NOTE: Issues range from 1996–2006. Contact information in earlier issues could be outdated. For current information, please contact the Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 907-474-1902.
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Tatitlek Students Work with Smithsonian on Alutiiq CD-ROM:Arctic Studies Center, Alaska Region Office Through a project carried out last spring by the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies Center (Anchorage) and the Chugach School District, students at Tatitlek Community School explored their culture, learned new computer skills and produced an interactive computer program that features color photographs, Sugcestun language terms and information about a variety of objects made by the Alutiiq people. To create the HyperStudio program, high school students Kelly Kompkoff, Jo-Ann Vlasoff, Jason Totemoff and Marcia Totemoff first talked with elders in the community and studied extensive documentary materials prepared by Arctic Studies Center researcher Dee Hunt. With the guidance of teacher Dennis Moore and Chugach School District consultant Mel Henning, they then scanned in photographs, prepared texts, and programmed a computerized "exhibit" that lets viewers learn about masks, clothing and other beautiful and interesting museum pieces that were made in Prince William Sound, Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula more than a century ago. The 20 objects studied by the Tatitlek students now reside at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., but will be coming to Alaska in 1999 as part of a traveling exhibition called Looking Both Ways: History, Culture, and Identity of the Alutiiq People. The exhibition is being planned by the Arctic Studies Center in partnership with the Alutiiq Museum and Native organizations throughout the Alutiiq region. The Tatitlek project was fun, exciting and interesting for the four students, and gave them a chance to learn more about what goes into the production of multimedia for computers. In accordance with the Arctic Studies Center's educational and research mission, I am interested in working with the Rural Systemic Initiative and individual school districts to consider similar projects elsewhere in Alaska. In addition, a much larger educational CD-ROM, which will include more than 250 Alutiiq, Yup'ik and Dena'ina objects purchased by Smithsonian collector William Fisher between 1879-1894, is currently under development at the Arctic Studies Center in Anchorage and will be available within two years for nonprofit distribution to schools, cultural centers, museums and libraries. Chugach School District assistant superintendent Rich DeLorenzo, who has presented the Tatitlek project at statewide educational meetings, supported the program as a way to help village students connect not only with their cultural traditions, but with the fast-changing world of computer technology. In-kind support from Mark Standley at Apple Computer is gratefully acknowledged. | |
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TCC Mentor/Apprentice Learning Program by Beth Leonard:A total of seven apprentices will be hired: three for Deg Hit'an and Holikachuk; two for central/lower Koyukon, and two for Upper Kuskokwim. Apprentices must take an active role in guiding the course of their learning. Mentors will work intensively one-on-one with their apprentice to help them develop comprehension and speaking skills (fluency) in one of the referenced Athabascan languages. For more information about this program, contact: Beth Leonard, Mentor/Apprentice Program Coordinator Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc. (907) 452-8251, ext. 3286 bleonard@tananachiefs.org | |
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Teacher Grants for Math, Science & Technology:Teacher Grants for Math, Science & Technology Alaska teachers may receive up to $5,000 for innovative, hands-on classroom projects. See the ASTF web page: www.astf.org. No web access? Call Sharon Fisher, Outreach Administrator at Alaska Science & Technology Foundation, 907-452-1624. | |
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Teacher Leadership Development Project:The underlying purpose of the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative is to implement a set of initiatives to systematically document the indigenous knowledge systems of Alaska Native people and develop pedagogical practices and school curricula that appropriately incorporate indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing into the formal education systems. Having successfully demonstrated the efficacy of this strategy in strengthening rural schools and teachers and improving student achievement, the challenge for AKRSI now is to help infuse the initiatives into the curricular and instructional practices on a sustainable basis. The high turnover rate of teaching staff (80% of whom are recruited from out-of-state) necessitates a targeted approach to leadership development that focuses on those teachers most likely to put these resources to effective use and bring their cumulative insights to bear over time, i.e., teachers for whom the community/region/state is their home. To that end, the AKRSI has requested supplemental funds from the National Science Foundation to implement a Teacher Leadership Development Project (TLDP). The structures through which the TLDP will be implemented are those associated with regional and statewide Native educator associations. Following is a current list of the associations that have emerged in response to AKRSI initiatives over the past six years: * Ciulistet Education Association * Association of Interior Native Educators * Southeast Native Educators Association * North Slope Iñupiaq Educators Association * Association of Native Educators of the Lower Kuskokwim * Association of Northwest Native Educators * Native Educators of the Alutiiq Region * Association of Unangan/Unangas Educators * Alaska Native Education Student Association * Alaska Native Education Council * Alaska First Nations Research Network * Alaska Indigenous Literary Review Board * Consortium for Alaska Native Higher Education * Native Education Association of Anchorage Implementation of the AKRSI TLDP The main function of the AKRSI Teacher Leadership Development Project will be to strengthen and make sustainable the role of the Native Educator Associations and their members in implementing the math/science educational reform initiatives promoted by the AKRSI. This will require the development of leadership capacity in each region and the establishment of formal mechanisms to sustain the implementation of these initiatives independent of the AKRSI resources by 2005. Following are the steps that will be taken to implement this strategy: * The Alaska Native Education Advisory Council to the Commissioner of Education, made up of representatives from each of the Native Educator Associations, will be designated as the governing body to provide direction for the implementation of the Teacher Leadership Development Project. * The Alaska Native Education Advisory Council and the AKRSI Co-PIs will recruit and select a fulltime project director to coordinate and oversee the initiatives sponsored by the Teacher Leadership Development Project. * At least one Native educator association in each of the five major cultural regions will be assisted in obtaining 501(c)3 non-profit status, so as to be eligible to obtain and implement grants and contracts under their own authority. * The Native educator associations from each of the five cultural regions will be invited to prepare and submit a work plan outlining the steps they would propose to take to implement the Teacher Leadership Development Project in their region, including the identification of a lead/master teacher for the region (with up to half release time from their employing district) and the activities to be implemented in conjunction with the AKRSI initiative emphasis for each year (e.g., science camps/fairs, Academy of Elders, cultural atlas, curriculum alignment, parent/community involvement, etc.) The lead/master teachers will be selected at the regional level with criteria comparable to those for the project director, but with responsibilities directed toward regional implementation of the AKRSI/TLDP math/science educational reform initiatives. The selection committee will consist of regional Native educator association members, the TLDP project director and the AKRSI co-directors. * Once selected, the lead/master teachers will work with the AKRSI staff to develop the wherewithal to assist teachers and schools in the implementation of the initiatives associated with the Teacher Leadership Development Project in alignment with the AKRSI regional initiatives and the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools. * The Native educator associations will convene regional and statewide meetings to review the action plans for preparing culturally-responsive teachers from the 2000 Native Education Summit and the recommendations from the 2001 Forum on Culturally-Responsive Curriculum and to develop action plans for regional implementation of those recommendations. The regional action plans will take into account the Guidelines for Preparing Culturally-Responsive Teachers and the Guidelines for Nurturing Culturally-Healthy Youth. * The Native educator associations will work with local districts and the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development to sponsor a cross-cultural orientation program, including an immersion camp component, for all teachers new to the district/region. * The Native educator associations will work with local school districts to provide career ladder incentives that encourage all teachers and teacher aides to pursue training for a cross-cultural specialist endorsement, Type A license with math/science emphasis and/or graduate studies oriented toward implementing culturally responsive, standards-based science and math instruction. * The Native educator associations will encourage their members to participate in the Native Administrators for Rural Alaska program in pursuit of a Type B principals credential with a distributed leadership orientation. * The Native educator associations, in collaboration with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, will host an annual statewide conference to showcase the instructional and curricular strategies and initiatives that demonstrate the greatest promise toward implementing culturally-responsive, standards-based science and math instruction. These initiatives are intended to begin with the 2001-02 school year, with the process for selection of the project director and lead/master teachers to occur by the end of September. Funding for the TLDP will be administered through the Alaska Federation of Natives with support for the activities of the lead/master teachers provided through memoranda of agreement with the employing school districts. The project director and the lead/master teachers will be included as core staff and will participate in all planning activities associated with the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative. Upon completion of the three-year cycle of initiatives associated with the Teacher Leadership Development Project, all teachers in the AKRSI partner schools will have received support to incorporate the math/science curricular and instructional strategies in their educational practice, with on-going support provided through an established statewide network of Native educator associations. | |
