indigenous
approaches to learning+
decolonizing education+
Relational ways of understanding+
traditional ecological knowledge+
research +
indigenous approaches
Indigenous Approaches to Learning
In this course I furthered my understanding about relational learning. This complex Indigenous approach to education needs to be recognized, valued and featured prominently in the transformation needed in mainstream teaching methods for the benefit of all relationships within the living web of this land. Using a relational approach to education can move us forward in a direction that is more compassionate and understanding by learning together how to overcome a Eurocentric model of education based on power, separation, hierarchy and judgement. With an intention of decolonization and respect to Indigenous ways of learning, I explored the ways that talking circles and other Indigenous pedagogies and methodologies of education are effective approaches when wanting to change the power dynamic and privilege stance of current teaching methodologies in western classrooms. This approach lends itself to using creativity and arts-based learning to bring about change in cultural relationships through enhancing understanding of each other’s ways of being in this world.
Indigenous Knowledge and Education course readings connected in an interdisciplinary understanding for me with the previous learning in the anthropology courses, and education courses bringing meaning into the way we can connect with our world through classroom learning.
Interrelationship and wholeness are important principles of Indigenous education approaches. This interrelationship is encouraged between educators and students, but fundamentally with all in the living web of our world. Recognizing that we are all connected and interdependent promotes values of compassion, respect, kindness, and awareness. These are values that can be learned in a classroom with the intention to growing as a whole person. Learning to be a whole person involves balance and harmony; teaching for the mind, spirit, emotions and body. Teaching in fragmented units that are separated from this balance does not empower learners to seek wholeness.
Self-critical thinking: By learning about the differences in cultural teaching, I was able to bring a more balanced relationship between learners and myself in the courses I was teaching. Being able to see aspects of course delivery that could be presented in a co-created way instead of a hierarchical method, or as Friere discusses, the banking method that used a lecture style approach to delivery. This seemed to make a significant shift in the empowerment for the students to understand not just what they were learning but see it reflected in how they were learning.
Living in harmony with each other and nature needs to be taught throughout our lives including in the classroom. The western concept of classroom needs to change to be dynamic and land-based where learning can happen experientially with the goal of integration and understanding. It is through experience that understanding can be attained within the context of our interconnectedness. When surveyed, Indigenous educators suggested that effective teachers will have, “an open and questioning mind, patience, humour, dedication, compassion, a love of learning, and high expectations of their students” (St. Denis, 2010: 28). Teaching and learning with wholeness can create an environment that goes beyond different cultures and connects everyone with everything. These principles are based on the framework of family. If we see all of the living world as though they are family, we can then conduct ourselves accordingly with love, respect and protection.
Experimental research
Relational Education: A Way Forward Together 210722 INST511
A relational approach comes with responsibilities. Entering into a relationship of learning and sharing means we all must be accountable, trustworthy, genuine and authentic. Vine Deloria, Jr., a Lakota scholar (1986) noted that all relationships have a moral component because all of the interconnectedness of the universe is personal (as cited in Colorado, 1988:52). Our relationship with the world and each other is dependant on having a compassionate and giving connection with the natural environment. This is a value that can be encouraged, learned and promoted through a relational model to education. A coming to know is learning from the inside about the external world by being in harmonious relationship with that world (Williams & Snively, 2019; Cajete, 2000; Colorado, 1998; Peat, 1994). Following Indigenous principles of education will help everyone to learn how to be in this important harmonious relationship. By educating with a relational approach, our interdependency can be deeply understood, positive reciprocal relationships can be built and we can seek out harmony and balance as goals for our future with nature.
Alberta Education: Aboriginal Services Branch. (2005) Our words, our ways: Teaching First Nations, Métis and Inuit learners. Retrieved from education.alberta.ca/media/3615876/our-words-our-ways.pdf
Battiste, M. (2002). Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy in First Nations education: A literature review with recommendations. (Report prepared for the National Working Group on Education and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada). Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved from www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education/24._2002_oct_marie_battiste_indigenousknowledgeandpedagogy_lit_review_for_min_working_group.pdf
Colorado, P. (1988). Bridging Native and Western science. Convergence, 21(2), 49-68.
Cajete, G. (2000). Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers.
Deloria, Jr., V. (1997). Red earth, white lies: Native Americans and the myth of scientific fact. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing.
Friere, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum International Publishers Inc.
Hernandez, N. (1999). Mokakssini: A Blackfoot theory of knowledge (Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University Graduate School of Education). Publication No. AAT 9933131.
Peat, F. D. (1994). Lighting the seventh fire: The spiritual ways, healing, and science of the Native American. New York, NY: Birch Lane Press.
