Resiliency in Disaster: The Relevance of Indigenous Land-based Practice
Keywords:
Natural disaster, Indigenous land-based education , Indigenous land , COVID-19, Indigenous-immigrant family , Resiliency, Resistance, Decolonizing AutoethnographyAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, as a Natural Disaster, has significantly affected the vulnerable portion of society, particularly Indigenous and visible minority immigrants in Canada. As a color settler immigrant family in Indigenous land in Treaty 6 territory, we explore Indigenous Land-based Education (ILBE) from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keeper’s land-based stories, traditional knowledge, resiliency, and practice. As a family, we have been learning and practicing ILBE to develop resiliency during natural disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper used land-based decolonizing autoethnography to understand health and wellness from an ILBE perspective. We discussed why ILBE matters for building resiliency, resistance, and self-determination within a family and community; how can it help others? We have seen how COVID-19 has severely impacted our mental and physical health. During the high climate change era, many pandemics are yet to come, and the ILBE can build resiliency for both humans and non-humans.
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