Wholistic Education (with a ‘w)     Etec 521

Two summers ago, I took Etec 521 with Dr. Michael Marker.   The course ended up being a profound experience for me, but it did not start that way.

For the first 6 weeks of the course, I was floundering to find my place and to connect with the curriculum.  I understood prior to taking the course that Indigenous perspectives were unique, important, and in need of greater recognition.  I knew that Aboriginals had a strong connection to the land, but didn’t really understand the implications of that.

As the course progressed, I began to realize that my problems in the course were rooted in my worldview.  I was making a number of problematic assumptions:

• Aboriginal ways of learning are the same as my own ways of learning
• Learning is something that is done in a universal manner
• The impact of colonization is something that First Nations groups have overcome
• Technology is culturally neutral

One of the biggest assumptions I made is that Aboriginals simply identify with the land their tribe is from much in the same way, we, westerners identify with the town we grew up.  In this regard, land simply identifies a person. For the Indigenous, land is much more significant.  The connection goes well beyond identify.  For First Nations land has a spiritual, physical, social and cultural connection – so much so that a member of a tribe can feel disenfranchised when she is away from her territory.

It took me a while to grasp this concept.  Fortunately, there were some students of First Nations descent in the course to help and, of course, Dr. Marker.  One pivotal set of events in the course took place when our class was asked to view two documentaries:

March Point — available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80nfzX7wzlQ

Fraser River Journey — available here: http://www.fraserjourney.ca/

A short summary of March Point:

For centuries the Swinomish Indian Tribe in Western Washington State has relied on the natural resources of the Skagit Valley. Before white settlement tribal people inhabited the valleys, rivers, and shorelines, living off the rich land. But in 1855 most of this land was taken away by the U.S. government in the Treaty of Point Elliott. The Swinomish people were left with basic health care, some fishing rights and a small reservation.  In the late 1950s, two oil refineries operated by Shell and Tesoro were built on March Point in an area that was once part of the Swinomish reservation by treaty. Over time, the presence of the refineries has negatively affected the health of the water and land.

Three teens from the Swinomish Indian Tribe volunteered to make a movie to reduce the amount of time that they spent in drug counselling.   These teens decided to investigate the impact of the two oil refineries.  The film is their interpretation of the harm colonization and settlement have inflicted on the culture, environment, and spirituality of their tribe.  (adapted from Londghouse Media, 2009).

A short summary of Fraser River Journey

Fraser River Journey documentary follows a group of 12 B.C. First Nations youth on a raft trip down the Fraser River. Wielding waterproof video cameras, the youths set out to document their adventures on one of the most stunning and diverse river systems in the world and re-live a journey that Simon Fraser had taken 200 years earlier.  This time the journey is discussed from a First Nations perspective. During the trip downstream, they learn important things about their heritage, their ancestral lands, and themselves.  (adapted from Jaswal, 2010).

Impact upon my Learning

One of the participants in Fraser River Journey, Bonnie, died a year after its filming.  One of the participants from March Point relapsed into a period of substance abuse.  When I read about Bonnie’s death after having viewed her journey in such detail, I was shaken.  Bonnie wished to become an RCMP officer and was one of those students who seemed to be pulling her life together after some issues with alcohol.  Bonnie’s death reminded me that even once-in-a-lifetime events like a month long journey down the Fraser River are sometimes not enough to combat the tremendous pressures that many Aboriginal youth face with the challenges of decolonization, racism, poverty, and disenchantment.

Wholistic Education  (with a ‘w’)

As I progressed through Etec 521, I began to appreciate how a comprehensive methodology is needed to address the needs of Aboriginal learners.  Parent (2009) has argued that for Aboriginal educational reforms to be successful, First Nations must reclaim their traditional teachings and values, so that they can heal and be whole once more.  Wholistic (with a ‘w) education is rooted in Aboriginal languages, land, cultures and the oral tradition.  More recently, it’s understood to be part of a lifelong experiential process, which engages, uplifts, and develops all aspects of the individual and potentially the collective community or nation (Archibald, 2008).

Connection to Metaphor

The death of an outstanding youth due to the pressures that she faced has no parallel in golf.  The notion of wholistic education has no direct comparison to golf.  In the case of First Nations culture, wholistic education is centered on cultural revival, and in some cases cultural survival.  I can’t imagine a concern being any more pressing than the preservation of one’s ancestral traditions.

By contrast, golf is a pastime.  The world would essentially be very similar if golf were not played.  Nevertheless, those who play the game understand it to be a lifelong endeavor.  Golf is something that a person must commit to if they wish to progress.  For many, this translates into spending considerable time reading about the game and understanding it deeply so that improvements can occur.  Any golfer can tell you that superficial efforts to change one’s swing or approach to the game will quickly fail.  Golf, despite being a trivial game, demands total commitment from participants.  To excel, one must believe in one’s self and be dedicated to the fundamentals they have embraced and rehearsed.

With First Nations cultures the challenge is exponentially immense. The difficulties of how to reclaim traditional culture and understandings that have been passed down for centuries is not something that will be readily overcome.  Aboriginal youth, in particular, are struggling to preserve traditional teachings in a world that is rapidly changing.  What little advice golf offers for this challenge is that the process for learning must be something that a person commits to wholeheartedly.  For a select few, golf borders on being a spiritual endeavor.   For First Nations youth, traditional teachings and values identify the soul of their culture and desperately need to be re-discovered and preserved because the loss of such understandings would be profound.

References

Archibald, J. (2008). Indigenous storywork: Educating the heart, mind, body and spirit. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Jaswal, N.  (2010). The Fraser River Journey.  Retrieved from http://www.fraserjourney.ca/

Longhouse Media (2009).  March Point.  A Native Lens film by Longhouse Media.  Retrieved from http://marchpointmovie.com/?page_id=13

Marker, M. (2003). Indigenous voice, community, and epistemic violence: the ethnographer’s “interests” and what “interests” the ethnographer. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. 16 (3): p. 361.

Parent, A. (2009b).  Keep them coming back for more: Urban Aboriginal youth’s perceptions and experiences of wholistic education in Vancouver.  Community Report. Retrieved from: http://www.unya.bc.ca/downloads/keep-them-coming-back-for-more-amy-parent.pdf