This week, our offices will close for a much-needed break. A core part of our approach to professional learning is embracing and nurturing the wellness of our educators. That goes for our staff too. We’ll take some time for the things and people that bring us joy and fill our cups to sustain our work for the long haul. 

As we take this time to rest and celebrate traditions in community, we do so in the broader context of #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth. There is a beautiful affinity between NTC’s values and mission and Indigenous wisdom and approach to education. Across many cultures, from aboriginal peoples of Australia to Native Americans of the U.S., their principles and approach to learning ring strongly:

• Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story. 
• Learning involves patience and time. 
• Learning requires exploration of one’s identity. 
• Learning emphasizes and deeply involves family and relationships with others in our community.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer (enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a Native American people originally from the Great Lakes region) shares about the Honorable Harvest and the importance of the relationship with the land. But in this, we also see how these ideas extend to how we nurture and cultivate our relationships with each other, a core enabling condition for everything we do internally and externally at NTC:

• Know the ways of the ones who take care of you so that you may take care of them.
• Never waste what you have taken. Share. 
• Give thanks for what you have been given.
• Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. 

As we rest, we also celebrate and are influenced by Indigenous wisdom as we spend time outside of work this week. We’re grateful to stoke our collective fire with these ideas and ways of being to keep driving our work with each other and those we serve.