Academic literature on the topic 'Indigenous Epistemologie'

Afričko iskustvo kolonizacije zavijestilo je kulturu epistemološkog utišavanja afričke domorodačke epistemologije monokromatskom logikom zapadnog mišljenja. Sistematično je obezvrijedila afričke domorodačke sustave znanja time što je afrički intelektualni pogon predstavljala kao alogičan i ponekad primitivan. Odmah po kolonijalnom iskustvu, pokušaji nekih afričkih istraživača da utvrde dubinu afričkog obrazovanja razlomilo je afričke sustave znanja. Do toga je došlo jer su pokušali koristiti zapadnjačku logiku i modele kao paradigme za istraživanje, ispitivanje i ocjenjivanje afričke prakse znanja. U ovom istraživanju argumentiram za potrebu rekonstruiranja razlomljenog sustava afričkog domorodačkog znanja. Predstavit ću kako su sustavi afričkog domorodačkog znanja (AIKS), na što se u radu još referiram kao na afričku domorodačku epistemologiju, iskrivljeni i razlomljeni. Potom, predložit ću rekonstrukciju tako što ću artikulirati kako stječemo i ovjeravamo znanje u afričkoj domorodačkoj epistemologiji. Pod afričkom domorodačkom filozofijom podrazumijevam sustav istraživanja, razumijevanja, zaprimanja i označavanja afričke koncepcije zbilje koja je specifično afrička i filozofijska. S obzirom na to, primijenit ću filozofijsku metodologiju kritičke analize, evaluacije i rekonstrukcije u svrhu ocrtavanja pojmova domorodačkog sustava znanja (IKS), afričke domorodačke epistemologije, efekta kolonijalnog razlamanja, globalizacije te zapadnog uokvirenja sustava afričkog domorodačkog znanja. Donosim zaključak da je za rekonstruiranje afričke domorodačke epistemologije potrebno osloboditi je zapadnjačke paradigme procjenjivanja. Time bi se odrazio autentični uzorak afričke misli koji opisuje spoznavanje istinito za afričko iskustvo, kako u prošlosti tako i danas, bez da se drugi oblici spoznavanja podcjenjuju

This article describes post-theistic negotiation conducted by the followers of indigenous local faith in Lombok Island. This study is a qualitative research method based on epistemological and sociological perspectives. This research found: first the epistemological structure developed by indigenous religion’s followers is constructed in the frame of established epistemological cycles; second, social reality construct within Lombok community is dynamic supported by local belief, intellectual maturity, intellectual maturity, and social awareness. Third, religion and local customs have compatible relations. Post-theistic negotiation is seen as a means to boast inter- faith dialogue. Tulisan ini membahas tentang negosiasi post-theistik penghayat kepercayaan lokal dalam mendialogkan agama dan adat di Pulau Lombok. Dengan menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif, melalui analisis epistemologi dan sosiologi pengetahuan, penelitian berkesimpulan: Pertama, formasi epistemologi yang dikembangkan para penghayat kepercayaan lokal menujukkan model persinggungan epistemologis yang menunjukkan kemapanan dalam tiap-tiap lingkaran epistemologis. Kedua, konstruksi realitas sosial yang mengelilingi individu maupun komunitas masyarakat Lombok bergerak dalam lingkaran sosial yang dinamis dimana warisan kepercayaan lokal, kemapanan intelektual, kepekaan sosial telah memberikan warna pada bangunan sosial mereka saat ini. Ketiga, agama dan adat tidak boleh dipertentangkan tanpa melalui proses intelektual dan sosial yang panjang. Negosiasi post-theistik adalah mekanisme penting yang layak digunakan dalam dialog antar keyakinan secara khusus dan dialog agama-agama secara umum guna menuju suatu tatanan masyarakat dialog yang mapan.

Abstract This paper contends that Indigenous epistemologies in educational curriculum can serve as powerful counter hegemonic action to dominant discourses. It then discusses how the implementation and application of Indigenous epistemologies in adult educational curricula can support intellectual sovereignty and positive identity construction for Indigenous wellbeing.

