{"id":6627,"date":"2020-08-02T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=6627"},"modified":"2020-08-04T09:51:18","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T13:51:18","slug":"touch-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/touch-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Touch The Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Odette Auger<\/p>\n

A local youth attended an\u00a0IndigenEYEZ\u00a0<\/a>training series: the goals are 5 fold: to strengthen the way that we walk in the world through the five modules \u2013 connecting to myself, to others, to community, to our cultural strengths, and to the land.<\/p>\n

I<\/a>\u00a0work for IndigenEYEZ, and attended Touch The Earth facilitator training\u2026 excitingly, my daughter Sofia was invited by the director as a youth trainee.<\/p>\n

We travelled to the Okanagan, this session of the training was held at Headwaters Lake Camp.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When I arrived at the camp, I visited with director\u00a0Kelly Terbasket<\/a>\u2013 in a cozy cabin on Headwaters Lake.<\/p>\n

W\u00e1y [hello]<\/p>\n

Kelly Terbasket. HI everyone, I\u2019m Kelly Terbasket. I\u2019m the director of IndigenEYEZ, I\u2019m one of the co-founders, and I\u2019m also one of the lead facilitators. IndigenEYEZ is about renewing relationships. Renewing our relationships with each other, and with the land.\u00a0Snqsilxw<\/strong>\u00a0means \u2018sharing one skin\u2019. We share a membrane with each other, including all our relations. And our mission is to strengthen those- our connection and our relationships. With the land, with the water, in order to become stronger stewards of the land. And remember our responsibilities to the whole. IndigenEYEZ is medicine for relationships. And that includes our relationship with the land, and with our water. That we remember, and revitalize our traditional teachings and values and principals\u2026 that remind us that we do \u2018share one skin\u2019 with all our relations.\u00a0Snqsilx<\/strong>w\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>means we are interconnected and interdependant on one another, for our existence and our sustenance.\u00a0Way\u0313 p cy\u0295ap<\/strong>\u00a0my understanding of that translates to focusing on the triangle behind us, that of our ancestors, and bringing forth that traditional wisdom and knowledge that we need to forge healthy, sustainable pathways moving forward. Not only for ourselves, but for our future generations- the people to be. And we are a bridge between those triangles. Full of possibilities and full of choices to make together. I love that, I love that expression, in that it implies we are not alone. And the importance of our reconnection with each other, is to help us have hope, help us feel capacity, in that we are not stuck where we are at. That we have lots of opportunities for how we can move forward together. A big part of the work that we do is about inspiring momentum, building courage, and fostering hope. That we can make changes that we want to make for everyone.<\/p>\n

The main intention of Touch the Earth land-based leadership training is to build capacity in our communities. For how to run youth empowerment, land based camps. We have been running our own camps with IndigenEYEZ for the last 7 years.<\/p>\n

The intention of Touch the Earth land-based leadership training is to support front line workers in bringing youth out on the land in a way that is fun and engaging, and nurturing. We talk a lot about returning children to the centre of the community, and acknowledge it takes a community to raise a child. And I invite us to think of that community as also being our relations on the land. Our four legged, and two legged, and the plants, and medicines\u2026 and simply being on the land is a nurturing experience, on its own. A lot of times the land-based programs that I\u2019ve witnessed have a focus more on\u00a0teaching\u00a0<\/em>rather than on building and strengthening the relationship\u00a0 we have with our relatives. And so, we include all aspects of revitalizing and the resurgence of our land based knowledge and wisdom. But, where we start is around simply allowing ourselves to sit in silence, and notice and be curious,\u00a0 using more of our senses. Opening up our minds,\u00a0 our bodies and our spirits to how the land can help heal us and strengthen us.<\/p>\n

The IndigenEYEZ Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that a healthy society requires intergenerational collaboration. We know that diversity is a resource. We also know that, as Indigenous peoples, our capacity for healthy relationships is in recovery. We encourage communities to explore their own cultures and to think deeply about what traditional values mean in the contemporary world. Like Coyote and Raven, Indigenous people have been transforming ourselves for thousands of years. A new day is dawning. The time to stand united in our strength is now.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Connecting With The Land\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leadership Essentials offers tools to heal the wounds of colonization by restoring the spirit of community. This program utilizes tools to restore relationships\u2014with self, with others, with culture \u2014and with the land. The work at IndigenEYEZ bases leadership practice on that vital source of insight: the land itself. Our land-based education is inspired by the Rediscovery Camps that began on Haida Gwaii in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

