Centering Indigenous Voices in Nuestro Amor Porel Territorio: Reciprocity in U.S. Native Science Workshops with Dual Language Educators

This reflective essay presents both the design and impact of a Native science workshop for dual language educators in a diverse US public school district through an Indigenous methodology approach. The authors include presenters and participants, bridging voices from Indigenous community presenters to diasporic Latinx participants to White educators who helped facilitate the space. Throughout the workshop, members of the Indigenous Totonaco community centered their perspectives about their relationship of reciprocity and care with el territorio (land) and their ancestors. The presenters explored integrating Native science into education while emphasizing the value of implementing these practices to enrich the understanding of instructional content. At the same time, the presenters encouraged educators and learners to stay in contact with their identities, land, and backgrounds, a charge the participants took seriously, as we evidence in the essay. This essay ends by offering how the authors and participating educators reidentified, reconnected, and started new threadings of connections related to Native science. This approach serves as an example of transformative practice to decolonize the ways we perceive and create knowledge through reciprocity, relationship, and education.