Securing our Futures through Land and Water Education

Developing an Indigenous Language Curriculum in a Tribal Nation Early Learning Program

Abstract

This article depicts a process of developing an Indigenous language curriculum within a Tribal Nation Early Learning program, emphasizing the importance of developing and understanding pathways toward decolonization to secure Indigenous futurities. We share our story of curriculum development and how relationships with land, water, place, and ancestral teachings drove the efforts. The process demonstrates how commitments of language revitalization were deeply connected to upholding Indigenous lifeways through a land-and-water-based curriculum as an act of resurgence. Sharing examples from the curriculum, we describe how children’s language learning and identity as Indigenous peoples were fostered  through relationships with land and water. We also discuss challenges designing and implementing an Indigenous language curriculum within public early learning. This research advances work around resistance to settler futurities by narrowing in on ways we disrupted settler-serving policy initiatives that over-standardize children’s education through a land-and-water-based language curriculum.