Our mission is to inspire connection and collective responsibility for all relations through accessible land-based education and advocacy.
we Hold reverence to ways of life that center the interconnection within all of creation. we prioritize the balance between self, land, community, and spirit through education and lifeways encouraging that balance.
We endeavor to enliven the vision for a sustainable future that centers positive cultural identity, land-based relations and Indigenous futurity.
From a foundation of responsibility to our communities and future generations, Nature Immersion strives to provide a culturally responsive model of land-based education. We offer accessible opportunities in ecological leadership, and environmental stewardship that center multi-cultural perspectives and intergenerational collaboration. Influencing abundant cultural identity, knowledge systems, and practices for collective continuance of the land and relations, we endeavor to enliven the vision for a sustainable future that centers land-based relations and Indigenous futurity.
Nature Immersion has been serving Tribal and BIPOC youth in Okanogan Valley since August 2018, working with 807 Indigenous youth between 2018 - present day. Originating in 2012 in Salinas, California before finding its permanent home in Okanogan Valley, our program has established partnerships with Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak Middle School, Okanogan Middle School, Omak High School, Highlands Alternative High School, and Nespelem School. These partnerships function through reciprocity and respect in which we seek to balance the needs and goals of each school with prevalent cultural traditions and our program mission to inspire connection and collective responsibility for all relations through accessible land-based education and advocacy.
OUR ORIGINS
Responsibility and reciprocity: We believe in upholding and furthering the transference of knowledge towards the next generations, traditions and knowledge that is our inherent responsibility to protect and instill the desire to provide justice and reverence of land, water, community and all beings. Reciprocity and aligned ethics systems of respect and reverence through practices of equity and sustainability are a central embodiment of our ethos manifesting as both subtle and transparent.
Intergenerational and multicultural collaboration: Our work upholds the belief that holistic perspectives are gained through reciprocal and respectful mult-cultural collaborations. We endeavor to build bridges of cultural understanding that nurture collaborative partnerships bound by the mutual commitment to environmental ethics, collective continuance, and authentic relationships. .
Culturally-relevant : Supporting the development of social identity synonymous with the land and ecological lifeways, our curriculum, methods, and practice are guided by cultural and ancestral knowledge systems, intergenerational collaboration, and land-based relations that endeavor to provide rich learning spaces steeped in equity, accessibility, and cultural relevance..
Actions as prayers We instill a passionate desire to take action to protect and prepare creator’s gifts for perpetuity like our ancestors did in the past. Each endeavor we undertake in the service of others or our animal plant relatives we will treat as a prayer. Each action is done with positive and healing thoughts. We will be humble, kind in thought and deed and consider each act a gift to be done with love, honor and integrity.
Relationality: Holding reverence to ways of life that center the interrelationality within all of creation, we prioritize the holistic balance between self, land, community, and spirit through education and lifeways that purvey the foundational connection to these sacred elements of nature.
CORE VALUES
Encourage vocational interest in natural resources, ecological conservation and restoration;
Provide opportunities for mentorship from Elders, Cultural Knowledge Keepers and community partners;
Provide immersive curriculum that promotes holistic and interdisciplinary approaches to learning with an emphasis on the intersections of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, mainstream science, and traditional life ways through food, medicine, and stewardship practices;
Bolster positive cultural identity and collectivism through integrative intergenerational and multi-cultural collaboration and experiences.
OUR PROGRAM GOALS
PROGRAMS
Cultural Pathways provides Indigenous youth in grades 6-8 with access to culture, traditions, and land conservation. Through intergenerational teachings, they gain hands-on experience with traditional foods and crafts, while learning land-based skills from Elders and Cultural Knowledge Keepers. This core focus of CPP endeavors to bolster cultural identity and practices anchored to environmental ethics, collectivism, and place-based connection through an immersive year-long curriculum tailored to student needs, social-emotional learning, and hands-on restoration work.
Students engage with Elders, land, and Knowledge Keepers through field days centered around seasonal gathering, hunting, weaving, and conservation, taught in guidance by captikʷł (laws, values, ethics, customs, and principles that define rights and responsibilities to Syilx or Okanogan people’s). This traditional knowledge is taught by members of our community who are hunters, gatherers, chefs, weavers, and natural resource experts.
