Kahnawà:ke teacher uses land-based learning to connect students with traditional foods and skills

This story is a collaboration between Concordia University's journalism department, Kahnawake Survival School and CBC Montreal.

Growing up, Rainbow Jacobs spent a lot of time watching and helping her mother and grandmother cook, allowing her to gain an understanding of traditional Indigenous recipes.

"None of our traditional recipes are written down. You'll never find [them] in a cookbook," she said.

Now, Jacobs is passing down that knowledge to her students at Kahnawake Survival School (KSS) in Kahnawà:ke, south of Montreal.

Three years ago, she started teaching a food sovereignty class where she uses land-based learning to teach students how to use natural resources to produce traditional dishes.

The students learn how to plant, harvest and tend to a garden throughout the four seasons. They then take what they've grown and use those harvests to cook traditional foods.

"I strongly, strongly believe that all kids should know how to feed themselves and should have all of those real life skills that are going to take you beyond high school," said Jacobs.

Passionate about preserving her culture's traditions, she hopes her students will continue to educate the next generations.

"I'm hoping that I'm planting those seeds now," she said.

Jacobs also teaches about the cycle of ceremonies, rituals that include marking seasonal changes.

This is important to her because she teaches her students how to cook the foods that are served at the ceremonies, such as corn soup, bread and wild game.

To do so, the students use ingredients from the garden, like corn, beans and squash — also known as "The Three Sisters."

Tiohahison Splicer has been one of Jacobs's students for the past two years.

"I find I learn the most in her class, and it's things I would actually use in life," she said. "It's really hands on too, so it's more fun."

According to Jacobs, one of her best memories is seeing the school's sugar shack get up and running in 2023. She says it was a dream of many who came before her and who helped to make it a reality, and she is grateful to be a part of this project.

Jacobs and her students turned an empty building into a successful sugar shack using the maple trees on the school's property. The students helped tap the trees and learned the process of creating natural maple syrup.

Splicer was one of the students involved in this project. She says Jacobs really inspires her.

"She has so much knowledge and I hope one day I can have as much knowledge as she does," Splicer says.

The sugar shack taught students that they can use land-based resources to make something sweet.

The KSS curriculum is based on Kanieh'kehá:ka (Mohawk) values, beliefs and traditions.

Jacobs hopes for a future where learning is even more hands-on and land-based, "getting back to the roots of KSS."

"That's the dream," she said.