Hear the land speak, learn Indigenous ways, be embraced by Mother Earth, news article and YouTube video from the University of Calgary is a few years old but still relevant to the topic of Place Based Learning. The article and video both explain how a group of University of Calgary’s Werkland School of Education undergraduate students were invited to explore the sacred land of Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park. The land is, “A very personal place, a space where, for thousands of years, the Blackfoot people have lived and worked, celebrated and mourned – a place for worshipping and a place that is worshipped.” I found this article very fitting with the past week’s Discussion 9 conversation that brought up Indigenous courses for university students. These students had a great opportunity to learn about the Blackfoot culture and history from Blackfoot Elder Randy Bottle. This experience allowed the students to learn the stories of Elder Bottles’ people, as well as their history and connection to the land. Elder Bottles says, “The land does speak to you, you just have to listen and to be very observant.” The students experienced floating down the river, hiking to the hoodoos, seeing the petroglyphs and learned about the significance of the land to the Blackfoot people. Within the article is a video of some of the students sharing their hands-on learning experience through a sharing circle. One quote really stood out for me, “It’s one thing to read about Indigenous culture in books, but it’s a whole other thing to be in the space and to learn from someone who is as knowledgeable as Elder Bottle.”
Werkland School of Education. (2017, November, 23). Writing on stone sharing circle. Werkland School of Education. [Video].YouTube. https://youtu.be/2KxpaclaMiI
University of Calgary. (2017, Nov. 23). Hear the land speak, learn Indigenous ways, be embraced by Mother Earth. UCalgary News. https://ucalgary.ca/news/hear-land-speak-learn-indigenous-ways-be-embraced-mother-earth