How This Professor Is Using Land-Based Knowledge To Fight Climate Change

When the Grand Rapids Dam was built in the 1960s, it wreaked havoc for First Nations people all along the Saskatchewan River system. As water flooded dry land, it impacted plant ecosystems, animal populations and migration patterns. It changed access to fresh and clean water for the First Nations people who call this land home. It was ultimately what drove Dr. Alex Wilson, who is from Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, into a career in land-based education. 

“The dams were an attempt to sever land-based knowledge and access to our traditional foods. So it’s impacted our health and it’s impacted our sense of who we are,” says Wilson, who uses she/they pronouns. Land-based education, they explain, centres Indigenous knowledge—as opposed to just taking European-based learning and moving it outdoors.

When Wilson was a child, their parents and grandparents instilled in them the importance of learning about different relationships to the land—including the plants and animals—they were growing up on. 

“My moosum was a trapper. So he would show us how to set a rabbit snare and clean and prepare [the]. And at a very young age, I became aware of some of the environmental impacts that were happening, not just in our area but also on a wider level,” says Wilson.

They have seen the impact of not only the dam but also floods, droughts, wildfires and the permafrost melting. They live with the commodification of the water, the land and even the people. 

“All of those things kind of led to a lifelong commitment to taking care of place—but also land—and then, as I got older, taking that responsibility to another level and passing it on to the next generation.” Today, as a university professor, Wilson has created a curriculum that helps students understand what is happening on their lands from an Indigenous worldview. 

Wilson holds a doctorate of education in Indigenous psychology from Harvard. In 2011, they created the Indigenous Land-Based Education master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan. But they not only designed the curriculum, they also made it inclusive by decolonizing it and “queering it up,” as they say. (Wilson identifies as Two-Spirit and queer.)

They are breaking down the patriarchy by offering education in a new way. A bachelor of education is a prerequisite for Wilson’s program, but the combination of on-the-land learning and online courses was designed for students who are unable to leave their communities during the academic school year due to work and/or family commitments. 

The program takes a hands-on approach. “We meet with farmers, trappers, hunters and [other] land-based-knowledge holders,” they say. The goal is to understand how climate change has impacted people, land and animals in specific regions. 

As part of the program, each student must create a project for their home community; the larger group also completes a project together. A recent graduating class worked with Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick to build a longhouse for its forest school for elementary school children.

“Our knowledge is valid to understanding our relationships with the earth,” says Wilson. “Part of that is linking back to our stories that give us some of the answers to how to solve all these complex problems of climate change.”

Read more: Four Hopeful Approaches To Tackling The Climate Crisis

More ways to fight the climate crisis

• Write your politicians
• Support a green charity
• Electrify your home heating
• Cut back on flying
• Decarbonize your hot water heating
• Switch to a credit union
• Cut back on meat and dairy
• Get rid of natural gas in your home
• Ditch your gas stove for an induction stove
• Garden with native plants
• Cut back on food waste
• Buy secondhand