A SPACE FOR TSILHQOT’IN EDUCATION

Ivana Lexa-French

Susan Herrington

The schoolyard as a place for land-based learning, is a project based on a partnership with Yunesit’in School, on Stone Reserve in the Tsilhqot’in Nation. Values of stewardship and ingenuity, carried from Tsilhqot’in ancestors, offer precedent of knowledge embedded in landscape as a basis for designing educational spaces. The design re-imagines the schoolyard as a space where students learn from the land, where cultural activities encourage hands-on learning and where all generations gather to share knowledge, food and ceremony. 

Community leaders, educators and students were involved at various stages of the design process. Interviews in which teachers described their needs and ideas formed the basis of the initial iteration. After refining designs, progress work was shared with students and teachers for feedback. 

The final package provides materials for the band-led school to apply for grants to improve the schoolyard through design, and support the Yunesit’in Community. More broadly, the project explores the potential of the schoolyard to provide an integral space for learning through landscape design.