I asked one of the facilitators, Skayu Louis, to tell me more.<\/p>\n

W\u00e1y [hello] \u2026iskwist, [I am] Skayu, I\u2019m from the Lower Similkameen Valley Indian band I\u2019m Sylix, Similkameen and German. And I\u2019ve been working with Indigenize for about five years, bringing the Rediscovery model into our Indigenous programming. And the rediscovery model really uses a lot of sensory activities. Focusing on the land from a macro and micro sense,\u00a0 for many different lenses, uh, to promote deeper connection, deeper understanding through a personal introspection and also in conversation with other folks who are joining, camp program activities. And it\u2019s been really powerful to watch the rediscovery model being engaged with more arts based creative sort of play-making and creative expression. And for our indigenous camps, we try and ground our Rediscovery programs into a local Indigenous context. So when we\u2019re running our camps in the Sylix territory, we bring in our Sylix, language and culture and ceremony and into conversation with some of the Rediscovery models that have been developed for the last 20 years or so.<\/p>\n

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

What I love most about the work being done at IndigenEYEZ\u2026what makes it personally meaningful to me is the centering of Indigenous knowledge.<\/p>\n

IndigenEYEZ describes this focus:\u00a0 The natural world has been a source of personal wisdom for Indigenous people for time immemorial. Our Elders and Knowledge Keepers continually remind us that we must focus on upholding our responsibilities to the land and not just solely on our rights to it..<\/p>\n

We all need more of this in our lives: Connection to land. Creative self-expression. Traditional cultural teachings. It is these three \u2013 held within a nurturing, intergenerational container \u2013 that is a force for healing and community building. Indigenous knowledge is critical to transforming our culture from a consumer-material, human-centred identity to one that is governed by natural laws of respect, responsibility, and reciprocity with the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TIME ON THE LAND\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

And where it really becomes validating to me, confirming what I know and have experienced:<\/p>\n

The concept of time spent on the Land.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one example of Indigenous knowledge that must be reclaimed is the settler-colonial notions of linear time. These constructs of linear time were actualized through the Indian Act and Canadian identity narratives, and they de-legitimize Indigenous knowledge, history, and presence. Together we can look at de-colonial practices such as traditional languages and art, along with pre-colonial economic systems. We will combine those traditional learnings with an embodied knowledge of Indigenous practices. Centering ourselves in this lived way of being can rupture colonial geographies. By looking further into the politics of what are considered valid ways of being and knowing, we disrupted these narratives so that Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can move towards anti-colonial consciousness together.<\/p>\n

\u2026So we\u2019re doing an introduction to the land, to this land in particular. Taking time to walk out, finding a spot to sit and connect\u2026.there\u2019s so much KInnikinnick here, it\u2019s so different from where we live on Cortes. Here in the Similkameen it\u2019s drier, lots of labrador tea, a lot of alpine wildflowers\u2026 the lupins are smaller, there\u2019s soapberries. The pine smells really good.. I guess as I walk up this hill, I guess I\u2019m comparing and contrasting to the west coast, all the underbrush is lower, drier. When we first got here we did a protocol as visitors to this territory\u2026 and then I start to notice the other contrasts.. Instead of contrasting this territory to the territory of the Klahoose people where I lived, I start to see the contrasts right here, the hills appear so dry, a lot of dead pine\u00a0 mixed with rebirth and new pines, small trees. I look at a spiky pine, and I see the brown hairlike lichen, blowing in the breeze.. Softness underneath the hard\u2026 even this dry stick it seems so hard, but when you touch it, it\u2019s soft,<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t done a road trip in a long time, the winding, washboard dirt road on the way in\u2026 kind of left me feeling a little carsick when I arrived\u2026 Maybe walking around will help feel a little better.<\/p>\n

