ETEC 581 Practicum RoadMap

FINDING THIS PATH My relationships in working within the Tla'amin Community

Next Steps

Build Relationships with "Super Gatherers"

Consultation

CLICK Arrows and Images to move through Road Map

Land Stewardship

Introduction

App Decisions

CNP Goal 19

Epistomelogical Convergence

Relational Mindset

Community Foods Coordinator

13 Moon App

Next Steps in this Journey

• Develop a low-fidelity wire-frame prototype using Figma

• Present this artifact to the Communications and IT Departments at the Tla'amin Nation

• Conduct feasibility study to explore full development and implementation of App for community use.

• Support any interested persons to create an app that resembles the 13-Moon Food App

App Development Journey

What accompanied the design process: Key decision moments?

• Staff meeting: App to document how climate change and overharvesting affect seasonal food gathering. The current Harvest App seen as difficult and burdensome to use.

• Shift focus from data collection tool for Land & Resources department to STEAM-based resource for community education.

• Designed as a digital tool for broad access and engagement based on my observations of the importance of community and celebration of culture.

• Past workshops had low turnout; community more active on devices and social media.

• Draws on lessons from 2022 VIU grant experience. Past external partnership tried to extract info, not aligned with Tla’amin goals.

• UX/UI Design principles course at Emily Carr. Goal to strengthen learned skills.

Calibrating my experience

It was important for me to find my own connection to the traditions of the Tla'amin community when interviewing for the community foods program coordinator. Thorough research about the traditions of the Tla'amin community and Nation goals aided my ability to make these connections.

• Shintoism-Ta'ow: Remember where you come from and that all things in Tla'amin territory have a soul and a purpose for being here. Strive for balance with your surroundings.

• Iwai-bashi (祝箸): Japanese celebratory chopsticks, are special, tapered, double-ended wooden chopsticks used for auspicious occasions, symbolize sharing a meal with the gods, with one end used by humans and the other by deities. Often made offering to wife's ancestors at house shrine. Sharing seasonal foods.

• Cultural ceremonies, such as burning offerings, the Tla'amin maintain a link with those who have passed, offering a way to heal from historical trauma and honor their sacrifices.

13 Moon Food App

A digital STEAM learning artifact for the Tla’amin Nation community.

• A learning space for community members to build in-depth knowledge about seasonal traditional foods, Tla'amin culture, and the importance to the 13-moon calendar.

• Design process aligned with immediate Tla'amin Nation consultation, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Indigenous epistemologies of relationality, Design Justice, Liberatory Design, EDIDA, and local Tla’amin protocols for knowledge governance.

Winter bundle

350 Households

Spring Bundle

CNP (Comprehensive Nation Plan) GOAL 19 – Improve Tla'amin food security. Food Sovereignty activities: food gathering, industrial processing facilities, organized food distribution, workshops, cooking classes, childhood educaiton opportunities.

Introduction

• Japanese-trained chef; chef instructor; community foods program coordinator at the Tla'amin Nation.

• Co-creation practicum through MET program: 13-Moon Food App.

• Share my understanding and ways in working with the Tla'amin Nation.

Super Gatherer

- Deep land knowledge and ethics: knows species, seasons, and protocols, and harvests in ways that care for and sustain the ecosystem. - Community provider: gathers for others (elders, families, ceremonies) and strengthens food security and relationships. - Knowledge carrier and teacher: models safe, respectful harvesting and passes skills and stories to younger people.

ʔɛɬtanmot ʔayɛ

Traditional Food House

A food processing facility where community members can learn, teach, and practice the procuring, processing, and preservation of traditional foods.

My role as Community Foods Program Coordintator?

• Oversee operations at TFH
• Lead Food Sovereignty initiative outlined by the Tla'amin Nation Comprehensive Nation Plan
• Community capacity building for gathering, processing, packaging and using traditional foods.

Important Questions I return to on a regular basis:

1. What is important for the people I work for?
2. What can I do to support the goals of my position and the community?
3. What don't I know and may need to understand better to be successful at reaching these goals?

Traditional Food House

Relational mindset

• Constant reflection on my relation to web of relationships:
• (Dwayne, 2011) Human beings are seen as intimately enmeshed in webs of relationships with each other and with the other entities that inhabit the world.
• App development, cooking for funerals, receiving Elk ground meat for helping with meat cutting, my relationship as an immigrant to Canada, and a Japanese-trained Chef coordinating Traditional Food activities for Tla'amin Nation.

Donald, Dwayne. “Indigenous Métissage: a decolonizing research sensibility.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 25, no. 5, 2011, pp. 533-555.

Land Stewardship

“We look forward to reconnecting with this vast part of our territory and managing the lands according to Tla’amin teachings and values and for the benefit of future generations.” (Tla'amin Hegus, 2026) 13‑moon calendar “like a constitution” because it encodes laws about the communities relationships to land, waters, and one another in a cyclical, lived form rather than in a written legal document.

Tla'amin Nation buys 154,000 Hectares of Forest Land

Community Consultation

• Met monthly with Community Decision Makers and consulted knowledge holders to consult on App concept and content.
• It is often observed that there is a high rate of duplication among departments. Limited communication and collaboration were mentioned as contributing factors.
• The 13-Moon Calendar was identified as a sort of "constitution" for Indigenous communities that tie together many elements of the culture.