What is it about?
By working with Inuit Elders and thinking with Nunangat (land, water, ice) in early childhood practice in an Arctic Community, we were able to live Inuit knowledge, speak and write using technical terms in Inuktitut and build multi-dimenasional relationships with and between parents, children, educators, hunters, Elders and Nunangat.
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Why is it important?
This is important because thinking with Nunangat positioned us to work from Inuit perspectives in an early childhood program. The Elder's position as a leader dedicated to the project, enabled the Elder to determine priorities, founded in season specific land connected knowledge. The Elder suggested we take the children fox trapping and in the process children spent time outside, learned how to trap and prepare fox and to share stories about fox trapping old and new all in Inuktut.
Perspectives
This publication features a series of events with foxes that took place in the fall of 2015. The fox events included trapping, skinning, butchering, tanning, and eating the fox under the guidance of an Elder dedicated to the project. The article provides a way to see the extent to which, positioning Elders in leadership roles, can result in accessing Inuit ways of knowing and being in early childhood spaces.
Mary Caroline Rowan
Carleton University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rethinking relationships with curriculum by engaging with foxes and sharing stories in early childhood spaces, Global Studies of Childhood, June 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/2043610617703833.
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