Brooke works as a professor guiding teacher candidates and practicing teachers on decolonizing journeys in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan), the place where she continues to commune thanks to the ongoing legal agreement known as Treaty No. 6. She and her partner welcomed their son Oscar on the last day of 2018 and their daughter Simone on Winter Solstice 2020. The childrens’ first months were spent swaddled close to Brooke’s chest, zipped inside her parka, and gently rocked by the rolling hills of the Mill Creek Ravine on sometimes thrice-daily walks. Maman-bebé-forest-creek were tightly woven and in this bundle Brooke’s learning spirit began to spark as it had when she was a child. Her littlest gurus continue to guide her learning about childrens’ curiosity, creatively, and playfulness as pillars of curriculum development; consent as foundational in education; and honouring forest kin as teachers and playmates. The central question that guides her current engagement is, What do we need to have in place to get to the answer, yes?
Brooke is a certified forest and nature school practitioner through the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada. She has earned degrees in place-based and relational philosophies (PhD), Education (MEd, BEd) and Science with focus on Ecology (BScH). She has worked with learners of all ages on land, water, and places between. Roles include: teacher educator, elementary and high school science teacher, informal science educator in Indigenous communities, and swim instructor and coach.