land and water, and jeopardize the mental and spiritual well-being of the community.
Spiegel et al., 2020. Visual storytelling, intergenerational environmental justice and Indigenous sovereignty: Exploring images and stories amid a contested oil pipeline project.
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THEME TWO: Indigenous ways of being in relational reciprocity with people and the natural world

Recommendations and related literature in this section of the Digest highlight ways in which TEK is more than a way of knowing the world. TEK includes ways of being and doing in the world which highlight reciprocity and relationship. The relationships include social relationships with people and material relationships with land and place.

Indigenous forms of learning that are intimately connected to relational reciprocity with the natural world include storytelling, subsistence harvesting and related traditional food systems and lifeways, as well as meaningful engagement with animals. Connections with land and people are also fostered through increased access to natural environments and interactions with Elders in the community.

1. Increase access to culturally safe and meaningful places for Indigenous urban youth to reconnect with nature.

Connections with nature may be a hidden strength for Indigenous youth living in urban environments

A team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers in Canada used a photo elicitation process and talking circle interviews with 28 urban Indigenous youth (age 16-25) to identify their sources of strength in the urban environment. While the stories and photos generated by the youth were diverse, aspects of and relations with nature or the “land” surfaced as a central theme.
Hatala et al., 2020. Land and nature as sources of health and resilience among Indigenous youth in an urban Canadian context: A photo voice exploration.
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Urban Indigenous youth identify connections with nature as a source of resilience and health

Twenty-eight Indigenous Canadian youth served as co-researchers in a study examining possible connections between human-nature relations and resilience and health. Images and stories shared by the youth showed that nature functioned as a spiritual source of knowledge and wisdom and as a mediator for holding human relationships together.
Morton et al., 2020. “Just because they aren’t human doesn’t mean they aren’t alive”: The methodological potential of photovoice to examine human-nature relations as a source of resilience and health among urban Indigenous youth.
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2. Engage children in traditional food systems and lifeways.

Rural Native children have a strong environmental identity promoted by their traditional lifestyle

Data from cameras worn by approximately 60 children from an Alaskan Native village, along with follow-up discussions, showed that most of the children were comfortable in nature and had no trouble navigating the various terrains. They explored, sensed and learned about the local ecology and became confident in their explorations. This research indicates that engaging children in traditional food systems and lifeways can promote their environmental identity development.
Green, 2017. Children environmental identity development in an Alaska native rural context.
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Children’s involvement in harvesting deepens their connection to cultural identity and values

Wearable cameras captured the activities of young Native Alaskan children as they were engaged in harvesting wa’ums, a plant known for its medicinal properties. The videos along with information provided by teachers and parents indicated that harvesting helped children develop core cultural values and love of the Land.
Lunda & Green, 2020. Harvesting good medicine: Internalizing and crystalizing core cultural values in young children.
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3. Increase opportunities for meaningful engagement with animals.

Stories about animal-human relationships attest to the important role animals play in the holistic health of Indigenous peoples

Information collected during a two-day animal-human relationship workshop in Canada focused on ways in which animals contribute to holistic wellness for Indigenous peoples. Findings provide “a glimpse into the importance of animals for a rural First Nations community in Saskatchewan that disrupts and challenges Western conceptions of health that tend to fragment understandings of holistic wellness for Indigenous peoples.”
McGinnis et al., 2019. Strengthening animal-human relationships as a doorway to Indigenous holistic wellness.
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Direct contact with animals may promote empathy in Indigenous children

This study used a questionnaire to explore connectedness to nature in Bedouin children living in a contaminated environment in Israel’s Negev desert. While many of the children expressed feelings of disgust, most of them felt they could not live without plants or animals. There was some ambivalence in the children’s empathy towards living creatures, and girls expressed more empathy towards animals than boys.
Sedawi, Assaraf & Reiss, 2020. Indigenous children’s connectedness to nature: The potential influence of culture, gender and exposure to a contaminated environment.
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4. Use Indigenous activities and traditional teachings to promote self-determination and holistic health.

Connections with the Land can play an important role in the “wholistic” wellness of Indigenous children

Nature’s Way–Our Way (NWOW) is a culturally rooted physical literacy (PL) initiative implemented in several early childhood education centers in Canada. Related research found that teachers gained a sense of efficacy in promoting PL and that children gained deeper connections with the Land and their cultural heritage.
Riley et al. 2023. A nature’s way—Our way pilot project case assemblage: (Re)storying child/physical literacy/land relationships for Indigenous preschool-aged children’s wholistic wellness.
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Incorporating First Nations pedagogy in Forest Schools in Canada requires an appreciation of imitative learning

This paper describes how incorporating First Nations pedagogy in Forest Schools in Canada can make an important contribution to the country’s effort to decolonize educational practices. Imitation of Elders engaged in traditional cultural activities is discussed as an important part of First Nations pedagogy. This practice is consistent with children’s play in that the First Nation’s culture respects a child’s freedom to choose what to imitate when playing.
MacEachren, 2018. First Nation pedagogical emphasis on imitation and making the stuff of life: Canadian lessons for indigenizing Forest Schools.
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