Weaving Together the Health and Wellbeing of Children with the Health and Wellbeing of the Land

Cree Elder, Mr. Joseph Masty* asked: ‘If the land is not healthy, then how can we be?’ Medical Health Officer with Vancouver Island Health and a member of Stz’uminus First Nation, Dr. Shannon Waters says: ‘We are the land, and the land is us.’ Indigenous worldviews include ethics of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility to the land and other beings inhabiting the land.

Inspired by these worldviews, in this session, you will be invited to engage with critical questions such as, How do early childhood educators create a culture of health and wellbeing that includes the land (as well as air, water) and other beings through our pedagogical practice? Can we generate kinship ties and fellowship with all our relations? With the creation of respectful, reciprocal relationships with the land will children grow & learn in a healthier way? These questions are aimed to open up a conversation where health and wellbeing become complex dynamic processes closely related to cultural values and the kind of choices we make in our daily practice.

*Mr. Joseph Masty is cited in Adelson, N. (2000). ‘Being alive well’: Health and politics of Cree well-being. University of Toronto Press

Suitable for child care providers and child care workforce.

Registration link: https://anc.ca.apm.activecommunities.com/ygv/activity/search/detail/14154?onlineSiteId=0&from_original_cui=true

DANIELLE ALPHONSE, VIU: BC Regional Innovation Chair for Aboriginal Early Childhood Development at Vancouver Island University since 2013. In this role she has contributed to faculty development in the area of Truth and Reconciliation, Aboriginal education and understandings about First Nations ways of knowing, traditions, protocols and spiritual practices. Danielle has consistently enlisted both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal (undergraduate and graduate) students to assist in her work related to innovation and research activities. Also, Danielle is passionate about Indigenous worldviews specific to spiritual knowing, relationships with the land and teaching students to be quality educators.

 SHEILA GRIEVE, VIU: Sheila is a Metis early childhood educator and is grateful to the Snuneymuxw people; she currently learns, lives and works on their unceded traditional territory. As a professor of early childhood education and care at Vancouver Island University she feels blessed to hear stories from the VIU Elders and students. Her passion is learning from the land and spending time with plants and children. Sheila believes that plants are a way to create connections to land and self.