At Camosun College, the Eye? Sq’lewen Centre for Indigenous Education & Community Connections believes fully in the value of wholistic education. Students are not just there to take classes and complete assignments; a good education includes strengthening and upholding one’s own mind, heart, body and spirit. Most of the time, the Eye? Sq’lewen Centre focusses on students at Camosun and the local communities we serve. Once every few years, however, we turn our focus to the Indigenous education world at large, and open our doors to other educators. This is the spirit of the upcoming S’TENISTOLW Adult Indigenous Education Conference, which will be held on Lkwungen and WSÁNEC territories, in Victoria, BC, from August 23-25, 2017.
S’TENISTOLW is a SENCOTEN term referencing the concept of ‘moving forward’. This conference will focus on both the “doing” and “being” of Indigenous education. “Doing” involves teaching methods and the day-to-day practices of Indigenous educators in classrooms. The themes around “doing” for this conference are Land and Community-Based Experiential Learning, as well as Supporting Learner Engagement. “Being” involves relationships and connections between educators, communities, students, cultures and lands. The conference themes for “being” are Practicing Indigenization and Strengthening Alliances.
Adult Indigenous educators, allied educators, scholars, students, Elders and other knowledge keepers from across Turtle Island and beyond are invited to join us. Together we will spend one day at the Songhees Wellness Centre for the cultural pre-conference, in partnership with the local Songhees Nation. Activities will include a community tour, canoeing, introduction to the language, plant identification and a sweatlodge ceremony. We will complete day one with a welcome dinner with Keynote Dr. Gregory Cajete, a Tewa educator and author.
Conference sessions will begin on the second day at the Lansdowne campus of Camosun
College. In addition to Dr. Gregory Cajete, we are excited to have Indigenous relations from afar join us as keynote speakers. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, a Maori educator and author, and her husband Graham Hingangaroa Smith, also a Maori educator and Indigenous education advocate will travel from New Zealand to speak.
Get to know the breathtakingly beautiful lands of the Lkwungen and WSÁNEC peoples. Make new connections with Indigenous educators, scholars, students and Elders from across the world. Join us in an experience designed to enrich Indigenous adult educators, and uphold Indigenous education as a wholistic practice at S’TENISTOLW 2017.
Early bird registration for conference attendees is open until February 28, 2017. Regular registration is open until June 30, 2017. We also invite people and organizations to submit proposals for workshops and panel discussion that fit into our themes.
Proposals are due on January 31, 2017 at 5pm PST.
Please visit www.camosun.ca/stenistolw for registration, proposal submission, and more information on the conference.
