Be/longing to Places: The Pedagogical Possibilities and His/Her/Stories of Shifting Cultural Identities

Abstract

Looking to the places we live to inform our understandings of identity and belonging, this métissage of place-based stories draws on personal narratives and intergenerational stories to re/create meaning in new spaces and contexts. Through the interweaving of personal and academic stories, this research provides a space for critical engagement, creative scholarship and learning. The pedagogical possibilities of places and understanding of curriculum as both the lived experiences and knowledge/s that shape and in/form our identities and understandings. As newcomers, settlers, and treaty members, living on Turtle Island/North America, perhaps we must begin by looking at the places where we live and dwell, to better understand our responsibilities to both the land and peoples. Unsettling narratives that disrupt textbooks histories, and the re/telling of new/old stories. Using bricolage to gather up the fragments and/or pieces left behind – artefacts, memories and stories, I begin to re/trace the footsteps of my grandmothers - the re/learning his/her/stories, stories of shifting cultural identities and landscapes - and be/longing to places, while also examining how notions of be/longing are transformed through intergenerational stories and our connections to places. Stories that may help to move and guide us forward in a good way. From wasteland to reconciliation, this work examines the meaning of places to our lives and learning, as well as our responsibilities to land and peoples – those who came before, and the generations before us.