RESUMO:A história do direito demonstra a estreita relação do Direito com a dominação de povos subalternizados e a legitimação de atos opressores, instituídos em benefício de interesses econômicos. Diante disso, a busca por um direito descolonial mostrase urgente. Para tanto, são analisadas as origens epistemológicas do direito, do constitucionalismo, dos direitos humanos e da dignidade humana, indagando se o Novo Constitucionalismo Latino-Americano seria um passo rumo à descolonização do direito. Isso porque este movimento ainda contempla um paradigma que vai de encontro às premissas dos sistemas constitucionais tradicionalmente adotados. O Novo Constitucionalismo Latino-Americano se caracteriza por constituições que inserem epistemologias indígenas em seus textos, aportando um conceito de viver bem mais amplo que o do liberalismo. As epistemologias do Sul, ao serem constitucionalmente introduzidas, exibem potencial para lidar com os dilemas da sociedade global. A urgência de se interrogar sobre um Direito pautado nas epistemologias do Sul advém da inquietação quanto às promessas não cumpridas da modernidade, que convocam o Direito a acolher estas epistemologias como seu fundamento. ABSTRACT:Legal history established a strong link between Law, subaltern’s domination, and the legitimation of oppressive acts to the benefit of economic interests. Taking this into account, the need to decolonize Law is urgent. For that reason, we intend to analyze the epistemological origins of law, constitutionalism, human rights and human dignity, questioning whether the New Latin American Constitutionalism is a step towards to the decolonization of Law. The motivation that lies behind that question is the convergence of New Latin American Constitutionalism with the premises held by traditional constitutional systems. Latin American constitutionalism marks itself by inserting indigenous epistemologies into constitutional texts and bearing a concept of good living that surpass the liberal conception. The constitutionalization of Southern epistemologies has also shown potential in dealing with global society dilemmas. The urgency to consider a legal system based on the epistemologies of the South derives from the unfulfilled promises of modernity, which requires Law itself to account for these alternatives as its foundation.

In California Indian epistemologies, water, land, language, and knowledge are intimately connected through ancient cycles of research, ceremony, and kinship. Since creation, ‘atáaxum champúulam//Luiseño medicine people sang for rain, holding ceremonies that kept the riv­ers full, the plants strong, and our people from thirst. Rainmaking in this essay serves as an example of an Indigenous lifeway and practice that was subjected to colonial violence; rainmaking also serves as a more figurative and emblematic example of a central feature of Indigenous epistemologies in which language, land, governance/clan systems, and ceremony are linked together as an embodied practice. Embodied practices and the cluster of concepts connected to them are contrasted throughout this essay with parcels, or aspects of Indigenous lifeways that are rendered as individualized pieces or as mere resources. Indigenous lifeways are rendered as parcels or mere resources through a process of structural epistemic injustice (contributory injustice) that can be referted to as epistemic damming. Through contributory injustice, or epistemic damming, settler colonial legal and academic structures have transformed Indigenous practices by rendering them into parcels, or mere resources, and doling them out piecemeal back to Indigenous communities as a lackluster gesture at justice. This essay (1) provides sorely underdiscussed historical context of the impacts of settler colonialism on Indigenous lifeways and practices, spotlighting the specific manifestations of settler colonial violence in California, (2) shows how Indigenous practices are epistemically dammed, or subjected to structural contributory injustice, highlighting contemporary examples thereof, and (3) briefly gestures at a now-visible roadmap of avenues of Indigenous resistance with hazards such as contributory injustice flagged along the way.

This article contributes to the current debate on decolonizing geography. It explores rethinking the relationship of Indigenous epistemologies, knowledges, and geography from Indigenous perspectives. After deconstructing the Enlightenment as an illusory way towards emancipation and critically exploring the heritage of geography regarding Indigenous peoples, this paper examines the Indigenous epistemologies that are considered counter-discourses that challenge western ‘regimes of truth’. It approaches Indigenous knowledges through decolonizing paths to capture the originality and strength of Indigenous epistemologies more fully, and re-centre Indigenous conceptual frameworks as offering new possibilities to write the ‘difference differently’ in human geography.

