The Land as Teacher
Land-Based Curriculum Integration and Design
Facilitated by Sha'tekayèn:ton Brant, OCT
Kenhtè:ke Turtle Clan
Every nation builds its institutions on what it takes most seriously. England's legal order stands on the monarchy. The Pope's authority stands on God. Ours stands on the land; not treated as heritage. It is the source of law, governance, and responsibility, and it is taken as seriously as any crown or any god.
The Land as Teacher is a curriculum design and pedagogical framework built on that law. Land-based, decolonization, resistance, resurgence, and anti-oppression pedagogy, language-integrated teaching, curriculum design, assessment, and professional learning, developed and applied through more than thirty years of lived experience, seventeen years of educational practice, community programming, and six years of the One Dish Project on the land in Kenhtè:ke.
This framework will be presented in November 2026 at the Indspire National Gathering in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Unlearning, Relearning, Truth, and Reconciliation
Decolonization is not a metaphor (Tuck & Yang, 2012). The Land as Teacher is not a collection of land-based activities. It is curriculum integration and lesson planning developed through land-based knowledge and practice: seasonal cycles, governance, food systems, community responsibility, and the law of the territory the school stands on, planned and assessed within Ontario curriculum expectations and Growing Success.
Learning begins with relationships to self, to each other, and to creation. The land is not an additional subject or merely a location where an existing lesson takes place. It informs how curriculum is developed, what is taught, how learning happens, and how students demonstrate their understanding. This requires examining whose knowledge is recognized in curriculum, how subjects are separated, and how existing educational structures influence what students are taught.
Land-based education is not restricted to outdoor education. The knowledge and methods can inform learning in classrooms, schools, community spaces, and other educational environments. Educators do not need to reproduce the One Dish Project or have access to a greenhouse, extensive gardens, or specialized outdoor infrastructure. Educators work the framework against their own programs. They leave with curriculum of their own making, planned, assessed, and ready to run.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN PRACTICE
The Land as Teacher is informed by an extensive body of educational work developed and delivered across subjects, grade levels, and learning environments.
Sha’tekayèn:ton Brant's early educational practice includes organizing student and staff learning in the Mohawk Valley, including Kanatsiohareke, Cohoes Falls, the Iroquois Indian Museum, and other historical and educational sites. It also includes developing and directing Creation Story performances, writing and producing Mohawk-language variety shows, and collaborating on educational theatre and historical programming for school audiences.
Through independent consulting, Sha'tekayèn:ton developed and delivered curriculum support, Kanyen’kéha tutoring, inclusion workshops, educational resources, and public learning programs for schools, communities, and organizations. His curriculum work includes complete courses, instructional units, lesson plans, differentiated learning activities, assessment and evaluation, individualized literacy interventions, online adult education, and digital teaching resources.
In formal education, that experience extends across Kanyen’kéha, Indigenous Studies, English, literacy, governance, Canadian and international law, social sciences, geography, business, Civics, Career Studies, drama, and experiential learning. It includes developing curriculum aligned with Ontario expectations and OSSD requirements, supporting teacher candidates, and working with accommodations, Individual Education Plans, differentiated instruction, and multiple pathways for learning.
Professional work also includes curriculum developed in real time. A teaching, conversation, observation, or question can become a lesson or complete instructional sequence, with learning goals, activities, resources, differentiation, assessment, and practical delivery considered together. This is not limited to one subject or grade level. Land-based education can connect mathematics, science, language, history, economics, and governance. The Creation Story can inform learning through literature, performance, environmental science, and relationships to creation.
Treaty and governance education can involve history, geography, law, literacy, research, and contemporary political systems. The curriculum is developed through these connections rather than treating them as separate subjects with occasional Indigenous content added. Participants work directly with this curriculum-design process, using their own programs, resources, students' needs, and educational requirements.
THE ONE DISH PROJECT: SIX YEARS OF PRACTICAL APPLICATION
From 2020 until September 1, 2026, the One Dish Project operated as a land-based education & food sovereignty initiative in Kenhtè:ke.
The entry point was food sovereignty with the intention developing into a functioning learning environment with gardens, greenhouse production, medicine beds, irrigation, indoor and outdoor teaching spaces, community food distribution, workshops, and educational programming. The project connected food production with Kanyen’kéha, ecological science, agriculture, land relationships, governance, the Creation Story, community responsibility, and economic self-determination.
