The nationwide “Preserving Sacred Landscapes” is a transformative research project and a dynamic exploration of land and body reclamation among youth and elders throughout Turtle Island. A youth driven participatory action study employing Indigenous research methodologies of Storywork, Ceremony, Land Learning and Traditional Revolutionary Art employing Indigenous Research Methodologies was offered to communities of youth, leaders and elders in Canada. This Social Science and Humanities (SSHRC) Funded Research Project lead by Dr. Margaret Kress, Principal Investigator, University of New Brunswick, and supported by co-investigators Dr. David Perley, UNB; Dr. Laara Fitznor, UMANITOBA; Dr. Alex Wilson, USASK has had far reaching effects among the participants of the four projects that took place in Tobique First Nation, New Brunswick; Opaskwayak First Nation, Manitoba; Amisk Lake, (Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation) Saskatchewan/Flin Flon, (Many Faces High School), Manitoba, and Duck Lake, and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The context of this research was founded from directives of Cree, Denesuline, Métis, and Inuit elders, knowledge keepers and leaders from the research of Dr.
Margaret Kress: Sisters of S?s?pihk?yihtamowin – wise women of the Cree, Denesuline, Inuit and Métis: understandings of storywork, traditional knowledges and eco-justice among Indigenous women leaders (2014). These knowledge keepers believed a primary action required for youth to be well and balanced is the engagement of elders with youth, teaching specifically about the land and culture of place: this being on the land aids youth in learning from the languages, ceremonies,
traditions and livelihoods of their relations or their ancestors. This research examines points of reference for Indigenous youth as they learn about themselves through lands, waters, traditional knowledges and histories of their peoples from women elders and other knowledge keepers of their communities.

Speaker: Margaret Kress

Published in: Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2024)

• Date of Conference: 28-30 October, 2024
• DOI: 10.20533/IICE.2024.10.0004
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-73-0
• Conference Location: Dún Laoghaire, Ireland