Category Archives: Module 4

Traditional Knowledge Bulletin

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The Traditional Knowledge Bulletin is an information service being offered by the United Nations University Traditional Knowledge Institute in Australia. It aims to provide information on traditional knowledge (TK) related discussions at international forums by posting weekly reviews of TK issues in the global news and individual posts on issues relevant to TK at the global level. The blog is active and monthly archives are available back to March 2007.

Alaska Native Perspectives on Earth & Climate – Lesson Plans

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Found at the Teacher’s Domain, which is a free digital media service for education use, the ‘Alaska Natives Perspectives on Earth & Climate‘ webpage provides links to student activities, lesson plans, and videos.  The resources are organized under topics of traditional ways of knowing: spirit, air, fire, water, and earth; and Earth as a system: atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. The lesson plans are recommended for grades 6-12, detailed, and are based on Alaskan Native ways of knowing. The site is free to use, although you have to register after 7 uses.

Tribal Journeys

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While interviewing a colleague for my essay, she reminded me of Tribal Journeys and how important it was for young people to have authentic experiences.  It is not enough to be digitally engaged or go on virtual canoe trips.  The Tribal Journeys site is full of stories of expeditions, past and present and how to sign up for expeditions in the future.  The focus is on having indigenous young people travel through the Salish Sea in much the same manner as their ancestors did.  Huge canoes have been fashioned and as they move along the coast over about 25 days, they are welcomed at villages.  The site also has a great deal of information of a more general nature, regarding First Nations communities along the Coast of British Columbia and Washington.  Much like the video we watched about the Fraser River journey, Tribal Jounreys gives young people a chance to bond with each other, with Elders and with the land, and in this case, the sea.  It has become apparent to me while writing my essay that the land in many ways dictates the nature of the First Nations communities.  Coastal communities are connected to the sea and the land as well as rivers.  Plains cultures would have different issues.  Knowing the environment is critical to knowing the culture and there won’t ever be a “one-size fits-all” answer to addressing the issues facing First Nations communities.

Module 4: Eco Farming and the Future

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9K0cZGQgHA Vandan Shiva

Vandana Shiva is India’s David Suzuki.  This woman is an amazing holder of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, scientific knowledge, political knowledge and economic knowledge.  Her farm in India serves as an ecological farm to feed the people that live there, a research base on ecological farming, and a seed bank.  Through her research, she has proven that industrialization of farming does not produce a higher yield than ecological farming as is promised by producers of herbicides and pesticides.  Her approach, to know the land and work with the land, has shown that that is the most effective way to increase the yield of the land.

Her seed bank is likely the most important contribution she is making in my opinion.  Genetic modification of seeds has led to the patenting of genes and thus the ownership of the seed, and thus life, of a few very wealthy people.  The sale of the GMOs (genetically modified organisms) as high yielding crops has resulted in the extinction or endangerment of many other species of plants and thus has destroyed the diversity of the various ecosystems.  Her seed bank seeks to save the seeds and thus the diversity, so that there is not a monopoly on seeds (life) and the knowledge in the non-GMO seeds is preserved.

This woman is amazing.

Module 4: Preserving TEK

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http://www2.brandonu.ca/library/cjns/16.2/tsuji.pdf

Here is an interesting article that has quantified and verified that Traditional Ecological Knowledge is being lost in First Nations communities.  The researcher tested Elders on their knowledge about an indigenous bird, and then tested young adults on their knowledge of the same bird.  Elders far outscored young adults with respect to knowledge that should be common to this cultural group.

These results spurred the Elders, with the help of the researcher, to create a Cree curriculum for the TEK that should be passed down to future generations.

This is one of the better articles about TEK that I have read for a few reasons.  It acts on results with the formation of a curriculum that is driven by the Elders, it links TEK with culture, it considers the historical events that have contributed to the degredation of TEK, and it points out the global significance to people beyond the culture that hold the TEK.

1969 film “The Exiles”

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I came across this film through the suggestion of a friend, although we are in the final days of ETEC521 it really fits with a number of discussions from weeks past.  Released in 1969, the same year as the Canadian Government released the White Paper, The Exiles is an American production chronicling the events of one Friday night for group of Native Americans in Los Angeles.  After befriending a group of Native Americans in downtown LA, writer Kent Mackenzie broached the subject of a film about their life experiences, asking the group to help write the script, with their own narration, and with them as partners in the film’s production. Mackenzie was attempting to deconstruct the exotic  portrayal of “The Other” common in films about Native Americans of the day.  While the film today might be considered a narrative fiction, in the context of it’s writing and release it was considered a documentary. A more thorough description of the film’s history and restoration can be read here – I found it to be a fascinating read.

View the trailer here: http://youtu.be/9VepP9Eyfp0

This film was re-released in 2008 by Sherman Alexie, writer of Smoke Signals, and Charles Burnett. The Exiles was on late night television last night although it’s also available for purchase.

