Learning from Land: A webinar connecting Indigenous land-based experiences to curriculum with Marlo Beaucage and Nancy O’Donnell

Marlo and Nancy opened the session by framing their work through reciprocity with the land. When learning from Aki (land in Anishinaabemowin), there must be an awareness that educators and students are connecting to generations of knowledge.   

“That respectful relationship is integral to the experiences,” says Marlo. “It grounds us in all of the learning that we do.”   

During the presentation, Marlo and Nancy gave many examples of traditional activities that they’ve engaged students in, including hunting, fishing, the tapping of the birch trees, tamarack decoy making, building traditional structures and investigating the migration pattern of wolverines.  

In Marlo’s first example, she explained how birch bark tapping provided students at Johnny Therriault School in Aroland First Nation with the opportunity to learn about the tree itself and its many uses. When boiled, birch sap is used for cooking, as well as a remedy for ailments.  

“The birch gives itself to the people in order to travel, cook, collect and heal,” says Marlo, Johnny Therriault’s special education teacher and Choose Life Coordinator.   

During their inquiry, students measured the circumference of the tree, determined the quantity of the sap they tapped, discussed and researched forest sustainability, and learned how to be land stewards. Each teaching was introduced in collaboration with an Elder or Knowledge Keeper. 

“When introducing students to Indigenous teachings, it is important to include Elders and Knowledge keepers because they are the ones who truly hold the knowledge. They are the ones who can most authentically share these teachings with students,” Marlo says, adding that these experiences provide opportunity for Indigenous students, like hers, to learn math and science in a cultural context that positively influences the development of student self-identity. 

Nancy, an education coordinator with the Anishinabek Education System, shared a project led by Great Lakes Cultural Camp that saw public school students learn how to tan hides. A four-day undertaking, students learned the six stages of hide tanning: skinning the animal, de-hairing the animal, stretching the hide, creating a brain solution soak, drying the hide, and smoking the hide. Many community members from different generations were consulted and included in this project because it is important to build relationships with – and honour – those who hold traditional teachings.  

“No one in that room was the expert. If you were to walk in, you wouldn’t have been able to tell who was facilitating,” Nancy says. “The success of that lesson is rooted in the communal effort made by everyone in the room – it was ours together as a community. To me, that’s really honouring an Indigenous way of knowing.” 

Nancy also acknowledged the importance of recognizing traditional Indigenous knowledge in educational settings. Referencing the work of Marie Battiste, Nancy says Indigenous people have come to realize their perspective needn’t be recognized or legitimized by Western worldview. Instead, education in North America must be decolonized and Indigenous teachings in conventional classrooms in a respectful way.   

“After 19 years in an education system, it took until my Masters of Education that I actually heard Indigenous Knowledge and Indigenous Ways of Knowing being shared – That’s a long time to wait,” she says. “We recognize that we need to be in schools, we need to be in textbooks, we need to be in curriculum. Through that, we will have a transformation of knowledge. That’s what brings Marlo and myself here today.”