Indigenous Land-based activities became essential to build resiliency for several reasons. We have learned that Indigenous Land-based activities became essential for cultural preservation, environmental stewardship, holistic well-being, empowerment, resilience, and intergenerational transmission of knowledge. By honouring and taking responsibility for the Land and Indigenous people, we learned how to create our belongingness with this Land, challenge colonial perspectives within and from the system, maintain our cultural identities, build meaningful relationships among Indigenous and immigrant and refugee communities, promote sustainable practices, and foster overall community strength and well-being.
Land-based Activities
Indigenous Land-based activities encompassed for our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of well-being. For instance, spending time on the land and engaging in traditional activities like community gardens, Indigenous Elders-led Land walks, observing the land, and storytelling positively affected our overall health. The land provides a natural environment for physical activity, a source of nutritious food, and a space for cultural ceremonies, healing practices, and community-building. For instance, we did lots of land walk. Our daughter explained how land-walk helped her during the pandemic
During this COVID lockdown, it is important to go outside, so that is why my family and I go on walks outside. Going for a walk helps me breathe in the fresh air and get outside. When I go for walks, I feel fresh, happy and free. My family and I walk in many different places away from people. We go to the river, the countryside, and different parks. We make sure we do not touch any playground equipment, benches, trash cans, or anything anyone else could have touched. Walking can be therapeutic because staying inside for so long can drive you crazy. When I go outside, there are many different skies every day. The sky changes every day; it will never be the same as another. Like life, it is always changing and no day is the same as another. Since my family goes on many walks, it has helped us get closer together. We play soccer and throw frisbees; we also go on runs as a family. I now get to spend much more time with my baby sister, before I barely got to spend time with her. In some ways, quarantine is a good thing. It has helped with family bondage. This is why my family and I go on walks.
All these Land-based activities created many forms of health well-being for our family. Learning Land-based knowledge and practice helped us reclaim our agency over our cultural, social, and economic development. This, in turn, enhances their resilience, pride, and collective strength.
Intergenerational Health Resiliency Knowledge
Indigenous Land-based learning and practice facilitate the intergenerational health resiliency knowledge transformation, values, and skills. Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers are vital in passing traditional teachings and practices to younger generations. Engaging in Land-based activities together, such as storytelling, walking, and ceremonies, knowledge and wisdom helped us ensure our responsibilities to be part of Indigenous Land and water rights movements.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we learned stories from various Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers’ stories (as shown in figure-2); we also tried to share our Land-based stories with our children. For instance, our children (authors 4) reflected in their reflective journals that
We heard many stories from my parents and grandparents regarding who we are and where we came from. During the war in his country, millions of people got killed and displaced from their ancestral land. My grandma that I did not get to see her, she became a widow with 6 children, and she did not have enough educational degrees to find a job. During the liberation war, my Dad’s family got displaced. Many majorities of people grabbed my grandpa’s land, house and other properties. My dad’s family became homeless and could not afford food, housing, education, and a safe social life even when the war stopped. At that time, most of the people were scared to get out of their house even to get food because if they did get out, the Pakistani military would shoot them. Everyone was panicked and traumatized, many people did not have food, clothes, shelter, or a job, and students could not go to school, college or university. At that time, there was no internet or online class facility. Innocent people were getting shot for no reason; children were getting shot too women were getting raped, kidnapped and killed. People did not have a normal life to live or grow. The liberation war continued for 9 months. After hearing this story I realized that we are in a better situation during the COVID-19 lockdown here in Canada. Our parent’s stories helped us a lot to be resilient during this difficult time.
In another reflection, our children (author-4) wrote how their parent’s stories helped them during this difficult time.
In our parent home country [Bangladesh], there are common disasters such as floods and cyclones almost every year. Thousands of people die and lose their homes almost every year. Many people directly affected by the disasters. My Dad family directly experienced severe floods. His Mom could not send him to school and she could not give him housing, clothes, food. The Bangladesh government could not provide enough facilities. My Dad’s struggling life story is unique to us. His life story is helping me to understand the privileges that I am getting here in Canada, even during this COVID-19 pandemic. All these stories helped me to be strong during this COVID-19 lockdown, As I feel that we are privileged to live in Canada and that we have access to the internet and many survival facilities such as food, good housing, water, electricity and transportation.
