Overview

In many Indigenous worldviews, the land is not a passive resource or backdrop, but an active teacher, relative, and archive of knowledge. This module challenges students to rethink their relationship to place—not as something to use, but as a collaborative force. Students will explore how Indigenous communities learn directly from land, water, and sky through observation, respect, and relational accountability.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Articulate the concept of “land as teacher” in at least one Indigenous framework.

2. Identify ways in which place-based knowledge informs design, ethics, and decision-making.

3. Practice techniques for observing, interpreting, and responding to land in project contexts.

4. Critically reflect on how their own positionality shapes their engagement with land and place.

Key Terms

• Place-based Knowledge
• Kincentric Ecology
• Responsibility to Land
• Non-Human Pedagogy
• Situated Knowing

Background Reading

Note: For every module, there is a more expansive list of resources available in the glossary. The readings provided in the module are good starting places for students/educators.

Cajete, G., Nelson, M. K., & Shilling, D. (2018). Native science and sustaining Indigenous communities. Traditional ecological knowledge: Learning from Indigenous practices for environmental sustainability, 15-26.

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed editions. (Learning the Grammar of Animacy)

Introduction to Land Based Learning

Activities: Listening to the Land

Time: 60-75 min

Format: Outdoor or virtual field exercise, reflection

1. Place-Based Observation (20-25 min):

• Students are guided to find a place outside and engage in immersive, place-based observation of the area.
• Students go outside (campus, nearby greenspace, or wherever accessible).
• They choose one place to sit quietly for 10–15 minutes and observe: sounds, smells, textures, movement, and, if available, culture or history.
  • Potential prompts: “What is this place teaching me?” “What does it remember?” “How has it changed, and why?
• Potential Extension: Students repeat this multiple times throughout a term and keep an observation journal.

2. Group Debrief (20 min):

• Use the following discussion questions to frame conversation.
  • What did you notice that you normally would not have?
  • What would it mean to treat this place as a teacher rather than a resource?
  • What stories might this land hold? Who might know them?

3. Reflection (20-25 min):

• Ask students to respond to the following prompt in writing or a creative medium of their choosing:
  • Describe a time when a landscape taught you something. How might your project change if you treated the site or region as a collaborator or elder rather than a location?

Faculty Notes/Implementation Tips

• If students cannot go outside, use a video, map, or image of a project site and ask them to do a “virtual sit” and imaginative observation.
• This module pairs well with field methods, projects involving land or natural systems, and design studios.
• Make room for discomfort—many students have been taught to see land as neutral or extractable. This is a gentle shift. Allow for silliness, dismissiveness and invite the students to interrogate these responses..

Optional Extension

Assign students to research Indigenous place names near their project site. What do those names reveal about ecological knowledge, history, or relationships to land?

Assessment Options

Informal: Group debrief and discussion.

Formal: Submitted reflection response, Indigenous place names research.