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Teaching and Learning Across Cultures: Strategies for Success by Ray Barnhardt:You have just been hired to teach in a cultural setting with which you have had little if any previous experience. How can you enter into and learn about that community in a manner that will maximize your chances of making a positive contribution to the educational experiences of the students with whom you will work? There are no simple prescriptions in response to that question, but there are strategies you can draw upon to guide you into a new teaching situation and help you adapt your teaching practices to better serve the unique educational needs of that cultural community. The compilation of tips and advice that follows is a distillation of the experiences of many educators who have learned to adapt their work to the physical and cultural environment in which they are located. Although the author's experiences have been drawn mostly from work in Native villages in rural Alaska and are those of a non-Native educator, the issues will be addressed in ways that are applicable in any setting involving people from diverse cultural backgrounds. While a condensed version of such a complex subject runs the risk of over-simplification and misinterpretation, it is offered here as a starting point for an on-going journey of personal exploration and cross-cultural sensitization that each of us as educators must undertake if we are to relate to people from other cultural backgrounds in a respectful and constructive manner. When we learn to relate to each other and teach in a culturally considerate way, we benefit not only those with whom we work, but we benefit ourselves as well. We are all cultural beings, and accelerating changes in the makeup of the world around us makes that fact an increasingly obvious and inescapable aspect of our daily existence. How then can we take culture into account in our work as educators? How do you enter a new cultural community? First impressions count! The way you present yourself to people in a new community will have a lasting impact on how they perceive and relate to you, and consequently on how you perceive them. This is especially true in a small village where everyone lives in close proximity to one another, but it is also true in the context of classrooms as micro-communities. The first thing to remember is that many other teachers have come and gone before you, so students and parents have developed their own ways of making sense out of their relationships with strangers. While this may be a new experience for you, it is not for the host community. The background and perspective you bring to the situation, particularly in terms of cross-cultural experience, will have a major bearing on how you present yourself in a new setting. If you have taught previously in a comparable community, or are yourself from a similar cultural background (e.g., a Native teacher), you will have relationships and experiences to build upon when you enter the new community that a beginning teacher without that prior experience will not have available. For the purpose of making these limited observations as useful as possible, the emphasis here will be on the latter situation, where the teacher is assumed to be starting from scratch in a new cultural situation. The biggest challenge you face is getting to know people on their own terms and letting them get to know you as a person, rather than just as a "teacher." The tendency for people who make their living off the printed word is to turn to the nearest library or bookstore when confronted with a new situation about which they lack information. While it may be useful to acquire some basic factual information about your new cultural home beforehand, most of what you need to know about the people and community you will be working with is probably best acquired firsthand, with minimal influence from someone else's perceptual filters. The fewer prior conceptions and the less cultural baggage that you carry into the situation, the more likely that you will be able to avoid jumping to superficial conclusions, leaving you free to learn what it takes to make a constructive entry into the local flow of life. There are many layers of shared understandings in any cultural community, and for an outsider to even begin to recognize that the deeper layers exist requires a considerable openness of mind and a great deal of time and effort. Our first impressions of a new culture are usually formed in response to the more obvious surface aspects that we can see, hear, and relate to our own prior experience, so it is important to withhold judgment and defer closure on our interpretation of behavior and events as long as possible. Once we arrive at a conclusion or form an opinion, we begin to rely on that explanation for guiding our subsequent behavior and hesitate to assimilate new information that may lead to a deeper understanding. The resulting myopia can contribute to numerous problems, including inappropriately low expectations regarding student abilities. You can minimize the potential problems outlined above and accelerate your immersion into a new cultural community in a number of ways. If the opportunity exists, one of the most useful steps you can take is to get involved in the community as early as possible, preferably before you assume the role of teacher. Let people get to know you as a person first, and this will have enormous payoff in everything that you do as a teacher. If possible and appropriate, get involved in the community where your students live early enough to join in traditional summer activities, so you can get to know people on their terms and begin to see life through their eyes. This will enable you to make your lessons much more meaningful for your students, and it will open up avenues of communication that will be beneficial to everyone involved. If you are looking for a place to live, consider how your housing and life style will set you off from, or help you blend into the community. While housing that sets you apart from the community may be convenient (when available), you pay a price in terms of your relationship to the rest of the community. Whenever possible, choose immersion over isolation, but don't forget who you are in the process. You will be more respected for being yourself (assuming you are considerate and respectful) than for "going Native." Seek advice from the practitioners of the culture in which you are situated, and always convey respect for their ways, recognizing that you are a guest in someone else's community. If you encounter situations of apparent social breakdown and dysfunctionality, be especially careful to exercise discretion and obtain the views of others before you take any precipitous action. The most important consideration when entering a new cultural community is keeping an open mind and accepting people on their own terms. A little attention to how you present yourself in the beginning can make a big difference in your relationships for the remainder of your stay in the community. First impressions do count! | |
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Teaching and Learning Across Cultures: Strategies For Success by Ray Barnhardt:What do you need to know? Since learning a culture is a lifetime undertaking, where do you, as a newcomer, start and what are the most important aspects to be considered? One of the first things to recognize is that the more you learn about another culture, the more you will find out about yourself. We all carry around our own subconscious culturally conditioned filters for making sense out of the world around us and it isn't until we encounter people with a substantially different set of filters that we have to confront the assumptions, predispositions and beliefs that we take for granted and which make us who we are. To illustrate how those differences can come into play, we've included a chart that summarizes some of the characteristics that tend to distinguish the view of the world as exhibited in many indigenous societies from that embodied in Western scientific tradition. Differences in cultural perspective, such as those outlined in the chart, have enormous implications for all aspects of how we approach the tasks of everyday life, not the least of which is the education of succeeding generations. In most indigenous communities today, it is apparent that aspects of both the indigenous and Western perspectives are present in varying degrees, though neither may be present in a fully cohesive fashion. It is not necessary (nor is it possible) for an outsider to fully comprehend the subtleties and inner workings of another culture (even if it is still fully functional) to be able to perform a useful role in that cultural community. What is necessary, is a recognition that such differences do exist, an understanding of how these potentially conflicting cultural forces can impact peoples lives and a willingness to set aside one's own cultural predispositions long enough to convey respect for the validity of others. The particulars of an unfamiliar cultural system can be effectively attended to without a thorough knowledge of that culture, as long as you know how to make appropriate use of local expertise and community resources. As you come to understand how another cultural system works, you will also be learning more about how culture influences behavior generally. The particulars of the new situation will lead to tentative generalizations in your own understanding which will help you decipher the next set of particulars. This should be a continuing cycle through which you learn as much about yourself as you do about others. Along the way you can expect to face some tough questions, like "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?"-questions that we rarely encounter in our own cultural worlds. Two useful steps a new teacher can take to begin to see beyond the surface features of a new cultural community are getting to know some of the elders or other culture-bearers and becoming familiar with aspects of the local language. By visiting elders in the community, you will be showing respect for the bearers of the local culture, while simultaneously learning about the values, beliefs and rules of cultural behavior that will provide a baseline for your teaching. Showing enough interest in the local language or dialect to pick up even a few phrases and understand some of its structural features will go a long way toward building your credibility in the community and in helping you recognize the basis for local variations on English language use in the classroom. At no point should you assume, however, that you know everything you need to know to fully integrate the local culture into your teaching. When learning about another culture, the more you learn, the more you find that you don't know. Always assume the role of learner, so that each succeeding year you can look back on the preceding year and wonder how you could have been so naive. When you think you know it all, it's time to quit teaching. Indigenous World View Spirituality is imbedded in all elements of the cosmos Humans have responsibility for maintaining harmonious relationship with the natural world Need for reciprocity between human and natural worlds-resources are viewed as gifts Nature is honored routinely through daily spiritual practice Wisdom and ethics are derived from direct experience with the natural world Universe is made up of dynamic, ever-changing natural forces Universe is viewed as a holistic, integrative system with a unifying life force Time is circular with natural cycles that sustain all life Nature will always possess unfathomable mysteries Human thought, feelings and words are inextricably bound to all other aspects of the universe Human role is to participate in the orderly designs of nature Respect for elders is based on their compassion and reconciliation of outer- and inner-directed knowledge Sense of empathy and kinship with other forms of life View proper human relationship with nature as a continuous two-way, transactional dialogue Western World View Spirituality is centered in a single Supreme Being Humans exercise dominion over nature to use it for personal and economic gain Natural resources are available for unilateral human exploitation Spiritual practices are intermittent and set apart from daily life Human reason transcends the natural world and can produce insights independently Universe is made up of an array of static physical objects Universe is compartmentalized in dualistic forms and reduced to progressively smaller conceptual parts Time is a linear chronology of "human progress" Nature is completely decipherable to the rational human mind Human thought, feeling and words are formed apart from the surrounding world Human role is to dissect, analyze and manipulate nature for own ends Respect for others is based on material achievement and chronological old age Sense of separateness from and superiority over other forms of life View relationship of humans to nature as a one-way, hierarchical imperative (Adapted from Wisdom of the Elders, by Knudtson and Suzuki, 1992) | |
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Teaching/Learning Across Cultures: : | |
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Thank You Participants and Planners!:We would like to express our appreciation to all who helped put the 1998 Native Educators Conference together, whether you were a speaker, committee member, entertainment group, translator, panelist, or other. You helped make the conference an exciting and memorable event. As our daily work resumes and we continue to work to improve education in our communities, Alaska's Indigenous people are leading the way, along with the International Indigenous people, in the area of Indigenous language and culture becoming a basis for our children's schooling experience. Throughout this intense work, our Elders are a constant source of knowledge, support and guidance. They have woven a super sense of humor in their experiences to carry us all through the difficult and not-so difficult times in our work in education. Please thank each of your families for "sharing" you and your work with others. We look forward to another invigorating and exciting conference next year. Until then, God bless each of you as you continue your work. | |
