First Peoples Outdoor Institute
Menu

First Peoples Outdoor Institute · Our Approach

Learn through practice.
Stay accountable to place.

We bring Indigenous land-based learning and ecological field practice into the same learning space, with respect for the people, knowledge and responsibilities involved.

The work is practical: listen, observe, make, test, reflect and return. What matters is how those skills change the way we work with a place and with one another.

Moss draping a branch in a forest in Belcarra, British Columbia.
Forest detail · Belcarra, British Columbia. Illustrative photography.

Indigenous learning foundations

Relationships shape
what and how we learn.

Learn in place

Land-based education is connected to particular lands, languages, communities and lived experience. Local context matters. Ali brings his own experience and Indigenous engagement practice, rather than a claim to speak for every Nation.

Learn by doing

Observation, listening, oral teaching where appropriately shared, demonstration and repeated practice all have a place. Learners make field records, practise a skill and explain the decisions behind their work.

Carry responsibility

A useful field skill includes care for its effects. We consider disturbance, relationships, respectful use of knowledge and what to leave unrecorded. Reflection leads to a practical change, not just a completed worksheet.

Etuaptmumk

Two-Eyed Seeing

Two-Eyed Seeing is a Mi’kmaw guiding principle associated with Elders Albert and Murdena Marshall. It invites learning with the strengths of distinct knowledge systems.

We keep those differences visible. Ecological methods and Indigenous knowledge have their own contexts, purposes and responsibilities. Learning together requires respect for each, including the authority of the people who share knowledge.

Read the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources account

From a field skill
to a better practice.

  1. Prepare. Understand the place, the purpose, the group and the conditions.
  2. Practise. Use a clear method, compare observations and make a record someone else can follow.
  3. Reflect and apply. Explain a decision, respond to feedback and choose what to do differently next time.

Specific cultural teachings are shared only by the people with the authority and agreement to do so. Learning with someone does not transfer their knowledge or permission to record, reproduce or teach it.

If you want to read further

Public work we
learn alongside.

Indigenous scholars and educators have written carefully about land, learning and responsibility. These are useful starting points, not a required academic reading list.

Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing

Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources; Mi’kmaw Elders Albert and Murdena Marshall

Learning with the strengths of distinct knowledge systems while respecting their integrity.

Land as pedagogy

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

A Nishnaabeg account of learning through land, community and lived practice.

Searching for synergy

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Experiential ecological learning and responsibility in the use of knowledge.

Outdoor learning in Canada

Acknowledgments
& useful resources

We acknowledge the work of educators and organizations who share practical resources for outdoor learning, thoughtful leadership and care for the land.

The Howl Experience

Community-based experiential learning, reflection and applying learning after a program.

These public resources offer useful context for our approach. They are not partner, endorsement or certification claims. Community-specific teachings remain with their knowledge holders.

Explore the field school

Detail photography: Minh / Unsplash; Madison Inouye and Roman Kirienko / Pexels. Images illustrate field observation, not Institute activities.