Bonding with the Land (1)

Educational Programme in Kodiak Island and Identity Building among Alutiiq People

Abstract

There are discourses among researchers in Eurpe and Britain to state that the current environmental issues stem from humans getting divorced from nature physically and spiritually, and that the industrious nations should learn from the human-nature relationships in so-called traditional societies. Nonetheless there is a strong movement among the indigenous populations on earth to seek to build a bond between their young generations and nature. This paper explores an educational programme in Kodiak, Alaska, the US, which aimed to make a connection between the participants and nature, to find out the background and reasons of their attempt, and discusses issues around identity building among Alutiiq in modem context.