Land Affirmation: Moving Naturally Toward Reconciliation

Abstract

Land acknowledgment is an important educational practice of recognizing unceded Indigenous territory. For Physical and Health Educators this practice need be not only oral and discursive but also active and interactive. Land acknowledgment can be a physical affirmation of Indigenous ways of knowing and being. The purpose of this essay is to describe how a practice-based, land-affirming PHE curriculum may contribute to moving naturally toward reconciliation. We propose a curricular approach emphasizing breathing, earthing and naturing practices of land attunement. Such practices are reflective of Indigenous conceptions of animacy and ways of being in kinship with the land.       

Keywords: movement; curriculum; Indigenous; land; reconciliation.