The CreeGeo Mush Guardians is a Citizen Science initiative for youth in Mushkegowuk communities to learn about the environment and identify Indigenous place names and its history. As a CreeGeo Mush Guardian, students will work with various technologies and maps to learn and capture the oral and
pictographic knowledge and history of the traditional values and teachings. Students will help to document instances and effects of climate change in their communities by observing and monitoring environmental changes on the land and water, non-Indigenous species and weather. Guardians are gatekeepers to the land, and working with local Elders, stewards and harvesters they will help to establish research plots using GPS. This is where consistent monitoring and data capture will take place, and we will be building activities in each community as we move forward.
Using Facebook and other modes of publication, citizens of communities in Mushkegowuk territory often post photos, videos and observations of their land. Students are encouraged to use the hashtag #MushGuardians to attach to posts! This will enable all posts to be gathered together in one accessible place and easily searchable by the public. This will allow for a unique open education opportunity for Mushkegowuk communities to learn from and about each other.
We are encouraging students to use whatever social media they are already on (Instagram, Facebook, etc) to help document their stewardship of the land, and to give them choice when it comes to their preferred platform. This could be as simple as taking a selfie while they are out measuring new snowfall or taking a picture of wildlife they come across. Permission is required from parent(s) or guardian(s), and CreeGeo has created a permission form that is embedded on the Mush Guardians website for teachers to print and send home with students.
Cunsolo, Willox et. al argue that “place-based narratives and first-hand observations and experiences of environmental change and climatic variation, shared through oral stories, are not only an important and legitimate source of research but also are methodologically rich and powerful” (Abram, 1996; Briggs, 2005; Burgess, 1999; Chamberlin, 2003; Cruikshank, 2005; Davis, 2004; Dove, 2000; Durie, 2004; Ellen and Harris, 2000; Furgal et al., 2002a, 2002b; Laidler, 2006; Mauro and Hardison, 2000; Raffles, 2002; Robertson et al., 2000; Ross, 2008; Stevenson, 1998, 2005; Watson et al., 2003) (p. 131). The program was created with the above in mind, as Elders join the youth in teaching about the history of the land and the changes they have seen over the years in their communities. This also helps establish potential research areas where students can participate in environmental monitoring activities with support from CreeGeo as well as a network of helpers in the STEM fields.
References
Cunsolo et. al (2013). Lab, My & Inuit Community Government, Rigolet. Storytelling in a Digital Age: Digital Storytelling as an Emerging Narrative Method for Preserving and Promoting Indigenous Oral Wisdom.. Qualitative Research. 13. 127-147. 10.1177/1468794112446105.