Reconnection, Relationship, Relearning, Relevance, Respect.
Learning Land-based stories helped us become resilient during this COVID-19 lockdown. These stories also helped me learn reconnection, relationship, relearning, relevance, and respect. We learned how to reconnect, build relationships, relearn, make relevance, and respect nature, animals, and humans. For instance, learning from Indigenous Elder Land-based stories, one of our daughters (author-3) reflected that.
I learned from the First Nations Elders that our relatives are the air, the sun, water, plants, insects, and rain. We all as humans and non-humans are interconnected and interdependent on each other. We need to take care of each other, we have responsibility for each other. For instance, an Elder told us that the bee has many roles in our everyday lives; without bees, we may not have food, which we depend on.
She also reflection how learning relational stories from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers helped them to understand spiritual meanings, connections,
I learned from the First Nations Elders that spirituality is to respect all of our relationships around us. According to Elders, spirituality is living together with humans and non-humans. In spirituality, everything is connected and interdependent. For example, the land is our mother, it gives us everything, including the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and so on. In spirituality, we do not own the land, the land owns us.
Exploring Challenges and Healing
We have experienced that Land-based learning helped our family to explore challenges in healthcare services during this pandemic. We have seen that many immigrants and refugee communities come to Canada from different parts of the world; however, in most cases, they need to know which land they came from, what they are doing, and what they need to do. All these gaps create lots of alienation within among own immigrant community and other immigrant communities. Moreover, these gaps promote comparison among immigrant communities in which Nationality is the “Best” than others. Even they become more serious when this “best” tendency undermines other immigrant and Indigenous communities within the same communities. However, we have seen that all these gaps are systematically created challenges instead of individual issues, as immigrant communities do not get learning opportunities. All these issues transformed into important challenges during pandemics. They created many fears, distrust, and blame to each other within and from racialized immigrant communities. It was very difficult to deal with these complex challenges. However, our Land-based learning helped us understand which land we are standing on, how to take responsibility for the land, and how to learn the colonial history of Canada and all people. During the pandemic, we got many opportunities to learn directly from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers and connect with our Land-based stories. All this learning helped our family to focus on building relationships with Land, growing foods, and understanding the importance of non-humans in our everyday lives. We found that our learning and practicing on the land became ceremonies of healing.
Building Trust
Indigenous Land-based learning is critical to creating a meaningful bridge between immigrant and Indigenous communities. For Instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic, many Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers helped us to learn that we are all connected to each other. Indigenous people have been living on this land sustainably for a long time. All these stories became so relevant during this crisis to know why we all need to work together to protect our environment so that we do not destroy our surrounding environment, such as land, water, native plants, animals, etc. Our deep respect and learning of these Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers’ stories helped to build trust among our racialized immigrant family and Indigenous communities. Many Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers call us relatives; it means we are in relationships. Once we are in a relationship, we become responsible for each other and our environment.
Creating Cultural Preservation and Resiliency
The Land is deeply intertwined with Indigenous cultures and traditions. It holds significant spiritual, historical, and social value for Indigenous communities. Land-based learning and practice help preserve and pass on Indigenous knowledge, wisdom, and practices to future generations. Since we as a family also immigrated to Canada from Land-based culture and practice, this learning was so helpful in reclaiming our knowledge and practice.
Connection to Ancestral Territories. As many Indigenous peoples have deep-rooted connections to specific lands inhabited by their ancestors for generations, learning from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers’ Land-based stories allowed us as a racialized family to develop a strong sense of belonging and identity by connecting with the Indigenous meanings of Land, Indigenous people, and other immigrants’ communities. It strengthened our cultural and spiritual ties to the land, fostering a sense of continuity and respect for Indigenous heritage.
