DAY 4: Opportunities For Growth - Relationships, Responsibilities, and Resources

      Now that we have reviewed paradigms, our own knowledge, and ways in which we can move forward learning from our mistakes and fears, I invite you to consider these pedagogical approaches to advance your decolonizing work within Education, which in the words of George Sefa Dei " should be driven by the pursuit of human liberation and freedom. Thus, a de-colonial and anti-colonial education can foster community building, tapping into the creativities and resourcefulness of local Indigeneities, intimately connected to the rich histories of the Land.(1)

The ACTIVITY for today will be to read Robin Wall-Kimmerer "The Covenant of Reciprocity".

Reflect on the ways  she is describing relationships, which stem from one's sense of responsibility. Pay attention to how she identifies "resources".  

Post a brief comment in the FORUM on what was relevant to you from the reading. 

    Complementary to the reading, today we will be reviewing these three constructs: 

Relationships, Responsibilities, and Resources from an Indigenous perspective. As you review the definitions or descriptions offered from diverse sources, think back to the paradigms from Day 1, so as to elaborate a more holistic view of these values and  principles. Please remember that the definitions offered below are not representative of every First Nations, Inuit or Métis community. 

You might find the written resources lengthy. If you do not have time to review all of them within the course time frame, I offer them for your continued professional development. Please do not feel that you have to read every resource in this module in order to complete the course.

  By now we know that the foundation of any decolonizing work we do ought to be the Relationships we establish in the communities where we live and work. As a starting point, think of the  relationship(s) you have to the lands, the waters, and the fauna of the place where you dwell. 

Reflect on the times when you have listened to or offered a Land Acknowledgement. 

* What does it mean to you?  

* [How] do you relate to the history of colonial violence in Canada (i.e., directly, indirectly, closely, distantly, etc.)?

RELATIONSHIPS

      Métis perspective 

      Inuit perspective

 (If captions are not appearing, watch this videos directly from YouTube by clicking on the YouTube arrow at the bottom right of the screen when in full screen mode. Turn on CC.)

RESPONSIBILITIES

    After reflecting on your Relationships to the land, water, and fauna where you live, think of the Responsibilities you hold for living where you live, the responsibilities you hold  where you work, and the responsibilities to the communities where you have established those relationships. 

     Not long ago, while in a sharing circle, one of my students asked what Right did he have to teach Indigenous Education (culture and language) given that he is not Indigenous, and he did not want to appropriate language or culture. While this was a  genuine statement, this rationale could also reveal what Tupper (2013) calls ‘strategic ignorance’, what Malewski and Jaramillo (2011) identify as  ‘epistemologies of ignorance’, and what Dion (2007) identifies as the ‘perfect stranger stance’: What non-Indigenous people do not know and what they refuse to know” (p. 331).

There was silence in the room, and there were heads nodding in agreement.

  First Nations perspective

    Métis perspective

    Inuit perspective

Aspiring to understand Responsibility from a philosophical perspective, feminist scholar Judith Butler invites us to think about what makes us mourn some lives and not others, what makes us care for some lives and 'discard' other lives; Butler invite us to think about when we are responsible  for others and where those limits are established, how, and by whom. 

Butler calls this "Responsibilization".

If captions are not appearing, watch this video from YouTube by clicking on the YouTube arrow at the bottom right of the screen when in full screen mode.

    The links above will direct you to resources that, while mostly developed for the K-12 system, are useful for deepening our knowledge and understanding of many aspects of Indigenous cultures. 

     While not all of us work directly with students, we are all educators, and we can all apply these  approaches to our contexts.  As you reflect on these resources, think of what is already available for you at your institution. These resources could include funds, support, people, infrastructure, procedures, etc.

For example, what is available in the form of:

* Support for students (i.e.,  transitional programs; admission processes, funding, etc.)

 * Community engagement (agreements, memoranda, consultation with communities, etc.).                                                                                                                                          *  

  * Support for faculty and staff (academic Indigenization; student enrolment, expectations; curriculum development; ongoing professional development opportunities, etc.

* Support and engagement for Indigenous research (protocols, funding, etc.) 

Citations

Dion, S. D. (2007). Disrupting molded images: Identities, responsibilities and relationships–Teachers and Indigenous subject matter. Teaching Education, 18, pp. 329-342.