Category Archives: MODULE 3

Module 3- Post 5- What stops us from Indigenizing

The link above is a PowerPoint presentation from Dianne Binn from Camosun College on Indigenizing Curriculum in post secondary systems. One particular slide drew my attention which was focused on “what stops us from engaging, collaborating, reconciling and adapting and integrating” Indigenous ways of knowing in our classroom.

There will always be reasons to not try something new or be open to new ways of learning. I know I am ready and open to change but many of my colleagues are not. This PowerPoint provides explanations of their fears and ways to approach them. In the slides to follow Binn describes what should be incorporated into our ways of teaching to include Indigenous ways of knowing. She provides a curriculum framework that can be incorporated as a way to Indigenize our pedagogy. Binn explain that some educators turn to learning activities as a way to Indigenize their course, however, “including or adapting learning activities without changing other aspects of the curriculum is not a holistic approach to Indigenization, and in some cases can result in trivializing and misappropriating those activities”. This website will prove useful in my final project as an important description and note that we cannot just change activities in our classrooms. It is a pedological shift in the importance of teaching to the learner as a whole that needs to happen.

Module 3- Post 4- Indigenous Education Video Series

https://www.lakeheadu.ca/teaching-commons/indigenous-pedagogies-epistemologies/exploring-indigenous-education-a-video-series

This video series on Indigenous Education has been posted by Lakehead University. The website includes a variety of different sources of information including “Why Indigenizing Curriculum and Pedagogy is Vital for Our Survival”, “decolonizing Teaching Indigenizing Learning Resources” and a video service on “Exploring indigenous Education. I looked specifically at the video series where Professor of Aboriginal Education Susan Dion spoke to current changes in the education system with regards to Indigenous ways of knowing, how educators can have the greatest impact for students, and what educators can do to support the learning for all students. Her words and her stories are impactful. The are a good reflection of current issues in education today with regards to incorporating Indigenous education in schools. She specifically describes the story of a student who needs help, needs her teacher to be an ally. Instead of helping the Indigenous student to navigate a tricky and somewhat racist remark by another child the teacher turns away. Teachers cannot turn away, teacher must be allies. We must help students Indigenous students to express who they are and we must encourage non-Indigenous peoples to be open to listening to perspectives they might not be accustomed to. These stories and perspectives are vital to my final project as they provide the context to WHY we need to Indigenize our curriculum and the support that it provides for Indigenous students and all students.

Module 3- Post 3- First Peoples Principles of Learning linked to BC curriculum

https://learn.sd61.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/96/2017/09/First-Peoples-Principles-of-Learning-for-Teachers.pdf

This document does a great job connecting the core competencies of the bc curriculum to each First Peoples Principle. It also describes each principle in terms of perspective and worldview. The most useful part of this document is it describes what each principle can look like in the classroom. Sometimes it’s easy to read about the principles and not quite understand how you might fit it into the context of your classroom. This document provides tangible teaching and learning strategies that connect to each principle. My final project is a journey in exporting these principles of learning and so this resource should prove useful as a starting point for myself and anyone looking to do the same.

Module 3- Post 2- Residential school summary

https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/#ongoing-impacts

This website/article provides a very good summary of residential schools, how they were formed, the impact over generations and the systematic impacts they created. This article also points to the fact that the Canadian government, through the “Sixties Scoop” abducted children, through social services. Children were removed from their families. This problem still persists today and this article describes the ongoing problems. This genocide of Indigenous People is not complete. It continues today through the systems that are still in place like the disproportionate amount of Indigenous children that are removed from their homes by social services. Highly recommend this read to provide a brief history and context of impacts related to residential schools. This website also has information written on the “Sixties Scoop” and “The White Paper of 1969”. This brief synopsis of a dark Canadian history will be important in my project to provide context to the importance of Indigenizing our curriculum. It describes how the past is impacting the future. Multigenerational trauma impacts our learners today and we must understand our history in order to help our future students.