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The (Coolangatta) Statement on Indigenous Rights in Education by Paul Mountain:The document was prepared by a task force who met in Coolangatta, New South Wales, Australia between September 24 and October 1, 1993. Their primary purpose at this meeting was to establish a document for discussion and refinement by all indigenous participants at the 1993 World Indigenous Peoples' Conference: Education that was held in Wollongong, NSW, Australia the following December. The task force which was established at that time believes that for all indigenous nations to be represented in an international instrument on indigenous peoples' education rights, time must be spent on debating the nature, purpose and contents of such an instrument. The statement lists several issues of indigenous peoples' rights to education. A fundamental statement is, number one, that indigenous people have the right to be indigenous; that includes the freedom to determine who is indigenous, what that means and how education relates to indigenous cultures. Another statement is that land gives life to language and culture. Feelings and thoughts of indigenous peoples toward the land forms the very basis of their cultural identity. The conclusion for the statement at this time is: We, the indigenous people of the world, assert our inherent right to self-determination in all matters. Self-determination is about making informed choices and decisions. It is about creating appropriate structures for the transmission of culture, knowledge and wisdom for the benefit of each of our respective cultures. Education for our communities and each individual is central to the preservation of our cultures and for the development of the skills and expertise we need in order to be a vital part of the twenty-first century. Paul Mountain and Bernice Joseph hosted a discussion of Alaska Native concerns for the international instrument during the Association of Interior Native Educators' Third Annual Conference on August 8 and 9, 1996 in Fairbanks, Alaska. There will also be a discussion on this at the Alaska Native Education Council Conference scheduled for October 14 and 15, 1996 in Anchorage, Alaska. Input from these and subsequent presentations will be presented to the general body of the World Indigenous Peoples' Conference: Education which will be held in Hawaii in 1999. It is our hope that this will ensure that Alaska has adequate representation in the drafting of this important international instrument. For further information contact Paul Mountain at (907) 279-2700 (w). | |
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The Adventure Begins . . . : | |
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The Best of Both by Alan Dick:I gently asked my children what the name of the team was and how they got that name. Surprisingly, our youngest son, who was only a first-grader said, "They are the Aniak Halfbreeds because they take the best of both." During the recent ANSES State Science Fair, we truly saw the "best of both." All projects were firmly rooted in the local traditions, yet brought out the science processes and principles that are reflected in the state standards. After a long grueling day of interviewing and deliberating, the judges were invigorated and repeatedly thanked us for inviting them. Why? The projects were a beautiful synthesis of both worlds. There is an unmistakable energy that accompanies the natural learning process. AKRSI alone did not make this happen. We merely created an arena where motivated village students and teachers could shine. We created a framework that fostered a cultural synthesis of local knowledge and textbook knowledge. The students brought the evidence. It would have been instructive to capture the discussion on tape as the four Western science judges and the five Native Elders deliberated the "Best of Show" projects. Each nomination for Best of Show was defended by a judge in the presence of the others. The observations that were shared reflected the keen insights that students had exhibited. Later, one of the Native Elders, who was normally very quiet, was so emphatic in making the case for a project that he stood, vigorously presented his view and even shook his finger. When he sat down, he was stunned, and apologized for being so forceful. We smiled and thanked the Elder for his insight. The student had spoken to the Elder's reality. These moments happen only once in awhile, but with cultural and science interests high and everyone knowing what to expect next year, a new dynamic is certain. The best of both. Again. | |
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The Ciulistet Group by Esther Ilutsik:Ciulistet Research Workshops Available Fall 1996 We now have five units that have been developed and field tested in the classrooms. These units were established from knowledge that our elders shared with us at our meetings. The five units are: Yup'ik Counting, Yup'ik Patterns, Sonar Boards (based on traditional Yup'ik legends) and Weather and the Heartbeat. We also are establishing lessons for Yup'ik measurement. Many of these units can easily be adapted into themes. If you are interested in any of these sessions, let us know and we will send you a materials list for the session you are interested in. We can also offer college credit for those who are interested through the Bristol Bay campus. This class will most likely be a 300-level course (methods and curriculum development). You may contact Esther A. Ilutsik, UAF Bristol Bay Campus, (907) 842-5901 or write to her at: P.O. Box 188, Dillingham, Alaska 99576. You can also contact Dr. Jerry Lipka at UAF Fairbanks Campus, (907) 474-6439. | |
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The Cry of the Loon by Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley:The loon's standards of life and making a living are impeccable, thus allowing it to live successfully for many thousands of years. Its basic standard is respect-a respect for the Greater Being, spirits, others' rights to live a life that fits their needs and a respect for the environment. It is taught all aspects of its place by its parents using all five senses. The young are taught how to play; taught the ritual of swimming, diving and making its call; taught how to select a nesting place; taught the art of making a nest; taught to appreciate the lifeforms within its place and taught to live a life that is interacting with all that is around it. Nature is science. It knows that it is a loon and always will remember that. Yes, its standards are simple and intertwined leading to a life that is full of meaning and direction. For those of us who are indigenous or Native people, we must resurrect our ways of recognizing and paying homage to the Ellam Yua spirits and Nature. When we regain our spirituality, we will again learn to laugh from our hearts and play because "those who know how to play can easily leap over the adversaries of life. And one who knows how to sing and laugh never brews mischief" (an Iglulik proverb.) When we awake at dawn and look at the sun rising and life begins to stir again, this is mysterious. The loon is telling us of this mystery of life-its mysterious connection to us. This is sacred. When we begin to understand this, we will begin to change our relationship to our environment. We will begin to experience a need for a new existence. I am happy to state that among the Alaska Native people, the Yupiat have striven for and are heading for a new existence! We have many Yupiat Elders and others who have become teachers for all of us, and all point to the same direction-a new consciousness for life. A new consciousness that is vibrantly traditional, full of truth, beauty, health, happiness and love. These five attributes of life become the foundations to the question that each and every one of us will ask ourselves as to the type of life that we want to pursue. As we put this into practice, we will become the model of existence for now and in the future. In this contemporary world of chaos, we can create our own reality. We can re-create ourselves as we want to be. We have the power within us to do this. We have three things that will help us to do this. First, we have our past through myths, stories, rituals and ceremonies. We can draw from them that which will help us reconstruct, and dispense with those that will not be of help to us in our efforts. Secondly, we have our imagination and ability to see what we would like to be in the future. What will we look like? What will we live in? How will we make our living? What kinds of things will we possess? How will we recognize the spiritual? And, lastly, we have our rational, thinking minds that react to things around us and thus enable us to connect with things as they are now. We know what we are, know what others think of us, know how we try to make a living, know how the federal and state governments work against us, and know how we react to negative as well as the few positive things that happen to us. Knowing these time and thought spirals can help us to reconstruct our reality and ourselves. It is time that we make songs about alcohol and drugs telling of their power over us, telling us it is now time for us to give up and be released from their use, and give up or relinquish our emotional ties to these destructive elements. If we merely release these from our lives, we will return to it. So it is absolutely necessary that we give up our emotional ties to it-I do it because it makes me feel good, allows me to talk and mix with people. This is an emotional tie that will get you back to it. The loon reminds us that its standards for life are high, and so should ours. In looking at the federal and state standards, I get confused as to the real meaning of them. Perhaps it's the fragmented and convoluted approach by fields of study that make this so. It does not show me a need for a change in education. There is an old Chinese saying that goes something like this: When there is someone pointing at the moon, only the idiot looks at the finger! These Eurocentric standards require that we look at the content of the various fields of study. They tell us what our students are purportedly to know at the end of secondary school. Content, thus information accumulation and reasoning, seems to be of overriding importance. As I've said before, information and rationality are a very small part of learning. There is a missing ingredient that fails to give direction and a wholeness to the standards. This is not to say that they are useless, but can be if left alone. The needed ingredients (strange attractors) are the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools. These say to me that there needs to be a change in education, not only schooling. Schooling is that which happens in the structure called the school. Education is that which happens within and without the family, school and community. The latter is all inclusive. In reading and thinking about the standards, I get the distinct feeling that there is a need to change the way that we teach, the things that we teach about, the materials we use, how we measure growth and development and where things are taught. These standards behoove that something be done to accommodate the Native thought-worlds, their worldviews. The loon would desire this for its survival and ours. We are now on that pathway. In conclusion, the cry of the loon is encouraging us to balance our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual selves to begin to live lives that feel just right, walking peacefully and expressing it to others in our own Native languages. Piurciqukut Yuluta pitallketuluta.-"we will become people living a life that feels just right." Quyana. | |