The current project aims to identify and explore concepts of power from an Indigenous understanding. The topic of power is informed by vast literature that reaches back into the beginnings of western philosophy. The conceptions that result are based on a western worldview that does not incorporate cultural differences. An Indigenous theory of power can be used to inform strategies toward achieving a more equal distribution of power, and encourage successful Indigenous-settler reconciliation. Within the academic setting, Indigenous scholars are developing Indigenous research initiatives aimed at decolonizing methodologies and achieving intellectual self-determination (Smith, 2012, p.120). Utilizing a decolonization framework saturated with reflexivity, Indigenous research methods in conversation with grounded theory will be applied to identify an Indigenous worldview of power. Researcher reflexivity, relationships with community and research-based support systems are requisite to a decolonization research framework (Smith, 1999, p.138). Data collection will occur at M’Chigeeng First Nation and the Chief of that community has been recruited as community partner to this project. Together we aim to answer Indigenous questions to improve Indigenous lives with research based on standards for how we should structure our relationships with each other and with all of creation (Wilson, 2001, p.177). Indigenous research methods combined grounded theory allows the project to bridge worldviews, while allowing for relationships to guide the process. A literature analysis, interviews, sharing circles and review of historical records will be used.

O presente estudo objetiva estabelecer um diálogo aproximativo entre a epistemologia dos saberes populares, os saberes tradicionais indígenas e a educação em Direitos Humanos. Nesse diálogo situamos as especificidades, os nuances e organização própria de cada modo aprendente/ensinante na tentativa de perceber o que há de latente nos conteúdos e perspectivas dos Direitos Humanos nas respectivas leituras de mundo e da palavra. Nessa compreensão, estabelecemos o diálogo entre essas leituras de mundo das tradições popular e indígena (indígenas de Pernambuco), evidenciando os valores axiológicos tradicionais, e o que eles anunciam e denunciam das formalidades ideologizadas acerca da declaração dos Direitos Humanos. Nessa direção, esse diálogo contribui com as possíveis revisões dos conteúdos e formas das vivências da educação em Direitos Humanos. Para tanto, servimo-nos da abordagem das Epistemologias do Sul, sobremaneira, das contribuições de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Paulo Freire, Ivone Gebara, Saberes do Povo Kambiwá, Susana Sacavino e Ana Maria Rodino. Concluímos que esse diálogo muito enriquece não só as discussões da educação em Direitos Humanos, mas também amplia o exercício das leituras Interculturais na perspectiva ético-política. Saberes Populares. Saberes Indígenas. Educação em Direitos Humanos. Peoples’ and Indigenous’ knowledge and their affirmative fights: a perspective of Education in Human Rights ABSTRACT The present study aims to establish a closer dialogue between the epistemology of the people knowledge, the traditional indigenous knowledge and the Human Rights education. In this dialogue, we set the specificities, the nuances and proper organization of each manner of learning/teaching in the attempt of realizing what is latent in the contents and perspectives of Human Rights in the respective reading the world and the word. In this comprehension, we establish the dialogue between these readings of world of the people’s and indigenous’ traditions (indigenous of Pernambuco), pointing the axiological traditional values and what they announce and denounce in the ideologized formalities about the Human Rights declaration. In this direction, this dialogue contributes with the possible contents revision and means of the experiences of education in Human Rights. Therefore, we serve of the South Epistemologies approach, especially, in the contributions of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Paulo Freire, Ivone Gebara, the knowledge of the Kambiwá People, Susana Sacavino and Ana Maria Rodino. Concluding that this dialogue enriches not only the discussions about education in Human Rights, but also extends the exercise of intercultural readings in the ethic-political perspective. Peoples’ Knowledge. Indigenous Knowledge. Human Rights Education.

The purpose of the study is to understand Indigenous epistemologies of power from the standpoint of Indigenous participants who are originally from or currently living in the Sudbury and Manitoulin Island areas of Ontario, Canada. Indigenous research methods are privileged throughout, and key aspects of grounded theory are woven in to add support. Comparisons between the Indigenous epistemological concept of power and the Western theories of power of mainstream academia are made, as are relevant criticisms of Western epistemology. Fifteen Indigenous participants were interviewed. The central category that arose from the data is, relationships. This central category ties the other main categories together which are: language, sacred sources of power, Indigenous women, abuse of power, and knowledge. The findings indicate that there are many forms and manifestations of power which are related to each other. The source of power is in the interrelatedness of everyone to everything else that is known and unknown. Humility, harmony and balanced relationships produce the healthiest and most magnificent manifestations of power. The paper argues that understanding more about epistemologies of power will help illuminate a pathway by which Indigenous peoples and Canadians of settler ancestry can better understand one another, creating the shift in these relationships that is required in order to gather large-scale support for reconciliation and for ethical distribution of power resources in Canada.

