Tag Archives: Haudenosaunee

module 4: post 2 – Six Nations protests

In trying to learn about the Haudenosaunee people near me, I watched this documentary on youtube:

It focusses a lot on the very tense protests against housing developments on Haudenosaunee land in 2006, near Caledonia, Ontario and the leadership of the Clan Mothers in that protest.

My thinking this week has been shaped by Indigenous women leaders specifically. 🙂

module 3: post 5 – Haudenosaunee teachers at residential schools

Norman, A. (2015). “True to my own noble race”: Six Nations Women Teachers at Grand River in the early Twentieth Century. Ontario History, 107(1), 5–34. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050677ar

I found this fascinating article in my research for my final project, which is about Indigenous people – and specifically Haudenosaunee peoples – educate their own people, now and in the past. (Although it’s difficult to find a lot of specifics about pre-contact teaching and learning practices, beyond oral storytelling and learning by observation and then doing.)

This article is a history of three Indigenous women (out of many) who taught at residential day schools on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario (near where I live), during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The author writes:

“These three women negotiated multiple identities as Six Nations women, as Christians, as teachers in a Western school system, and as ‘good women.’ They took part in a process of cultural negotiation, exerting flexibility, creativity, and a willingness to look for opportunities to do the work they desired to do in and for their community.”

module 3: post 3 – The Clay we are made of

I found this 2017 book: The Clay We Are Made Of: Haudenosaunee Land Tenure on the Grand River by Susan M. Hill on Canada Commons.

Although I haven’t read the entire book yet, it provides a great history of the Six Nations of the Grand River (the peoples I am focussing on for my final project). It doesn’t focus on education, but there is some info on education. For example, this thought-provoking passage:

The TRC’s call understandably emphasizes education and related institutions. For Six Nations, there is certainly a need to address the direct impacts of the residential school system on the community, especially for the remaining survivors and their direct descendants. However, as many Indigenous people across Canada (and beyond) suggest, the effects are much further-reaching, and the mentality that brought about residential schooling also altered fundamental ideas held by Indigenous people about education, particularly in how it relates to Indigenous Knowledge/Original Teachings. The primary conduits for traditional Native education are the Native languages of the people. The attack on Indigenous languages by the residential school system and related policy initiatives is the most measurable in terms of impact. Therefore, upon embarking on reconciliation, the most assessable area of improvement could be language revitalization (for those communities who deem it a key goal of reconciliation). Fewer than 1 percent of all Grand River Haudenosaunee are now fluent in any of their original languages, but there is a great desire to regain fluency.

Alongside clearly articulated goals for Haudenosaunee language revitalization are aspirations for community-controlled education for the Six Nations community as well as adequate financial support to access quality educational opportunities inside and outside the community; this is relevant for all levels of education, from pre-school through doctoral studies. Many community-based thinkers have suggested this could easily be financed through land claims resolution. [emphasis added]

 

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 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’kehĂ ka 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).