Module 3- Post 1- Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vQnzQIQn48

If you haven’t seen this video in its entirety it is a must see. Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, a Canadian MP gives a farewell speech to Parliament. She describes the systematic problems still faced by Indigenous Peoples today. She discusses her Peoples “not two generation ago, survival mode meant endurance of extreme temperatures and finding food throughout the winter”. She continues to explain how today they must learn how to survive the government’s unwillingness to support them with basic needs (shelter, water) and systemic problems that create a lack of safety when going to work. I get chills every time I watch this video. Mumilaaq Qaqqaq makes you want to stand up and do something about what is going on. An emotional, motivational speech. This video can be used as evidence in my final project as to why it is so important to embrace Indigenous ways of knowing into our classroom. We must enable and encourage all learners in our classrooms to ensure they are supported in their learning journeys.

M.3 P.5 Braiding Sweetgrass

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a botanist, trained to engage with the environment using the tools of science however, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. “Drawing on her life as an Indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.” She has written scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge, and restoration ecology.

Kimmerer discusses alternative forms of Indigenous knowledge outside of traditional scientific methodologies. Focusing on plants, she compares a Traditional Ecological approach and a Western science approach. This book has popped up for me in many areas lately, and I think the timing is perfect to engage with this text and learn from an Indigenous scientist about my research paper. Continuing to learn about sustainable land stewardship by interweaving TEK and Western science has been an interesting journey and I beleive will better me as an educator.

Kimmerer said about the book that “I wanted readers to understand that Indigenous knowledge and Western science are both powerful ways of knowing, and that by using them together we can imagine a more just and joyful relationship with the Earth.”

References

Kimmerer, R. W. (n.d). Robin Wall Kimmerer [webpage]. Retrieved July 3, 2021. https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/books

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass; Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions.

M.3 P.4 Indigenous STEAM

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics resources for families, teachers, and communities.

The ISTEAM collaborative is supporting Indigenous resurgence through (re)making relations with lands, waters, and each other towards just, sustainable, and culturally thriving futures.

“The Indigenous STEAM Collaborative is a group of researchers and educators that engages in cognitive and community co-design research to advance general knowledge, develop pedagogical approaches for engaging youth in land and water-based learning, and provide learning materials to Indigenous families.”

I found this resource interesting, engaging, and very accessible. Heading include tools and resources, learning opportunities, and most excitingly under ‘Learning Activities’ you can find discussions on Indigenous science, Indigenous pedagogy, Indigenous observing, the relationships with other environmental aspects, and includes detailed activities for various arcs (birds, mammals, technology, water, fish, plants, etc) and connects it to stories. (*click on the image below to access an interactive map to lead to activities and downloadable pdfs*).

This program was “designed to create the conditions under which resurgence of Indigenous knowledge systems thrive.” I think this resource will be a useful tool for educators and for my research project, as I can combine my knowledge as an educator and learn new activities to see Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowlege in action – with tangible lessons.

References

ISTEAM Collaborative, (2020). Indigenous Steam. National Science Foundation. https://indigenoussteam.org/

M.3 P.3 Alaska Native Knowledge Network

The Alaska Native Knowledge Network’s goal is to serve as a resource for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing. It has been established to assist Native people, government agencies, educators, and the general public in gaining access to the knowledge base that Alaska Natives have acquired through cumulative experience over millennia.

I was drawn to this website particularly for the works of Ray Barnhardt, who is a professor at and director of the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His current research focuses on the systematic integration of Indigenous and western scientific knowledge in education. You can find his collective works through the website (there’s a lot of them!), one that many may find interesting is Creating a Place for Indigenous Knowledge in Education, but I focused on another one in particular.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing, this article “seeks to extend our understandings of the learning processes within and at the intersection of diverse worldviews and knowledge systems.” He brings up the importance to integrate Indigenous knowledge and western science, how they can complement each other, and bridge gaps in important information that will lead to a better inclusive future for all. A few quotes that resonated with me that I would like to share are below;

“Although Western science and education tend to emphasize compartmentalized knowledge that is often decontextualized and taught in the detached setting of a classroom or laboratory, Indigenous people have traditionally acquired their knowledge through direct experience in the natural world.”

“Native people may need to understand Western society, but not at the expense of what they already know and the way they have come to know it. Non-Native people, too, need to recognize the coexistence of multiple worldviews and knowledge systems, and find ways to understand and relate to the world in its multiple dimensions and varied perspectives.”

“Western scientists have constructed the holographic image, which lends itself to the Native concept of everything being connected.”