My project is centered around a community garden in Upland, California called the People and Their Plants garden. This garden represents a five hundred year living history designed to show the changes in the ecological landscape of Southern California caused by colonization. This autoethnographic thesis works towards personal, interpersonal, and community-wide decolonization through building reciprocal relationships with Indigenous Elders. I explore, critique and problematize research and ethnography by examining the politics of knowledge, language, history, and ecology. I interrogate my own learned knowledge systems as well as colonial/capitalist food systems—and recognize how those systems/relations have worked to render Indigenous ways of knowing as invisible. Furthermore, I examine the connection between colonialism, gender, and capitalist food systems. I explain how the People and Their Plants garden is an act of resistance to colonial/capitalist food systems as it creates space for alternative economic practices and decolonial food practices. As part of this project, I co-authored a brochure about the garden with a Tongva Elder.

Indigenous cartography is based on a relational epistemology that works within a system where "place" and "ways of knowing" are intimately tied to Native communities' notions of kinship, oral tradition, and traditional ecological knowledge acquired over the millennia. It brings to life a place where mapping and geography cease to be simply Cartesian coordinates on a Euclidean plane and instead become storied landscapes. Indigenous cartography can be described as "radical" because it represents a departure from traditional Western ways of mapping and affirms an Indigenous political, economic and cultural sovereignty. As an intensely political act, Indigenous cartography can be an important tool used by Indigenous people to assert sovereignty in a bottom-up approach to land claims, in the management of cultural resources, and even to claim human remains for repatriation and reburial. If Indigenous groups wish to successfully utilize geospatial technologies as legal strategies, it will first require the development of the necessary infrastructure and training of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists from within. In much the same way that colonial practices of the past worked to achieve hegemony through the making of political and cultural boundaries, Indigenous cartography can work to dismantle these same colonial boundaries. A theory and methodology of Indigenous cartographic praxis is in use among some First Nations in British Columbia. However no "best practices" yet exist for the Indigenous use-and-mapping discipline. Consequently in the United States, Indigenous mapping is still considered an emerging approach. Therefore, can American Indian political and cultural sovereignty be supported by the implementation of Indigenous geospatial technologies? This dissertation will examine the British Columbian model and distill principles that can be successfully implemented by U. S. Native American communities who wish to develop capacity for this emerging geospatial technology based on the success of the First Nations model.