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The Cry of the Loon: Mysterious, Mournful, Remembering Place by Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley:Wherever the loon exists, there are Native people, and you will have many loon stories that are mystical and magical in their content. Among them is the story of the blind boy who is made to see by the loon diving into the water with the boy on its back. This is repeated three times. In each dive and emergence, the boy could see a little clearer, and on its third emergence, the boy could see clearly. The loon helped the boy to see, likewise, it can help us to understand ourselves and see our connection to Mother Earth today. Listen to the call of the loon. Its call is God-given through nature. It is its own language and understood by others of its kind and other creatures. Only we, with our ability to think and rationalize, do not understand because we listen only with the mind, not with mind and heart well sprinkled with intuition. To some it is eery, as if some bad thing is about to happen. Maybe an alangguk, an apparition or ghost of some kind is about to appear. It conjures up many thoughts that are not based on "what is" but on "what if." This is the fear that most of us face as a Native people, especially when thinking about changing education. "What if" the educators, legislators and powers that be do not believe and think that this could be done. But regardless, we must take those steps necessary to change education so that it takes into consideration, in fact, makes an educational system based on our own tribal worldviews. When thought of in that context, then it includes our Native languages, ways of generating knowledge, research, ways of making things and ways for using them respectfully. Our Alaska Native languages come from the land, are derived from the land. It is the language of the land that makes our Native people live in harmony with Nature. According to the Muskogee Cree, Bear Heart, harmony is a tolerance, a forgiving, a blending. This is what our Native languages allow us to do. Our Native words come from the creatures and things of Mother Earth naming themselves, defining themselves through action words-that's reality! Nature is our teacher. Information and rationality are a small segment of knowing and learning. In the use of our Native languages, we come to live life intimately because we are enmeshed in it rather than looking at it from a distance through a microscope or telescope. It then behooves that we relearn our languages and learn to live close to nature to regain our health as a Native people. When we have that vision and goal, and work toward it, then we will have harmony; we will have tolerance; we will forgive; and we will again blend into our world. We will be using our five senses and intuition to learn about our place. The loon never lost its spiritual vision. It has a love for life, its environment and its creator. Its education was from Mother Earth for the heart, for it to become creative and to know how to live in its community, its habitat. The loon still gets messages from its unconscious on new thoughts or solutions to problems. We, as human beings, have cluttered up our conscious minds with information and rational thinking, so that our world of dreams is no longer sought through meditation, vision questing, fasting and looking deep into the silence within us for direction. Not only have we become socio-politco-economic dependents, but we depend on outside sources to take care of our problems whether it's individual, family or community. You see, the loon looks into its inner ecology knowing that no one else can do that for it. It knows that it is incumbent upon itself. In order for us to receive guidance and direction for our lives, we must relearn what the loon does naturally. We must look into ourselves where power and strength lie and tap into it to begin to address our own problems. Another strength of the loon, is that it teaches and nurtures its young to live as a loon. It does not require that someone else do the educating. The loon develops the loon worldview of its young closely connected to others and its place. As it migrates from place to place, it remembers and appreciates the diversity and beauty of Nature. It nurtures its offspring to become independent yet knowing its dependence on the abundance of Nature to succor its needs. It teaches its young to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This is true love; this is unconditional love that we need in this world. A love for self, a love for others and a love for place giving one a sense of responsibility to take care of oneself, to care for others and the environment that one lives in. The loon's cry is remembering a place that was harmonious, full of beauty and diversity that Nature so loves. This is heart talk! This is science-knowing place. Very much like our Native people, the loon's life is not all roses and peace. The loon has a few problems, such as taking off. It is very much like the Wright brothers in their early experiments. The little homemade engine revs up, but has just enough power for it to barely to get off the ground. Just as the under-powered plane, the loon frantically flaps its wings and seemingly runs across the water's surface. Once in a while, the loon will crash onto the tundra. But, it crawls back into the lake somehow and tries again. We, as a Native people, are testing our wings and power! If we find that some of our ideas do not work, we need to go back and try again, maybe with a different approach and tools. We must not be overly ambitious by overplaying our knowledge and abilities, but recognize our limitations as human beings. We must do that which we know we can succeed at first, then progress to more difficult tasks. And, if we fail, we must NEVER GIVE UP! The sad fact about this precious bird is that it is losing ground in its efforts to survive. Our Canadian friends look upon it with great respect, so much so, that it is on their one- and two-dollar coins. They are called the "loonie" and "twoonie". It is a known fact that the loon's numbers are growing smaller at a fast rate in Canada. There is a problem that is so ominous and insidious that it is overwhelming the loon. It is not of its own making. It is human-made pollution consisting of chemical, biological, nuclear and noise which is destroying its habitat. It is we, humans, who are destroying its habitat and, unfortunately, as we destroy its habitat we are destroying ourselves in the process. The loon may well ask, "What was the question that makes technology the answer in the first place? Who asked it and when?" Technology is inherently good and is the product of human rationality. But, unfortunately, it has laid aside morality and ethics. Take for example, the computer. Many think it's the answer for all our needs. It is speedy and answers questions with facts the human has fed into it. I say use it sparingly as a tool. It encourages individualism often to the point of isolationism. The excessive user wants to be alone with a stupid machine. If you feed it garbage, you get garbage in return. It takes away clear thinking, problem-solving skills and above all, removes common sense. Modern technology wants to take and take, to make things without giving back. It wants to cut into Mother Earth to remove its natural resources. It wants to make people want more of its products. In so doing, indigenous people, creatures, plants and landforms are sometimes no barrier to the Eurocentric concepts of progress and development. They are merely removed as detritus and, in the process, destroy a people and their place. The loon's mournful cry is in recognition of this needless destruction that is taking place by bigger and better technological machines of devastation. The mournful cry of the loon is much aware of its dwindling food sources, the inability of some of its eggs to hatch and its members succumbing to poisons and new diseases. It recognizes that to not have children, to not have family, to not have a community, is to be scattered, to be falling apart. Many of our Native families are falling apart. I recognize that there are healthy Native families in the villages. I would say that these healthy families are surrounded by and witness to a holocaust of pain and misery. Our villages are, in essence, communities in name only. They are often not working together for the common good as in the old days. The unhealthy and dysfunctional families have youngsters seven, eight or nine years old who are raising and taking care of their younger siblings. Why should I worry about these young children acting as parents? Because these youngsters are missing an important aspect of their young lives-that of being a child! A child to be loved by parents, to be nurtured and taken care of by parents, to play as a child, to talk as a child, to imagine as a child. Oh, the yearning of the child just to be a child! Many children miss this growing up phase. As if this was not enough, we allow video games, movies and television to become the babysitters while we go out and party, play bingo, gamble and do things that make us sicker. While the children are viewing and doing these things, they are seeing killing, cheating, lying, men beating women and children, all kinds of sex, adult language and all other undesirable aspects of life. The mournful cry of the loon is reminding us of the time when there were secrets from children, things that were not to be known by them until they were considered ready. Today, there are no secrets in the modern media. Go out on the playground, a school party, or anywhere youngsters are gathered. Listen to their language! You will hear a lot of foul language. The language that the youngsters use is an indicator of how bad the situation has become. There is no respect for the parents, teachers, elders and most certainly of other young people. We see children having children, children killing children, children killing elders, children committing suicide, children dropping out of school, children without hope-sad children. What a sad state for us to be in! These states of affairs contribute to the loss of childhood. We must gain control of what the children learn, see and do. We do this by regaining control of our own lives. We control this by turning off the television during dinner time so that heart talk can take place. Heart talk is kind, gentle talk that makes one want to be polite to everyone and everything around them. This talk allows members to know each other, what their likes and dislikes are, to know of problems they are having with friends, siblings and school. It allows the family to find out what they would like to see change in the home and why. This is where a family that loves and talks together becomes stronger because they know each other, love and care for one another. This is family. The loon does not blame anyone even though its environment is rife with problems and pollution is beyond its control. Its mournful call reminds us that we, as humans, must do our part to regenerate and reciprocate to Nature. We, the Native people, must quit blaming others for our problems. When we blame others, we are saying that someone else should take care of the problem and deal with our feelings about the situation. We don't like what has been happening in the schools, so we blame the state, district and teachers. We are saying to them "take care of the problem" and also "take care of my hurt and confused feelings about my own education. Please, heal me." Why should we continue to do this? Why should we continue to say how confused and mixed up we are by the new civilization that has come to our villages? So now we have frame houses that are poorly insulated, built on stilts and expensive to maintain. But we are "educated" because we no longer live in sod houses. We have snowmobiles instead of dog teams that can often save our lives. We have flush toilets with Lysol cleaners that empty into an unhealthy lagoon, thereby making it unnecessary for us to go outdoors in all kinds of weather, where Nature can take care of natural wastes in a natural way. But, we are educated. We have antibiotics and hormone-laced hamburgers instead of smoked dry fish which is more healthful. We use toilet paper which kills trees instead of sphagnum moss which prevents rash and spread of germs. Boy, are we educated! So well educated to think our Native languages and cultures are no longer useful. This is what the loon is mourning. Why have you, the Native people, given up so easily? Giving up has been a very costly venture to us as a Native people. But, we are educated. (to be continued in the next issue of Sharing Our Pathways) | |
