Indigenous Educational Models for Contemporary Practice

In Our Mother's Voice

Maenette K.P. A Benham, Joanne Elizabet Cooper, Maenette K.P. A Benham, Joanne Elizabet Cooper

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2000
• Print ISBN:
  9780805834611
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135662639
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What is the philosophy that should drive native education policy and practice? In July 1997 a group of native educational leaders from the United States (including Alaska and Hawai'i), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand gathered to define a potential solution to this question. This book passes on the individual educational philosophies of the participants and captures the essence of each in a dynamic, transformational, and holistic model--"Go to the Source"--which forwards a collective vision for a native language- and culture-based educational philosophy that native educational leaders and teachers, policymakers, and curriculum developers can use to ground their work. For more information visit http://ed-web2.educ.msu.edu/voice/

‘Ekahi (Chapter 1)
Gathering Together to Travel to the Source: A Vision for a Language and Culture-Based Educational Model

Maenette Kape‘ahiokalani Padeken Ah Nee-Bennam Joanne Elizabeth Cooper

Give me back my language and build a house Inside it. A house of madness. A house for the dead who are not dead. And the spiral of the sky above it. And the sun And the moon. And the stars to guide us called promise. —Joy Harjo (We Must Call a Meeting, 1990)

THE BEGINNINGS

When we began this work, during the summer of 1996, we knew that it would forever change our lives. Our plan was to bring together a group of respected, Native Hawaiian, American Indian (indigenous people of North America), Alaskan Native, Maori, and Australian Aborigine leaders who championed innovative educational initiatives in their home contexts. We wanted this group to be representative of young-novice and elder-seasoned educators, male and female, from a variety of institutional settings serving preschoolers through adults. The purpose of our work together would be to create a visionary space to talk and to listen, to learn about our uniqueness and similarities, and to share ideas and practices that have supported and shaped learning experiences for Native children and youth. We understood that the ideas that would emerge from the gathering would positively and effectively address many dilemmas confronting Native educators. In particular, we hoped to craft a Native vision, which would replace the English-American model of learning. This model has not only been ineffective, but often destructive to Native ways of knowing and learning. V.Deloria, Jr. (1991/1994) wrote:

English education, represented first by benevolent members of the aristocracy who gave funds to support Indian schools and later embodied in the United States government’s encouragement of mission activities among the frontier tribes, represented, and still represents, an effort to effect a complete transformation of beliefs and behaviors of Indians. Education in the English-American context resembles indoctrination more than it does other forms of teaching because it insists on implanting a particular body of knowledge and a specific view of the world which often does not correspond to the life experiences that people have or might be expected to encounter, (p. 20)

Hence, the hard work of the gathering was to think deeply about how both Native and Western worldviews might coexist in dynamic educational settings that value spirituality and connection to land, language, and ancestry.

We, the Native educators gathered during the summer of 1997, believe that the stories passed on by our k

puna (elders) coupled with our own life experiences and research brought us to this pathway in our individual life journeys. We know first-hand the debilitating affects of Western ideology, assimilation, and cultural genocide on Native peoples of North America, Alaska, Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Hawai‘i. After centuries of indignity, misinformation, and abuse, however, Native pride and activism (fostered by the 1950s-1960s civil rights movement in the United States) has refocused Native peoples attention on self-determination an important action issue. In Hawai‘i, for example, the rallying points came from the successful sailing of the wa‘a (canoe) Hokule‘a to Tahiti and the successful struggle for the return of the sacred island of Kaho‘olawe (taken by the U.S. military for bombing practice) to the Hawaiian people. These actions have affirmed that Native people must take the initiative to define a course for Native education, which is grounded in our own principles, epistemologies, and cultural values.

On the urging and approval of k

puna and colleagues, we began the work of this project, In Our Mother’s Voice. Many have asked how we came to name this initiative. Maenette explains the naming of our work in a short story that goes like this:

I believe the name, In Our Mother’s Voice, was a special gift from my aumakua (family god) the pueo (owl). One summer day, I was telling my then seven-year-old niece, Lehua, many stories of w

kahiko (ancient Hawai‘i). I was surprised that the legends and tales just flowed from a memory space that I had long forgotten existed. Throughout the summer I taught her lessons about the history of the Hawaiian people, how to do things in Hawaiian ways, and important information about the natural environment, the ‘

ina (land) and the kai (sea), that are the foundation of our island home. I also employed ‘

lelo no‘eau, Hawaiian sayings, to teach Lehua Hawaiian values and principles.