Land-based Stories and Resiliency. Land-based stories from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge-keepers helped us to understand that cultural and social aspects refer to who we are, where we came from, and where we need to go. Who we are is our practices and our land-based knowledge. It refers to coming to our land and family and finding our identity. Where we came from is the land we are from, our culture, and our social practices. Music, dance, and art activities helped our family to be resilient during this difficult time. Our daughter (author-3) wrote.
COVID-19 does not make me stop my extracurricular activities. I am keeping myself resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic by dancing, singing and playing musical instruments. I do lots of types of dance, but during this pandemic, I had to stop physical dance learning at dance schools. These dances are ballet, jazz, Indian classical Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Bangla folk, Russian, German and Indigenous POWWOW dance. I have lots of flexible time to practice dances these days. Why I do these dances during this quarantine so I can stay active, happy, hopeful and won’t forget the things I learned since I was three years old. It gives us the inner strength to calm down.
She also explained how her music activities helped her to overcome stressful situations,
In addition to dance, I did many musical activities, including singing, playing the piano, French horn, trumpet and Indian harmonium. Why we do this is because it is therapeutic for our mind and body. We are not feeling depressed or bored and lonely. Dance and music have helped me to have more energy, positivity, and joyful times. How we are continuing everything is online and getting tremendous support from our parents at home. COVID-19 has taught us different meanings of dance and music.
Land-based Reading and Writing and Resiliency. Both reading and writing became therapeutic for our family. Author-3 explained why reading and writing have been therapeutic for her because it helps her relax her mind. Writing and reading make her feel happy and good for every day. For instance, she wrote, “COVID-19 has given me lots of free time to write and read. I am maintaining my regular journal and writing about COVID-19 so that the next generation can learn about what happened to people during this pandemic”.
Land-based Art Activities and Resiliency. Art activities helped our family in many to cope with Covid-19 challenges. As author-3 reflected in her daily journal reflection
During this quarantine, I have painted a painting, the theme was to protect the environment and COVID-19 and awareness of COVID-19 Doing art during this COVID-19 pandemic is therapeutic. Doing art is a productive way to spend your time. Art makes me feel relaxed and calm. I chose to do artwork to tell people to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 during this time, we all need to support each other as a community.
Observing Nature. Breathing in the fresh air is one of the best things when going outside. After staying in for so long, going outside in the fresh air feels great. We could feel the cool breeze whooshing past us when we went outside. The air makes me feel fresh and happy. Breathing fresh air is a fantastic thing after staying inside for so long. Author-3 expressed that
Since COVID-19 has us all in quarantine, my family and I go on many land-walk. We go to the countryside most of the time. We often go to the countryside so we can escape the city and other people. Sometimes on the way we see different birds like Canadian geese, ravens, crows, seagulls and pelicans; sometimes, we also see wild dogs and deer. Since the weather is getting warmer, we see more of them often. Roadside animals are a lot of fun to be around.
Our Land-based activities helped us to learn and practice how Land is at the center of healing as a form of respect and honour during many difficult times. Land refers to responsible relationships, often characterized by sustainable practices and a profound understanding of local ecosystems. Our Land-based learning activities have also contributed valuable insights into addressing the Covid-19 pandemic health crisis. Therefore, our Land-based activities is to support each other by taking responsibility for the Land and Indigenous and overcoming stress collectively. We often focused on Land-based activities so that stresses can not cause mental health traumas. Through connecting this way, we thrive in the best of times and survive in the worst of times. Sharing our resiliency stories through Land-based activities also means if we take responsibility, we can overcome many feelings of fear, worry, anger, shame and other challenging emotions. Our study suggests that healthcare services can incorporate and benefit from Indigenous Land-based activities. Creating a meaningful bridge between Indigenous Land-based knowledge and Western knowledge in health well-being – spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally. Therefore, we would like to strongly support Land-based activities to create health and well-being to draw upon to stay connected and keep well.