Then on the walk down, I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t notice it coming up, but there\u2019s wild strawberries everywhere. Criss crossing the path, all throughout the undergrowth. And I know, I know from when I was young, that wild strawberry\u00a0 leaf was excellent medicine- for anything with digestion. So I start chewing it. And there\u2019s more, I pick up the leaves, it\u2019s good medicine.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting to me, I didn\u2019t see it until I had done my connecting with the land. Almost like blinders, I didn\u2019t see what I needed. But now I see it everywhere. \u201c<\/p>\n

ON \u201cNATIVISM\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a recent article by IndigenEYEZ co founder\u00a0Kim Haxton<\/a>, she wrote: On Nativism<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, I had a conversation around the usage of the term \u201cNative\u201d. I found myself in an uncomfortable place discussing the semantics of this word. On the one hand my friend claimed that she is \u201cNative\u201d to Canada due to being born on these lands, although, culturally she is not.<\/em><\/p>\n

I began to ask if in pre-colonial times we referred to ourselves as \u201cNatives\u201d \u2013 of course, we did not. The word play is mind boggling to me. A few weeks later, I was at a garden center and I saw my answer. There are native plants that are from this land, evolved over millennia to exist in an area that is simple to understand. There are introduced species, which I am grateful for the variety, as I look at them in my evening walks around the city. And finally there are invasive species.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Skayu Louie describes his facilitation role, \u201cSo, that\u2019s been, some of my role is really focusing on some of the land based activities, and trying to develop our own process and really, engaging senses of sound, touch and sight and all of our senses and how we engage with the land. And we like to use sensory exclusion activities to really tune in and some of the senses that we often neglect in our day to day lives. And so that\u2019s what we try and bring into our camp process. Then allow that experience to unfold and then we have conversations about them and we talk about what we\u2019re witnessing on the land and how the land is changing, and also how we can learn from the land. So there are different different strategies to really, to find the land as a teacher. So that\u2019s a little bit about the Rediscovery model and how we\u2019re bringing that into our indigenous programs within a local, very localized indigenous context. Place-based context. W\u00e1y<\/p>\n

I sat with my daughter, Sofia and asked her about last summer\u2019s IndigenEYEZ youth camp and this facilitator training. \u201cOkay. When you tell me about what last summer\u2019s camp was and where that comes through the premise of it, and then compare it to this one, with the adults doing land based facilitator training. This one is for the people who will run those types of camps last summer, you were at one of the youth camps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofia responded, \u201c I think the major difference was last year, we did workshops and stuff that we were learning, but I was more focused on like making friends and the social aspect of it. And now I know that I\u2019m here to learn how to do that. So there\u2019s not really any point in focusing on the other part, because there\u2019s not any kids here. It\u2019s all about the learning part.\u201d<\/p>\n

I continued asking Sofia for her insights, it\u2019s interesting to me to watch her process and discuss fluidly. \u201cSo, last summer at Hedley indigenous youth camp, you were experiencing it\u2026now you\u2019re experiencing it with teachers, social workers, youth workers; and listening to them process how they\u2019re learning to do these activities with youth. Does that feel weird sometimes? Or is it just an extra layer of learning? What is it like for you? \u201c<\/p>\n

Sofia: \u201cWell, it\u2019s interesting. I didn\u2019t know that before, that the adults did that, like they did it themselves and talked about it and then did it with us. I thought they just did it to like teach us a little bit, but also to entertain us. So I didn\u2019t know, they were doing it and then debriefing it and like, thinking about all the little games and stuff. Pretty interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odette: \u201cThey call that experiential. They learn by doing it themselves so they can more deeply understand the process. So you mentioned the little games;\u00a0 can you just list off some of the activities that we\u2019ve been doing?<\/p>\n

