Knowledge making with the land

My decolonizing research proposal aims to help debunk the idea that learning, and knowledge-making occur only through the reasoning mind and must be shared through print-based literacy. Drawing on indigenous epistemological definitions of learning and knowing, I explore the emergence of learning, knowledges and literacies from interaction with the land. I specifically plan to visually and orally narrate land-based [hi]stories from a rural community in northern Colombia. I will curate [hi]stories from a pool of video-data that I obtained during fieldwork for my PhD dissertation. This video-data includes narratives that members of a rural community shared while walking the Land –mountains, fields, rivers, homes, gardens, ponds in their community. Adults and youth share the practices, beliefs, understanding, historical knowledge that sustain their ways of living and being in their rural community. The portrayal of embodied, land-based [hi]stories may allow us to recognize the value of local knowledges for better understanding and deepening our relations with the land we inhabit. Such understanding is pivotal for sustaining relations with nature and socially just futures.

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Exploring land-based literacies

The idea that learning and knowledge creation should be shared endeavors has geared me towards community-based and horizontal research practices that frame my syncretic doctoral research. My theoretical and methodological foundations stem from varied traditions and standpoints enabling me to critically, creatively and flexibly undertake my research in ways that traditional research methods would not have allowed me to. I have developed the courage and strength to cross borders and to integrate the voices and ideas of the individuals and communities with whom and for whom I do my research. The TOSI  fellowship was an invaluable opportunity to develop a project that showcases the narratives and [hi]stories of rural communities, especially their relation with the Land, the practices and knowledges that allow them to engage in responsible stewardship of the places they inhabit. Such forum will contribute to current endeavors to democratize science, especially by involving communities and the general public in knowledge creation and dissemination.

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Orally and visually narrating embodied, land-based [hi]stories from rural communities

The mainstream narrative that knowledge occurs in the brain dominates social, economical, political, educational settings. Similarly,eurocentric, alphabetic, print-based literacies have thus become the ideal means to share knowledge. Therefore, written texts in the form of books or articles have been positioned as the main way to share knowledge[s]. Such narratives and practices have converted the search for knowledges into a sophisticated task that requires training of reasoning logic to systematically follow the ‘research method’ and share results through written words. When knowledge searching, knowledge making and knowledge dissemination have been limited to the confines of the reasoning mind and print-based alphabetic literacy skills. Such a stance dismisses the myriad ways of knowing  that arise from our experiences with the world, the land, the waters, and the more-than-human beings with whom we share ecologies. Which ways of knowing and sharing knowledge should scientists, educators and the public in general consider in their knowledge making endeavors? How might acknowledging these ways of knowing and sharing knowledge impact knowledge creation, education and open science?

Unfortunately,  the knowledges that people learn and create from their experiences with the world, the land, the waters, the more-than-human beings with whom we share ecologies are often dismissed and deemed as popular wisdom, narrative, folklore, but not as legitimate knowledge. I genuinely believe that we researchers and educators still have a lot to learn from the so-called popular wisdom that lies within communities, especially to better understand and deepen our relations with the land we inhabit. Such understanding is pivotal in times when we need to devise paths for sustaining relations with nature and socially just futures.

Through my proposal I aim to contribute to current decolonizing research for debunking the idea that learning and knowledge-making occurs only through the reasoning mind and is better shared through eurocentric, alphabetic or printed based literacy. Therefore,  I am arguing in favor of Land-based literacies. These literacies refer to the practices that members of a rural community use to learn from the land.These practices have been passed down from generation to generation and are deeply rooted in the culture and identity of the community (Perry, 2023 ). The land, the body, and the senses play a crucial role in knowledge making. Land-based literacies require using our senses to learn about the environment and the different non-human and more-than human beings that inhabit it. Therefore,  the land is deemed a source of knowledge, “our first teacher” (Styres, 2017).

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KNOWLEDGE-CULTURE-NATURE ENTANGLEMENTS SUSTAIN LIVES

I keep pondering on disruptive ways of engaging in knowledge co-construction with the communities I belong to. How to move the social sciences, the humanities, education, literacy and language research towards ethical, broadening, transdicisplinary and equitable paths?

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