References

Barnhardt, R. (2007). Creating a Place for Indigenous Knowledge in Education: The Alaska Native Knowledge Network. Place-Based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity. https://uaf.edu/ankn/publications/collective-works-of-ray-b/Creating-a-Place-for-Indigenous-Knowledge.pdf

Barnhardt, R., Kawagley, A. O. (2005). Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing. Anthropology and Education Quarterly. 36(1): 8-23. https://www.fws.gov/nativeamerican/pdf/tek-barnhardt-kawagley.pdf

M.3 P.2 Indigenous Education Tools

Indigenous Education Tools (IET) is a part of the Building Capacity & Cultivating Innovation (BCCI): Learning Agendas in Native Education project.

BCCI is designed to develop resources and practices that will have exponential impacts on efforts to improve Native student success across a variety of sectors. This website includes brief and teaching tools that provide knowledge of best practices and research to foster communication and collaboration, as well as the development and implementation of best practices to promote Indigenous student success. A few lessons that stood out to me in particular for my research interests include;

“Indigenous methodologies are tied to a larger project of Indigenous decolonization. They do not merely model Indigenous research, but “denaturalize power within settler societies and ground knowledge production in decolonization.”

I think this brief was particularly interesting for me as it made me question how I am approaching my research project in general. It made me reflect on my research process and be critical in the way that I engage with Indigenous beliefs about knowing, relationships, place, and time. A critical question that was highlighted in this article that I am asking myself is; “How do my methods help to build respectful relationships between the topic that I am studying and myself as a researcher (on multiple levels)?”

“Native science is “essentially a story, an explanation of the how and why of things of nature and the nature of things.”

Using stories from both elders and teachers to build theory and explain phenomena can be utilized and implemented in Indigneous science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths (ISTEAM). This lesson discusses building hybrid places of Indigenous and Western ways of knowing and designing of curriculum. A critical consideration that I am walking away with is to embrace storytelling as a legitimate way to explain phenomena, knowledge, and feelings.

References

PDF Tool: Developing Culturally Revitalizing and Sustaining Pedagogies through Storywork. Indigenous Education Tools. http://indigenouseducationtools.org/tt/tool01

Tuck, E. (n.d.). Brief 5 – The Promise of Indigenous Research. Indigenous Education Tools. http://indigenouseducationtools.org/bf/05

M.3 P.1 Two-Eyed Seeing

Interweaving Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science

“If we can learn to see through two lenses, or with two eyes, we will better understand the world, ecology, or environmental science in general.”

This article reviews the importance of incorporating both traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and western science into wildlife management practices. Examples of such interwoven practices are given in the article like the Heiltsuk grizzly bear population, the Sahtu Dene caribou populations around Great Bear Lake, Cree Nation walleye populations of Mistissini, bison reintroduction of the Blackfeet Indian reservation, the caribou management of Taku River Tlingit First Nation, the Biigtigong Nishnaabeg moose population, and the Nisga’a salmon population.

This article also brings to light that there is no universally accepted definition of TEK, however, one commonly cited definition is given from ecologist Fikret Berkes; “a cumulative body of knowledge , practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment.”

Comparisons are made between TEK and western science including; western science is often compartmentalized dealing with a specific question about a specific part of the ecosystem versus TEK which is often more holistic. Western science often works under a short time frame (due to politics and funding), whereas TEK can span generations, which can be beneficial to researchers and managers. Indigenous knowledge can work as an early warning system, it recognizes regional differences in ecology that biologists might overlook.

Some difficulties of weaving the two include (but is not limited to); TEK is often discounted by scientists as mythology, elders can be reluctant to share their knowledge, past frictions between scientists and Indigenous peoples has led to strained relations, an the colonial history of settlement has left a lot of distrust. One solution that is provided to overcome some of these barriers includes incorporating TEK into university wildlife courses rather than solely Native studies or anthropology courses, this could help bridge the divide.

“Conservation successes are going to come when Indigenous people are empowered and have their stewardship and governance practices respected and realized.”

References

Learn, J.R. (2020). Two-Eyed Seeing: Interweaving Indigenous knowledge and Western science. The Wildlife Professional, 14 (4), 17-26. https://www.wildlife.org