Nel corso degli ultimi cinquant’anni (1970-2020), le comunità indigene nasa del Dipartimento del Cauca (Colombia) si sono confrontate con processi necropolitici di segregazione territoriale e di violenza sistemica (Mbembe, 2006; Rozental, 2017), alimentati dalla secolare problematica del mancato riconoscimento delle terre ancestrali, dal conflitto armato interno colombiano, dall’attività delle transnazionali estrattiviste che operano nella regione e dalla proliferazione della problematica del narcotraffico (Peñaranda Supelano, 2012; Navia Lame, 2013; Peñaranda Supelano, 2015; CRIC, 2020). Per fronteggiare questi radicati dispositivi di espropiazione, violenza e silenziamento etnico, la popolazione nasa ha progressivamente riconfigurato le strategie di difesa della propria autonomia culturale e politica (Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Valero Gutiérrez, 2016). Nel quadro continentale del consolidamento organizzato delle rivendicazioni indigene, culminato nell’ultimo decennio del XX secolo nella cosiddetta emergencia indígena (Bengoa, 2007; Bengoa, 2009), le comunità nasa hanno plasmato modalità di resistenza multidimensionali, dove la tradizionale difesa pacifica dei confini territoriali è stata accompagnata da impulsi alla tutela dei propri spazi del sapere. Nel corso degli ultimi due decenni si sono strutturate strategie di salvaguardia dell’identità culturale comunitaria fondate sull’idea della custodia del “territorio dell’immaginario” (Almendra, 2017) dai dispositivi di invasione discorsiva e simbolica propri del necropotere (López Barcenas, 2007; Walsh, 2010): un meccanismo di protezione di epistemologie, cosmovisioni, lingua e spiritualità nasa, attuato a partire dalla delineazione di una nuova concezione autonoma della parola, tanto nell’esperienza dell’oralità come nelle sue espressioni scritte (Escobar, 2016). In questo contesto di studio, la tesi investiga un corpus di scritture realizzate da membri delle comunità indigene nasa in epoca contemporanea (1970-2020). La ricerca propone un’interpretazione della nozione-pratica del palabrandar, elaborata nell’ambito delle epistemologie nasa, come strumento ermeneutico centrale per la comprensione delle scritture analizzate e degli attuali immaginari di resistenza della popolazione caucana. La proposta del palabrandar si configura nel testo Entre la Emancipación y la Captura (2017) della scrittrice di etnia nasa-misak Vilma Almendra Quiguanás come una modalità autonoma di riflessione sull’esercizio della parola, concepita in una relazione di interdipendenza ontologica con l’azione di beneficio per la comunità (Almendra, 2017). La ricerca è strutturata in due tappe. Nei primi due capitoli si propone uno sguardo di analisi diacronico del processo di costituzione del prisma epistemologico della nozione-pratica del palabrandar, a partire dallo studio della produzione scritta di due autori nasa: Álvaro Ulcué Chocué (1943-1984) e Vilma Almendra Quiguanás (1979). Gli scritti del sacerdote cattolico di etnia nasa Ulcué Chocué, parzialmente inediti, sono interpretati come antecedente fondamentale della concezione autonoma della parola configurata nel testo Entre la Emancipación y la Captura di Vilma Almendra Quiguanas. Nel corso dell’analisi, si suggerisce una collocazione delle connotazioni epistemiche del palabrandar all’interno di una cartografia gnoseologica dei saperi indigeni dell’Abiayala, intesa qui nella sua integralità di pluriverso di enunciazione ed espressione delle conoscenze ancestrali in una dimensione di futuralità (Escobar, 2016; Rocha Vivas, 2017; Escobar, 2018). Nella seconda parte della tesi si elabora un’analisi orientata a delineare le forme semantiche e simboliche attraverso cui la nozione del palabrandar si traduce in pratica di scrittura. Si propone uno studio delle produzione scritte di alcuni membri della comunità nasa, interpretate nella loro dimensione di testualità oralettegrafiche (Rocha Vivas, 2017), ovvero scritture conformate da codici multidimensionali che possono trovare la loro espressione finale in un libro o in altri spazi di trasmissione del sapere nasa, come le pietre o le pareti (Faust, 2001; Rappaport, 2004; Rappaport, 2008; Perdomo, 2013). In questa prospettiva, il corpus di analisi si compone di alcuni passaggi testuali del volume Entre la Emancipación y la Captura di Vilma Almendra Quiguanás e di una serie di scritture (graffiti) realizzate da membri della comunità nasa nello spazio pubblico del territorio di Toribío, decodificato attraverso la contestualizzazione alle epistemologie nasa degli strumenti teorico-metodologici forniti dagli studi sul Paesaggio linguistico in aree di tensione sociale (Shoamy y Gorter, 2008; Delgado, 2011; Rubdy, 2015; Woldemariam, 2016). La traiettoria esegetica elaborata si struttura metodologicamente a partire dall’inquadramento delle scritture contemporanee del popolo nasa in uno spazio ontologico del sapere autonomo, inserito in un processo di dialogo con alcune proposte delle scienze sociali e umane che riproduce la dimensione interculturale delle attuali dinamiche di negoziazione del sapere nelle comunità nasa (Rappaport, 2003; Bengoa, 2009). Categorie come ‘scrittura’, ‘resistenza’ e ‘territorio’ si interpretano quindi a partire dalle significazioni assunte nell’universo epistemologico nasa (Rappaport, 2004; Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Perdomo, 2013; G. Ulcué, 2015; Sanabria Monroy, 2016; Muñoz Atillo, 2018). Il percorso ermeneutico adottato è sostentato da un lavoro sul campo presso diverse comunità nasa del settore nordorientale del Cauca, realizzato attraverso cinque viaggi nel territorio tra il settembre del 2018 e il settembre del 2020. Oltre alla realizzazione di una ricerca di archivio presso la Biblioteca Parrocchiale di Toribío, il lavoro sul campo è consistito in conversazioni, interviste e intercambi con membri della comunità nasa, partecipazione in assemblee e rituali, nell’intento di dialogare con gli spazi del sapere indigeno caucano in ogni sua dimensione di espressione: l’oralità, la ritualità, l’incontro collettivo e la scrittura (Garzón Lopez, 2013; Rocha Vivas, 2017).
In the last fifty years (1970-2020), indigenous Nasa communities in the Cauca Department (Colombia) have faced necropolitical processes of territorial segregation and systemic violence (Mbembe, 2006; Rozental, 2017), fomented by the century-old problem of the failure to acknowledge their ancestral homelands, by the internal Colombian armed conflict, by the activity of the transnational extractive industries operating in the region, and by the proliferation of narcotraffic (Peñaranda Supelano, 2012; Navia Lame, 2013; Peñaranda Supelano, 2015; CRIC, 2020). To face these entrenched devices of expropriation, violence, and ethnic silencing, Nasa people have progressively reconfigured the strategies in defence of their cultural and political autonomy (Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Valero Gutiérrez, 2016). In the framework of the organised strengthening of indigenous claims in the continent, culminating in the so-called emergencia indígena in the last decade of the 20th century (Bengoa, 2007; Bengoa, 2009), Nasa communities have forged multidimensional modalities of resistance, in which the traditional pacific conservation of territorial boundaries combines with the need to safeguard their own knowledge space. In the last two decades, Nasa communities have developed strategies to safeguard their communal cultural identity. These strategies are based on the idea of the defence of the “territory of the imagination” (Almendra, 2017) from the devices of discursive and symbolic invasion typical of necropower (López Barcenas, 2007; Walsh, 2010): a protective mechanism of Nasa epistemologies, cosmovisions, language, and spirituality, whose starting point is represented by the outline of a new autonomous conception of the word, in both the oral experience and its written expressions (Escobar, 2016). In this context, the present thesis investigates a corpus of writings realized by members of the indigenous Nasa communities in contemporary times (1970-2020). The research proposes an interpretation of the know-how of palabrandar, conceptualised in Nasa epistemologies, as the central hermeneutic tool for an understanding of the selected writings and of the actual images of resistance of the Cauca people. The proposal of palabrandar is defined in the text Entre la Emancipación y la Captura (2017) by the Nasa-Misak writer Vilma Almendra Quiguanás as an autonomous modality of reflection on the word, which is understood in a relationship of ontological interdependence with the action of benefit for the community (Almendra, 2017). The research is structured in two phases. The first two chapters propose a diachronic analysis of the founding process of the epistemological prism of the know-how of palabrandar, starting from an investigation of the written production of two Nasa authors: Álvaro Ulcué Chocué (1943-1984) and Vilma Almendra Quiguanás (1979). The writings, some of them unpublished, of the Catholic priest of Nasa ethnicity Ulcué Chocué are interpreted as a fundamental antecedent to the word’s autonomous conception as defined in the text Entre la Emancipación y la Captura by Vilma Almendra Quiguanas. The analysis seeks to discuss a positioning of the epistemic connotations of palabrandar within a gnosiological cartography of the indigenous knowledge of Abiayala, interpreted in its integrality of pluriverse of enunciation and expression of ancestral knowledge in a futural dimension (Escobar, 2016; Rocha Vivas, 2017; Escobar, 2018). The second part of the thesis aims to outline the semantic and symbolic forms through which the notion of palabrandar translates into written expressions. The writings of some members of the Nasa community are discussed taking into account their dimension of oralitegraphic textualities (Rocha Vivas, 2017), that is textual productions shaped by the confluence of multidimensional codes, which can be expressed through books or other spaces where Nasa knowledge is transmitted, such as stones or walls (Faust, 2001; Rappaport, 2004; Rappaport, 2008; Perdomo, 2013). In this perspective, the analysed corpus consists of some textual passages from the volume Entre la Emancipación y la Captura by Vilma Almendra Quiguanás and of a series of written productions (graffiti) realised by members of the Nasa community in the public space of the Toribío territory. The latter has been decoded by contextualising and applying to Nasa epistemologies the theoretical-methodological tools of linguistic landscape research in areas of social tension (Shoamy y Gorter, 2008; Delgado, 2011; Rubdy, 2015; Woldemariam, 2016). The exegetic trajectory developed in the thesis is structured methodologically by inserting the contemporary Nasa written productions in an ontological space of autonomous knowledge, which dialogues with proposals from the social and human sciences. This dialogical process reproduces the intercultural dimension of the actual dynamics of the negotiation of knowledge in Nasa communities (Rappaport, 2003; Bengoa, 2009). Consequently, categories such as ‘writing’, ‘resistance’, and ‘territory’ are interpreted according to the signification they possess in the epistemological Nasa universe (Rappaport, 2004; Wilches-Chaux, 2005; Perdomo, 2013; G. Ulcué, 2015; Sanabria Monroy, 2016; Muñoz Atillo, 2018). The adopted hermeneutic path is supported by fieldwork in different Nasa communities in the North-East Cauca region, and in particular by five research trips between September 2018 and September 2020. Fieldwork has consisted of archival research at the Parish Library in Toribío, conversations, interviews and interchanges with members of the Nasa community, the participation in meetings and rituals in the attempt to dialogue with the spaces of Cauca indigenous knowledge in every dimension of its expression: orality, rituality, collective gathering, and writing (Garzón Lopez, 2013; Rocha Vivas, 2017).