Sofia: \u201cWell, we do listening games, like the deer game where you have to like be blindfolded and then everyone is trying to sneak up on you and you point them out, by hearing. So you are learning how to listen. Learn, listen to the land around you and how it moves and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odette: \u201cWhat was your favorite activity yesterday? I really liked going on the walk and able to see the different land and the different plants. Like there was, I went to this hill and there was a bunch of grass and it was sort of clear-ish, but then there was a bunch of little strawberry plants. That was really nice. Cause where I live there, isn\u2019t little wild, strawberry plants, just like pine needles and ferns along the ground. So we were doing my connection with the, as a metaphor. And there was a list of maybe 10 different things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odette: \u201cDo you remember what the list was?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofia: \u201cWell, one of them was something free, but we couldn\u2019t get a picture of it. So we just did a plant that had fuzz on it. Another one was like birth and rebirth and for that one, I think we did a little stump, \u2018cause it was dead stump. Then I had plants growing over and some of the plants were dead, but more was growing from the dead ones. Kinnikinnick.\u00a0 And then another picture was of a tree that had been cut and it was like open, but it was still surviving. So that one was resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of many land-based activities, one that focused on Indigenous ways of knowing and relating with the natural world is \u2018Greet-a-tree\u2019. People joined in pairs; one person wears a blindfold, and the other takes them on a walk to \u201cfind\u201d and \u201cmeet\u201d a tree. Later in the activity, they get to find the tree again without the blindfold on. Participants experience the learning that there are diverse ways in which we connect, not only with the natural world, but also with each other\u2026.\u201cI\u2019ll take your hand. Okay. Go slow. Some little roots here. Okay. There\u2019s Kinnikinnick, scratch your ankles. Being in a log across, across the path. Get some trees on your right now. We\u2019re going uphill. It\u2019s the path\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Odette: \u201cSo the reflection for that exercise\u2026what did you notice about that, and what was in common with the other groups doing it, the other partners. And the second question was, is there anything you could incorporate into relationships?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofia:\u00a0 \u201cWell, you have to have lots of trust because you\u2019re like giving up, being able to, you know, fend for yourself and watch out for things. You have to totally believe that they\u2019ll tell you when there is something and warn you about it and tell you when there\u2019s a log, let you have time to step over it and let you go slowly, not just like pull you over logs and stuff into the bush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odette: \u201cIt\u2019s the trust that was the biggest thing that we noticed everyone had in common. But what was the interesting thing about when we took our masks off and we just sort of made a beeline pretty much like upward, right? Towards where, the general location, where a tree was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofia: \u201cWell, when you go in one direction, you sorta know how long you\u2019ve been gone. So, you know, vaguely how far you\u2019ll have to go. And like, if there was a big Hill, you\u2019re not going to go the way that there isn\u2019t a big Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odette: \u201cWell, for me, it was more like trusting your own self too. Like there\u2019s the trust of your partner to lead you and describe and empathize for where the hazards might be and to guide you nicely. But it was also trusting yourself when that blindfold came off\u2026Just going with my instinct, like I know which direction is, is even though there\u2019s four different ways to get up this hill, just sort of following your intuition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofia: \u201cYeah. Cause when you first start looking sort of guessing,\u00a0 and like, if there\u2019s one that seems like it could be, you\u2019re like, Oh, I think it was that one. Then you\u2019ll go close and you\u2019ll figure out it\u2019s not. And then you\u2019ll sort of look around and be like, okay, where is my tree? And then when you\u2019ll see it, you\u2019ll be like, Oh yeah, of course. It\u2019s this one. I know this tree. That\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

How these intentions, goals and themes impact youth continued to be reinforced through conversations with other participants and staff. \u201cHi, I\u2019m Dana Setter. I\u2019m from the Whispering Pines, Clinton Indian band part of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation. And I wanted to come over and honor Sofia and speak to her about the strength that it took for her to come into the circle with adult learners, grateful for voice and hearing her speak and watching her move in comfort from discomfort, through to more comfort. And to learn from Sophia- from you, from what you were doing, how you were moving in, how you were being. So I\u2019m very grateful for you and your mama for bringing you.\u00a0 All my relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A colleague of mine, Annie Phillips, shared her perspectives of Sofia as a youth facilitator trainee and youth participant process.\u00a0 \u201cI am a mixed heritage person. I\u2019m Cree on my mother\u2019s side and from the Montreal Lake Cree nation and Scottish on my father\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

I am an administrator with IndigenEYEZ and also a facilitator in training. So, I watch the youth come in, they come and they register and I see, um, how they\u2019re shy and quiet and may not know what to do with themselves at the beginning. And this beautiful process unfolds, um, through seven days of being on the land with them in Sophia blossomed, uh, from the beginning of camp at, I remember very distinctly when we were doing our closing ceremony and Sophia had said, I don\u2019t want to go, I don\u2019t want to go home.<\/p>\n

