Perspectives
Indigenous has to be understood |
We must... be careful not to advocate something simply because our own education has largely been structured by it or our jobs depend entirely on it. |
Two-eyed seeing
Etuaptmumk - Mi'kmaw for Two-Eyed Seeing
"Two-Eyed Seeing is hard to convey to academics as it does not fit into any particular subject area or discipline. Rather, it is about life: what you do, what kind of responsibilities you have, how you should live while on Earth …
[It's] a guiding principle that covers all aspects of our lives: social, economic, environmental, etc. The advantage of Two-Eyed Seeing is that you are always fine tuning your mind into different places at once, you are always looking for another perspective and better way of doing things."
Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall
Multiple-eyed seeing
"The two jig-saw puzzle pieces help remind us that, with respect to Aboriginal Traditional Knowledges [Indigenous knowledges], no one person ever has more than one small piece of the knowledge.
There is a need to recognize that Traditional Knowledges draw upon the community of Elders and other Knowledge Holders (i.e., the knowledge is collective), as well as the collective consciousness of the people. So, here too, one might wish to talk about multiple-eyed seeing."
Two-Eyed Seeing, Institute for Integrative Science & Health
"The two jig-saw puzzle pieces help remind us that, with respect to Aboriginal Traditional Knowledges [Indigenous knowledges], no one person ever has more than one small piece of the knowledge.
There is a need to recognize that Traditional Knowledges draw upon the community of Elders and other Knowledge Holders (i.e., the knowledge is collective), as well as the collective consciousness of the people. So, here too, one might wish to talk about multiple-eyed seeing."
Two-Eyed Seeing, Institute for Integrative Science & Health
Left brain and right brain
"Indigenous worldview and knowledge incorporate both the intuitive, holistic, metaphorical mind of the brain's right hemisphere with the analytic, reductive, linear left hemisphere.
Western worldviews and knowledge rely predominantly on the functions of the linear, analytic left hemisphere.
In this case, ‘Two Eyed Seeing’ refers to a state of mind that relies on a balanced use of the left and right brain functions. From an Indigenous perspective we define this as consisting of knowledge produced from the body, mind, heart and spirit.
It appears that this form of ‘traditional’ indigenous knowledge gave indigenous populations the capacity to perceive crisis as an opportunity to grow and become stronger...
The ability to employ the functions of both hemispheres of the brain in balance, as described in ‘Two Eyed Seeing’, appears to offer the abilities that enable resilience."
Ed Connors, "Two Eyed Seeing," Manitoba Trauma Informed Education & Resource Centre
"Indigenous worldview and knowledge incorporate both the intuitive, holistic, metaphorical mind of the brain's right hemisphere with the analytic, reductive, linear left hemisphere.
Western worldviews and knowledge rely predominantly on the functions of the linear, analytic left hemisphere.
In this case, ‘Two Eyed Seeing’ refers to a state of mind that relies on a balanced use of the left and right brain functions. From an Indigenous perspective we define this as consisting of knowledge produced from the body, mind, heart and spirit.
It appears that this form of ‘traditional’ indigenous knowledge gave indigenous populations the capacity to perceive crisis as an opportunity to grow and become stronger...
The ability to employ the functions of both hemispheres of the brain in balance, as described in ‘Two Eyed Seeing’, appears to offer the abilities that enable resilience."
Ed Connors, "Two Eyed Seeing," Manitoba Trauma Informed Education & Resource Centre
Perspectives...I Lost My Talk |
WATCH BELOW: An excerpt of the National Arts Centre performance I Lost My Talk
Global News |
There is a dance song from the mountains of Northern Greece - a wild landscape, with many towers - which begins, ‘A thousand welcomes, dear friends, to this table set with silver and with gold.’ Gold and silver, in the language of fairy tales, are sun and moon, night and day, dark and light, sorrow and joy, and all the other pairs of opposite or complementary forces embodied in the nature of the universe and in the right and left sides of the brain. |
We are troubled by the tendency in traditional mainstream education to teach skills stripped of context. |
The Perspectives of worldview make a difference
In order to go forward consciously, we must understand our different roots
There are two threads to all this work: a grounding in ancestral traditions, and a daily practice grounded in the place where your feet are actually planted.
In our own Western societies we are seeing more calls for a return to native wisdom, but we cannot live by the worldviews of other cultures, which are rooted in lands and histories that have little relationship to our own.
