Sharla Peltier explains Anishinaabe ecological relational knowledge and how children can meet the world with curiosity and respect.
Every place is home to relationships that exist before we arrive. Learning on, with, and from the Land begins by noticing them. Children come to understand who else lives in a place and how their own actions affect it.
Sharla Peltier describes Anishinaabe ecological knowledge as holistic and relational. The trees and moving waters are alive, and living beings depend on one another. Beneath a single rock, worms, insects, and other small beings have their own place and purpose. A child can look closely and learn, then leave them where they are. Nothing needs to be taken.
To learn with the land is to meet a place as more than a setting for our activities. Educators could begin by asking children: Who lives here? What changes because we are here? What does respect look like in this place?
Educators do not need to arrive as experts. We can listen to local guidance, notice alongside children, and return to the same places over time. Across the Land-based Learning series, educators, Elders, and Knowledge Carriers share stories and practices that offer places to begin.
Ideas for Your Practice
The ideas below are invitations for reflection and exploration, not a single model to follow. Every community and territory carries its own knowledge, relationships, and protocols. Seek guidance from local Elders and Knowledge Carriers, so that learning remains respectful and responsive to the place where it happens.
- Go outside without a plan. Make time simply to be outside together. Notice what draws the children’s attention. Listen to their questions and follow their lead.
- Take attendance outside. Before beginning, ask who is already here. Children might notice a crow on the fence, water moving through a ditch, or the morning moon. Make a spoken or drawn attendance list together.
- Follow the water. After rain or a thaw, follow the water for as long as you can. Where does it gather? What does it touch? Where might it go next?
- One place, many visits. Choose a small place and return without asking it to be interesting. Photograph or draw the same view each time, then place the images together and listen to what the children notice.
Explore More Within TREES
- More videos related to learning on the Land are housed on the Video library
- MFI offers curriculum and learning resources focused on early learning and learning on the Land.
- Using MFI’s Early Years Toolbox resource? This reflective activity is related to the Toolbox Card Exploring the Land.
TAKE YOUR LEARNING FURTHER
- The National Centre for Collaboration in Indigenous Education has community-developed lesson plans and resources. The collections can be filtered by learning level, location, and subject.
- The Dechinta Program in the Northwest Territories houses films, field guides, and conversations from an Indigenous-led center for land-based education.
- The Outdoor Learning School and Store includes courses, workshops, books, and practical tools for outdoor learning, including resources for the early years and Indigenous learning.
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