And it was just so wonderful to hear her say that because like watching blossom, becoming more animated, more playful, more interactive, she was also one of the three youth leaders. So at last year\u2019s camp, o just to see, witness Sophia step into that, what do I need to do in this role? And she jumped in, so seeing that part, like this amazing transformation happened over the seven days\u2026And then being here today,, and having a nice time being with Sophia, talking about leadership and seeing Sophia\u2019s strengths, like she is just blossoming. I\u2019m seeing Sophia speak more, share more; share more of yourself with us. And I honestly feel so honored to witness this, you know, our youth really stepping forward because it can be scary just to put your voice out there and to take that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask Director and co-founder Kelly Terbasket what is the Importance of this type of programming?<\/p>\n

Kelly shares, \u201cAnother big part of our focus is on igniting our imagination. And this is something that\u2019s really unique in our indigenous methodologies from other programs out there is that we\u2019re combining land-based methodologies from rediscovery and from outward bound. And, and from our cultural teachings, we\u2019re fusing or mixing that with our creative empowerment methodologies, which ignites the imagination, strengthens our innovation as well as it helps us build courage by stepping outside of our comfort zone. Doing things in a new way, it\u2019s disrupting our patterns, the status quo- the way that we\u2019ve become accustomed to interacting with each other and interacting with the land. And so the first step is just that that disruption needs to be in a way that\u2019s inviting and not overwhelming.<\/p>\n

I would say the most common feedback we get consistently from participants who go through our touch the earth program is how relaxed and calm they feel, and how connected they feel to others. It\u2019s amazing how quickly we can strengthen, build trust in ourselves when we use these methodologies. And so people come there thinking like, okay, I\u2019m going to learn. I\u2019m going to get a curriculum and I\u2019m going to learn how to run a lab based program. And they leave with much more than that. They leave with realizing that it\u2019s not only about what you do, it\u2019s about how you do it. So, therefore it\u2019s about who you are- as you are facilitating the workshop or\u00a0 your land based program or your youth empowerment program. It\u2019s not only about what you do. And so that is a big emphasis of our methodologies and the focus of our workshops is about helping participants to reconnect to themselves.<\/p>\n

And in this past fast paced world, many of our frontline workers are stressed out and overwhelmed. And so it is definitely one of the biggest, feedback that we get is around like how they didn\u2019t realize how stressed they were until they weren\u2019t stressed. And so when we talk about co-regulation and about\u00a0 fostering like attachment with healthy attachments with each other, as we share one skin, as we say in our culture and tradition,\u00a0snqsilxw<\/strong>\u00a0we share one skin. So it\u2019s not only about giving you this and children,\u00a0 self regulation skills. It\u2019s about giving them co-regulation skills on how do we allow ourselves to be co regulated with the land and with each other. So that is when we do our closing circle and we share our feedback. That is definitely a common theme around the whole circle is that they feel rejuvenated, joyful, and peaceful, happy. And those are things that we don\u2019t necessarily put on our poster because those don\u2019t sell. It\u2019s hard to get PD [professional development] funds for that, but it is definitely that self care and that self nurturing is a big part of the outcomes of our Touch the Earth workshop.\u00a0Liml\u0259mt.<\/strong>\u00a0[thank you]<\/p>\n

We are in unprecedented times. The polarities of what we are seeing on an environmental, social, and geopolitical level are overwhelming. Connecting to the Earth, ourselves, and each other is paramount to making the shifts for change. We work on communication and self-awareness, deepening our intuitive senses, and connecting to the collective wisdom that comes from the right relationship with the Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Odette Auger A local youth attended an\u00a0IndigenEYEZ\u00a0training series: the goals are 5 fold: to strengthen the way that we walk in the world through the five modules \u2013 connecting to myself, to others, to community, to our cultural strengths, and to the land. I\u00a0work for IndigenEYEZ, and attended Touch The Earth facilitator training\u2026 excitingly,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[663,662],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6627"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=6627"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=6627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}