Tag Archives: Indigenous

Module 2, Post 2 – Ministry for Tribal affairs India

The Ministry for Tribal Affairs was set up as late as 1999 in India separating from the Ministry for Social Justice, to create focused efforts towards integrated socio-economic development of tribal populations in India.

http://tribal.nic.in/index.aspx

 

The site is home to a variety of  official information regarding Tribal data, schemes for tribal empowerment, tribal healthcare, Forest Rights Act, constitutional provisions and Annual reports of the working of the ministry.

What was impressive to me was that site has a detailed record of the Parliamentary discussions concerning Tribal issues which could be found at the link given below.

http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/qsearch15.aspx

Module 2 post 5

Module 2 post 5- interactions and inter-relationships around text- Peter Martin

This article looks at one science lesson (a micro-ethnographic study)in a Bruneian classroom and observes the reading/learning practices in a classroom made up of  purely Indigenous students. The study looks at how indigenous students cross literacy boundaries inherent in learning in two foreign languages (English and Malay) while having no access to their own mother tongue in a learning environment.

Module 1 Post 2: Aboriginal Peoples and News

People’s misconceptions of Aboriginal peoples are often due to what they see or read in mainstream media. I found this video that talks about how misconceptions can be driven and perpetuated by the media. Interestingly, it also touches on journalism, and how journalists often lack a solid background or knowledge on Aboriginal peoples; therefore, they are more likely to “buy into” and promote the myths that are already established.

In searching for how Aboriginal peoples are portrayed in the media, I stumbled on this article News Stereotypes of Aboriginal Peoples.

The article examines how Aboriginal people are typically shown on the news when an individual is either: a warrior, drumming, dancing, drunk, or dead (WD4). It speaks of various stereotypes that are based on untruths and how they are perpetuated by selective media coverage and false assumptions.

The article is posted on a site called “Reporting in Indigenous Communities”. Upon further exploration, I found out that this site’s purpose is to guide and educate journalists that are reporting news in Indigenous communities. It describes ways in which reporters can help serve Indigenous communities by providing quality news coverage. This site also has many valuable resources such as historical overviews, glossaries of terminology/definitions, government acts, residential schools, Indigenous media/blogs, and many more.

 

Module 1 Post 1 – Re-Indigenizing Digital Spaces

Based on the readings from week 1, there is the question of whether or not or to what extent can/should technology be incorporated into Aboriginal education, especially when it seems to contradict pillar forms of Indigenous knowing and learning.

I was able to meet with at least one Aboriginal Educator who believes that the internet will be vital in spreading awareness about his people (specifically the Anishinabe) and Indigenous people in Canada and wants to build his digital toolbox.  His name is Eddy Robinson and he is part of Morningstar River – their website is here: http://www.morningstarriver.com/index.html

When he came into speak he used Keynote through his Mac, and did mostly lecture-style teaching.  He left things open for student questions, but the group was shy, unfortunately.  He opened and closed the time with a song, and had brought a drum with him.  Afterwards, he spoke about how he on the one hand wants to make some resources available online, but is conflicted about making all knowledge available to anyone.  For example, he mentioned creating a video about the process of smudging that he would post but make private, with a limited time-frame of viewability to groups that had invited him in.  I think he was feeling aware that a ‘safe space’ (his words) is created where he is invited, but the internet is not equally safe.  That said, he cited his friend and colleague Wab Kenew (and specifically his ‘8th Fire’ series) as a way that technology is spreading what he sees as important work.  I’m very interested in doing further research and reflection on this juxtaposition, and what practical learning can be derived from it as an educator.