To Dismantle or Construct We Must Know

• In Event: Dismantling Racial Injustice IS Imagining an Indigenous Holistic Well-Being Framework for the Next Seven Generations

Abstract

In sync with the conference theme and call for proposals, and revisiting the 4 quadrants and 16 attributes of the Corn Pollen Model and philosophical underpinnings of SNBH, our second presenter for this workshop will firmly root the challenges of imagining and implementing the Corn Pollen Model within the context of coloniality/modernity, or the reproduction or reification of colonial relations via structural and systemic violence in contemporary times (Author 2, 2022; Lopez, 2020). Once again operationalizing the 16 attributes across the quadrants of spiritual, mental, physical and social well-being, the second portion of our workshop will draw from TribalCrit (Brayboy, 2005), research on decoloniality, and the foundational work of Du Bois (1903) on the color line to more critically examine and articulate how colonial relations rooted in white supremacy and its structures, including education, are maintained through research, policy, and practice. In other words, as Goldberg (2009) has described, White supremacy no longer only relies on physical violence to assert the color line articulated by Du Bois, as that violence is now asserted and normalized through the state, its policies, and actors. In this portion of the workshop, we firmly situate the 4 quadrants and 16 attributes within a TribalCrit tradition to elucidate the persistent and violent structures, both formal and informal that continue to impede sovereignty and self-determination, in manifesting alternative possibilities.
After providing a critical contextual backdrop that accounts for the very real impacts of structural violence in implementing an Indigenous well-being model, our second presenter will conclude in offering insights rooted in research to assist participants in making critical connections to the respective justice projects they are committed to, and in connection with the Corn Pollen Model, to support the engagement and call-to-action portion of the workshop. Specific attention will be place on building solidarity and dismantling racial injustice. Tuck and Fine’s (2016) conceptualization of inner-angles along with Tuck and Yang’s (2019) notion of refusal and incommensurability will inform the conclusion of this second presentation, along with a brief rooting of the critical race theory concepts of counterstorytelling, voice, and experiential knowledge (Author 2, 2016) to set up the third and final presentation of this workshop, which will focus on the applied experiences, experiential knowledge and voice of Indigenous educational leaders engaged in embedding the Corn Pollen Model into their personal lives and professional practice.

Author

• Tyson E.J. Marsh, University of Washington - Bothell