Many know that STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. But to connect STEM to social enterprise, humanities, arts, innovation, entrepreneurship and more, we add an ‘A’ into STEM to get STEAM. The A can reflect Arts, Architecture and Agriculture – all areas that Indigenous peoples have been innovators in for thousands of years.
The A in STEAM stands for quite a few different things for IndigeSTEAM. It represents the arts, agriculture, architecture and even astrophysics! As indigenous peoples, we have been masters and innovators at these disciplines for thousands of years and it is important to recognize their impact.
Furthermore, by tying in these other disciplines, especially the arts, it gives us a different way to look at and apply STEM into our daily lives and to recognize that we all are ambassadors for STEM and STEAM in so many unique and different ways.
Through our holistic approach to education, we find a way to ensure every participant has something they can connect with. The best of our students is brought out through the fostering of their creativity, imagination, and ingenuity in a way that is only possible because of STEAM.
At IndigeSTEAM, many of our staff and board members – past and present – represent every part of STEAM. Our work is grounded in Two-Eyed Seeing: using one eye to recognize the strengths of Indigenous Knowledge and Ways of Knowing, and the other to recognize the strengths of Western knowledge systems. Learning to use both eyes together is essential in working towards our mission of providing Indigenous-led, culturally-relevant STEM/STEAM programming that supports both Indigenous youth and Indigenous communities.