Spokane Colleges today announced it has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Avista Foundation that will be used to develop Indigenous Healing Environments Across Lifeways (IHEAL) Centers at Spokane Falls Community College and the Inchelium campus of Spokane Community College. The facilities and instruction provided for by the grant will help connect learners with the Indigenous centered knowledge and stewardship practices of the region’s Tribes and other invited educators of how to develop, cultivate, and care for plants, herbs, and foods from an environmentally safe and sustaining perspective.
“Indigenous peoples have always stewarded these lands,” said Spokane Colleges Director of Tribal Relations Dr. Naomi Bender. “Our responsibility is to honor that legacy by creating educational spaces that connect students and community members with the sustainable environmental practices they can learn from and share with the next generation.”
The grant will fund the development of dried plant and herbal storage cupboard spaces, raised cedar garden beds, and materials including jars, resource books, pots, pans, growing stations, and utensils. Where possible, Spokane Colleges plans to use repurposed materials, including surplus cabinets from other areas of campus, in construction. The grant will also provide for Indigenous knowledge educators from the region’s Tribes to teach knowledge ways, skills, and the value of and methods for integrating traditional stewardship practices within academic disciplines such as Natural Resource Management, Food, Nutrition, Allied Health Sciences, and Environmental Sciences.
Said Bender, “Our approach welcomes both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners to build community, address local food insecurity, and develop tomorrow’s leaders committed to honoring and protecting our lands and waters.”