Pedagogical relationship with Land through poetry and prose: Wénaxws (Respect) for Indigenous knowledges

Abstract

This work is a dance that sculpts language to illustrate pedagogical relationship between people and place/Land/Capilano University. The threads of the dance are woven throughout, with the sharing of the personal, through excerpts of poetry, to open up generative dialogical spaces. Freire’s democratic and political culture circles, or discussion groups, are given attention as an alternative to passive or authoritarian forms of pedagogy. But it is Indigenous knowledges that take the forefront through an embodied pedagogy of Land and the wisdoms within it, as discussed by Styres, Haig-Brown and Blimkie, and by Simpson. Land in a pedagogy of Land includes all of our environment -- water, earth and air -- and brings a focus of Land as first teacher, and how this speaks to pedagogical relationship. There are storied reflections upon what it means to be a Eurocentric colonial settler embedded in Indigenous unceded territory, and entangled in the history of the Land of Capilano University and the surrounding area. Some intriguing connections are made between Indigenous wisdoms and the world of quantum physics, and are interesting to consider in advancing technoscientific times. Of importance is that any movement to Indigenize education holds wénaxws (respect) for the context and protocols of the Indigenous peoples and the knowledges shared. Integrating Indigenous knowledges with westernized views can be a time of decolonizing transition where the new comes to meet the old. A fluid spiritual pedagogy of Land is part of ancient wisdom of listening and responding to Land from the heart, and may be enacted through setting foot on the Land, as well as engaging in a multitude of artistic experiences, ceremonies and rituals that activate spiritual life forces.