This sharing of Hawaiiana through ‘

lelo no‘eau, hula (dance) and mele (music), arts and crafts, and storytelling reminded me that the aloha (love and care) passed on from one generation to the next was key to the survival of everything that is Hawaiian. As Native people, what we know about our past and our present comes from the stories that have passed from one body to the next, from mouth to ear, through the voices of our k

puna. Because the power of the word carries truth, cradles emotions, and creates facts, the story can bring to life distinctive ways of knowing. I came to know that the source of all the stories that I had been sharing with Lehua were the voices of my k

puna past and present. It was their individual and collective voices that evoked the timeless lessons I have learned and now share with Lehua. The message was indeed traveling from one generation to the next, effortlessly, and with so much aloha. I had, without knowing, become the storyteller—the channel if you will—for the voices of k

puna to the very young.

At the same time that I was teaching Lehua, I was reading Leslie Marmon Silko’s book, Ceremony. The opening poem of this story challenges the Native leader to work for social justice.

Ceremony

I will tell you something about stories, [he said] They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories. Their evil is mighty but it can’t stand up to our stories. So they try to destroy the stories let the stories be confused or forgotten. They would like that They would be happy Because we would be defenseless then. He rubbed his belly. I keep them here [he said] Here, put your hand on it See, it is moving. There is life here for the people. And in the belly of this story the rituals and the ceremony are still growing.

Becoming both teacher and learner, I came to realize the importance of the stories that our elders have shared. Silko’s poem affirms the value of stories in our lives. I think I always knew this, but it became more evident when I had to take on the role and the responsibilities of the storyteller.

For Joanne, the moment she heard the poem’s title this importance rang true for her:

Because five generations of the women in my family all carry the middle name Elizabeth, Joanne states: I feel the lineage of these women and their stories in my own life. I come from a family steeped in oral traditions, a family of storytellers who have passed on important ways of knowing and being in the world through their stories. The power of those stories is their ability to carry laughter, love, and wisdom. As a mother of two daughters, I feel a special responsibility to carry the mother’s voice from past to present generations.

Stories are the foundation of this book and are shared for different reasons. They are meant to teach, guide, and, in some cases, direct the reader. Some of the stories are everyday ones. We ask that the reader “listen” to the personal stories of pain and struggle in order to connect spirit with spirit to gain deeper meaning. Throughout, there are stories of creation, history, and genealogy that link contemporary people to land or place and ancestry or integrity. Some of the stories are humorous, dramatic, or mystical, but all enlighten us to the importance of linking the mind, body, and spirit to learning and teaching. Finally, sacred stories are shared in the spirit of the book—not written in the text—that reveal respect for ceremony and protocol.

Hence, the purpose of our book and it’s title, In Our Mother’s Voice, is to highlight the importance of the lessons and guidance shared through oral storytelling, of k

puna, both female and male. The feminine voice is chosen for the title only because the woman is the life-giving force and the source of land, rank, political power, and culture, yet both males and females share the responsibility and challenges of perpetuating Native culture and language. Much like the ‘

hi‘a lehua tree that blossoms in even the most rugged, volcanic terrain, the work of this initiative, similar to the work of our k

puna, is to rekindle Native and non-Native passion to aloha (love), m

lamapono‘ia (care), and ‘ihi (respect). Additionally, the fruits of t...

Table of contents

• Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education
• Contents
• From the Series Editor
• Foreword
• Preface
• ‘Ekahi (Chapter 1) Gathering Together to Travel to the Source: A Vision for a Language and Culture-Based Educational Model
• OUR DIFFERENT PATHS TO THE SOURCE
• Transition I Path to Native Epistemology: The Lightning Tree
• Transition II Path to Native Language and Cultural Revitanimation
• Transition III Path to the Spirit:
• Transition IV Path to Community
• Appendix A Exemplary Native Educational Programs in the United States
• Appendix B Resources for Native Educators
• Contributors
• Index