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The Imaginarium Meets With Rural Communities:Science Center Works With Village Leaders, Families and Educators to Develop New Health and Science Outreach Programs Kids love learning and they love science! Parents, educators and communities in Alaska recognize the importance of health and science education. They are asking for more opportunities for their students to experience science while also exploring connections between science and their everyday life and the environment. The Imaginarium heard this loud and clear while visiting communities and talking with people throughout Alaska. Fortunately, the Imaginarium, Alaska's own science discovery center, has a wonderful opportunity to address these needs and priorities. Recent grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will fund the development of new health and science programs and will increase our ability to offer meaningful, hands-on science and health experiences to villages and communities throughout Alaska. The Imaginarium will develop a variety of programs and resources, such as exciting and entertaining assembly shows designed to spark interest in a science topic and get the audience motivated to learn more. Classroom programs will focus on hands-on, discovery-based learning while community programming, in which families are encouraged to experience science together, will also be a priority. To extend the learning into the classroom, the Imaginarium will design kits, resources and training opportunities for educators, including teacher aides. It is important to the Imaginarium, and indeed the very core of the outreach program's vision, to ensure that these programs are guided by and based on the needs and interests of the communities they will serve. We will also strive to create programs that acknowledge and respect traditional knowledge, as well as consider the place, culture and past experience of the learner. To this end, we are visiting communities in each of the five geocultural regions of Alaska to address the needs and interests of educators, parents, Elders, healthcare providers, students and community members. The Imaginarium is guided in this effort by a Science Outreach Advisory Committee made up of cultural leaders, educators, scientists and healthcare providers and chaired by Lydia Scott of NANA Development Corporation. The co-directors and regional coordinators for the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative serve on this committee and have been instrumental in helping the Imaginarium identify communities to visit and individuals and organizations to contact. The Imaginarium wants to thank AKRSI, the Advisory Committee and all of the communities we have visited so far-Kodiak, Port Lions, Juneau, Angoon, Togiak, Nome, Savoonga and Koyuk-as well as all of the wonderful people we have met along the way. We have gained so much knowledge through visiting rural communities, attending meetings such as the Native Educator's Conference and the Native Education Summit, exploring the Alaska Native Knowledge Network web site, reading the Sharing Our Pathways newsletter and other publications and listening to Elders and local experts. The Imaginarium team also realizes that there is more to learn and we welcome input or ideas at any point along this journey. This important input and feedback will guide the development of new Imaginarium outreach programs for the next four years. Each year the Imaginarium will develop a set of health science programs around a central theme. These will be piloted in ten communities throughout Alaska and then become a part of the Imaginarium's Science Caravan program the following year, making them available to all of Alaska. We will also introduce three new general science outreach programs each year to keep our offerings diverse and relevant. Your community does not have to wait to experience the fun and excitement of the Imaginarium's Science Caravan programs. Check out our current outreach programs, such as The Big Chill, Radical Reactions or Rockin' Reptiles on our web site www.imaginarium.org. For more information, contact Mia Jackson at 276-3179 or mia@imaginarium.org. We will also strive to create programs that acknowledge and respect traditional knowledge . . . | |
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The Southeast Region: Native Education Forum by Andy Hope:The SEATC Elders Council was represented by Joe Hotch of Klukwan, Lydia George of Angoon, Arnold Booth of Metlakatla, Charles Natkong, Sr. of Hydaburg, along with Marie Olson, Nora Dauenhauer and Jim Walton of Juneau. The Elders panel also participated in a cultural orientation training seminar for new teachers at Adlersheim Lodge in Juneau on November 9. Plenary sessions took place at the beginning and end of the day. Forum participants divided into four strands or working groups: K-12 Education facilitated by Paula Dybdahl of Juneau-Douglas High School and Angie Lunda of SEANEA; Higher Education facilitated by Rhonda Hickok of the University of Alaska Southeast/Preparing Indigenous Teachers for Alaska Schools; Adult Education facilitated by Andy Hope of SEATC/AKRSI; and Strategies for Engaging Native Families in Community Education facilitated by Dr. Bernice Tetpon. The purpose of the forum was to encourage communication, to develop action plans and to ensure that Native educators were united and coordinated prior to the Second Native Education Summit scheduled for December 9-10, 2002 in Anchorage. The main product of the forum was a Southeast Alaska Native Education Resource Directory. This directory will contain short summaries of community-based education programs with contact information. This directory will be published in mid-December, 2002 and will be posted on the SEATC web page, which can be found at http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/seatc. The Strategies for Engaging Native Families in Community Education group had extensive discussions on possible action plans and decided to focus on the following: Goal #1 School board training on attracting, hiring (interviewing) and retaining Native staff. Sub-goal Increase support for returning Native scholars in villages. Support acceptance, hire and retention. Goal #2 Education work on generational grief/historic trauma using wellness programs in Southeast. Strategies 1. Training on generational grief/historic trauma/ affects of oppression. 2. Training on how to reclaim power for Native communities (de-colonization). Goal #3 Implementation of cultural standards IMMEDIATELY! Strategies 1. Provide educational staff with guiding principles of what Native parent involvement means, looks like and how to invite it. 2. Have the state school board insist on a plan from each district on how they intend to implement these standards. 3. Need a clearinghouse for curriculum, research, methods and materials for Native education by region. 4. Support for place-based education and assessment from the state school board. The adult education group decided to focus on one achievable task, i.e. that the Southeast Alaska Adult Education Consortium should develop a database for tracking high school dropouts. The other groups will concentrate on developing their resource directories. Follow-up meetings will take place in the next few months in partnership with other educational institutions. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the people that took the time to participate in this forum. Thank you for working to improve educational opportunities in our communities. The purpose of the forum was to encourage communication, to develop action plans and to ensure that Native educators were united and coordinated . . . | |
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The Time Is Right to Write by Dorothy M. Larson:An Alaska Native writer doesn't have to write about culture to be valid, even though that is how we are often first identified. Alaska Natives can write on par with other writers, including creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, technical, memoir, biography and autobiography, journalistic, historical, mystery, drama, spiritual and all other categories of writing styles and genres. This isn't meant to be critical of those writers who use their skills to tell another's story. If it weren't for them, some stories might not have been told or read. This is meant to encourage and support Alaska Native writers who want to write their own stories. A recent Anchorage Daily News article about Alaska Native writers Diane Benson, Anna Smith, Jeane Breinig and Susie Silook was very enlightening and refreshing. They took the risk in the literary and art world to share their experiences. Their experiences living in two worlds make their writing insightful, powerful and poignant. They bring a special presence through their writing that is not reflected when told through another. It hasn't been that long ago since Alaska Natives had their own newspaper, Tundra Times, with Howard Rock at the helm. How we looked forward to the weekly edition of the statewide Alaska Native newspaper with a fervent purpose-one of the finest small newspapers ever published. Though we now have several rural newspapers in most regions of Alaska, these papers are more local in nature and often reprint outside news from other sources. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a paper modeled after the old Tundra Times with an Alaska Native editor, columnists and reporters devoted to news important to Alaska Native people? Recently, I read excerpts from a fiction book written by a former longtime Alaskan. Note "former" longtime Alaskan. Though the book was fiction, there were characters in the book that seemed familiar; one had the same nickname as a person I remembered from my childhood. I felt hurt for the person and their family should they happen to read the book. I chose not to finish the book. Since I am from the area, I skimmed another book about Bristol Bay on a local bookstore shelf. I leafed through it and got the gist in just a few minutes. It was a feeble attempt by the author to depict the Bristol Bay fishery as the "Wild West" of southwest Alaska. Who wants to read about the antics and parties of "Indians" as this college professor called some of his subjects. It was another book of the recent past that was purported to be fact but disgusted old timers of the area because it was filled with errors. It, too, was written by a former "longtime Alaskan" now living elsewhere. If his book were fact, he should be locked up in some penitentiary this very moment. A year ago I attended the Sitka Symposium which is considered a writers' conference. The symposium isn't a true writers' conference, but people do write and discuss provocative issues. Authors are present to critique and review manuscripts of participants. The Mesa Refuge Program asked the Sitka Symposium for their list of past participants in order to solicit applicants for their unique writers' retreat. The Mesa Refuge Program is a new writers' retreat in northern California established to provide a place where individuals can come to pay undivided attention to their writing. The program is for established and emerging writers as stipulated by the generous founders. After much thought, I applied for the retreat on the last day the application could be postmarked for consideration. A few weeks later, I was notified by a public radio message from my daughter (I was out at fish camp) that I had been accepted. In my wildest dreams, I never believed I would be chosen for this opportunity-two weeks by a national seashore with two other writers-a gift of time and space. It was a dream come true. In the bio they put together, I was called a Native poet and activist in the Native community because of my past involvement and experiences. The word "activist" was not what caught my eye in my bio; it was that I was called a poet. Since 1971 when I first began writing, I called my writing a hobby. When I was a junior-high student, I secretly dreamed of becoming a writer, but never pursued it until I took a course at Anchorage Community College many years later. Over the years I attended a number of university classes and workshops with a couple of renowned poets and university professors. I participated in a number of loosely formed writing groups off and on, more off than on. I continued to call my writing a hobby even though I had a few poems published and read a short story I wrote over the public radio station at home in Dillingham. When friends read my work, I never knew if they were just being kind to me by telling me they liked it. I returned to writing about a year and a half ago. This class saved my sanity and helped me through a very difficult time in my life. It was then I began to think seriously about writing. I'm not getting any younger and I figured that if I am going to write, I should get serious about it-write more, improve what I have written, study writing and write more. In September I left for the two-week retreat at Mesa Refuge not quite knowing what to expect. I was introduced as a writer/poet to the other two writers in residence. One resident was writing a book as a result of his work with the Audubon magazine. He had four to five publishers waiting for his overdue book. The other was a recent graduate student who started a college geography magazine and became editor and writer. I was the novice, for sure. A retreat is meant to renew, rejuvenate and inspire. There was no pressure to produce; it was a gift of time. However, past residents have completed books or began new ones at the Mesa Refuge. This retreat forced me to focus. It wasn't difficult to do because the surroundings were tranquil and close to nature. At first, I thought, too close. I was only a few hundred yards from the San Andreas Fault! Once I put that out of my mind, the environment, the setting and the ambiance was perfect-so conducive to writing. I came home with a preliminary draft of my book with new and old work to complete and a dream to publish a book of poetry, prose and a few short stories. I am hoping to convince a very talented artist friend to illustrate my book for me. I want to continue work on another project: a cookbook I began collecting recipes for last year. I hope to be able to find a writers' group where I will feel comfortable in order to share my work and to read the work of others. Many questions arose for me: How would I get an agent? How would I get published? I still don't have the answers to those questions but I did revisit my dream of some day becoming a poet, a writer and an author. And to those of you with a similar dream, I hope you pursue it. The discovery at the Mesa Refuge that I could allow myself the gift of time (without guilt) to write was a revelation. We must give ourselves precious time and space to devote to our writing. It can apply to any craft we pursue. Learning to discipline oneself is a challenge. We must rid ourselves of the distractions and allow the garbage to escape and the new material to take shape in our minds and hearts. There are Alaska Native writers who write wonderful poetry, children's stories and who have novels waiting to emerge. These talented writers can and should create their niche in the Alaska and the global literary world. As Alaska Native writers enter the new millennium, we can denounce the invisibility we have often encountered. Alaska Native's are a very visible, proud people. We are more than capable of creating a significant imprint-the time is right. | |
