Author Archives: ananda fulton

Module 2: Post 5 – Goodness in academia

This article is entitled “They Won’t Do It the Way I Can”: Haudenosaunee relationality and goodness in Native American postsecondary student support.

What a title!

It caught my attention because 1) I’m focussing – as much as possible – on Haudenosaunee people for my final research paper and 2) Goodness is a value and I’m looking at how values inform Indigenous teaching and learning.

The paper turned out to be interesting in two main ways:

1. It relates 5 Indigenous professionals experiences with providing support to Indigenous students in post-secondary institutions….

Waterman writes, “In an earlier qualitative study with 47 Haudenosaunee college graduates about their educational experiences, I asked the participants to identify any personnel who were instrumental to their degree completion. Five Indigenous participants were identified in that study (names are pseudonyms) and agreed to be interviewed.” She then shares information from these interviews; most interviewees discuss going above and beyond to support students and being undervalued by their universities. One line provides a good nutshell summary: “Behavior that might, on the surface, appear as social programming or as lacking in formal academic advising, through an Indigenous values lens is nation building” (Waterman, 2021).

2. Woven throughout the paper are bits of wisdom about how to conduct Indigenous academic research, and the tension between academia and Indigenous knowledge…

“The significance of this article lies in exposing the foundational role of IKS [INdigenous knowledge systems], goodness, and relationality in the work of these Haudenosaunee administrators. Settler colonial domination strives to make IKS invisible[…]” Waterman (2021) notes that she must balance her role as a researcher with her responsibility to her community: “I am responsible to both the academic community and my community. In other words, I make sure to conduct my academic work in such a way that I remain welcome at home.”

 

Reference

Waterman, S. J. (2021, October 7). “They Won’t Do It the Way I Can”: Haudenosaunee relationality and goodness in Native American postsecondary student support. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000352

Module 2: Post 4 – It’s all about relationships

I came across Lewis Cardinal when I was looking for Indigenous perspectives on Youtube, so after watching an hour-long talk from him on Youtube, I looked for more of his knowledge and perspective and I found this podcast episode. The podcast is called Shift Management so it’s a workplace, human resources focussed podcast.

In this episode with Lewis Cardinal, he talks about how to develop relationships, the importance of communication, and the values you inherit from the culture or cultures you’re from. He says, “If you want to improve relationships, if you want to improve prosperity, communication is central, and it has to be meaningful.[…]Meaningful conversation means that you start talking with the heart and you start talking about the same things that you find in common looking in the same direction.” He also says, “When you move the heart, the mind follows.”

He also discusses the importance of (everyone in Canada) being treaty peoples, and that we should be learning about what that means in school. As Cardinal says, “The great indoctrinator of any nation is its educational system.”

Module 2: Post 3 – Indigenous knowledge

This essay by Dr. Marie Battiste at the University of Saskatchewan is a wonderful overview of Eurocentric knowledge and Indigenous knowledge. The author explores the ways in which Eurocentric knowledge has sought to discredit Indigenous knowledge, and she details the recent resurgence in interest, validation, and exploration of Indigenous ways of knowing – for example, in science, law, education, and ecology.

Battiste describes how, through an “act of intellectual self-determination, Indigenous academics are developing new analyses and methodologies to decolonize themselves, their communities, and their institutions” and that “Indigenous scholars discovered that Indigenous knowledge is far more than the binary opposite of western knowledge.”

She emphasizes the need for Indigenous knowledge especially in education, for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. She writes “more and more literature has challenged the suppression of Indigenous knowledge and has underscored the importance of bringing it into the mainstream to establish a body of knowledge that can be drawn on for the common good.”

As we know, “the exclusive use of Eurocentric knowledge in education has failed First Nations children. Indigenous knowledge is now seen as an educational remedy that will empower Aboriginal students if applications of their Indigenous knowledge, heritage, and languages are integrated into the Canadian educational system.”

Battiste describes Indigenous knowledge in general, but helpful terms: “Indigenous knowledge is an adaptable, dynamic system based on skills, abilities, and problem-solving techniques that change over time depending on environmental conditions[…]”. Furthermore, “Indigenous knowledge is also inherently tied to land, not to land in general but to particular landscapes, landforms, and biomes where ceremonies are properly held, stories properly recited, medicines properly gathered, and transfers of knowledge properly authenticated”.

She also notes that “focusing on the similarities between the two systems of knowledge rather than on their differences may be a more useful place to start when considering how best to introduce educational reform.” This sentiment inspired me to focus, in my final research paper, on how Indigenous education and non-Indigenous education are similar. I won’t be directly comparing the two, but to the extent that it comes up, my goal will be to see the similarities and – where there are differences – to see what I can learn from Indigenous ways of teaching and learning, in an effort to flip the script on assimilation.

