Decolonizing Water Pedagogies: Centering Indigenous Knowledges in Educational Approaches to Climate Catastrophe

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Climate catastrophe is a pressing and defining issue, and a consequence of the colonial capitalist project and its extractivist relationships with land. Addressing this issue requires a decolonial paradigm shift that centers Indigenous epistemologies. This session draws from work that engages with the specificities of land education to challenge the marginalization of Indigenous knowledges in education. The papers focus on multiple decolonial resonances that emerge when the sacred water sites of Yana Wana, whose caretakers are the Coahuiltecan peoples in Texas, are a guide for social foundations work. Juxtaposing the perspectives of researchers, elders, and teachers, this session provides insights into how water pedagogies can act towards unsettling the colonialities of education and orienting towards relational and reciprocal futures.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education

Chair

• Jeremy Garcia, University of Arizona

Papers

• Decolonizing Water Pedagogies: Learning With Indigenous Presencing and Relationality - Fikile Nxumalo, University of Toronto; Nnenna Odim, University of Texas at Austin

• Yana Wana's Legend of the Bluebonnet: Decolonizing Stories and the Processes of Storytelling in Educational Theater - Maria Rocha; Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, The University of Texas at Austin

• Defending the Sacred: Podcast Pláticas With Yana Wana - Brianna Raquel Orta, University of Texas at San Antonio

• La Cultura Cura — Culture Heals: Danza Mexihca Nahuatl as Kinetic Prayer - Evelio Flores; Marleen Villanueva, University of Toronto

• Our Veins Become the River: Border Refusals and Yana Wana Migrations - Marleen Villanueva, University of Toronto; Pablo Montes, The University of Texas at Austin

Discussants

• Jeremy Garcia, University of Arizona

• Megan Bang, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy Learning Sciences