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The Williwaw Way by Matthew Dunckel:Every fall, just before school begins, the teachers at Williwaw Elementary School spend an afternoon visiting each of their new students at home. It is amazing what a home visit by a teacher can do for the life of a student and their parents. Welcoming a student and their family into the educational community allows for a sense of belonging. A stronger bond exists between children, their parents and a school community when all feel involved and committed to the students' education. Some parents view school as a place that people go to loose their culture and language, but these home visits allow the Williwaw staff to show parents that their childrens' culture and first language will be embraced while at school. Home visits have become a standard practice at Williwaw Elementary for the last four years. Bonnie Goen, the principal at Williwaw, believes these visits are becoming a tradition for the staff and the students. "The more we know about our students and where they come from, the better educators we become." Ms. Goen feels so strongly about the home visits that she requires them during the in-service days, prior to the first day of school. She hopes that teachers will get a sense of their students outside of the classroom and that the students will see their teachers outside of the school setting. A teacher needs to be understood as an educator and as a person, just as students need to be seen as both students and individuals. "We gain empowerment through cultural bonds." Ms. Goen adds, "... getting out there and seeing where these students come from allows us to see where we need to go as a class." To further the sense of community, Williwaw plans a barbecue later the following day for all students and their families. By embracing all languages and cultures, a tone is set for positive educational interaction. Williwaw notifies the parents the afternoon the teachers will be visiting, and the day takes on a festive quality with children running up and down sidewalks eager to see their new teacher arrive. Students stop former teachers and talk openly about what they are doing now and how they are enjoying their summer. Bonnie and her staff understand that because of the varied cultural backgrounds of the student body, a personal bond needs to emerge early with the children and their parents. Due to the cultural make up of the school community there are a large number of parents who do not speak English, so their children are in the unique position to act as translators. Even with this language barrier the home visits have created a sense of unity. These interactions between parents and educators foster an awareness that their childrens' cultural identity will be accepted and not become an obstacle. After the visits end the students of Williwaw are less apprehensive about the first day of school. They come to school ready to learn. Although home visits aren't standard in the Anchorage School District, they are valuable. With expanding class size and multiple ethnic groups represented, classrooms with the advantage of home visits benefit substantially. Trust isn't given freely-it must be earned-and home visits start that process before the students ever leave for school. | |
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Thirteenth Inuit Studies Conference in Anchorage:The Department of Alaska Native and Rural Development (DANRD) at UAF will be the primary host of the 13th Inuit Studies Conference to be held at the University of Alaska Anchorage on August 1-3, 2002. DANRD is working in collaboration with UAA in organizing the event. The central theme of the conference will be Voices from Indigenous Communities: Research, Reality & Reconciliation. For several generations Inuit communities have been the subjects of scientific research from virtually every scientific discipline. In most cases this research was designed and carried out by non-indigenous researchers without any meaningful input from indigenous peoples. Often, the indigenous people being researched had no idea what the objectives of the research were and what benefits, if any, the research could bring to the community. In many instances the hard feelings brought on by this practice caused a stifling of important and legitimate research because indigenous peoples were no longer willing to accept projects that they had no ownership in. In recent years more attention has been placed on research ethics with a particular emphasis on the concept of informed consent. Collaborative research projects involving indigenous peoples and Western scientists are now increasing in number. There is still much to learn, however, and the 13th Inuit Studies Conference will focus on successes in research involving indigenous people and provide opportunities for scientists and indigenous peoples to discuss these important issues. Papers and presentations that include both scientific researchers and indigenous people are particularly encouraged. Indigenous researchers and others who had successful examples of collaborative research models were particularly encouraged to submit session proposals or paper abstracts. Among the suggested sessions and topics were Western science and indigenous researchers, research ethics, community-based research, rights to technology, use of traditional knowledge in research, youth and Elders, traditional healing in Inuit communities, strategies for Inuit language preservation, self-determination and self-governance and development of healthy communities. Contact Gordon L. Pullar at g.pullar@uaf.edu for additional information. 13TH INUIT STUDIES CONFERENCE University of Alaska Anchorage August 1-3, 2002 | |
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Traditional Knowledge Systems in the Arctic Workshop by Patricia Longley-Cochran:A follow-up workshop will bring together a larger and more diverse group of community and research representatives, organizations and individuals involved in Alaska and Arctic research to discuss and review the information crafted in the planning workshop and make recommendations for a final report regarding traditional knowledge systems in the Arctic. | |
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Traditional Yup'ik Knowledge-Lessons for All of Us by Esther Ilutsik:A Yup'ik Elder, John Pauk, a well-known nukalpiaq (a great hunter), shared the following information during a discussion with other Yup'ik members at a conference in Aleknagik, Alaska in January, 1999. He said, "Experiences and practices are very important parts of the learning process. Without experience and practice you will not learn how to do something better or understand it very well. You will not be able to teach and share your information with someone unless you yourself experience and practice it." He shared that observation after many years of hunting while he was looking back at some of the hunting implements he had made in his earlier years. At the time, he thought they were good. But examining them now, he found them inferior and imperfect. His many years of experience and practice were not reflected in this earlier work. He emphasized that experience and practice bring about an understanding- an educated understanding-that brings other experiences and practices together. Why is it that when we, the Native people, bring up the idea of teaching the local indigenous culture in the school, we still hear comments like, "They should just teach it at home if they think it is so important." Many of the things we want our children to learn we, as Native parents, haven't learned. So how can we teach the cultural knowledge that we feel is important to our children when we have not been taught these things ourselves? Many educators or even community members do not realize that we have a generation of parents who have not had the opportunity to engage in activities that would make their culture more meaningful to them. They sense that it is important and know that it is something that will help their own children gain a better understanding of who they are. They see it and hear about it, but since they have not experienced and practiced it themselves, they are not able to pass it on. Therefore we, as educators at the university and public school levels, have an added responsibility-the responsibility of educating those who missed out on these traditional learning opportunities. Those of us who have had the opportunities to be educated by our Yup'ik Elders need to pass the information on. We need to explore ways we can share this information with those who want it, but do not have the financial capacity to pay for workshops or university-sponsored classes. Many people do not have the financial capacity to pay the tuition costs or participate in a program that will once again educate them in their own cultural practices, so we need to seek other avenues. Traditional Yup'ik Learning Let's take a look at a traditional Yup'ik learning situation. In the past, the Yup'ik people learned a lot by participating and observing. This does not imply passive observing as defined in the Webster Dictionary (to watch attentively), but rather immersing yourself in the activity. This could be with immediate family or extended family members or at the community level. Consider the following scenarios: Scene 1 A young girl plays near her mother as her mother is making a squirrel parka. She is playing with her dolls. Her mother gives her some scraps of fur to make a simple piece of clothing for her doll. She tries her hand at sewing with her mother showing her how to thread, to make a knot and doing the first few stitches for her as she observes (this time the Webster definition is valid.) Then she finishes what her mother started and has her help with tying the knot. Scene 2 The young girl is outside playing with a few older girls as well as girls her own age. They are all seated in a circle each with a yaruin (a story knife) and are taking turns telling a story. She watches as the other girls draw a squirrel parka detailing all the parts of the parka, sharing the stories and meaning behind each design and pattern. She also draws as she watches and listens. When it is her turn, she is helped by the other girls. Scene 3 The young girl is with her mother and father at a gathering and observes and listens. She notices that her mother and father greet certain people as relatives. She notices that the parkas that they wear are all similar. One part of the parka stands out as the important symbol that signifies relationships. She also notices that those with the most similar designs are invited to the home as overnight guests. Scene 4 The young girl is a little older and again sits with her mother as she sews a parka. The girl indicates to her mother that she would like to make a small parka for her doll detailing some of the family patterns. The mother shares with her the most significant part of the parka design, then shows her how to make it and has her make one for her doll. These scenes are played out over-and-over again until the young girl has reached marriageable age. She has all this knowledge, experience and practice which she brings to her early years of marriage and now, with her own family, continues the cycle. Education and Western Influence To what degree has traditional Yup'ik education been influenced by the Western world? Let's take a look at the following scenarios: Scene 1 A child is playing at home near her mother. Her mother is working on a parka. But the child and mother are both distracted by the television. The child is playing with a Barbie doll or other manufactured doll. This doll doesn't need homemade clothes. All the clothes are pre-made. Scene 2 The child is playing with other children at a preschool. They have puzzles and other