Module 4: TEK and Restoration

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http://www.ser.org/iprn/restoration.asp

There is a plethora of research, articles and websites touting the way Traditional Ecological Knowledge can be used as scientific evidence of the climate change that is happening in extreme envirionments (such as the Arctic and Sahara), and lands that are relied upon for sustinance by indigenous people (such as Samoa and Tasmania).

What is lacking in the research, is evidence as to how TEK can reverse or slow the process of climate change and how the particular ecosystems should be managed and maintained.  This website, Indigenous Peoples’ Restoration Network, briefly outlines how altered practices from Western to Indigenous, has slowed, stopped or reversed the negative changes associated with climate change. 

I think sites like this one could prove to be more valuable than ones pointing out the doom and gloom of the climate change situation.  People know that the climate is changing in a detrimental way, but they don’t know what they can do about it.  This provides valuable information and hope to people that hopefully can be acted upon.

Indigenous adoption of mobile phones

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F. Sudweeks, H. Hrachovec and C. Ess (eds.) Indigenous adoption of mobile phones and oral cultures.

This preliminary research into an Australian indigenous community illustrates how oral culture of an indigenous community is integrated with a new form or technology-the mobile phone. It also shows that technology can influence the way in which the people of ‘oral culture’ communicate with each other.

This finding can be compared with some of the previous studies made by Western media studies scholars such as Katz and Aakhus’s (2002). They have argued that the mobile phone is adopted and used universally to local peoples regardless of cultural or regional differences, owing to the its (somewhat neutral) design appealing to a wide range of populations.

That is, in Sudweeks’s research, the mobile phone interacts with its users who have particular culture and tradition. Technology is filtered and “cultured” through local traditions and histories, but also is re-articulate with tradition in many unexpected ways.
References

F. Sudweeks, H. Hrachovec and C. Ess (eds.) (2008). Indigenous adoption of mobile phones and oral cultures, Proceedings Cultural Attitutdes Towards Communication and Technology, Murdoch University, Australia, 384-398.

Katz, JE and Aakhus, MK (2002) Perpetual contact: Mobile communication, private talk, public performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Ky
Module 4: #2

First Nations, Inuit and Aboriginal Health

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First Nations, Inuit and Aboriginal Health

eHealth is a government-managed system utilizing ICTs (information and communication technologies) to support and connect health care professionals and the people. Its main aim is to provide indigenous population with health-related information and telephone consultation.

It seems that Canadian government’s eHealth system implies the two possible types of appropriation of ICTs in and for indigenous communities (Gideon, 2006). The first is to disseminate Western medical knowledge into indigenous communities via ICTs; in this case, ICTs is adopted as a conduit of dominant scientific knowledge. The second is to build “partnership” between the dominant medical knowledge and indigenous care systems; this type of apporpriation would be more helpful for indigenous communities’ self-determination and well-being.

Reference: Gideon, V. (2006). Canadian aboriginal peoples tackle e-health, In K. Landzelius (ed.). Native on the Net: Indigenous and Diasporic Peoples in the Virtual Age (pp.61-79). London: Routledge.

Ky
Module 4: #1

Module 4: Third World Farmer

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http://www.arcadetown.com/3rdworldfarmer/gameonline.asp

Third World Farmer is a game that makes use of Indigenous knowledge and teaches gamers about the struggles of a farmer in a developing nation.  The game bridges technology and IK in many layers.  The first layer is that of the actual game design–it is a game on a computer, but the rules of the game are dictated by environmental and social factors that influence the livelihood of an African farmer, and to overcome the difficulties, the gamer must discover the Indigenous knowledge to be successful.  Within the game IK and technology are also linked.  When the gamer starts, all she has is her family and a bit of money.  She must research the various crops and decide how best to spend her money.  Through trial and error, the gamer develops a very rudimentary form of Indigenous knowledge.  As the gamer makes more money, she can buy various technologies that will make her life easier and help her yield better crops and thus make more money.

Some of the criticisms I have of this game are that the fact that it is a game may trivialize the plight of the third world farmer.  There is not a lot of education going on to really inform the gamer of the social implications of the GAME itself.  There is infomation about the severity of the situation in Africa, and a critical thinker would understand the message, but the average gamer would not see that while he or she may have just lost their entire family to a plague, the actual farmer the character represents can’t escape this reality.  Another criticism is that the issues behind the struggles are not very well articulated.  It does show that these farmers are being forced to work with in the confines of mechanization, but it doesn’t reveal that the increase in length, frequencey and severity of droughts is caused by industrialization and capitalism.  You also can’t save your game and pick up where you left off later.  This is frustrating from a game point of view, but also from a learning point of view.  To get the full effect of the game, several hours are required, which I’d like to expend over a few weeks, but because I can’t save the game, I have to start over each time, but I also don’t have the stamina (or time or patience) to spend 7 consecutive hours playing the same game.