Education was always integrated into the operation of the project. Planting, growing, harvesting, maintaining infrastructure, distributing food, observing seasonal changes, and making decisions about the work provided opportunities for instruction, research, and practical learning.
In summer 2023 alone, more than 3,245 pounds of food were reported distributed to over 20 families, along with Elder. The project also delivered curriculum-linked programming for visiting students, educators, families, and community organizations. This included Three Sisters agriculture, the Creation Story, environmental relationships, traditional and contemporary food systems, colonization, and governance.
In 2026, Albert College students participated in land-based learning at the site. Public workshops through Deseronto Public Library brought the educational work into another community setting. The One Dish Project provided six years of opportunities to develop, deliver, assess, reconsider, and refine curriculum through actual practice. The Land as Teacher incorporates that experience alongside the educational work that preceded it and continues beyond it.
From Knowledge to Curriculum
Participants examine curriculum expectations, identify connections across subjects, establish learning goals, develop instructional activities, consider student needs, and design assessment and evaluation. In Provincial schools, this includes curriculum expectations and documents similar to Ontario's Growing Success, with attention to assessment for, as, and of learning, differentiated instruction, and different ways for students to demonstrate understanding.
The work willn involve developing a unit with accompanying plans, integrating Kanyen’kéha (or another First Nations language) into a number of other subjects to design interdisciplinary learning, and developing a complete program around the resources and conditions available.
Curriculum development also involves reconsidering existing instruction. Participants examine what is currently taught, what is missing, where subjects connect, and how the curriculum can be delivered and assessed.
The framework is applicable across grade levels and subject areas, including language, literacy, mathematics, science, history, geography, governance, law, business, the arts, entrepreneurship. The possibilities are endless.
Participants design their own curriculum based courses, and leave with work that can be implemented immediately.
The Three Sisters taught in Kanyen'kéha: the Mohawk words that go with the planting, the story of the three sisters, and the ecology of how corn, beans, and squash grow and support each other. Then the students planted their own: sprouted corn brought in, a bean planted by each student, and a squash seed to take home - with printed instructions in hand for planting and caring for it. The lesson went home with them, in the language, in the ground, and on paper.
Tyendinaga Public School
"Sure you can talk about it, but you show them. If you show them, that's how they learn, and that's how we were taught. We watch, and then we eventually got our hands dirty."
Chief Robert Charlie-Tetlichi, Inuvik Native Band
Consultation and Facilitation Registration Information & Fees
Below are the costs for each type of facilitation of The Land as Teacher. Included in the cost is the Certificate in Land-Based Curriculum Design and Development upon successful completion
Pricing Levels and Program Descriptions:
Initial Consultation
30 minute free consultation with Sha'tekayèn:ton to determine the needs of your program, institution, or organization.
Individual Training
$2000.00CAD
One full day, one-on-one, in person. You walk out with:
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A complete land-based curriculum plan for your program - lessons, sequence, and timelines
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Integration mapped to your curriculum expectations, across subjects
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Assessment and evaluation tools built to Growing Success - for, as, and of learning
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Differentiated activities for the students you actually have
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Kanyen'kéha language integration for the content you're teaching
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Certificate of Cultural Land-Based Curriculum Design and Development
Small Group
2-9 Participants
$8,500.00CAD
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A complete land-based curriculum plan for their own program
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Subject-by-subject integration mapped to their expectations
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Assessment and evaluation tools built to Growing Success
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Differentiated activities and lesson plans, developed in session
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Kanyen'kéha language integration for their content
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Certificate of Cultural Land-Based Curriculum Design and Development
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1 year developmental consultation contract
Small-Mid Size Organization
10-20 Participants
$15,000.00CAD
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Curriculum development across your programs, completed by your own educators
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Integration mapped to your expectations at every grade level represented
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Assessment and evaluation frameworks for the work they built
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Differentiated instruction planned for your student population
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A coordinated plan for implementation in your programs
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Certificate for every participant
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A limited institutional licence for the agreed engagement
Large Organization
21+ Participants
$30,000.00CAD
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Curriculum development across your programs, completed by your own educators
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Integration mapped to your expectations at every grade level represented
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Assessment and evaluation frameworks for the work they built
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Differentiated instruction planned for your student population
-
A coordinated plan for implementation in your programs
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Certificate for every participant
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A limited institutional licence for the agreed engagement
To for any inquiries or to book a workshop or speaking event, please contact onedishproject@gmail.com