toys they are playing with. They are acting out roles they see within the community: going to church, going to a birthday party or even going shopping at the local store. A teacher is sharing stories, showing the children different social skills. She has the children participate in art activities and reinforces certain types of behaviors. The teacher models the behaviors that she expects of the children. Scene 3 The child is with her mother and father at a gathering. She observes and listens. She notices that her mother and father greet certain people as relatives. But all the people at this gathering are dressed in Western clothing. She makes an assumption that certain people are related to her based only on how her parents greet these people. Scene 4 As the child gets older, she enrolls in the local school. Her whole day and many evenings are spent at the school. She rarely spends time at home and when she is at home, she's doing homework or watching television. Western education and influence have taken over the responsibility for raising these children. It is no longer the mothers, parents and even peers sharing and teaching each other. It has been replaced by another method of learning. No wonder there is a "gap" between the parents and the children. Neither of the participants knows what the other is doing. The parents want their children to learn and understand certain things from their own culture, but the school is not teaching these skills. Let's take my own personal experiences as an example. I grew up and was educated within the school setting. My parents knew that education was important for survival, but they had little idea what was being taught in school-only a vague understanding. They knew that reading, writing and mathematics were all very important. They assumed that some of the things they were doing at home were being taught at school, such as the art of cooking and preparing food. But little did they know that the food preparation that was taught had very little to do with how food was prepared in the home. My father first came to that realization when my mother was not home to prepare food he caught. I was home when he came back from hunting with a couple of ducks in hand and asked me to prepare them for the next meal. I had, as a young girl before I started school, observed my mother and tried my hand at plucking birds, so that part was easy. But when it came to cutting up the bird, I had no prior knowledge. I may have observed, but did not have the opportunity to experience or practice it. So there I was, afraid to admit my ignorance to my father, I cut up this poor duck. I literally chopped it up to make some soup and threw the rest away. When the soup was done, my father came in to dish himself up, while I quickly made myself scarce, but within earshot. I heard him mutter under his breath, "Oh my God! What do they teach in school? This poor daughter of mine does not even know how to properly cut up a simple little bird. How will this poor creature live. She has no respect for this poor bird." Documenting Traditional Yup'ik Knowledge Interviewing is the most popular way of collecting and documenting traditional Yup'ik knowledge. The interview process has many different variations. For example, public school teachers have students interview Elders on subject areas that they are interested in. This process is usually teacher-directed and, most often, the information gathered is limited due to barriers in communication. University students also collect information by interviews and these again are usually teacher-directed. Depending on the interest and background of the students participating in these sessions, they usually contain more or less detailed information. There are also research groups that are comprised of Elders, professional educators and paraprofessionals who meet and gather together to document traditional knowledge. They use a form of interviewing where Elders and educators bounce information off one another. This method of interviewing brings about more detailed information which is further discussed in depth by the participants. But even this process does not take into consideration the type of information that would be collected and documented if the participants were able to actually experience it. For example, there is an art to gathering the edible roots from bush mice. You hear about how mouse food is gathered. You learn that it is gathered during a certain part of a season. You may even have the opportunity to see it, but you have not had the opportunity to engage in this activity to see how it is done. It is like looking into another world, because when questions are asked of the Elders, they share what they know, but in many cases they forget to share significant details because they assume everyone already knows those things. On one such occasion, we interviewed and recorded as much information as we could about edible mouse food from our Elders: what the names of the edible roots were, what they might taste like, the process used in preparing them for meals and even having the Elders attempt to draw what the roots and tubers looked like. It was then decided that we should go out and gather these edible roots. During the field trip we, the students, observed the Elders in action. They knew exactly where to go and we followed. We observed as they looked for a certain area with the types of plants that they knew the mice would cache. Then they would look into the grass. When questioned, they said, "Oh, we're looking for telltale signs of mice. You see they have little roads in the grass." So we, the learners, looked and to our amazement saw all these little highways. Then they started taking little steps and moving up and down. When questioned, they said, "Oh, we are feeling for a spongy area. If it feels spongy it might be the mouse nest or it might be the food cache." Then, when a mouse cache was found, the tools were taken out: an uluaq, a bag and even some bits of dried fish and crackers. The nest had to be cut in a special way so that the Elders would be able leave it as naturally as they had found it. After the edible roots were taken they were replaced with dried fish and cracker crumbs and thanks was given. In this way they shared more detailed information that was not initially evident during the interviews. In experiencing and practicing the gathering of edible mouse food, we were able to document a great deal more information then we would have if we had just relied on the interviews. We, as educators, had acquired information that was validated by our own experience and practice. When learning passively from our Elders, we are able to bring only limited information and insights back into the classroom, but through participation in the actual field activity, the information takes on much greater validity and meaning. Sharing Yup'ik Knowledge As teachers and educators, we are responsible for sharing the information we gather with students who want to learn more about their culture, as well as with other individuals who are within the present school system and community. What avenues are available to share such information so that others may also benefit from this knowledge? There are many new materials being developed for integration into the school environment that address the approaches to the teaching described above. Specific ideas and suggestions are outlined in the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools, available through the Alaska Native Knowledge Network/Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative (AKRSI). One of the initiatives of the AKRSI involves implementing "Native Ways of Knowing" into school teaching practices, including documenting traditional cultural knowledge and incorporating it into the curriculum using experiential methods. As a result of this initiative, many new materials are now being developed and integrated into the regular classroom. Schools are beginning the process of becoming grounded within the local culture. "This is how to pull back the earth (ground)." L to R Elder Henry Alakayuk, Sr. of Manokotak, Elder Helen Toyukuk of Manokotak, and UAF student assistant Virginia Andrew of Aleknajik. PHOTO BY ESTHER ILUTSIK We, as Elders, educators and teachers, are very optimistic that the educational environment within the Western schools will change so that learning will fit the needs of the students; so that the teachers coming into the area will have an understanding of and sensitivity to the local culture and so that we will begin to see some positive changes for our people and communities. One area that has been overlooked, however, is the education of the generation who are presently the parents-about their own culture and traditional roles and responsibilities in child-rearing. This is especially critical for those who had to leave home to attend a boarding school-how do we begin to bring their heritage back to them? Collecting Knowledge Into Action The Ciulistet Research Association, working through the Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham, has begun to address these issues and concerns. The Native educators who make up the Ciulistet Research Association come from the two main districts within the Bristol Bay area: Dillingham City Schools and Southwest Region Schools. It was decided that one of the ways to begin to address these concerns and issues was to present public workshops. This would serve as a means of educating the public without cost to the participants. We would not only serve the needs of our people, but also people from other cultural groups. It was also decided that we would seek funding from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, which funds artist and educational workshops. Money was obtained to pay honorariums for two Elders to assist us with the workshop. The community workshop, which is just getting underway, is designed to model, as close as possible, the Ciulistet method of collecting information-that is bringing together Elders with professional educators and inviting the children and people from the general public to participate. To attract educators, the workshop is being offered as a university-level course through the Bristol Bay Campus. By involving the educators, we hope to narrow the communication gap between the school and community. All of this is to be reinforced through opportunities for firsthand experience and practice in the knowledge and skills that are being shared-out where the mice make the highways in tundra. Our vision is that the information presented at the workshop will generate interest among the parents, community members and teachers, thus creating a domino effect in education-teachers teaching the ideas and themes in the classroom, while the parents and community members share the information with their own children as well as others in the community. It truly is an exciting time in education! "Here is the mouse trail." "Pull back the grass to get to the mouse cache." PHOTO BY ESTHER ILUTSIK PHOTO BY ESTHER ILUTSIK "Here is the mouse cache . . . " L to R, Elder Henry Alakayak, Sr. of Manokotak, teacher Ina Bouher of Dillingham City Schools, Elder Helen Toyukak of Manokotak. PHOTO BY ESTHER ILUTSIK | |
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Transforming the Culture of Schools: Yup'ik Eskimo Examples by Jerry Lipka, Gerald Mohatt, and the Ciulistet Group:The book presents the results of over 15 years of collaborative research effort in looking at classroom instructional practices and experimenting with new forms of curriculum that are grounded in Yup'ik cultural beliefs and practices. In addition to attracting a general readership among practicing educators, it is a book that should become a valuable reference for teacher preparation programs throughout Alaska and beyond. It may be ordered from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 10 Industrial Avenue, Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 (ISBN 0-8058-2821-4). | |
