Coming Ashore: A Critical Kin-Connected Positioning to Land and Learning

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge systems, rooted in land and relationality, carry truths that nurture and sustain community identity, well-being, and sovereign futures. While Western educational structures have continuously attempted to erase and silence our histories, Indigenous families have consistently generated honorable spaces of reclamation and belonging. This ethnographic study asserts the power of self-determination and sovereignty in education. The purpose of this research is to examine how a Critical Kin-Connected positioning of land and learning serves as a strengths-based framework for developing identity, well-being, and belonging for Indigenous youth.

Utilizing an Indigenous-centered qualitative methodology, this study integrates a Critical Family Land-based Education History through archival research, genealogy, and family story circles. Analyzed through a critical kin-connected lens, the archival records demonstrate a powerful legacy of self-determination and sovereignty. The archival findings and family stories offer a unique perspective on how our ancestors strategically navigated institutional educational systems, namely the boarding schools. The balance of a formal education as a necessity with intentional preparation for life as a S’Klallam requires knowing, practicing, and passing down our Indigenous knowledge, stories, and culture.

The study shows how a Critical Land-based Education Family History (CLEFH) examines our relationship to land and learning, and who we determine or choose as our family and kin. It shows how educators can utilize this or similar family history projects to better understand themselves in relation to others, creating spaces where students are seen and feel they belong. The study can be used beyond education for those interested in social justice who want to critically examine how their family’s attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives shape their relationship to learning, which is relational.