Understanding Aboriginal Learning Ideology Through Storywork with Elders

Five Nuu-chah-nulth Elders engaged in the examination of a Nuu-chah-nulth story for what they considered learning. A network of eight learning archetypes inhabited the story to demonstrate a range of learning strategies. The Elders identified features central to a cultural learning project, which included prenatal care and grandparent teaching, spiritual bathing, partnerships, ritual sites, and ancestor names. Learning strategies were understood as embedded and embodied in the form of characters displaying the archetypes. The storywork process used by the Elders, systematized as phenomenological orienteering and operationalized as metaphorical mapping, was found to be a useful methodology

Oral Tradition - A Literacy for Lifelong Learning: Native American Approaches to Justice and Wellness Education.

Native American oral tradition provides a literacy for lifelong learning that promotes perspective transformations. This approach is particularly suited to justice and wellness education because participants engage multiple ways of being and knowing: sensory, philosophical, serious, humorous, etc. Oral traditions can be understood in the context of transformative learning that has implications for adult education

Is Revenue Sharing Real Reconciliation? Recognizing the role of Indigenous law and governance in British Columbia Crown forestry agreements

From the banning of cultural protocols to the installation of assimilation and genocidal tactics, Indigenous law and governance within communities throughout British Columbia have experienced tremendous hardship and transformation since first contact. Colonial systems have stifled Indigenous cultural governance structures, compromising Indigenous communities’ centuries-old methods of sustainable land and resource management through stewardship. In efforts and with intent to right the wrongdoings of the past, Canadian Crown government bodies have made commitments towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples throughout the country. There is no single definition for what reconciliation means to Indigenous communities within British Columbia, though it must encompass recognition, respect, reinvigoration and integration of Indigenous law and governance systems and practices in all aspects of society as a path forward. Vital to Indigenous law and governance systems within Indigenous communities, both past and present, are unique and complex economic systems. Literature has evolved to understand that Indigenous stewardship is key to sustainable development and targeted climate action through recognition of Indigenous communities living within their territories sustainably for millennia. Despite the acknowledged importance of Indigenous stewardship in natural resource management initiatives, land-based decision making within British Columbia continues to design and implement processes and mechanisms that stifle Indigenous law and governance and misrepresent Indigenous values. Using document analysis of 123 forestry-centric government to government Forest Consultation and Revenue Sharing Agreements within British Columbia, this thesis uses an Indigenous perspective to analyze the recognition of Indigenous law and governance systems and the opportunities to uphold these systems with non-market valuation within natural resource management in Indigenous territories. Nine of the analyzed agreements exhibited inclusion of Indigenous law and governance systems in their terms, while none of the agreements provided evidence of non-market valuation despite providing compensation measures for natural resource extraction on the land base. By empowering the voices and oral teachings of Indigenous communities within natural resource management through modified economic valuation methods inclusive of Indigenous law and governance, this thesis discusses opportunities for implementing real reconciliation efforts by demonstrating the means and critical importance of a holistic valuation approach

The historical ecology of Pacific herring: : Tracing Alaska Native use of a forage fish

Long-term use of herring by Alaska Natives is not well-documented over space or through time, yet this information can illuminate pre-industrial patterns of herring abundance and distribution. Such information is important to understand the sustained relationships Alaska Native fishers and egg collectors have had with herring. Understanding the genetics of pre-industrial herring may also inform management of the fish and fisheries to insure their survival into the future. In this paper, we attempt a contextualized account of the long-term history of Alaska Native herring fisheries, bringing together archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistorical data. We tie these together as background for presenting the preliminary results of the NSF-funded project, The Archaeology of Herring: Reconstructing the Past to Redeem the Future (No. 1203868). We have now tested 84 herring bone samples from 17 archaeological sites in Alaska expanding beyond Speller et al. (2012), having tripled the earlier archaeological dataset. The oldest herring bones identified archaeologically in Alaska are dated to more than 10,000 cal BP. Early Holocene and Middle Holocene sites have also yielded herring bones, although most of the record dates to the last 2400 years. Preservation of genetic information is effectively complete for the last 2400 years, but achievable back to the terminal Pleistocene (68% success rate for samples between 10,500 and 2400 cal BP). This gives considerable confidence to the potential to expand the analyses and develop a richer pattern of biological variability. The resulting data show genetic continuity between archaeological and modern herring populations. The main technical challenge for the future is to extract adequate amounts of nuclear DNA from the ancient samples for identifying more informative DNA markers that can be used to more effectively reveal any population diversity and/or population size changes over time when compared to modern herring

Can You Hear us Now? Voices from the Margin: Using Indigenous Methodologies in Geographic Research

Indigenous methodologies are an alternative way of thinking about research processes. Although these methodologies vary according to the ways in which different Indigenous communities express their own unique knowledge systems, they do have common traits. This article argues that research on Indigenous issues should be carried out in a manner which is respectful and ethically sound from an Indigenous perspective. This naturally challenges Western research paradigms, yet it also affords opportunities to contribute to the body of knowledge about Indigenous peoples. It is further argued that providing a mechanism for Indigenous peoples to participate in and direct these research agendas ensures that their communal needs are met, and that geographers then learn how to build ethical research relationships with them. Indigenous methodologies do not privilege Indigenous researchers because of their Indigeneity, since there are many ‘insider’ views, and these are thus suitable for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers. However, there is a difference between research done within an Indigenous context using Western methodologies and research done using Indig- enous methodologies which integrates Indigenous voices. This paper will discuss those differences while presenting a historical context of research on Indigenous peoples, providing further insights into what Indigenous methodologies entail, and proposing ways in which the academy can create space for this discourse

Embracing plurality through oral language

The transmission and dissemination of knowledge in Aboriginal societies for the most part occurs orally in an Aboriginal language or in Aboriginal English. However, whilst support is given to speaking skills in Indigenous communities, in our education system less emphasis is given to developing equivalent oral communicative competence in Standard Australian English (SAE). Instead the focus is given to the ongoing assessment of reading and writing skills and grammatical knowledge – this is in direct contrast to the existing language experience of Aboriginal students. Therefore, for Aboriginal students to participate in mainstream society, we suggest that there is a need to nurture oral language skills in SAE and provide learners with the experience to develop their code-switching ability to maintain continuity with their first language or dialect. Drawing on previous research that we and others have undertaken at several schools, this paper highlights the need for three fundamental changes to take place within language education: (1) school policies to change and explicitly accept and support Aboriginal English in code-switching situations; (2) familiarity among school staff about the major differences between Aboriginal English and SAE; and (3) tasks that focus on developing and practising the ‘when, why and how’ of code-switching