Land-based learning pilot project a blueprint for other schools

When Biitigong Nishnaabeg, a northwestern Ontario First Nation located about 320 kilometres east of Thunder Bay, Ont., started moving towards more land-based curriculum for its students it came with the realization that the community also needed to train its teachers. The First Nation collaborated with Lakehead University to develop a master's level course that takes students on the land to learn.

The first cohort of students in the pilot, mainly teachers at the elementary school in Biitigong, spent a weekend, in September 2019, learning how to harvest wild rice.

Lisa Michano-Courchene is the education director in the community, previously known as the Ojibways of the Pic River First Nation.

She says beyond other First Nations developing a similar course for their own communities, land-based learning could benefit other school systems.

"There's a possible benefit for it because what I see occurring in many other systems is courses being developed, or professional development being developed, and being stamped as called land-based. But in reality they're outdoor education courses. And I mean we could talk about the differences and without getting into it too deeply, it really is about the acknowledgement of spirit," Michano-Courchene said.

"There's a spiritual connection to that land. So when you take the kids out and you take them out on the land and you acknowledge spirit by whatever way has been instructed by the elders are they really doing those same things in an outdoor education program. So there really is some defined differences in terms of what is land-based, even as Biitigong defines it, and what is outdoor education as a provincial school board defines it."

Michano-Courchene added, "I would hope that if other non-Indigenous school boards want to be serious about offering land-based courses to their students they pay attention to this program."

Shauna Bell is one of the students in the first cohort at Lakehead. She is also the kindergarten teacher at Biigtigong Nishnaabeg Endzhi-gkinoohmaading, the elementary school in the community.

"I thought that it was a great opportunity because for one, I'm non-aboriginal, so I didn't grow up in the community," Bell said.

"So there's a lot of a lot of teachings that I do not know. So I thought it'd be really helpful to bring back to my students to be able to teach them their ways, their culture. I'll be able to relate. I won't just read something and tell them what is in the readings I will actually be able to share my experiences with them."

Bell, who is in eighth year of teaching in Biitigong, said going out on the land to learning wild rice harvesting was an experience. "I think that it's very holistic and that our children get to experience the land and take it back into the classroom, and it's just a great learning tool," Bell said. "I will be learning from it, which will help me to be a better teacher."

Michano-Courchene said half of the teachers in the community's school are non-Indigenous, and she sees their growth from taking this land-based pilot program at Lakehead.

"To see their development when it comes to learning about the importance and the connection of the land to Indigenous people has been tremendous."

Paul Berger is the chair of graduate studies and research and education at Lakehead University. Berger said he's really excited about some of the early successes of the first cohort of students. 

"We've heard some reports of teachers already incorporating things, and changing some of what they do with their students,"

"If it works really well for them, and we've learned how to do this. I think the doors will open for other communities to work with us."

For Berger it was important that the university and the First Nation had a lot of trust on both sides "So I think the trust that we have means that will invent things as we go .... we're learning as we're doing, and without that trust we would be in a much more rigid situation," Berger said.

"And that trust means that we're, you know, we're going to invent this as we go, and we'll make some mistakes but will then work with each other to try to not make the mistakes again and to keep improving."