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Land, Language and Listening: The Transformations That Can Flow from Acknowledging Indigenous Land
Author(s) -
BLENKINSOP SEAN,
FETTES MARK
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.12470
Subject(s) - indigenous , active listening , acknowledgement , situated , sociology , experiential learning , politics , environmental ethics , work (physics) , epistemology , pedagogy , social science , political science , law , ecology , mechanical engineering , philosophy , computer security , communication , artificial intelligence , computer science , biology , engineering
We begin this paper by considering a practice that is not normally thought of as ‘environmental education’. That is, the land acknowledgement. In recent years, it has become standard for schools and other public institutions in British Columbia (BC) to acknowledge that they are situated on Indigenous land, especially when hosting events and presentations. And yet, as the paper continues, we are challenged to consider the greater implications these acknowledgements might bear for educators beyond simply a speaking of the words. In order to do this work, we focus on three strands—land, language and listening—which we suggest arise directly from careful consideration of the contents and goals of these acknowledgements. Drawing from Indigenous, philosophical, experiential and political sources, we explore the strands and posit that they may become important educational well‐springs for transforming human and more‐than‐human relationships. We end this paper with a short discussion of some work currently under way in BC.