Indigeneity, Technology and Education
Dr Gregory Cajete is the Director of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico. In this talk he explains how Aboriginal ways of knowing are indeed compatible with western science.
He is very much involved in integrated curriculum development that is culturally responsive and aims to engage Aboriginal learners.
Module 4, post 5.
This is a fantastic site with resources for teaching about Indigenous peoples from all over the world. http://www.iwgia.org/index.php
It categorizes these resources to make it useful for teachers of science, languages, humanities and more.
I was particularly interested in their pages on Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Module 4, post 3
Dr. Nancy Turner is a distinguished professor at UVic and the Hakai Chair of Ethnoecology.
I had the good fortune almost 20 years ago to attend Dr. Turner’s environmental studies course on ethnobotany, the study of plants in the traditional contexts of the people who use them.
When we attended traditional activities like a beach pit cooking it was possibly my first (non museum) introduction to living, breathing First Nations culture. We made many things with our hands in her class, like pine needle baskets. But this was not your stereotypical basket weaving course, the kind you’d sign up for to pad your course load.
This is a woman who has dedicated her life’s work to understanding and championing Traditional Ecological Knowledge. This is her personal website.
http://pspaldin.wix.com/nancyturner
Module 1 post 3
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (or TEK) is deep understanding and knowledge of a land and its flora and fauna, gained and passed on through many generations by its inhabitants.
Forests and oceans for the future (http://www.ecoknow.ca/index.html) is the work of a broadly attended research group. It is a website that presents itself as a database or repository of digitized TEK. People from many different agencies and communities were brought together to create it, including members of the Gitxaala Nation and UBC faculty.
It provides many resources (including lesson plans for teachers) with the goal of discovering TEK solutions to many natural resource challenges.