Yet, so often we try to: we look for our spiritual practices to the East – to Taoism, for example, and to Buddhism; we look to the West for guidance on how to live in harmony with the land – to indigenous stories and traditions from the Americas. But fine as all of those traditions are, we don’t need to look to the myths of other cultures for role models, or for guidance on how to live more authentically, in balance and harmony with the planet on which we depend.
We have our own guiding stories, and they are deeply rooted in the heart of our own native landscapes. We draw them out of the wells and the waters; beachcombing, we lift them out of the sand. We dive for them to the bottom of deep lakes, we disinter them from the bogs, we follow their tracks through the shadowy glades of the enchanted forest. Those stories not only ground us: they show us what we might once have been... and what we might become again if we choose.
There are so many of us out there who want to root ourselves back firmly into the heart of our native landscapes – or to find an anchoring in the traditions of our ancestral landscapes which we can bring home to new lands.
The way is already there – the stories which show us how to find our way out of the dark woods of our forgetting already exist."
Sharon Blackie, Becoming Indigenous, The Hedge School, Ireland
"It’s critically important for us to go and find our own indigenous selves, to reclaim our own indigenous traditions.
The personal, social and environmental problems we’re facing today have arisen not just as a result of our profound disconnection from the beautiful animate world around us, but from a lack of rootedness in our own ancestral traditions.
We have no lineage, no sense of continuity; no sense of who we are and why we are here. We don’t feel as if we belong to this crumbling and decadent Western civilisation whose values and have become abhorrent to us.
We don't need gurus or prophets or preachers – though we need teachers, yes, and elders, for sure. But we need above all to remember our own agency – to go out there with an open heart and a listening ear, and speak to this land which so longs for our participation."
Sharon Blackie, Becoming Indigenous, The Hedge School, Ireland
The personal, social and environmental problems we’re facing today have arisen not just as a result of our profound disconnection from the beautiful animate world around us, but from a lack of rootedness in our own ancestral traditions.
We have no lineage, no sense of continuity; no sense of who we are and why we are here. We don’t feel as if we belong to this crumbling and decadent Western civilisation whose values and have become abhorrent to us.
We don't need gurus or prophets or preachers – though we need teachers, yes, and elders, for sure. But we need above all to remember our own agency – to go out there with an open heart and a listening ear, and speak to this land which so longs for our participation."
Sharon Blackie, Becoming Indigenous, The Hedge School, Ireland
Perspectives...
Privatization of the community |
An alternative is to see Indigenous peoples and cultures as valuable and desirable, such as the LIVING LIBRARIES example bellow.
Matriarchal societies |
Perspective inspiration for instructors
First Nations Education Steering Committee classroom resources
Classroom Technologies and First People's principles of learning
First Nations Pedagogy
Indigenous Adult and Higher Leaning Association
BC's new curriculum: Instructional samples on First Peoples principles of learning
First People's Principles of Learning
Métis-specific Bibliography for the BCcampus Indigenization project. The bibliography is divided into four sections: Kinship; Land relationships; Tools and impacts of colonization; and Calls to action. Each section includes articles, books, films, and web links.
100 ways to Indigenize and decolonize academic programs and courses : University of Regina's document to begin discussion and action with faculty colleagues. This list is not exhaustive, and it is informed by both the theory and practice of Indigenizing and decolonizing the academy.
Classroom Technologies and First People's principles of learning
First Nations Pedagogy
Indigenous Adult and Higher Leaning Association
BC's new curriculum: Instructional samples on First Peoples principles of learning
First People's Principles of Learning
Métis-specific Bibliography for the BCcampus Indigenization project. The bibliography is divided into four sections: Kinship; Land relationships; Tools and impacts of colonization; and Calls to action. Each section includes articles, books, films, and web links.
100 ways to Indigenize and decolonize academic programs and courses : University of Regina's document to begin discussion and action with faculty colleagues. This list is not exhaustive, and it is informed by both the theory and practice of Indigenizing and decolonizing the academy.
Pulling Together: A guide for Indigenization of post-secondary institutions. A professional learning series. This is an open-sourced resource with useful content, questions, and resources for any educator. CC Attribution-Non Commercial license by Asma-na-hi Antoine, Rachel Mason, Roberta Mason, Sophia Palahicky, and Carmen Rodriguez de France |
image credits
CC Attribution: Anne Hilker |
we are all treaty people: A Hilker red-winged blackbird: Jon D. Anderson Curriculum Developers: Creative Commons place: J Carnahan ancient stone circle: Pixabay story: A Hilker mentorship: A Hilker All other images from pixabay or Weebly. No attribution required |
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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