Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Themes

Animation Theme Bundle 1: Learning from Place

Explores learning of traditional knowledge, processes and practices from living in a particular place. Language and culture are all integral parts of the learning and education process among First Nations, Métis and Inuit learners.

Explores concepts, theories, methods, languages, identities, and social practices (including education) as aspects of human experience that are considerably shaped by our perceptions-of and relationships-with place.

A great deal is known about Aboriginal learning from place. It is a topic which has been central to indigenous knowledge disciplines for thousands of years. Yet, within both mainstream academic literature and the provincial education systems, the significance of place, as it pertains to Aboriginal learners, has been at best relegated as a subset of the diminutive category called “culture”. More often, it is completely ignored. Aboriginal testimonies regarding the significance of place in the development and persistence of indigenous knowledge systems are presented to learners as case studies or stories, rather than as full paradigms for understanding and interpreting observations and experiences.

This theme bundle employs the place-based scientific tenets of a particular First Nations knowledge paradigm – namely, that of the Blackfoot – to explore Aboriginal learning from place as complex and localized lifelong practices, ongoing in many communities.

Lead: Narcisse Blood

Narcisse Blood, Ki'naksaapo'p, Iitsitssko'pa, was a previous Coordinator of the Kainai Studies program at Red Crow College, and has been recognized as an Eminent Scholar (K.Ph.D.) by Red Crow College. He is also an Iitsitssko'pa (emplaced-for-a-reason, or elder) for their SSHRC-sponsored Itsinikssiistsi Project.Blood currently teaches for the Kainai Studies program, the Department of Education at Lethbridge University, and the International Indigenous Studies Department at the University of Calgary.

Blood has served as Chair for the Mookaakin Cultural and Heritage Foundation of the Blood Tribe [2003] and served on the Blood Tribe Chief and Council. Last year, Blood served as Speaker for the State of the Nations Symposium; his lecture was entitled, "Defending Rights: An Indian World View on the Environment." He has principal transfer rights in the Niitsitapi knowledge disciplines of Iitskinaiksi and Ninnaimsskaiksi.

Reports

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