Witnessing Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug’s Strength and Struggle - The Affective Education of Reconciliation in Environmental Education

Oct 15, 2026

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Environmental controversies place Indigenous and First Nation communities at the front lines of resistance to unjust state policies and corporate extraction, yet many environmental educators remain disengaged from affective learning about Indigenous Land struggles under Canadian colonial oppression. The article argues that while environmental education has promoted ecological, place-conscious pedagogy and socio-emotional ties to nature, it may reproduce settler colonialism by avoiding Indigenous Land title. It calls for settler educators to practice decolonizing, Land-based reconciliation through witnessing, focusing on the authors’ own affective processing during the jailing of KI leadership for territorial protection against mining in Ontario’s Far North.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

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Witnessing Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug’s Strength and Struggle: The Affective Education of Reconciliation in Environmental Education Lisa Korteweg, Lakehead University, and Emily Root, Cape Breton University, Canada Abstract Escalating environmental controversies are placing Indigenous peoples and First Nation communities at the front lines of protests, opposing unjust government policies and corporate actions. Yet, many environmental educators are not actively engaged or affectively learning about Indigenous Land struggles against Canada’s colonial oppressions. Environmental education has a strong record of research to promote ecological, place-conscious pedagogies that build socio-emotional connections to nature, but it can also perpetuate settler colonialism by avoiding or ignoring Indigenous (Land) title. This article calls on settler environmental educators to shift towards decolonizing and Land-based reconciliation, by bearing witness as support to Indigenous struggles for jurisdiction and protection of Land. We focus on our own settler affective processing towards decolonizing as we witnessed the strength of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation, whose Chief and Council were jailed for protecting their territory from mining in Ontario’s Far North. Résumé À cette époque où les controverses environnementales sont de plus en plus nombreuses, les peuples autochtones et les Premières Nations se retrouventen première ligne pour protester et s’opposer aux politiques injustes des gouvernements et aux actes abusifs des entreprises. Toutefois, bon nombred’éducateurs en environnement ne soutiennent pas activement les revendications territoriales des Autochtones, qui luttent contre les répercussions de l’oppression coloniale du Canada, ou ne se sentent pas touchés par ce qu’ils apprennent à ce sujet. L’éducation à l’environnement cherche depuis longtemps à promouvoir des approches pédagogiques écologiques ancrées dans la réalité territoriale qui permettent d’établir des liens socioémotionnels avec la nature, mais elle peut également perpétuer la tradition colonialiste en éludant ou en ignorant la question des droits des Autochtones sur leurs terres ancestrales. Cet article invite les éducateurs en environnement allochtones à témoigner en faveur dela décolonisation et de la réconciliation territoriale pour soutenir le combat des Autochtones qui cherchent à faire reconnaître leurs droits et à protéger le territoire. L’accent est mis sur nos propres émotions en tant que colonisateursallochtones face à la décolonisation et au courage de la Première Nation Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), dont le chef et les membres du conseil de bande ont été emprisonnés pour avoir défendu leur territoire contre les minières dans l’extrême nord de l’Ontario. 178 Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, 2016 Keywords: reconciliation education, Land-based issues, settler colonialism, decolonizing, affective learning; Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) We must understand that the lives of Aboriginal people across Canada are connected to the lingering effects of residential schools and that many of the most destructive attitudes are perpetuated in our public education. We must remember that at the same time Aboriginal children were made to feel inferior, generation after generation of non-Aboriginal children were exposed to the false belief that their culture was superior. Imperialism, colonialism and a sense of cultural superiority linger on. -Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (Sinclair, 2015, para 52-54) Context In Canada, we live in a time of mounting controversies over land/water protection and protests, peaceful and violent, over resource extraction centredon Indigenous 1 lands: Elsipogtog First Nation against natural gas fracking, a coalition of northern British Columbia First Nations against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines, Athabasca-Chippeweyan First Na

FAQs

What problem does the article identify in current environmental education practice?

It argues that many environmental educators do not actively engage in affective learning about Indigenous Land struggles, and that environmental education can avoid Indigenous Land title in ways that perpetuate settler colonialism.

What does the article propose settler environmental educators should do?

It calls on them to shift toward decolonizing and Land-based reconciliation by bearing witness in support of Indigenous struggles for jurisdiction and protection of Land.

What case is used to illustrate the authors’ witnessing and decolonizing affective processing?

The article focuses on the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation, whose Chief and Council were jailed for protecting their territory from mining in Ontario’s Far North.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Muffet