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!
Alice Tsoodle
Victoria Martine
My name is Victoria (Viktoryia) Martine. I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I am half Navajo and half Pueblo: Laguna, Zuni, and Santa Domino. I’ve been a student at NACA since I was in the 6th grade and graduated in 2018. I have an Associate’s Degree in Integrated Studies of Applied Science from Central of New Mexico Community College (CNM). I am currently attending UNM to finish my Bachelors in Landscape Architecture with a Minor in Sustainability. I love the outdoors, playing soccer, cooking, crocheting and doing art. I have three siblings who all graduated or will graduate in 2024. I have a dog whose name is Meelo. He is a Chiweenie who has a ton of energy but loves snuggling next to you.
I decided to come back to NACA in 2020 where I helped start the NACA Elementary Garden and started in OST leading the Garden Warriors and Art Club online. I then left for a Landscape architecture internship called MRWM Pland Collaborative. I then found out that it wasn’t for me and thought about a time when I was actually happy to work without being at a desk all day long. I’m not saying I didn’t love the work because I still do think like a landscape architect and I am going to have my bachelors in Landscape Architecture in December 2023, however, I am a person who needs to move around and still be creative. I really love working with all the students and combining land based healing and learning in the classrooms. I wish I had this opportunity when I was at NACA. I'm very grateful to be part of a new era here at NACA and can’t wait to see where this new path takes me.
Maya Kwon