Decolonising Outdoor Education: Learning Through Relationship, Responsibility, and Place
- Saplings Outdoor Program
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Outdoor education is often framed as a return to something essential: fresh air, freedom of movement, connection to the natural world. Yet many outdoor programs continue to operate within systems shaped by colonial values, even as they seek to resist them. Land is frequently treated as a neutral setting for learning rather than a living entity with history, meaning, and ongoing stewardship. Decolonising outdoor education asks us to pause and examine these contradictions, and to consider how our practices can move beyond intention toward responsibility and relationship.
At Saplings Outdoor Program, we understand this work as ongoing and imperfect. Decolonisation is not a goal we expect to reach, but a commitment to continual reflection, learning, and accountability. It asks us to look closely at how outdoor education has been shaped, whose knowledge has been centred, and how we can create space for ways of knowing that have long existed in relationship with land.
Moving beyond surface-level inclusion
In recent years, land acknowledgements and Indigenous content have become more visible within educational settings. While these can be important starting points, they risk becoming performative when they are not accompanied by deeper reflection or action. Decolonising outdoor education requires more than naming the land we occupy; it asks us to examine how colonial frameworks continue to influence our language, structures, and assumptions about learning.
This work is not about adding Indigenous perspectives onto an existing curriculum without change. It is about questioning the foundations of that curriculum itself. Outdoor education has often drawn from Western ideas of exploration, ownership, and resource use, even while promoting values of care and connection. Decolonisation invites us to recognise these tensions and to sit with discomfort rather than rushing to resolution.
Centring relationship as a way of knowing
A meaningful shift occurs when educators move away from content-based inclusion and toward relationship-based practice. Rather than asking what stories we can tell or what activities we can offer, we begin to ask who we are in relationship with, and how those relationships shape our learning environments. This approach prioritises trust, reciprocity, and long-term connection over efficiency or outcome-driven programming.
Working with Indigenous knowledge keepers in this way means understanding that knowledge is not a resource to be extracted. It is shared through relationship, responsibility, and consent. It requires fair compensation, clarity of intention, and respect for boundaries. It also requires educators to accept that learning may unfold slowly, unpredictably, and in ways that challenge familiar educational structures.
These relational values align closely with the BC Early Learning Framework, particularly the First Peoples Principles of Learning. These principles remind us that learning is holistic, experiential, and rooted in place and community. When outdoor education is guided by these understandings, it becomes less about delivering knowledge and more about cultivating ways of being in relationship with land and with one another.
Age-appropriate conversations with children
Decolonising outdoor education does not mean overwhelming children with complex histories or abstract concepts. Instead, it asks educators to be honest, respectful, and developmentally thoughtful in how we talk about land and community. With young children, this often begins with simple practices that are revisited over time rather than explained all at once.
Naming the land we are on, acknowledging that people have lived in relationship with it for generations, and modelling care and gratitude through everyday actions all help children develop a sense of respect and responsibility. When Indigenous stories are shared, it is important that they are offered with context, care, and permission, and that educators are clear about why and how these stories are being told. The focus is not on teaching children to memorise facts, but on supporting them to notice, listen, and develop curiosity about the world around them.
Reflecting on our role as educators
Decolonising outdoor education also requires inward reflection. Educators are invited to examine how colonial ideas show up in expectations around behaviour, productivity, and success, even in play-based or nature-centred settings. It asks us to consider whose ways of knowing are treated as legitimate, and how power operates within our programs and institutions.
This reflection can be uncomfortable, particularly when it reveals gaps in knowledge or moments where we have caused harm despite good intentions. Decolonisation is not about achieving perfection, but about remaining open to learning, feedback, and repair. It is a practice of humility as much as it is a practice of action.
A shared responsibility moving forward
Decolonising outdoor education is not work that can be done in isolation. It is a collective responsibility that calls on educators, organisations, and communities to move slowly, listen deeply, and act with care. This includes investing time in relationship-building, examining policies and training structures, and being willing to change practices that no longer align with values of respect and reciprocity.
At Saplings, we see this work as inseparable from ethical, place-based education. Our call to action is not an invitation to arrive at certainty, but an invitation to stay engaged in the process. By grounding outdoor education in relationship, responsibility, and respect for Indigenous ways of knowing, we can begin to create learning environments that honour both the land and the communities who have long cared for it.
Further reading and learning
For educators committed to ongoing reflection and deeper understanding of decolonising outdoor education, engaging with Indigenous-authored resources and Indigenous-led community work can be transformative. The following works and voices have informed how many of us think about land, storytelling, identity, culture, and responsibility:
A deeply reflective book that weaves Indigenous wisdom with ecological science, inviting readers to reconsider our relationships with land, reciprocity, and community.
A powerful exploration of Indigenous resurgence and relational life that challenges colonial frameworks and supports educators in reimagining how learning can be grounded in community and land.
An accessible collection of essays that helps contextualise Indigenous history, rights, language, and contemporary realities in Canada, providing important background for educators engaging in decolonising work.
A Haida, Musqueam, and Squamish storyteller and educator born on Haida Gwaii whose children’s books, teachings, and storytelling centre Haida tradition, culture, and connection to land. Through story, Kung Jaadee offers ways for educators and children to experience place and identity with depth and joy.
A knowledge keeper whose work in Indigenous medicine making emphasises deep relationship with plants, land, and community. McSpadden’s teachings remind educators that land-based knowledge is relational, contextual, and shared through careful, respectful guidance, not extraction.
A resource for learning about Métis culture, history, and community life in British Columbia. Engaging with Métis Nation BC materials supports educators in honouring the diverse Indigenous cultures connected to the lands where they teach.
Offers resources and publications rooted in First Nations worldviews, including guidance on integrating Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and learning into educational practice.
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