🎯 Key Takeaway: Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is the wisdom and understanding Indigenous Peoples have gained about their environment over generations. It's like their own eco-science! 🍃

💡 Real-world Example: Maori people use the stars to navigate at sea. They're like real-life sailors without a GPS! 🌌

Fun Fact 🎉: Inuit elders in Alaska can predict the behavior of beluga whales 🐳 by observing beavers! 😲 How cool is that? They know that less salmon (due to beaver activity) means less food for whales.

🎯 Key Takeaway: Indigenous Peoples' TEK techniques can help modern land management. We can learn from our ancestors to take care of Mother Earth. 🌍

💡 Real-world Example: After devastating bushfires, Australia looked to Indigenous Peoples' fire control techniques. They used a method called "fire stick farming" 🔥🌾, which was used by Aborigines before 1788.

This method influenced many parts of the landscape - the plants, animals, and even the water. Early settlers described it as making the landscape "park-like" 🏞️.

Here are the five stages of fire management by the Aborigines according to historian Bill Gammage

• Control the amount of fuel for wildfires. 🌲
• Maintain diversity. 🌻🍄
• Balance species. 🐇🐺
• Ensure abundance. 🌳🌳🌳
• Locate resources conveniently and predictably. 🍎🍯

🎯 Key Takeaway: Environmental degradation 🏭 can threaten the preservation and transfer of Indigenous knowledge. If the environment is harmed, the traditional practices that are tied to it might be lost. 😢

💡 Real-world Example: In Ontario, Canada, the Aamjiwnaang community of Anishnaabe First Nations people have reported that petrochemical contamination has caused a decline in their traditional practices, such as berry picking and fishing. 🍇🎣 Without these activities, the stories and instructions that accompany them are no longer being shared and are at risk of being lost.