History
History
Abstract
Indigenous pedagogy engages both narrative/storytelling learning and reflective/critical thinking practice. Indigenous Elders have described learning as “listening in three ways, with your two ears, and with your heart.” In my many years as an Indigenous storyteller and teacher, I have found whether you and your class meet out by a river or in a university classroom, that learners be invited, that each voice be valued, and respect practiced from the first greeting of the day, throughout the meeting, and at the closure of the class. The protocol for that invitation begins with a land acknowledgment, the name of the territory and the Indigenous peoples of that land.
In the 2020 Fall Semester, I taught an Indigenous Peoples Knowledge course at UFV. The curriculum included “the Good Medicine Songs.” This content included Stó:lō history, worldview, traditional ecological knowledge, and language learning (Halq’emeylem). It is interactive, holistic, and involved a myriad of ways of learning through podcasts from Stó:lō knowledge keepers, language teachers, and storytellers. The Good Medicine Songs brought an experience that opened a dialog for deeper appreciation of Indigenous worldview, protocols, and reconciliation.
Lolehawk Laura Buker, University of the Fraser Valley
Stó:lō Nation and Lake Babine Nation
I am a River woman and wear the salmon on my regalia as my lineage includes two wild salmon corridors in B.C.
Today, more than any other time in modern history, our sxwōxwiyám, the oldest oral indigenous stories, are needing to be told, heard, witnessed, and meaning made for all people. The oldest stories are still informing how to “live in respectful relationship” to everything on our lands.
My work includes Indigenous Storytelling as a teaching model, as a documentary style, and as a podcast platform. Indigenous language revitalization has been integrated into my work as our river language, Halq’emeylem, connects to all aspects of the river and informs our identity.
I have been an Indigenous Professor in Teacher Education, a Community Activist for our river language, for the wild salmon, for the Elders and children, a Fisherwoman, and continue to teach in the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge program at the University of the Fraser Valley.