Justine’s Research Interests

I have always been a student of the outdoors. That is how I came to be a teacher. I took a course at Bamfield Marine Station on intertidal ecology in 1988 and was hooked with the desire to learn about the creatures that lived around and in the ocean. I then took a job as a kayak guide on the  inland waters of the Pacific coast. Working in that area I was compelled to educate myself and then my clients about the land and the people that used to live there. I spent a whole summer in Haida Gwaii and was privileged to hear stories and teachings from some of the native watchmen who looked after village sites. It was when I was taking young people out into these waters that I could see the how they opened up to the world around them and became curious about nature. When starting to read, in this course, about the sacred connection indigenous people have to the land, I find my interest turning to education in the outdoors and native ecology. I am curious about stories behind the ecology and like the idea of having students begin to explore and learn outside, in their own communities and neighbourhoods.