OJI:SDA’ First Annual Virtual Spring Summit a Success
Educators learning from Indigenous Knowledge Carriers and Elders to transform the learning experience for all youth
On Saturday, May 13th a beautiful spring day in Ithaca, educators and honored guests gathered for the inaugural Virtual Spring Summit to learn how Land-based teaching from Indigenous Scholar Elders, Knowledge Carriers and education experts can transform the classroom space.
Board president, Jason Corwin provided an uplifting greeting and welcome, giving thanks to Founder & Executive Director, Tahila Mintz, for all of her work in building and growing OJI:SDA’ and Maribel Gonzalez, for coordinating the program. Jason expressed excitement about the amazing lineup of speakers and his gratitude to participants.
Please enjoy some highlights from this wonderful day:
Beverly Singer, an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies, and award-winning documentary filmmaker provided a powerful keynote address. The talk “Dust of our Ancestors Bones” presented an 18 minute film that weaves together a series of interviews punctuated with haunting imagery, music, and poetry that centers the Indigenous struggle to preserve the land; as well as an appeal to support and educate the new generations.
“Spirit Comes Before All Things” was Geraldine Standup’s passionate message through which she shared many deeply personal stories. Geraldine is a teacher, healer, Mohawk first language speaker, Elder in Residence at McGill University and Elder for TRC training of teachers. Geraldine asked us how we might consider the first steps to understanding our spirituality as well as understanding that as human beings we are multidimensional. Acknowledging at the same time that it is something that has been taken out of the modern world. Her inspiring final words were “to know who you are and value yourself, this is where your confidence begins, and love yourself.”
Yvonne Wakim Dennis, an educator, social worker, and award-winning author of non-fiction books, talked about ways of “Subverting Native Stereotypes”. Participants were invited to answer a series of questions in what she dubbed an “Indigenous American Jeopardy”. Answers centered Indigenous creators, historical figures, politics, science, geography, sport, and more. Discussion followed highlighting ways in which Indigenous peoples are represented and discussed in the classroom space, and how critical it is to choose culturally accurate historical texts, children’s books, language, imagery, and resources for use in schools.
The Washington Ethnic Studies Now (WAESN) Youth Advisory Board (YAB) began their talk by sharing a clip of Antonia Darder’s powerful Pedagogy of Love speech spoken at Ateneo de Manila University in 2019. Utilizing the pedagogy of love as a framework, participants were invited to discuss values educators might need to empower student leadership. Also examined was Paul Gorski’s basic Principles of equity literacy including how can we “fix injustice not the kids”.
Maribel Gonzalez is a project-based learning educator, children’s book and curriculum author, and workshop facilitator. Maribel’s talk, “Designing Land-based learning cycles” began by inviting participants into a sacred act, the act of taking time to reflect. Educators were asked to consider how core experiences might shape how they teach, design lessons, or relate to youth. How does settler colonialism show up in the school and what procedures are rooted in settler colonialism? Maribel asks us to “look to the land to teach us”, by providing examples of Land-based instruction, open-ended prompts that place the individual at the center so that they can respond by applying what’s meaningful to them.
The closing Plenary brought back Geraldine Standup to weave together the powerful teachings and stories from the various guest speakers. Going away from the day many expressed feeling inspired and that it felt nourishing to the spirit.
OJI:SDA’ Sustainable Indigenous Futures
Celebrating our vision of a world where Indigenous people are seen, heard, healthy and thriving - we are pleased to partner with our supporters to bring awareness to how Land-based teaching from Indigenous Scholar Elders, Knowledge Carriers and education experts can transform the classroom space.
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