Battiste, M., & Henderson, J. S. Y. (2009). Naturalizing indigenous knowledge in eurocentric education. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 32(1), 5-18.

This article is primarily focused on how indigenous languages are a source of indigenous knowledge. For those of you interested in the study and preservation of indigenous languages, I highly recommend this article. Its positive and powerful diction is infectious – the article will get you excited about the “Indigenous Renaissance”.

There’s another reason this article is exciting, too; remember the previous discussion thread where we discussed the idea that some math (i.e. straight lines as the shortest route from A – B) was contradictory to Indigenous knowledge? That inspired me to learn more about ways in which the curriculum was Eurocentric, and this article speaks to that. The authors assert the idea that “through its applications and teachings, [Eurocentric knowledge] has long ignored, neglected, or rejected Indigenous knowledge as primitive, barbaric, and inferior, centering and privileging European methodologies and perspectives” (6). That idea is not new, but this article goes further, exemplifying ways that teachers can avoid these harmful practices. It concludes with concrete suggestions for teachers who want their classrooms to be more culturally inclusive, creating “potential for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners in trans-systemic ways that European knowledge alone cannot do” (13).