Reference

Battiste M. 2005. Indigenous knowledge: Foundations for First Nations. WINHEC.

Module 2: Post 2 – Onkwehon:we education

This paper – “A Haudenosaunee Model for Onkwehon:we (Indigenous) Education” – is like the holy grail for my research topic. I’m interested in how Indigenous peoples educate their own people and how Indigenous values, including valuing the land, inform those education processes. (Onkwehon:we means Indigenous, or first people, in the Kahnyen’kehàka or Mohawk language.)

This paper discusses the importance of Indigenous-led education that reclaims Indigenous ways of knowing, which value “experiential learning, storytelling, and interacting with the land” (Whitlow et al., 2019).

The authors detail how 22 children – half of whom are Indigenous and half are non-Indigenous – took part in three days of workshops on the Six Nations reserve, near Brantford Ontario (the largest reserve in Canada). “The workshops were led and conducted by Haudenosaunee knowledge keepers who covered a range of topics: sovereignty, food, ceremonies, treaties, historical agreements between Six Nations and Brantford, colonization, decolonization, resistance, art, residential schools, cultural pride, language, and artistic practice.” (Whitlow et al., 2019).

The researchers then followed up with participants six months later. There are some very powerful quotes from the youth who participated in the workshops. The following is one such quote that underscores the importance of place-based learning:

“’You’re just held accountable by your environment, being on Six Nations. Like you’re in their community… I think that’s like really helpful whereas maybe if we had these workshops in Brantford and you’re talking about a community that you’re not actually in, it’s not holding you super accountable. You’re in their house, so be respectful while you also inherently try to learn at the same time.’(Non-Onkwehon:we Youth)” (Whitlow et al., 2019).

Reference

Whitlow, K.B, Oliver, V., Anderson, K., Brozowski, K., Tschirhard, S. Charles, D., and Ransom, K. (2019). Yehyatonhserayenteri: A Haudenosaunee model for Onkwehon:we (Indigenous) education. Canadian Journal of Education 42(2).

Module 2: Post 1 – Myths

Dispelling Common Myths About Indigenous Peoples: 9 Myths & Realities (ebook)

I find the Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. (www.ictinc.ca) website is a good website for broad, brief knowledge on a lot of topics. This ebook is free and it caught my attention since we are discussing stereotypes in Week 4.

The first myth is “Indigenous peoples are all the same”.

I think this is worthy of being #1. I remember reading the popular non-fiction author Michael Pollan’s book This Is Your Mind on Plants and he frequently referred to “Indigenous people” in a general way. I mentally bumped on it every time, and wanted to tell him and his editor that the “s” in “Indigenous peoples” is crucially important. But honestly it’s easy for those of us not familiar with one or more Indigenous nations or groups (such as myself) to fall into thinking that there is an Indigenous way of thinking/doing/being, rather than many, many ways. I know intellectually that there are many First Nations, and other groups like the Inuit and the Metis, but that knowledge isn’t very salient to me because I don’t know any Indigenous people or peoples. I certainly have found myself falling into this trap when thinking about my final research project for this course. I want to look at ‘collectivist’ cultures, but which Indigenous cultures would make the most sense to research and how much information will I be able to find? I’m not yet sure.

However, I am sure that I want to decolonize my thinking and not group all Indigenous peoples together! There are times when I think it’s okay to generalize and talk about, for example, a Western worldview, but we need to be very careful.

The ninth myth in this ebook is “Missing and murdered Indigenous women brought it upon themselves”.

This one makes me sad, and furious, and triggered (for lack of a better term). I want to think that no one could believe this, but I know from experience that people do blame victims of sexual violence.

The other 7 myths are, sadly, the ones you would probably guess. Overall this ebook is a good quick primer about all the negative stereotypes that Indigenous people in Canada face on a regular basis. The content is straightforward and a bit more practical than the Prins piece, which is more about how somewhat positive stereotypes (like the romantic exoticism of the vanishing Indian) can still be harmful.

module 1: post 5 – indigenous worldviews

I’m not sure how I came across this video (Youtube algorithm at work perhaps), but it’s called Foundations of Indigenous Worldviews, and it is clear, informative, and rather inspiring:

The speaker, Lewis Cardinal (who is a prominent Indigenous Canadian – I was surprised I hadn’t hear of him), discusses living in relationship not only with other people, but with other beings. He says Indigenous peoples don’t put themselves at the centre of the circle.