Este texto acontece a partir do encontro às formas e forças do mundo andino-indígena equatoriano, em um contexto de emergência institucional da Universidade "Amawtay Wasi". Espécie de testemunho de inquietações e de questões que pedem passagem frente ao desejo de abertura às forças diferenciantes indígenas, à diferença como princípio de produção de outras subjetividades, outras escolhas e modos de viver. Ao acompanhar a constituição da Universidade "Amawtay Wasi" nos encontramos com um espaço de enunciação indígena e de afirmação de suas virtualidades e potências corporais, espaço de produção de um conhecimento aberto e atento aos poderes de criação e transformação do mundo (segundo expressões celebrativas, rituais e xamânicas do mundo andino). Este texto acontece, portanto, em múltiplas conexões às singularidades e aos paradoxos de uma "epistemologia" andina e suas interpelações à subjetividade moral da modernidade ocidental (colocando em evidência as imbricações ontológicas de saber e poder que nela se articula). Através dele, buscamos articular pontes de expressão para as tensões geradas, sejam pelos mecanismos estatais de captura e controle coercitivo da diferença indígena, sejam pelos modos de enunciação (por exemplo, em Sumak Kawsay, interculturalidade e plurinacionalidade), como modos de deslocamento (e resistência) indígena aos códigos e axiomas de transformação do Estado-nação equatoriano, sobretudo no seu principal operador semiótico, a idéia de desenvolvimento.
This work reflects the meeting of form and forces in the Ecuadorian Andean-indigenous world in the context of the institutional rise of the “Amawtay Wasi” University. It represents a number of concerns and issues arising from the opening of the indigenous' differentiating forces, to the difference as a production principle and other subjectivities as well as other choices and lifestyles. On accompanying the foundation of the “Amawtay Wasi” University, we observed a space for the indigenous people enunciation and affirmation of their virtualities and corporal potencies,and a space to produce open knowledge which attends to the power of creation and world transformation (according to the celebrative , ritual and shamanic expressions of the Andean world). This study is therefore connected to the singularities and paradoxes of an Andean “epistemology” and its interpelations to the moral subjectivity of the western modernity (highlighting the ontological imbrications of knowledge and power articulated in it). The aim of this work is to articulate links of expression to the tensions generated either by the State mechanisms of capture and coercive control of the indigenous peoples’ difference or by the enunciation modes (for instance in Sumak Kawsay, interculturalism and plurinationality), such as indigenous peoples’ dislocation methods (and resistance) to codes and transformation axioms of the Ecuadorian nation-State, especially in its main semiotic operator, the idea of development.

