INTEGRATING INDIGENOUS DECOLONIZATION PHILOSOPHY INTO EDUCATION & RESEARCH Larry Emerson, Diné Nation (New Mexico) For Institute for Circumpolar Health Research Conference, Yellowknife, NT November 2009
Goals for talk… • Promises to our communities • Dynamics of tension, conflict and contradiction in our communities • Merging Native traditional knowledge, decolonization theory & practice, and Indigenous-centered research • Cultural self-determination, meaningful change, emancipation
Promises to our communities • That we restore and regenerate a sense of healthy well being for all • That wholistic understanding of life leads to happiness, balance & reawakening of all – Economics, politics, and socialization are only fragments of life & living – Dimensions are spiritual, moral, cultural, economic, political – Not just materialistic, but non-violent and liberatory
Conflict, tension & contradiction dynamics Oppressed Oppressor
Conflict, tension & contradiction dynamics Humanization Dehumanization
Conflict, tension & contradiction dynamics Natured De-natured
Conflict, tension & contradiction dynamics Colonialized Decolonialized
Conflict, tension & contradiction dynamics Trauma Wellness
Conflict, tension & contradiction dynamics Traditional Modern
Conflict, tension & contradiction dynamics Indigenous Western
Traditional Knowledge Indigenous Decolonization research
Traditional knowledge • …Like a footprint in the sand, but not reducible to that footprint • The last is the first… • What you need to know, you cannot find in a book. • Eternal return • Science of the relationship between the physical and the metaphysical
“ Decolonization is about centering our own concerns and worldviews and then coming to know theory and research from our own perspectives and for our own purposes.” Linda Tuhuwai Smith, 1999
INDIGENOUS- CENTERED RESEARCH • TAKING BACK OUR LEARNING • ASKING OUR OWN QUESTIONS • INITIATING OUR OWN RESEARCH • DESIGNING OUR OWN METHODS OF INQUIRY • DESCRIBING OUR OWN REALITIES • MAKING OUR LANGUAGES AND WORLDVIEW THE CENTER OF OUR INQUIRY • TAKING ACTION ON OUR OWN RESEARCH Art by Edgar Heap of Birds 2008 • DEFINING OUR DESTINY
Cultural self-determination • Reframing • Connecting • Restoration & • Telling our stories regeneration • Genderizing • Naming • Envisioning • Claiming • Creating • Democratizing • Protecting • Indigenizing • Negotiating • Testifying • Sharing
WAYS OF KNOWING & BEING PEDAGOGY – Teaching & EPISTEMOLOGY – How I know Learning what I know.
Contact information • Larry Emerson • emerson714@gmail.com • 505 368-3904
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