The Outdoor Learning School & Store is a charitable social enterprise offering excellent outdoor learning training, tools, resources & equipment with 100% of proceeds going back to supporting outdoor learning non-profit initiatives!
Join Alfred Joseph and Mara Nelson for 8 weeks of Foundational Ktunaxa Language Learning. Learn the sounds, words and some history of the Ktunaxa Language. This course is designed for you to garner skills that will enable you to carry Ktunaxa Language forward to your classrooms, communities and on the Land.
This course is open to everyone – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants who wish to learn to uplift language revitalization. If you are a non-Indigenous language learner, we encourage you to review these reflections prior to commencing this course on what it means to be a non-Indigenous learner in an Indigenous language learning course.
Your course fee goes towards supporting our charity in covering the course costs, including ensuring that we compensate the course instructors adequately, and that we can continue to offer learning opportunities like these.
Alfred Joseph is a highly respected Ktunaxa Elder and past chief of the Akisqnuk Nation. He is an expert in Ktunaxa language and knowledge and an immensely passionate, dedicated and talented educator. He was a student at St Eugene’s Residential School and graduated from Olds Agricultural College. He has a farm with hay production and farm animals, and a Trail Riding operation for 25 years, ending in 2000. He is very knowledgeable about and utilizes all aspects of Ktunaxa Culture. He teaches Ktunaxa Language and is very involved with sharing Ktunaxa Traditional Knowledge and encouraging implementation into Ktunaxa Nation Council Programs and Policy.
Mara Nelson is ʔaqⱡsmaknik (a Ktunaxa person) Her family is from Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡiʔit. She is a great great granddaughter of Suzette Antiste and John Phillips, great granddaughter of Mary Agnes Phillips and Tom Cunliffe and granddaughter of Sadie Cunliffe. She has a background in education as a Sign Language Transliterator and Education Assistant. She has extensive experience in the classroom with students and teachers alike which has enabled her to create fulfilling modified working course plans. She has been a keen student of her Ktunaxa language, learning as much as she can from Alfred. She is deeply connected to the land, water and all living things.
We know that Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are foundational to outdoor learning and learning from the land, and that learning that language of the local land is a critical part of deepening knowledge and understanding. Non-Indigenous educators can take steps towards reconciliation by participating in language courses like these as a way to uplift language revitalization and deepen their own understanding of local place.
Indigenous languages carry connections to lands, ancestors, traditions, and contain ecological knowledge crucial for sustainable living, medicinal practices, and traditional storytelling, enriching our collective wisdom. By supporting Indigenous language revitalization efforts, we not only preserve linguistic diversity but also uphold Indigenous Peoples’ fundamental rights to their languages and cultures.