This dissertation examines the potential congruencies and complementarities of Waldorf education, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP), Culturally Responsive Schooling (CRS), Critical Pedagogy and Native American and Indigenous education. Waldorf education, a German education reform developed in the early 1920s, is a little researched schooling system, and previous research on this reform has examined its impacts within its traditional contexts, namely, private schools. At the same time, significant literature exists which addresses the importance and efficacy of reforms for students of color such as those in CRP, CRS and Critical Pedagogy. There is also a body of work which points to key pedagogical components which support Native American/Indigenous students in school. This dissertation examines the interplay between all three of these complex systems by examining attempts to integrate them in the classroom. By examining Waldorf education initiatives in three distinct contexts, I demonstrate that these reforms can work in concert without diminishing the efficacy of any of them. I explore three distinct contexts of Waldorf education. The first examined the impacts of Waldorf education on students who participated in the reform in a private Waldorf school, who transitioned to more traditional, mainstream classes. I conducted participant-observation of a local Waldorf school and in-depth interviews with 14 alumni to explore the impact of this reform. In the second context, I examined how students responded to the use of Waldorf-inspired methods in a community college course I taught, and I investigated their experiences of the reform. Seven students who participated were interviewed in order to investigate the impact of these reforms on their experience as college students. These interviews were complemented by teacher-research I conducted while teaching this Waldorf-inspired course. Finally, I explored the potential of Waldorf education as a reform for Native American students, examining my own incorporation of this reform with other pedagogical tools, such as CRP, CRS, and other forms of critical pedagogy. Included in this section of research are my reflections on a course I instructed with Waldorf-inspired reforms. I also explored various accounts of Waldorf-education reforms by tribal communities, like the Lakota Waldorf School in South Dakota. Several findings from the research conducted here are encouraging. Students from Waldorf school environments demonstrate critical skills and critique schooling environments, invoking stances familiar to critical pedagogues. Students from a Waldorf-inspired community college course were also critical of the typical schooling experiences they had encountered, and spoke of the enriching feeling in their Waldorf-inspired course. Investigation into the philosophical tenets of Waldorf education and Native American/Indigenous epistemologies shows several examples of overlap and similarity, the most striking being elements of spiritual belief and practice as foundational to Native American/Indigenous well-being, and the ability of Waldorf education to address this. While these fields may appear unrelated, this study explores the praxis of these seemingly disparate bodies of work, by examining their similarities and differences. Ultimately, I argue that these reforms can work in concert to support the academic success of culturally and linguistically diverse students and Native American/Indigenous students in particular. The research in these three contexts demonstrates need for further investigation into Waldorf education and its potential to support students of all backgrounds.

