Indigenous Peoples around the world are reclaiming and revitalizing their lands and stewardship of them. This cultural resurgence is catalyzing Nations and other Indigenous groups to strengthen their systems of governance, build economic opportunities, and bring knowledge systems together to ensure community capacity, sustainability, and resiliency in an uncertain climate future. The Bachelor of Indigenous Land Stewardship program will help train the next generation of land stewards alongside Indigenous scholars, well-prepared allies, Elders, and knowledge keepers in culturally appropriate ways.
Why Choose a Bachelor’s Degree in Indigenous Land Stewardship?
This interdisciplinary program has been created to bring together Indigenous students and students interested in becoming well-prepared allies to provide instruction in diverse areas such as Indigenous ways of knowing, ecology, law and governance, economics, communication, business management, research and data management methods, and community capacity building.
To help train the next generation of land stewards the BILS program:
- Has entrance requirements reflective of honouring and valuing the knowledges and experiences of Indigenous Peoples
- Provides Indigenous-led education taught by Indigenous scholars, well-prepared allies, Elders, and knowledge keepers
- Utilizes a highly relational, multi-disciplinary, multi-knowledge, and land-based system approach to learning
- Fosters Indigenous-led land healing and action-oriented reconciliation
Program delivery
This program is based out of the award winning Forest Sciences Centre on UBC’s Vancouver campus.
There are also three field courses, one at the beginning of Year 1, 2 and 3 that are specifically land-based. One additional course with a strong field component will be done by students individually in Year 4.
