In my last post I
examined indigenous livelihood and culture and how these have been affected by
contact with the western world. In this post I want to specifically examine
education: the third aspect in my land-people connections triangle. How have
westerners influenced what, where and how indigenous children learn? Has this
been for better or for worse? This particularly draws on material I have learnt
in my anthropology class.
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My land-people connections triangle. This post focusses on education. |
1. Indigenous
Education before European Contact
Before western industrial influence indigenous
livelihoods were entirely dependent on the land. Knowledge about how to use,
manage and value the ocean, rivers and forests was essential to survival and
therefore central to education. This knowledge was passed down within the
community from generation to generation. Learning was a communal and informal
process. Children were taught in an experiential manner through stories, song,
dance and active practice of techniques. There were no textbooks, no
timetables, no exams, and no external professors. Yet this lack of formal
structure and curriculum did not lead to naive, unruly youth. In fact, the
traditional system was very successful. Wisdom was seen as something to aspire
towards, not shy away from, and children could see the direct benefits of
learning - more knowledge about fishing meant more fish for dinner.
Discipline was not enforced through force but came from a culture of respect:
respect for elders and for the environment.
2. Colonial
domination: residential schools
Westerners first arrived in British
Columbia in the late 1700s. Their view was that it would be best for indigenous
communities to be assimilated into western culture. Children were seen as
the most impressionable and so in the 1870s the Canadian government set up ‘residential
schools’. These were compulsory indigenous boarding schools tasked with ‘taking
the Indian out of the child’ (Milloy, 1999).
Residential school curriculums revolved
around Eurocentric knowledge and preparation for life in the modern economy. In
the classroom children were taught about Christianity, European languages and
European history. Outside of the classroom children were taught about
techniques used in commercial agriculture and about machinery used in
industrial factories. Children were not allowed to speak in their own
languages, and were not taught about or allowed to practice their own cultures
or religions. They were separated from their families and taught by
non-indigenous teachers, to whom they had no cultural tie. Discipline was kept
through force, and physical abuse was common. Although this education system
revolved around a formal structure and curriculum, it arguably led to a
generation of oppressed and resentful youth rather than knowledgeable,
well-rounded individuals.
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| St Michael's Residential School, Alert Bay, Vancouver Island (1929-1975) |
3.
End of colonial domination
Residential schools lasted for over 100
years, but in the 1970s they began to be closed down, with the last one being
closed in 1996. There is no single, discrete event that triggered this closure.
Yet, it can largely be attributed to the gradual exposure of child abuse and a
general shift in attitude towards First Nations people (Blackburn, 2012). In 2008, the Canadian
Prime Minister delivered a formal apology for the Government’s role in the
operation of the residential school system. This marked the beginning of a new
era.
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| Current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing an Indigenous blanket at a meeting with tribal leaders in 2015 |
4.
Transition to collaboration
This new era is characterized by
collaboration. Indigenous children now go to the same schools as non-indigenous
children and the provincial BC curriculum includes both indigenous and
non-indigenous knowledge. Furthermore, interaction between pupils and First
Nations members is encouraged. Tribal elders are often invited to visit classes
as guest speakers and schools organize field trips to reserves and traditional
villages.
For example, a school in northern
Vancouver Island set up the “Kwakiutl Sacred Geography Learning Project” (BC Ministry of Education, 2015). In
this project, children collaborated with aboriginal elders and community
members to create signposts for various local places. These signposts related
to traditional place names, included indigenous illustrations and were written
in native languages. Through participating in this project the children learnt
about indigenous geography, history and culture. They were also able to connect
with the First Nations people on a personal face-to-face basis.
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| Example of one of the place signs made in the Kwakiutl Sacred Geography Learning Project |
5. Future aspirations
Analysis of the past and present
indigenous education systems in BC raises the question: what is the ideal
system that we should aim for in the future? The collaborative education
approach is still in its early stages and it will take time before it has been
normalized across BC. However, is this system the Western ideal, rather than
the indigenous ideal? For some
indigenous elders their ideal would be for education to go back to its original
pre-contact state, separated from western influence. Nevertheless, indigenous
societies inevitably come into contact with western society, state government
and industry on a day-to-day basis, particularly regarding land and resource
rights. Therefore, it is unrealistic for them to resume a completely
disconnected, unaltered existence. Perhaps, if we continue to pursue the
collaborative approach this will produce a new generation of indigenous and
non-indigenous children who are more understanding of each other’s cultures. This may
help them to resolve future conflict over land and resources in a more
co-operative, and hopefully successful, way.
References:
BC Ministry of Education. (2015). Aboriginal Education in
Action: The Kwakiutl Sacred Geography Learning Project. In Aboriginal
worldviews and perspectives in the classroom (pp. 58–59).
Blackburn, C. (2012). Culture Loss and Crumbling Skulls: The Problematic
of Injury in Residential School Litigation. Political and Legal Anthropology
Review, 35(2), 289–307.
Milloy, J. (1999). “A National Crime”: The Canadian Government and the
Residential School System, 1879-1986. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba
Press.