Learning from land and water: exploring mazinaabikiniganan as indigenous epistemology

Abstract

Indigenous peoples have long called for education that supports self-determination, counters colonial practices, and values our cultural identity and pride as Indigenous peoples. In recent years, Land education has emerged as a form of decolonial praxis that necessarily privileges Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies and engages in critiques of settler-colonialism. Informed by this theoretical framework and using Indigenous storywork methodology, this study focused on the perspectives of six Anishinaabe Elders on mazinaabikiniganan (commonly known as pictographs) at Agawa Rock, now part of Lake Superior Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. Revealing ways of knowing and being that are intimately connected to Land and place, the pedagogical potential of mazinaabikiniganan as a form of Land education is discussed.

Keywords:

• Indigenous knowledge
• land education
• place
• culture
• indigenous pedagogy
• decolonization

Notes

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the community of Batchewana First Nation for their cooperation and support of this research. She also thanks Dr. Connie Russell and the reviewers whose suggestions and comments were immensely helpful.

Notes

1 Colson (2006) takes issue with use of the term rock art, stating, “the term “art” is problematic because it suggests that these images have primarily a decorative value and no intrinsic value or meaning of their own” (3). In keeping with this line of thought and to place these images within the fold of Indigenous knowledge, the Anishinaabe term “mazinaabikinigan” (sing.) and “mazinaabikiniganan” (pl.) is used throughout this paper.

2 Nanabozho is a trickster figure and cultural hero, featured prominently in Anishinaabe storytelling. There are various spellings of his name including: Nanabozho, Nanabush, and Nanabijou.

3 This map is intended to give the reader a sense of the research area, depicting the approximate boundaries of Batchewana First Nation territory, reserve communities, and location of Lake Superior Provincial Park within this territory. It is not an accurate or complete depiction of Batchewana First Nation’s traditional territory. Adapted from: Environment Canada. Lake Superior Water Shed [map]. 1cm = 25kms. Retrieved from http://infosuperior.com/blog/2013/10/17/downloadable-lake-superior-watershed-maps/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa Twance

Melissa Twance is Anishinaabe and a member of Pic Mobert First Nation. She is currently completing her PhD in the Joint Educational Studies program and a contract lecturer in the Faculty of Education and the Department of Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Her research interests include Indigenous ways of knowing, land-based pedagogies, and environmental justice.