Land-Based Healing & Learning
Mission: Strengthening our kinship with lands and waters to support the community in reclaiming our identity as beings who are integral to the ecology. We work to provide exposure and awareness to indigenous ways of knowing, allow space for application, and then support creation and design.
Localize: We aim to immerse ourselves in local environments, landscapes, cultures, languages, heritages, histories, teachings, practices, sacred sites, ecologies, stories, literatures, experiences, etc.
Decolonize: We strive to prepare our students to enter institutes centered around western ways-of-knowing with a critical lens and strong sense of identity
Indigenize: We walk with students as they rebuild their relationships with the land and local community in ways that restore indigenous ways of knowing.
Keeper Programs: We provide a variety of programming that support multiple interests. Students and staff can choose to participate in medicine, food, water, mountain, and/ or story keepers.
Knowledge Keepers: We work with regional experts to offer insight, local expertise, traditional ecological knowledge and/or skill sets in terms of local history, cultural practices, economy, ecology, science, etc. These experts work in collaboration with educators and NACA staff to augment localized, decolonized and indigenized curriculum. Please fill out this FORM if you are interested in becoming a knowledge keeper.
Grounding Sites: We partner with community based organizations who have access to land around our school. Educators and students return to these grounding sites multiple times over the course of their education to develop seasonal relationships with land, water, plants, animals, etc. Please contact us if you have suggestions for appropriate grounding sites or if you would like to learn more about these sites.
What does a land based education mean to you and your family? Fill out this FORM and let us know!
How is Land Based Healing and Learning being applied in the classroom?
Stories coming soon!