WAKAYA

WHAT IS WAKAYA?

WAKAYA is a study project that seeks to promote healthy decision-making and the building of leadership through an outdoor program encouraging and educating Choctaw youth.

The project is centered around a curriculum based on:

  • traditional storytelling
  • cultural arts
  • outdoor activities
  • ecological knowledge
  • mindfulness
  • field trips
  • Community health project

Participate in fun outdoor activities such as:

hiking
Trail-running Stickball
Chunkee-throwing Traditional Games Olympiad

Engage in Choctaw Culture

Cultural stories & teachings
Traditional dancing
Caring for the land

Food and Plant Medicine

Identify medicinal plants
Prepare traditional foods Traditional and sustainable harvesting

Land-based health & environmental restoration

Learn our responsibility to the land, water, and ancestors.

Hiking, Trail running, geocaching.
Cane preservation
Clay harvesting/pottery
Basket making
Medicine pouches
& more.

Ancestral knowledge and teachings and how the land cares for us.

Spiritual and Emotional Health

Learn a Choctaw way of being healthy
​ Being aware and mindful while outdoors​
​ Self-awareness and how to care for self​
​ Social awareness and interconnectedness​
​ Cultural Stories that teach how to relate well to
​ others.​ Emotional regulation/Anger management​
​ How to use traditional medicines​
​ Drug and alcohol abuse prevention
This photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA