Confluence Field School provides beginning-level online learning centered on Columbia River Indigenous experience through curated resources, conversations with Native speakers, and facilitated discussions. Introductions to traditional cultural and ecological knowledge helps expand participant perspectives and understanding of place-based relationships with the environment. This approach to learning, and the understandings that can come from it, provide foundation for relational restoration work moving forward vs. providing data to be directly applied to western science informed work. Confluence Field School supports building capacity for culturally informed, relational work as opposed to transactional.
Weekly themes and speakers include:
• Critical Orientations for Native Culture w/ Heather Gurko, Tlingit/Haida
• Columbia River Indigenous World View w/ Josiah Pinkham, Nez Perce
• Sovereignty: In Principle and Practice w/ Rachel Cushman (to be confirmed)
• Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Working from Relation w/ Samantha Chisholm (to be confirmed)
Sessions are two hours a week for four consecutive weeks.
Online readings are provided, optional, and don’t take more than 30 min.
Participants are strongly encouraged to attend a minimum of three sessions.
Confluence Field School participants have shared:
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It was amazing, and honestly, I did not know what to expect. Hearing the voices of a diverse groups of elders, then listening and participating in conversations is powerful.
- My world view has been expanded and although that is not a comfortable process, it is the price of learning.
- Hearing from so many individuals, especially different perceptions of cultural traditions, was really enlightening
For questions, please contact Courtney Yilk, Confluence Program Manager, courtney@confluenceproject.org or 971-219-2136