Decolonizing and Indigenous Pedagogies_Spring 2023 (2).pptx

Decolonization

1. Decolonizing and Indigenous Pedagogies Kelly Duquette , PhD Candidate, Dean's Teaching Fellow, CFDE, Certificate: Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education, UBC DEI Fellows | Spring 2023

2. Agenda

3. "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings" Recognize whose lands these are on which we stand. Ask the deer, turtle, and the crane. Make sure the spirits of these lands are respected and treated with goodwill . The land is a being who remembers everything. You will have to answer to your children, and their children, and theirs— The red shimmer of remembering will compel you up the night to walk the perimeter of truth for understanding. As I brushed my hair over the hotel sink to get ready I heard: By listening we will understand who we are in this holy realm of words. Do not parade, pleased with yourself. You must speak in the language of justice . Joy Harjo, 23rd US Poet Laureate, Award-winning author, Muscogee Nation

4. Land Acknowledgement The below statement was developed by NAISI faculty in January 2021 Emory University is located on Muscogee (Creek) land.  Emory University was founded in 1836, during a period of sustained oppression, land dispossession, and forced removals of Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee peoples from Georgia and the Southeast. In the First Treaty of Indian Springs (January 8th, 1821), signed by the US government and the Muscogee Creek Nation, the Muscogee Creek were forced to relinquish the land which is now present-day DeKalb County and the home of Emory’s first campus, Oxford College, as well as the main campus on Clifton Road. 

5. Personal Land Acknowledgement  Informed by Malinda Maynor Lowery's presentation for Emory Library's anti-racist forum, Tuesday, April 11, 2023

6. "Land is something sacred to all of us, whether we consciously appreciate it or not — it is the space upon which we play, live, eat, find love, and experience life. The land is ever-changing and ever-shifting, giving us — and other creatures and beings on the earth — an infinite number of gifts and lessons. For Native Land Digital, what we are mapping is more than just a flat picture. The land itself is sacred, and it is not easy to draw lines that divide it up into chunks that delineate who “owns” different parts of land. In reality, we know that the land is not something to be exploited and “owned”, but something to be honoured and treasured. However, because of the complexities of history, the kind of mapping we undertake is an important exercise, insofar as it brings an awareness of the real lived history of Indigenous peoples and nations in a long era of colonialism." "Why it Matters," Native Land Digital , https://native-land.ca/about/why-it-matters/ 

7. Context: Emory's History, Present,  and Future Moving Beyond Solidarity and "Settler Moves to Innocence" (Mawhinney, Tuck & Yang)

8. Executive Summary of the Task Force on Untold Stories & Disenfranchised Populations Reviewed opportunities for recognizing, observing, and memorializing the contributions of two disenfranchised populations to Emory University: the enslaved persons whose labor helped build the campus and their living descendants, and Native nations and their peoples , on whose lands Emory's campus was erected. "Encourage faculty to integrate Emory’s unique historical experiences with disenfranchised populations into their courses and to provide training and resources to support the pedagogical initiative"

9. Mvskoke Language Curriculum The joint initiative in Native and Indigenous Studies is the only one of its kind in the nation between a tribal college and a private research university Grant will provide important support for CMN’s transition from a two-year to a four-year institution in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, with an emphasis on increasing the number of Mvskoke speakers and revitalizing ( reclaiming ) its Mvskoke language curriculum Randall: "CMN will establish a Mvskoke language master-apprentice learning environment that will resonate a successful model for all tribal nations engaged in language revitalization."

10. Questions? Comments?

11. What knowledges and skills does "mainstream" higher education value?

12. Decolonize is Not a Metaphor "Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. The easy adoption of decolonizing discourse by educational advocacy and scholarship, evidenced by the increasing number of calls to “decolonize our schools,” or use “decolonizing methods,” or, “decolonize student thinking,” turns decolonization into a metaphor." Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society . Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-40.

13. Decolonize is Not a Metaphor "Decolonizing a syllabus or curriculum should be about the “ rematriation of Land and life.” This is hard to do for most instructors. “If you teach using samples, data, archives, recordings, or other items procured from Indigenous land or peoples, you can return those. Otherwise, it’s pretty hard to decolonize using a syllabus. But there are anticolonial things you can do-things that aim to stop the reproduction of colonialism in the classroom . You can start by learning and teaching about the colonial roots and ongoing structures of colonialism in your discipline.” Max Liboiron ( Red River Métis/ Michif ),  Associate Professor in Geography at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada "Decolonizing your syllabus? You might have missed some steps," CLEAR , August 12, 2019

14. Indigenous Worldviews "Indigenous ways of knowing play a role in creating learning environments that are culturally responsive to Indigenous students ....  It is important not to overgeneralize these worldviews , as we want to acknowledge that Indigenous peoples have very complex ways of thinking about the world. We are not looking here to describe a single definition of Indigenous knowledges ... The frameworks we discuss, while different in the contexts from which they emerge and the ways in which they are given expression, characterize and explore some of the underlying values, experiences, and perspectives that give meaning to these frameworks and their application in educational settings." -Dr. Jan Hare, Anishinaabe scholar and educator from the  M’Chigeeng  First Nation, University of British Columbia 

15. Indigenous Worldviews

16. Torres, S.B. (2019). Beyond Colonizing Epistemicides : Toward a Decolonizing Framework for Indigenous Education (Publication No. 2306501133) [Doctoral Dissertation, Loyola Marymount University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. A Decolonizing Interpretive Approach

17. Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model Cornel Pewewardy is professor emeritus, Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University, and vice-chairman of the Comanche Nation “Through the metaphor of wave jumping, educators working to decolonize their practice gain forward momentum with time and energy even while facing resistance . Thus, as water is always in motion so are efforts toward decolonization; this is not a linear model of upward progression, but rather cyclical and fluid as we navigate ever changing conditions of our social contexts." Pewewardy, Lees, Minthorn, Unsettling Settler-Colonial Education: The Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model (New York: Teachers College Press, 2022), 3.

18. Cornel D. Pewewardy, Anna Lees, Hyuny Clark-Shim, "The Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model: Stages for Developing Critical Consciousness in Indigenous Education,"  Wicazo Sa Review 33.1 (2018), 53.

19. Unsettling Settler-Colonial Education , ed. By Cornel Pewewardy, Anna Lees, Robin Zape-Tah-Hol-Ah Minthorn, p. 4. 

20. Questions? Comments?