FORD FOUNDATION NATIVE WAYS INTENSIVE
READINGS
4-24-09
Kawagley, Angayuqaq Oscar. A Yupiaq World View: A Pathway to Ecology and
Spirit, 2nd Edition (2006) Waveland Press. (hardcopy) WILL BE DELIVERED SOON
In a call to unite the two parts of his own and modern Yupiaq history, Dr. Kawagley
proposes a way of teaching that incorporates all ways of knowing available in Yupiaq
and Western science.
MON. MAY 4: AK NATIVE WAYS of TEACHING/LEARNING
Barnhardt, Ray and Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley. “Indigenous Knowledge Systems
and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 36, no 1
(2005): 8-23
Article which “seeks to extend our understandings of the learning processes within
and at the intersection of diverse worldviews and knowledge systems” and move the
role of Indigenous knowledge and learning from the margins to the center of
educational research.”
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Curriculum/Articles/BarnhardtKawagley/Indige
nous_Knowledge.html
Kawagley, Angayuqaq Oscar. Alaska Native Education: History and Adaptation in
the New Millenium, University of Alaska Fairbanks,
Journal of American Indian Education Volume 39, Number 1 Fall, 1999
Describes the lifeways of the Yupiaq people, the consequences of adaptation to the
western model, ways in which Yupiaq people learn from nature, and calls for Yupiaq
people to reclaim control over their educational systems.
http://ankn.uaf.edu/Curriculum/Articles/OscarKawagley/ANEHistory.html
Ilutsik, Esther. “Oral Traditional Knowledge: Does it Belong in the Classroom?”
Sharing Our Pathways, 7, no. 3. (Summer 2002)
“As local educators who are documenting the oral traditional knowledge of our
ancestors and developing methods and means of bringing this information to our
descendents through the public educational system, we are faced with many
decisions that drastically affect the validity of this knowledge base that was once so
fluid. Public schools represent a system that is foreign to the methods and means of
transmitting this information in the past. We are constantly faced with decisions that
affect how this knowledge will be passed on to our future descendents.”
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/sop/SOPv7i3.pdf
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TUESDAY MAY 5: ALASKA NATIVE PEOPLES & EDUCATION
Anderson-Spear, Doreen. Alaska Native Education: Past, Present and Future from
Sharing Our Pathways Newsletter, Vol 8., Issue #2 March/April 2003
Keynote presentation at the 2003 Native Educators Conference banquet by Doreen
Anderson-Spear, granddaughter of Eben Hobson, founding Mayor of the North Slope
Borough. She first recites a speech he gave on Alaska Native Education in 1975, then
makes her own remarks. Doreen was born in Barrow, was a student at UAA, and one
of the first winners of the Alaksa Native Oratory Statewide competition.
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/SOP/SOPv8i2.html#alaska
Barnhardt, Ray. Domestication of the Ivory Tower: Institutional Adaptation to
Cultural Distance (2002). Anthropology and Education Quarterly 33(2): 238-249.
Addresses lessons learned in UAF’s field-based faculty education program in rural
Alaska. Asks “Can the university change its modus operandi to accommodate
diverse cultural contexts and still perform the functions for which it is designed, or
must students acquire the "culture" of the university if they are to partake of its
services? What happens to notions of "theory" and "practice" when faculty and
students become collaborators in knowledge construction and application?”
http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/articles/Barnh-InstitutionalAdapt.htm
Ongtooguk, Paul. Alaska’s Cultures: Education and Cultural Self-Determination
Article calling on Alaska Native communities and leaders to begin to answer a series
of questions: By the time young people graduate from high school what will they be
expected to know about Native cultures? What are Alaska Native young people
learning from their parent's generation? What should Alaska Native young people be
learning from their parent's generation? How many of Alaska Native high school
graduates will be familiar with any Alaska Native author after twelve years in school?