With my new understanding of ‘root metaphors’, what I took from this video is that the circle is a root metaphor for Indigenous worldviews. We are all part of a whole.

Key quotes:

“Each person, family and nation is unique and has much to offer.”

“The individual needs the community and the community needs the individual.”

module 1: post 4 – language contains thought patterns

My fourth ‘finding’ for this module is a video of Chet Bowers at the 2015 Economics of Happiness conference, held in Portland, Oregon. Since we’ve been reading Bowers, but I don’t currently have time to read his book, Let Them Eat Data, I did a quick Youtube search a few days ago and found this mind-blowing 16-minute video:

Here are the notes I made while watching/listening (anything in quotes is directly from the video, everything else is my paraphrasing and interpretation):

  • We have an anthropocentric, European, Enlightenment, abstract way of thinking…
  • This way of thinking doesn’t value the cultural commons and the traditions of local, non-monetized, inter-generational, sustainable activities…
  • “What we need is a more complex form of cultural intelligence” that “pays attention to the patterns that connect”
  • How do various forms of knowledge (ways of knowing/epistemologies) affect our behaviour?
  • It’s not either/or. Print and data are not bad. But they are limited. They don’t capture everything. We need to stop thinking that what is in print or in the form of data is objective. Print and data can’t provide or contain contextual and relational knowledge and experience.
  • Language contains thought patterns. Every language and culture has specific “root metaphors” (I had to Google what root metaphors are). Our culture has a strong root metaphor about progress.
  • “We need to look at the process of linguistic colonization of our present by our past.”

Wow. I highly recommend this video. He starts a little slow, but then it ends up being a PACKED 16 minutes.

Module 1: Post 3 – wisdom of belonging

For a previous MET course, I watched this video about the Circle of Courage:

If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching. The speaker describes Indigenous ways of teaching as involving: Generosity, Belonging, Independence, and Mastery. It’s a really beautiful talk and related to, but a bit different from, the First People’s Principles of Learning.

This video really stuck with me, so I looked up the speaker, Martin Brokenleg, and read the articles on his website.

I especially liked the article “Native American Wisdom on Belonging.” In it, Brokenleg writes, “Belonging is the organizing principle in Partnership cultures. Significance is assured by belonging, whereas in Dominator cultures one gains significance by stand ing out from the others, as seen in the hyperindividualism of U.S. society today.”

I really think I want to focus on individualism vs collective for my research project, but I may need to narrow down that huge topic a tiny bit… We’ll see. 🙂

Module 1: Post 1 – What is America?

I read What is America? A Short History of the New World Order, a book by Ronald Wright, over 10 years ago. I recently found this book on my bookshelf; it was one of about 20 books that I kept after getting rid of hundreds of books that used to line my shelves.

I remember it as a short, surprising, and powerful book that I learned a lot from. In fact, it’s full of dog-eared pages and my pencil underlines and notes in the margins. It dispelled two common stereotypes of Indigenous Americans (the author’s term). First, that Indigenous peoples have never over-hunted or over-consumed resources. Dispelling this myth doesn’t – in my opinion – negate the sacred relationship Indigenous peoples have with the land or their status as land- and water-keepers, but gives us a more nuanced, realistic, and pluralistic view of Indigenous peoples. It helps dispell a one-note stereotype. Second, that Indigenous peoples were highly nomadic and had simple social structures. He talks about the many complex, hierarchical, and agrarian peoples that lived in America before it was America. He also discusses how many settlers thought Indigenous peoples were just as smart and capable as anyone else, and the ways in which settlers and Indigenous peoples co-existed for a long time. The book subverts the idea that settlers instinctively thought Indigenous people were savage, and describes how the eradication of Indigenous peoples was actually a lot more purposeful and intentional – driven by greed for the land more than ignorance of Indigenous people’s humanity.

Here is a short review in The Walrus: https://thewalrus.ca/book-review-what-is-america/

Ronald Wright has also written A Short History of Progress, Stolen Continents, and Gold Eaters – all of which feature information about Indigenous peoples in North America.

Module 1: Post 2 – A field of poppies

This brief article caught my attention as I looked for information about collectivism and Indigenous cultures:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/19/indigenous-culture-relies-on-knowledge-sharing-we-need-new-leaders-to-reflect-that

The writing style seems Indigenous to me; it had a slightly different rhythm than I’m used to. I found it oddly soothing. It’s about moving toward an antidote to individualism and competition. About standing tall and proud, while avoiding the pitfalls of the ego. About a rising tide lifting all boats.

The author, Carla McGrath, is part of IndigenousX, an Indigenous owned and run media organization.