Proposal abstract :
NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, the first accredited Indigenous designed, developed, delivered, and governed theological institute, proposes to hold two faculty retreats at Indigenous spiritual retreat centers and spaces for our Indigenous faculty to (re)discover Land-based teaching led by local Indigenous elders. Our goal is to help facilitate experiences where our Indigenous faculty can revitalize an essential part of their Indigenous identities and reclaim assets of their Indigenous heritage, namely andragogical principles derived from living in good relationship with and close observation of the Land. Such experiences will support the redesign and expansion of Indigenous Land-based experiential learning courses for NAIITS and its partner institutions and to engage faculty’s imagination of how to incorporate Land-based activities in their online courses and teaching practices. Moreover, these retreats and teaching practices will nurture the on-going spiritual lives of our faculty as wholly Indigenous and holy Christians.

Learning Abstract :


Within Indigenous culture and pedagogy, the Land is our teacher. If the Land is our teacher, what can it teach us that could enrich the content and experience of Indigenous theological education? How might Indigenous Land-based teaching practices expand NAIITS faculty's pedagogical vision for both online and in-person courses and the teaching life?
As Indigenous followers of Christ, we recognize that our ancestors' wisdom