http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=281
Ongtooguk, Paul. Their Silence About Us: Why We Need an Alaska Native
Curriculum
Then Director of the Native Studies Curriculum Development Project, now professor
of Education at UAA, Paul Ongtooguk insists that “ the next generation of Alaska
Native students be able to attend schools where our history and our societies are
included in lessons about people, history, and the world.”
http://www.alaskool.org/whyproject.html
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WEDNESDAY MAY 6th: DIFFICULT DIALOGUES
Kawagley, Angayuqaq Oscar and Ray Barnhardt. Education Indigenous to Place:
Western Science Meets Native Reality
Essay addressing the contributions of indigenous cultures in guiding education back
to a grounding in the ecology of place.
http://www.ankn.af.edu/Curriculum/Articles/BarnhardtKawagley/EIP.html
Kirkness, Verna and Ray Barnhardt. First Nations and Higher Education: The Four
“R”s – Respect, Reverence, Relevance, and Reciprocity (2001). From Knowledge
Across Cultures: A Contribution to Dialogue Among Civilizations. R. Hayoe and J. Pan. Hong
Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.
“American Indian/First Nations/Native people have been historically underrepresented in the ranks of college and university graduates in Canada and the
United States. From an institutional perspective, the problem has been typically
defined in terms of low achievement, high attrition, poor retention, weak persistence,
etc., thus placing the onus for adjustment on the student. From the perspective of
the Indian student, however, the problem is often cast in more human terms, with
an emphasis on the need for a higher educational system that respects them for
who they are, that is relevant to their view of the world, that offers reciprocity in
their relationships with others, and that helps them exercise responsibility over
their own lives. This paper examines the implications of these differences in
perspective and identifies ways in which initiatives within and outside of existing
institutions are transforming the landscape of higher education for First
Nations/American Indian people in both Canada and the United States.”
http://ankn.uaf.edu/IEW/WINHEC/FourRs2ndEd.html
Sheldrake, Rupert. Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And
Other Unexplained Powers of Animals, Three Rivers Press, 2000 (2nd ed.)
Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance and morphogenic fields is the closest thing
in western science Dr. Kawagley has yet found which outlines a scientific basis for
how Yup’ik people are able to communicate with their ancestors. The theory suggests
the following: Natural systems, or morphic units, at all levels of complexity are
animated, organized, and coordinated by morphic fields, which contain an inherent
memory. Natural systems inherit this collective memory from all previous things of
their kind by a process called morphic resonance, with the result that patterns of
development and behavior become increasingly habitual through repetition.
WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON on the BLACKBOARD SITE
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THURSDAY MAY 7: LEARNING from ELDERS
Attungana, Patrick. Whale Hunting in Harmony, February 11-13, 1985
Transcript of taped interviews with Inupiaq whaling captain as well as two short legends.
http://www.alaskool.org/projects/traditionalife/Barrow_Whaling/Attungana.htm
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Fienup- Riordan, Ann. Power of the Mind from Wise Words of the Yup'ik People:
We Talk to You because We Love You (2005). Bison Books.
“The Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska were some of the last Arctic peoples to
come into contact with non-Natives, and as a result, Yup’ik language and many
traditions remain vital into the twenty-first century. Wise Words of the Yup’ik People
documents their qanruyutet (adages, words of wisdom, and oral instructions)
regarding the proper living of life. Throughout history, these distinctive wise words
have guided the relations between men and women, parents and children, siblings
and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and even with non-Natives. Yup’ik
elders have chosen to share these wise words during Calista Elders Council
gatherings and conventions since 1998 …The Calista Elders Council, which represents
some thirteen hundred Yup'ik elders, recently spearheaded efforts at cultural
revitalization through gatherings with younger community members.”
WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON on the BLACKBOARD SITE
Merculieff, Larry. Heart of the Halibut: A Rite of Passage of an Aleut Boy
Essay describing coming of age as an Aleut youth by internalizing the wisdom of his
Elders for subsistence fishing for halibut.
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/cafe/upload/Heart-of-the-Halibut-Merculieff2.pdf
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