St. Denis, Verna, ed. (2010).A study of aboriginal teachers’ professional knowledge and experience in Canadian Schools. Ottawa: Canadian Teachers’ Federation. Retrieved from www.ctf---fce.ca/Documents/BulletinBoard/ABORIGINAL_Report2010_EN_re---WEB_Mar19.pdf
engaged awareness
The concept of relationship is at the core of Blackfoot knowledge systems. By building relationship with all living things and the land, we can engage in ways that are respectful, ethical, and reciprocal. Being in right relation with the land allows for a way of being that is connected and supports learning and gaining knowledge. This localized and situational knowledge is able to be shared orally in the appropriate settings. By experiencing teachings, instead of consuming information, we can begin to learn about the world around us from within and understand our role in the greater environment and web of living beings.
Having an engaged-awareness encourages truly seeing and experiencing the world as it is presenting itself in the living moment. By seeing the momentum in living in all that is in our world, we can conduct ourselves with increased compassion and consideration of the other. In the Blackfoot language, this level of connection is called aokakio’ssin (an engaged-awareness) of events and conditions unfolding in the moment.
When you can recognize the life in anything, you can then identify with it and potentially develop a relationship. In our way, it is this relationship that is most significant, because within that context there can be mutually beneficial, and therefore ethical, exchange.
See Blog page for further writing excerpts from the Indigenous Knowledge and Education course
Respect Brings Conservation
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)
The rich oral archive of knowledge for the Koyukon is rooted in ecological patterns and respectful ways to interact with the ecosystem. The patterns consist of two main factors upon which very specific information is shared and learned. The first of these is the localization of subsistence resources. The second is recognizing the variations in resource abundance over time (Nelson, 1983: 201). The centuries of learning specific species in a local area under all possible scenarios created a traditional knowledge and practice that allowed success in the harvesting of plants and animals regardless of weather, season, or landscape. They know where the animals will be and when, how their habits change if there is ice, how to track them in the snow and what type of snow they will be in. Because of this localized knowledge of mostly sedentary species, they realized that all the animals in a species could be entirely taken, and populations devastated if they did not take carefully and only what was needed. This vast amount of empirical knowledge is combined with the spiritual and ecological to create an environmental perspective of respect and conservation. This cumulative knowledge also allows them to continue to learn patterns of the animals’ fluctuations in numbers and movements and recognize their instability leading to harvesting practices to ensure the sustainability of the population. Mammal numbers vary over natural cycles and some are linked together like the lynx, owl and hares. Others like the moose and caribou have migration pattern fluctuations. Fish experience dramatic changes dependant on water levels, locations and populations. Berries and plants are affected by weather and disturbance such as forest fires. The ecological knowledge is interwoven and shared through story to further teach the respect of the animals by not saying anything insulting about them, not ever wasting them, or bad luck in hunting and fishing could make life difficult and the importance of conserving them for the future.
Nelson, R. K. (1983). Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Traditional Knowledge as Process
Knowledge held within an oral tradition has the ability to change and be fluid. It can adapt as new local knowledge is gained year after year about species of plants and animals, the land and weather patterns. This Indigenous knowledge is rich in detail and has the ability to record patterns and change over time. This knowledge is passed down through generations and can change. While primarily gathered locally, this knowledge can be applied to other areas that are similar in nature. Stories are an integral part to the Indigenous oral tradition and can be used to illustrate and remember the important aspects of how to engage with the natural world and treat all of the ecosystem with respect. Knowledge as a process rather than kept in books and becoming static allowed the Indigenous to survive in very complex ecosystems and dynamics. It was imperative that from one generation to the next, lessons learned on where animals would be and when to which plants to use and how were passed on and not forgotten.
Environmental ethics
Conservation is part of the traditional knowledge of the Koyukon ways of being in relationship with the land, animals and plants. It is an essential part of their life that ensured environmental productivity (Nelson, 1983: 201). They practice sustained yield, avoid wasting, knowing about range and territoriality, and hold respect towards their competitors such as apex predators. They pay attention to patterns like the wolf and moose grow together in numbers, not diminish. Their ecological perspective is one of environmental interrelatedness, respect, watching and learning, and spiritual explanations for some phenomena. Having ecology and spirituality so closely linked means that rules of conduct can be remembered easily and shared through story, and that there are powerful consequences if the rules of respect are not followed. It really was a matter of life and death that the animals be respected and not over harvested or wasted, because they could easily disappear if not carefully managed. Beyond their ability to prevent, the climate is changing and with it the habits of the animals and the plant life. The Koyukon notice less intense winters, drier seasons, diminishing waters that were once lakes becoming meadows (Nelson, 1983: 212).
TEK is also important as an approach to understanding and making decisions because it is inclusive of the, “sacred dimension s of Indigenous knowledge, such as symbolic meanings and their importance for social relationships and values,” (Berkes, 2018: 70). By incorporating all elements of our relationships with the land, we can engage with each other in addressing approaches to conservation and how we manage natural resources more respectfully and cooperatively.
Berkes, Fikret. 2018. Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Resource Management. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis.
