Land Based Cultural Immersion Course

0.5 credits · Graduate

This graduate topics course is designed to facilitate engagement with an Indigenous language through a week long camp. Located in a culturally significant site, the course operates from the position that language provides a foundational framework for understanding the world. Students are not expected to be fluent in an Indigenous language but should have enough familiarity to work in a culturally immersive environment.Students will explore the connections between language and identity, worldview, orality, as well as recovery and revitalization. The week long camp will provide an immersive experience from which to think about the interplay between culture and language and how language can help us to understand the world better in a contemporary sense. Topics covered in the course include discussion of oral and writing systems, narrative and stories, performance, songs, chants, dances, conveyed through action (physical activities, movement, dancing, practices) that facilitate the development of positive relationships with the natural World( i.e. land, waters, trees, plants, animals, spiritual beings, ancestors etc.) This course is offered periodically.