The Indigenous Health, Research and Education Garden hosts directed study students each year to enrich its programming with in-depth student learning, providing students with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and conduct their own research. These learnings are led through Indigenous methodologies that incorporate rigorous land-based teachings to provide practical experiences that compliment students’ classroom learnings.
Through this opportunity, students are eligible to receive course credit towards their UBC degree and will gain skills and experience in: ethnobotany, working with traditional knowledge, medicines, and foods, intergenerational learning, communications, Indigenous research methodologies, and community collaboration. Their research and reflections provide evidence to improve these programs and to make future recommendations regarding student engagement.
This year, a group of students have formed the Garden Collective. The Garden Collective is a group of undergraduate and graduate students as well as the Garden Coordinator and the Director of Indigenous Research Partnerships, who work collaboratively both on the land and in their research to create reciprocal and shared learning opportunities. In addition to chosen readings and resources, the Garden Collective members spend time on the land and with the garden’s programs as their “field work” where they build the knowledge that they will incorporate into their respective research deliverables.