45.012 - Indigenous Truths in Other People's Democracies: Education Research in the Contested Spaces of the Pacific

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

On one level, the “Dish With One Spoon” is a story about the wampum treaty among the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee peoples. This unique treaty binds them together in a shared responsibility for ensuring the health and wellbeing of the lands they share. In turn, it is expected that the lands take care of them. But, the story is more than land guardianship and sustainable living. It is about the profound spiritual connection that Indigenous peoples have with our lands and our skies. We spring from the magnificent coupling of our sky father and earth mother—it is from them that our cultures, our spiritualties, our essences, our mana, and our sovereignties have evolved. This is especially true for the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific nations. Prior to colonial contact, Pacific nations peoples enjoyed stewardship of our traditional territories. The arrival of newcomers, however, brought a new world order. At the heart of this new world order lay an oppression that was multifaceted and far-reaching. This oppression involved the stripping away of the fundamental markers of Indigenous identities—sovereignty, ancestral lands, language, and cultural knowledge. As these markers were stripped away, so too were the wellbeing and connectedness of our Indigenous peoples.
In pondering what he refers to as the closely-knit relationship between democracy and colonialism, Gordon (2010) contends that colonialism has served a significant role in creating and sustaining modern democracies and that, more often than not, the production of people for the citizenry has come about through violent forms of exclusion. Gordon asserts that colonialism is a strategy employed by democracies to achieve geopolitical and economic goals is evidenced by the “violent exclusion” of Pacific nations peoples from our traditional lands and resources through confiscation and other shady means. Similarly, the achievement of sociopolitical goals by democracies through colonial muscle is evidenced by the “violent exclusion” of our peoples from our traditional knowledge and practices as a result of our assimilation into the broader culture of the democratic states imposed on us. We are left asking, then, what role has public education played in stripping away the fundamental markers of our identity—sovereignty, ancestral lands, language, and cultural knowledge? What has been the impact of this cultural stripping on our Indigenous psyches? And how are Indigenous education researchers working to address this impact?

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Margaret J. Maaka, University of Hawaii - Manoa

Participants

• Kahele Dukelow, University of Hawai‘i Maui College

• Robert H Jahnke, Massey University

• Tanya L.M. Samu, University of Auckland

Moderator

• Laiana Wong, Kingdom of Hawaii

• Katrina-Ann R. Kapā‘anaokalāokeola Oliveira, University of Hawaii - Manoa