Talking circles as Indigenous pedagogy in online learning
This study caught my attention because its goal is to determine whether using talking circles as Indigenous pedagogy would benefit and affect the disconnected experience of online environments for learners. The authors believe that using the Indigenous practice of talking circles can play a significant role in grounding students. They importantly note that we cannot project our “rigid” view of what the talking circle is. I think that this study can play an important role in my understanding of how we can use Indigenous practices to improve digital learning. Since many Indigenous students in the north participate in online learning as a necessity, this knowledge can benefit a vast group of Indigenous students and communities who do not have access to fully staffed schools or programs.
References
Hanson, A. Danyluk, P. (April 11, 2022). Talking circles as Indigenous pedagogy in online learning. The University of Calgary.
I came across this initiative through Aboriginal Mapping Network. I instantly thought it would prove to be a useful resource. The toolkit aids Indigenous communities in learning, sharing, and connecting with other Indigenous communities. The hope is that communities will help each other grow through sharing experiences and knowledge of the Indigenous Guardian program. For those who don’t know, the Guardian program is “an initiative to support Indigenous rights and responsibilities in protecting and conserving ecosystems, developing and maintaining sustainable economies, and continuing the profound connections between natural landscapes and Indigenous cultures.” (Government of Canada). The Toolkit has been created by Nature United in collaboration with Indigenous communities from across Canada. What I like about this website is that it doesn’t just offer a blueprint to run a program; it also offers communities the opportunity to add their own knowledge for all to use if they want to. I hope to use this program as an example of how Indigenous knowledge can be used appropriately online to help protect our environment.
References
Government of Canada. (2022) Indigenous Guardians. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-funding/indigenous-guardians.html
This is a project that I stumbled upon while perusing the agenda and session descriptions for the Indspire 2023 conference in Winnipeg. This is a teacher resource called Resilience: 50 Indigenous Art Cards and Teaching Guide, which features First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women artists. The project highlights this connection to the topic of resilience beautifully,
“Most often, resilience is narrowly defined in the dictionary as the ability to recover from and cope with adversity. However, long before the European invasion of the continent, resilience was a central tenet within Indigenous traditional knowledge and customary practices, and it still is. For these Indigenous women artists, resilience is embodied as endurance, adaptability and sovereignty.”
Lee-Ann Martin provides an essay discussing the project. The project celebrates the Indigenous women whose artwork reclaims that traditional body of knowledge that has been silenced due to colonialism. This project provides another medium for exploring local Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. The use of technology is evident in many of the photos to enhance the artwork’s meaning and to further the learning of the resilience of Indigenous women and their knowledge.
This website combines audio with the written word to raise awareness and educate about Indigenous issues. The founder and president, Rick Harp, is a member of the northern Saskatchewan Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. Mr. Harp’s podcasts range from discussing how Indigenous people are using crowdfunding (January 9, 2014) to further enrich their cultural pursuits to the first Indigenous-led think tank (Jan. 31, July 2021) that plans on enriching Indigenous perspectives in the media. I plan to use the knowledge I get from this site to show how Indigenous peoples are using Western tech to protect and enrich their culture.
I like this website because it shows how Indigenous groups can use Western technology to save, teach and enshrine their knowledge. While I have been researching my paper, I have been struggling with picturing what Indigenizing the internet would look like. This website shows how educators and knowledge holders can combine audio, written, and interactive 3d technology to share and enshrine their knowledge. As an educator, I was excited to find this site as it provides class lessons for integrating Mohawk knowledge into my social studies classes.
In this article, Ms. Greenfield argues for digital equity for Indigenous communities. She explains why it is a fundamental human right for Indigenous people to have access to the internet. While an individual or group can choose not to interact online, having access and the option to do so is essential. Ms. Greenfield argues, “The resilience and innovation of Indigenous people who also have access to the internet means the possibilities of reconciliation and resurgence are infinite.” I believe this article will prove helpful for my essay because Ms. Greenfield explains how Indigenous people can use the internet to better their communities.
I stumped across the website Climate Atlas of Canada and an article called Indigenous Knowledges and Climate Change. The article discusses the connection between the land and how the “world is out of balance” due to the disregard for traditional Indigenous knowledge. The report and the video provide a short documentary of the Indigenous worldviews regarding culture and climate change. The article addresses how climate change is not just an environmental issue but a colonial issue rooted in politics, capitalism, and western ideologies.
The article discusses Indigenous ways of knowing are shaping climate solutions. It also guides some of the efforts that are being undertaken taken titled “Seven generation solutions.”
“What we’re trying to teach is that traditional knowledge is not just for Indigenous people, it’s for everybody… All you have to do, really, is start to respect and understand traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples and you will see there will be a groundswell of new creative and innovative ways and means in which to address these challenges that we face today in the world.”
This website provides an interesting perspective on how sustainable technology can be used within Indigenous communities to solve climate change. The article addresses how these solutions are rooted in a return to the land and, therefore, rooted in decolonization. This article is connected to my research project as it outlines how traditional knowledge and practices can be used to combat more significant issues such as climate change. The medium of the message and the sustainable technology practices are ways in which technology is integrated with these local knowledges.
This is a similar article, Climate Changed: First Nation balances Western science with traditional knowledge, which identifies how fake “beaver dams” can be used to restore stream flow for wildlife. “It’s not just about the watershed and the water — it’s about restoring the culture,”. . . “The Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) culture is directly connected to the land and the water. So, by restoring the watershed, we are actually helping to restore the culture.”
Thank you so much, Paula, for directing me to CBC Curio, an incredibly rich educational resource in both French and English. I will dig a little bit deeper to see if they have any Indigenous language services, but at first glance I do not see this availability.
The first video resource that I felt would be very useful for newcomers and international students coming to Canada and having these conversations for the first time. This video is very short, comprehensive and provides an overview of some of the terminology used to talk about Indigenous Peoples.
This would be an ideal vocabulary warm up and contextualized conversation starter to begin to talk about the importance of names and identification. Inevitably, the lesson would also elicit names and identifications of cultures and ethnicities of students in the classroom. This would be a fantastic way to bridge the cultural divide on day 1.
It truly is amazing what can be found on the World Wide Web. It is truly amazing what altruistic people are spending their time doing.
I came across an Inuit website promoting Inuktitut and other traditional Inuit cultural knowledge and stories. Having spent time in Pangirtung learning Inuktitut, I felt this was an important resource to include in my teachings. The other reason why it is so important is because it provides Inuktitut lessons with authentic Inuktitut speakers. Using the power of behaviorism and audiolingualism in language learning, it not only gives international students another way of representing the world, it more importantly provides essential phonological and articulatory training for pronunciation and accent reduction.
This blog by the National Film Board offers a range of differentiated and multi leveled lessons that provide cultural and historical perspectives on Indigenous peoples through various video resources.
There were also various educational lessons on integrating different forms of media into the classroom, in addition to text. Learning to see video as text which is as credible as traditional academic written journals does much to leverage colonisation and traditional power structures.
