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This paper is an examination of the way mathematics, and STEM, arises through stories of teaching and learning on, with, and alongside "Land." It emerges from research, undertaken in different Nations (Cree, Dene, Métis, Mi'kmaw, Naskapi, Canada), that considers what locally meaningful K-12 STEM teaching and learning might look like in Indigenous contexts. The paper reflects our research process. Each story is followed by a conversation that surfaces elements of how mathematics, language, learning, and different ways of knowing, being, and doing circulate together and emerge in relation to "Land" and all relations living within it. We frame the work in ethical relationality to open a space where Indigenous and Western knowledges might co-exist, attending to ongoing tensions in the work between ways of knowing, being, and doing of different people and peoples/nations, between perspectives and experiences of indigenous and non-indigenous participants, between languages, while still creating spaces where we might move closer together through iterative processes of collective learning. This exploration provides insight into how and when we might remember that mathematics has spirit, how quantity and pattern live in various contexts, when numbers might be inadequate for a context, and how all these ideas can meaningfully inform mathematics teaching and learning via relationships between language, mathematics and learners. We seek a mathematics that resists abstraction as extraction and instead lives and enspirits teaching and learning through relationships.

Positioned within Indigenous and ecological discourses, our paper reconsiders human-centered relationships with earth and activities such as STEM that view earth as commodity, resource, and platform. In doing so, we turn to the ways earth (e.g., rivers, forests, animals) teaches mathematics education for "STEM as place" and reveals intelligences that exceed those of humankind. Using examples of place and land, we illustrate how such a conception contrasts with current calls and goals for STEM and integrated STEM education. We contend that comprehending "STEM as place" renews potential for success to be defined "as the continuity of life"; that is, all that concerns the natural world, including human wellbeing in general, and in particular mathematics and mathematics education. To conclude, we propose research directions to study mathematical ways of being, mathematics, and mathematics education for "STEM as place." We include possible implications and pathways for such work which prompts (re)visioning and (re)enacting mathematics education to be for "STEM as place."

Current conceptions of STEM focus on the Western views of distinct academic disciplines--sciences, technologies, engineering, and mathematics. There are national and international initiatives aimed at increasing workforce and postsecondary participation in STEM-related fields, including individuals in under-represented groups. While the emphases of these initiatives are clear, further consideration regarding the meaning and purpose of STEM is necessary. From our indigenous and ecological perspectives, limited questioning around STEM not only marginalizes other cultural forms of knowing--especially those which are connected to the environment--but also denies the potential for other cultural forms of knowing to contribute to the development and advancement of STEM. We are particularly interested in how STEM might be re-imagined within indigenous and ecological perspectives; what alternative meanings of STEM are enabled; and in light of these, what other purposes are possible for STEM? In this paper, we consider other cultural forms of knowing, specifically those forms of knowing deeply connected to the environment, to explore how such practices enable a re-imagining of STEM. Focusing on living landscapes, topography, architecture, and algo-rhythms, we engage the reader to play with these ideas, question taken for granted meanings of STEM, and re-imagine STEM within ecological and indigenous perspectives.