Land-based education is an educational approach that emphasizes learning through direct relationships with the natural environment, local landscapes, and the knowledge systems associated with them. While practiced in diverse forms worldwide, the term is most commonly used in Canada to describe Indigenous educational practices that connect learners with their traditional territories through experiential learning, culturally relevant teachings, language, and land stewardship. Land-based education is distinct from outdoor education and environmental education in that it views land not merely as a setting or subject of study but as an active source of knowledge and a foundation for cultural identity, community well-being, and reciprocal responsibilities. The approach has gained increasing recognition in schools, universities, and community programs as part of broader efforts to support Indigenous self-determination, cultural revitalization, and reconciliation.
Programs The programs centre land as the primary teacher, as Indigenous communities' knowledge systems are inseparable from their lands. These programs can have many goals, the main one being to transmit knowledge to future generations. Land-based education programs cannot be easily replicated elsewhere, as they are meant to be grounded in the cultural roots tied to a place and the community that has historically stewarded those lands. They can inspire other communities to develop their own land-based education programs or projects. That being said, there are many commonalities among land-based education pedagogies: 1. involve mentorship from community leaders and knowledge keepers, 2. encourage youth participation, 3. emphasize traditional languages, and, 4. use subsistence practices. Land-based education can be small or large-scale. In the words of Yellowknives Dene scholar, Glen Coulthard, examples of land-based education include but are not limited to: "'walking the land' in an effort to re-familiarize ourselves with the landscapes and places that give our histories, languages, and cultures shape and content; to revitalizing and engaging in land-based harvesting practices like hunting, fishing, and gathering, and/or cultural production activities like hide-tanning and carving, all of which also serve to assert our sovereign presence on our territories in ways that can be profoundly educational and empowering; to the re-occupation of sacred places for the purposes of relearning and practicing our ceremonial activities." Indigenous communities utilize land-based education initiatives as a tool to strengthen their peoples against assimilation, foster decolonization, and assert their rights to self-determination. Turtle Island offers one example of land-based education. .
Colonialism and indigenous peoples of North America Ongoing colonialism across North America has displaced Indigenous communities from their homelands. For example, in Canada, laws such as the Indian Act, the numbered treaties, and other institutional phenomena like the Indian Residential Schools or the Sixties Scoop dispossessed people from their lands, causing inter-generational trauma, grief, and cultural loss amongst Indigenous scholars explain that the land is Indigenous peoples' primary source of knowledge and strength. By removingpeople from their lands, them from their lands, governments sever lifelines to the land, prevent people from passing their ways of knowing to the next generation, and facilitate the erasure of Indigeneity in Canada. Indigenous communities, family units, elders, and youth have all suffered directly or indirectly at the hands of the state because, as explained by many Indigenous scholars, "family and community kinship networks that provided emotional, spiritual and physical support have been brutally and systematically dismantled." Yet, Indigenous peoples have resisted Canada's ongoing assimilation attempts and shown remarkable resilience. They actively resist oppressive settler forces by continuing to speak their languages, stewarding their lands, and physically occupying their territories. Land-based education, grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, is one of the ways Indigenous communities across North America continue to assert their identity and their right to self-determination and strengthen their people. Cherokee scholar Jeff Corntassel explained that the perpetuation of Indigenous cultures has always existed; however, cultural resurgence through land-based education programs or everyday activities within family units or communities will strengthen the transfer of knowledge to future generations.
Benefits of land-based education
Cultural resurgence Land-based education has many direct and indirect benefits for Indigenous communities. These programs generally aim to increase the number of community members that take part in traditional land-based practices and improve the quality of the skills practiced. By reviving cultural practices and increasing the number of knowledge holders, land-based education helps reinforce cultural identity and reinvigorate communities' cultures. The deep spiritual connections with the land, which were either severed by forcefully being removed from their lands or not transmitted through family ties because of institutional motivations and violence (e.g. residential schools), are helped to be mended by land-based educational programs. Being back on their lands and being guided by community knowledge keepers, Indigenous individuals can begin to strengthen and/or re-establish the reciprocal kinship relationships many Indigenous peoples have with their lands and all beings living on them. In addition, as mentioned by Cherokee scholar Jeff Corntassel, this cultural resurgence helps individuals and communities re-envision their lives beyond what the state has imposed on them. Increasing the number of fluent speakers and the number of people stewarding their lands through land-based practices strengthens their knowledge systems. They also assert their right to self-determination and effectively resist colonial assimilative pressures. These programs help Indigenous resurgence because, as explained by Indigenous scholars Glen Coulthard and Taiaiake Alfred, communities "turn away" from colonial assimilation efforts by revitalizing traditional community practices and disassociating from colonial values.
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