What Does it Mean to Decolonize the Curriculum?

Join Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy, department chair of Native American Studies at Cal Poly and author of we are dancing for you: Native Feminisms & the Revitalization of Women’s Coming-of-Age Ceremonies for an introduction to decolonizing the curriculum

Polytech to PolyTEK: Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous Science, and the Future Forward Polytechnic University

It is clear from Cal Poly Humboldt’s Polytechnic Prospectus that Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous communities are key parts of what elevates Humboldt’s development of a polytechnic university for the next century. The prospectus demonstrates Humboldt\u27s proposed framework for a different comprehensive polytechnic will also be informed by Indigenous communities and ways of knowing, as many Native peoples have lived sustainably in their places since time immemorial” (19). There are many considerations when engaging with TEK, especially around sustainable use. It is also important that engagement with TEK and Indigenous science not only center knowledge sharing, but also how departments, programs, and colleges are dedicated to upholding sovereignty and self-determination and working to empower Indigenous students, communities, and ongoing projects of land return, environmental justice, and education. This article will discuss the role of Native American Studies in building decolonial frameworks for a new polytechnic—polytech to PolyTEK. The article explores the history of cultural knowledge exploitation, Humboldt Native programs and initiatives; the resurgence of Indigenous science and knowledges, and new interdisciplinary initiatives at Humboldt that value NAS as a partner to building polytechnic programming. Humboldt is positioned to offer a cutting edge and unrivaled polytechnic experience to current and future students. Indigenous knowledge systems are especially important and appropriate to consider in the development of a polytechnic institute because Indigenous knowledges are fundamentally interdisciplinary and applied. Indigenous knowledges are also at the forefront of cutting-edge research interventions in the sciences and western academic institutions. When we talk about or propose “decolonizing” curriculum or higher education we must build this from Indigenous frameworks with Indigenous Peoples at the center of our academic vision and planning

Place-Based Learning Communities on a Rural Campus: Turning Challenges into Assets

At Humboldt State University (HSU), location is everything. Students are as drawn to our spectacular natural setting as they are to the unique majors in the natural resource sciences that the university has to offer. However, the isolation that nurtures the pristine natural beauty of the area presents a difficult reality for students who are accustomed to more densely populated environments. With the large majority of our incoming students coming from distant cities, we set out to cultivate a “home away from home” by connecting first-year students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to the communities and local environment of Humboldt County. To achieve this, we designed first-year place-based learning communities (PBLCs) that integrate unique aspects and interdisciplinary themes of our location throughout multiple high impact practices, including a summer experience, blocked-enrolled courses, and a first-year experience course entitled Science 100: Becoming a STEM Professional in the 21st Century. Native American culture, traditional ways of knowing, and contemporary issues faced by tribal communities are central features of our place-based curriculum because HSU is located on the ancestral land of the Wiyot people and the university services nine federally recognized American Indian tribes. Our intention is that by providing a cross-cultural, validating environment, students will: feel and be better supported in their academic pursuits; cultivate values of personal, professional and social responsibility; and increase the likelihood that they will complete their HSU degree. As we complete the fourth year of implementation, we aim to harness our experience and reflection to improve our programming and enable promising early results to be sustained

Coyote is not a metaphor: On decolonizing, (re)claiming and (re)naming “Coyote”

This article examines Indigenous oral traditions as methodologies for decolonization by extending Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang’s (2012) settler moves to innocence to include “colonial parallelism.” This article also looks at how western attempts at colonial parallelism have resulted in Coyote First Person being compared to and identified with “trickster” characters and argues that drawing this colonial parallelism of Coyote First Person as part of a universal trickster archetype renders Coyote First Person as a metaphor and erases how Coyote First Person actually builds and supports Indigenous ideas about the world and unsettles western ideas about the world. Ultimately this article asks readers to consider that, as we engage with Coyote First Person as a philosopher and philosophy of decolonization discourse, we should consider how the (re)naming of Coyote, rather than Coyote First Person or the given Indigenous language name, speaks to our theoretical standpoint.

#IAmAMenstruator: Uncovering the relationships and product security of Menarche at Humboldt State University

https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ideafest_posters/1020/thumbnail.jp

Introduction: Indigenous peoples and the politics of water

In recent history, we have seen water assume a distinct and prominent role in Indigenous political formations. Indigenous peoples around the world are increasingly forced to formulate innovative and powerful responses to the contamination, exploitation, and theft of water, even as our efforts are silenced or dismissed by genocidal schemes reproduced through legal, corporate, state, and academic means. The articles in this issue offer multiple perspectives on these pressing issues. They contend that struggles over water figure centrally in concerns about self-determination, sovereignty, nationhood, autonomy, resistance, survival, and futurity. Together, they offer us a language to challenge and resist the violence enacted through and against water, as well as a way to envision and build alternative futures where water is protected and liberated from enclosures imposed by settler colonialism, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy