Land As Our Teacher (LAOT)
LAOT was a three-day land-based retreat that took place on 12 acres of property lent to the NETWORK by Jen Gobby, an environmental land activist affiliated with Concordia University. A total of 23 attendees were present at the event, including youth advisors, NETWORK staff, caterers, Elders, mental health support workers, workshop facilitators, and a photographer. Participants came from various ethnic backgrounds, including Anishinaabe, Inuit, Kanien’kehá:ka, mixed Black-Indigenous, and non-Indigenous.
Inspired by Concordia University’s Land as our Teacher research project, the NETWORK organized a land-based retreat to respond to the need for cultural and land-based activities expressed by the NETWORK’s Indigenous youth advisors in the Greater Montreal Area. Attendees were able to have access to the land, build connections with one another, and engage in land-based cultural activities.
Participants held focus groups to inform the STRATEGY for Safety, Well-Being and Belonging, a multi-year research project based on Indigenous methodologies, focusing on a relational approach, story-telling, connection to the land and implementation of healing practices. The goal of the STRATEGY is to increase the safety, well-being and belonging of Indigenous youth in and around Tiohtià:ke. Further discussion sessions for this research will be held in the future.
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