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Translating Standards to Practice Now Available on the Web by Cyndy Curran:A user-friendly resource for all science teachers in Alaska is now available in another format. The electronic version of Translating Standards to Practice: A Teacher's Guide to Use and Assessment of the Alaska Science Standards is accessible on the Alaska Native Knowledge Network web page at http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/translating. Developed collaboratively by the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative, the Department of Education & Early Development with funding from the National Science Foundation, Translating Standards to Practice is a tool for improving science instruction for all Alaska students. Alaska educators, along with members of the business, Native and scientific communities wrote Translating Standards to Practice to enhance, complement and integrate the Alaska Science Content Standards and the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools. The purposes of Translating Standards to Practice are (1) to help teachers as they further develop their science instruction and (2) to serve as a guide for districts as they make choices about which standards, as well as which aspects of the standards to focus upon for different benchmark levels. Written to reflect the diversity and richness of Alaska, Translating Standards to Practice can guide teachers as they create performance assessments for their classrooms. A bridge between the wisdom of the cultural traditions of the Elders and Western science, Translating Standards to Practice will help teachers enliven their science teaching and help increase student achievement for all Alaska students. As with the hard-copy format, the science content standards are divided into the following benchmark levels: Level 1, ages 5-8; Level 2, ages 8-10; Level 3, ages 11-14 and Level 4, ages 15-18 . The web page format allows teachers to click on a science standard within a benchmark level and view the content standard, the performance standard for the benchmark level, sample assessments for that performance standard and, in many cases, an expanded sample assessment idea with an accompanying scoring guide. So that teachers have access to the documents on which the performance standards are based, the references from the National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks for Science Literacy are also included. Within each benchmark level teachers will find sample units to help them to see how and where performance assessment fits within a unit. Teachers can use these sample units as guides when they develop their own units of instruction. | |
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Translations of Native American Literature by Vivian Martindale:From On the Translations of Native American Literature, ed. by Brian Swann). When offering translations of Native American texts in the classroom, an educator ought to be aware of the background of the translated material that is offered. The written text is simply not enough as discussions must include information about the author if available, background information about the culture and demographics, information about the translator and, most importantly, the implications of translation from oral traditions to the written form. Only then can an educator offer an honest examination of the Native American text. Brian Swann's On the Translation of Native American Literatures is one such resource for educators. Published in 1992 by the Smithsonian Institution, this book is divided into four sections. The book opens with a brief introduction by Swann, followed by a second section providing an overview of the translation of Native American literature. In section three, Swann organizes the contributing essays by language and geography. Finally, section four concerns itself with the translations of Central and South American Indian literature. When offering translated texts in the classroom an educator must consider a very important point: "The very problematic relationship between the academics who study this material and become its interpreters to American society at large, and the people who live in it" (Swann 1992). One should realize that the Western worldview provides a different context for interpreting material that is originally performed in a Native American context. The translator, considered the author (especially in older published texts), is often Euro-American. So therefore when reading poetry or songs from as far back as the early seventeenth century through the 1800s and early 1900s, no value was placed upon accurate translation of Native literature. In the essay "Tokens of Literary Faculty" by William M. Clements, he claims translating the songs, poems and oratory of Native Americans was done simply to control them and ultimately eliminate their culture. Clements strongly stresses the opinions of the times: "The songs, stories and orations of the Indians had so little literary merit that they deserved the same fate as the cultures in general. Since they could be consigned to oblivion with no esthetic loss, translating them served at most the purposes of those who sought to understand Native Americans for the sake of efficiently subjugating them." When translated, oral traditions were written to fit the popular forms of poetry and songs of the times. Euro-American translators thought there was an infancy in the language that would eventually mature with the Natives becoming civilized (Clements 1992:35-37). Therefore, offering students who study and appreciate Native American literature these thoughts could profoundly change how they interpret the material. These reasons could account for the stereotypes and prejudices about Native Americans that evolved into our American culture. For example, from books and other literature we read about the stoic Indian, the savage, the vanishing Indian, the child-like Indian and the drunken Indian. All are images that began with translators who came from a different worldview than the Native peoples themselves. This insight, however, should not dissuade the educator from offering older texts in the classroom or other valuable interpretations of Native literature by non-Natives, but the educator should definitely discuss with students the background of the translator and the views of the times. Also discussed should be how much time the translator spent in the community and what, if any, knowledge the translator had about the community or people. The question should also be asked "Does the translator have a reliable person from the Native community who they consulted on the translated material?" For many Euro-American translators the goal is to be aesthetically pleasing to the market for which the translator is working. In regions where the languages are non-existent and the translator only has anthropologist's and ethnologist's documents to work from, with no local speakers available, the translator is in danger of taking excessive creative license. Fortunately in Alaska there are Native language speakers still available for consultation. The culture and demographics of the material being examined is also important. Since reading literature from a particular culture is an excellent way to learn about that culture, it would be valuable if students looked up terms they didn't understand and were presented with an overview of the culture. Items to consider are the location of the community and a bit of historical perspective about the region from which the literature comes. For example, if one would be studying Velma Wallis' Two Old Women, it would enhance the readers experience if they knew where Velma lived and where the story took place. In Wallis' case, she is an Alaska Native and she herself is the translator of the story from the oral tradition to the written form. Wallis also used some creative license to re-tell the story for publication with editing help from others. In this case, Wallis' book is probably a more accurate style of the retelling of an oral tradition than many earlier works in Alaska that were done by non-Natives (Wallis 1993). Lastly, the implications of translating an oral tradition into the written form must be considered when exploring Native American literature in the classroom. Many older literary works from the 1800s aren't up to modern standards of translative criteria (Clements 1992). A good technique to introduce into the classroom would be to invite a Native American orator to tell a story using the oral traditions prior to the students reading a written version and then, at another time, have them read the story first prior to hearing and watching it performed. Knowing the difference and identifying the possible places where interpretation could differ is a valuable lesson when reading material that is based upon oral traditions. An educator must be aware when offering material that are translations from oral traditions that not all translators come from the same worldview as the Native peoples they are writing about. But despite this, Native American literature, whether a translation or by the original author, offers wonderful ways to explore the beauty and uniqueness of America's numerous Native American cultures. References Swann, Brian, ed. 1992 On the Translation of Native American Literatures Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Wallis, Velma. 1993 Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival. New York: Harper Collins. Clements, William. 1992 "Tokens of Literary Faculty," In On the Translation of Native American Literatures. Washing-ton: Smithsonian Institution. | |
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Tundra Mouse: A Storyknife Tale:Orchard Books, 1997, 32 pp, $15.95 Reviewed by Esther Ilutsik Tundra Mouse: A Storyknife Tale by Megan McDonald and illustrated by S.D. Schindler is a delightful story. It begins with two Yup'ik girls walking along with the older girl reminding the younger to watch out for mouse holes. The younger girl asks the older girl, "Tell me." So the older girl takes out her storyknife, which in this case is a butterknife, and finds a nice muddy spot along the river and begins. Then as the story progresses you begin to wonder about the author's background. How much does she really know about the Yup'ik culture and about mouse food gathering, because the mouse has only gathered cotton-grass roots and if you ever had experience in finding a mouse cache you would find many different kinds of roots stored in these caches. And then it proceeds with " . . . a big furry boot came crashing through the mouse hole . . . " In reality when you go out gathering mouse food in order to find them, you have to stomp on the ground and then when or if the ground feels soft or feels hollow then you need an uluaq (a woman's knife) to slice carefully into the ground. In this way respect is shown to the cache. After carefully removing edible roots the rest are returned with a food item that the gatherer has brought. Then the nest is covered very carefully. Although the author alludes to this practice later on in the story. The story proceeds with the grandmother zipping along on a snowmachine. In Alaska, mouse food is gathered in the late fall when the gatherer knows that there is still time for the mouse to gather more roots to replenish or in the spring when the mouse is cleaning out the cache. I have never known anyone to gather mouse food in the dead of winter, especially near the holidays. Upon reaching home the grandmother immediately begins to chop the edible roots for her Christmas akutaq (in the story it is spelled phonetically). Again, the roots are cleaned by hand removing the non-edible roots, washed with water, boiled then cooled before being chopped up to include into the akutaq. I have never known anyone to make akutaq using flour as the story implies. Christmas morning arrives and the Christmas tree is bare; Grandmother blames the cingssiik (here it shows the word in dual form). As a Yup'ik people, the cingssiiget (this is in the plural form) have different regional purposes. The way that the cingssiiget are used in this context is not reflective of the Yup'ik people. The illustrations are beautiful. But as you look at the illustrations you begin to wonder where this illustrator is from and how much do they really know about the Yup'ik people. Let's begin with the first illustration where the mouse is shown in the nest. The little that I know about Tundra mice, I know they have different chambers. They have a chamber to store the mouse food that is gathered, a sleeping area, and even an area where mouse droppings are prevalent. The next illustration shows a part of kameksaks (mukluks) on the tundra with part of a bag showing. The kameksaks stand out because they look very Iñupiaq and not the style worn by the Yup'ik Eskimos. The illustration following this shows the grandmother on a snowmachine and her kameksaks are not the right style or from the right Eskimo group. The illustration that shows the Grandmother cutting up the cotton grass roots, show her wearing a fur vest and scarf and using a butcher knife. In reality, the Grandmother would wear a qaspeq (a women's lightweight summer parka that Yup'ik women wear nowadays), a beaded hairnet, and use a proper woman's knife, an uluaq. Now take a look at the illustration that shows the granddaughters with the grandmother. It shows them Christmas morning. Again, the grandmother is shown incorrectly still using her kameksaks with a scarf. Even if the author consulted with Yup'ik people it is important that they go back to them before the story is published to make sure that the cultural information is correct. Don't overlook the illustrations too. These are beautiful cultural stories but if they have misinformation, it will not do justice to the cultural group they are trying to portray. | |
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