About the Project

YoUR Nature Walk began and expects to remain as a journey.

Origins & Development

The project grew out of a consultation session with Michael Galban of Ganondagan about a potential collaborative course project for the students in an applied translation course. It has since developed into a distinct eco-centric mapping project involving both translation and writing students as they study the flora and fauna on the featured nature walks and reflect on the intersection of language, epistemology, behaviors, and key 21st-century challenges facing humanity. The sampled plants, animals, and other more-than-human-beings such as the river anticipate a high degree of curiosity, a willingness to listen, and a slow-paced, humbling journey of discovery.

Our Values

Relationship building is next—relationship with the land and with each other individually and communally. The Haudenosaunee teachings about gratitude, reciprocity, and the good mind through Ganö:nyök provide an entry point to this process of relationship building. In the context of the UR curriculum, YoUR Nature Walk holds particular value for cultivating critical and creative thinking skills through research-based multimodal writing and has served as a source of inspiration for experiential learning about space, place, health, while providing meaningful opportunities for interdisciplinary conversations.

Technology in Service of Presence, Not Distraction

Our approach to technology reinforces this intentionality towards relationship and dialogue. YoUR Nature Walk is not screen-first. It offers a tech-supported, place-based experience designed to inspire—not distraction online—but presence in life.

The mapped nature walks aspire to be this pathway towards embodied wisdom.