Land acknowledgements in school garden programming

[Laura Thompson]

Hello Network, have you established a practice around land acknowledgements in your school garden programming? If so, can you share a bit about how it was developed and implemented?

Thank you!

[m...@esynyc.org]

I'm very interested in this, have attempted to implement but it hasn't stuck. I would like our schools to embrace not just the land acknowledgement, but the ongoing need for change. I really admire the Brooklyn Botanic Garden land acknowledgement. A key piece there is the commitment to change and to work with the Lenape community - not just post a statement. Finding and working with the native people from your area seems like a good first step.

Interested to see where this leads! Thank you for bringing it up.

- Mirem

[Megan Zeni]

Our school engages with a land acknowledgement every morning over the PA system as part of regular morning announcements. It was developed in collaboration with local elders and the school district. Twice a week, all students (K-5) in the school receive an hour of instructional time in the garden. We make an effort, particularly with the youngest learners, to support emerging relationships with the lands we learn with and on in relationship to the First Peoples Principles of Learning. There are many excellent picture books written by Indigenous authors which can help guide these discussions. I've posted recently on my Instagram account examples of student reflections. You can find me at @roomtoplay on most social media. I am a public school teacher in Canada, and we had our second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation last Friday. It really helps having systemic support (national, provincial, regional) for this work! 

[Redding Jackson]

Hi all,

I work with school gardens for an organization called Grow Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and am also very interested in this thread of conversation. Grow Pittsburgh has spent time this year writing a land and labor acknowledgment for our organization, which we finalized several weeks ago and published here on our website.

We plan on using this in workshops and at our production/educational farm sites in the city. We are still in discussion as to how it will relate to our work in classrooms. The way our school programming is primarily set up is that the classroom teachers are generally the garden leaders and caretakers and our Grow Pittsburgh garden educator support comes more often in the form of technical/curricular support. 

So far the main ideas have been to share the acknowledgment through our seasonal teacher workshops and our school gardens network newsletter so more teachers in the region become familiar with the acknowledgment. There is also brainstorming around spending some time this winter writing a lesson plan to share with teachers as a way to introduce their students to the idea if that isn't something they already do in their classrooms. If any of you have a similar lesson plan, we'd love to look it over if you'd be willing to share. I can also share out anything we come up with when we do.

Good luck with the good work and thank you for sharing,

Redding

--
READ BEFORE REPLYING:
You can reply to the whole Google Group, just the sender, or both. When replying to this message make sure to check your recipient address line to confirm you are responding to who you want to be responding to.
ALSO check your subject line to be sure that the subject line is about the topic and NOT "digest for...."
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "School Garden Support Organization Network" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to school-garden-ne...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/school-garden-network/1878fd27-2847-4caf-821f-e0fbe057c648n%40googlegroups.com.

--

growpittsburgh.org	Redding Jackson Pronouns: she/her Learning Garden Educator 412-362-4769 x216 6587 Hamilton Avenue #2W Pittsburgh, PA 15206
SUPPORT GARDENS • ENRICH LIVES • GROW COMMUNITIES  GIVE TODAY!