This thesis proposes an Indigenous-centred approach to reading Australian Indigenous literature that extends beyond traditional western literary norms. It uses Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing as a framework for reading five texts written by Australian Indigenous women and non-binary people, generating new understandings of the works and synthesising an expanded model for reading. This thesis makes a critical intervention within the Australian literary sector and especially the academy, arguing for a shift of power from the majority non-Indigenous Australian literary sector to Indigenous writers and their communities.

Grounded in the transformative paradigm (p. 35), this study asked, “In what ways might a group of non-Natives be individually and socially transformed by encountering the Bear River Massacre from within Indigenous Worldviews?” The methodology incorporated Indigenous Worldviews and ceremonial processes (Wilson, 2008) into Queensland University’s Indigenous Australian Studies’ model (Mackinlay & Barney, 2010), interweaving transformative learning processes with Indigenous elements such as a traditional Shoshone sweat lodge, visiting a massacre site, and listening to a Shoshone elder. During ceremonially centered mini retreats data was collected via individual journals, group email and process notes, art-based expressions, videotaping, individual and group written evaluations and surveys, and follow up interviews. Findings established “perspective transformation” (King, 2009) in 80% of participants within the dimensions of better understanding the Bear River Massacre, the Shoshone people, the colonization process, and the loss of their own Indigenous roots. Follow-up interviews revealed that 87.5% of respondents believed that the integration of Indigenous elements into the project impacted their learning experience “a great deal.” 87.5% reported sustained behavioral x change in relation to the topic and 71% stated they wanted to get to know Native people and culture better. In addition, 43% stated they were interested in obtaining a public Presidential apology to Native people. Unconscious shadow transference material (Romanyshyn, 2007) emerged and was discussed from a depth psychology perspective. Limitations to this study include sample size and lack of funding. The theoretical development of ceremonial research potentially expands this method into other areas of inquiry.

A plethora of cross-cultural research studies has been conducted and published on the conflict or collision between western models of education and indigenous knowledge and learning. Following on the visions of these studies, the research reported in this thesis explores how these tensions between differing bodies of knowledge impact youth identity in non-western societies. More specifically, the study examines the case of how western models of education impacts the Palauan traditional educational models and whether or not the privileging of western systems of learning over Palauan systems does in fact have a negative impact on the development of identity, well-being, and empowerment of Palauan youth today. Theoretical approaches in this study derived from the knowledge of Palauan elders and scholars as well as literature works of Freire, who argues for transformative education as a means of empowering people, and Lave and Wenger‟s theory of legitimate peripheral learning. Methodological approaches include narratives and a Palauan dialogic approach using questionnaires, unstructured and semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from June to September 2009 in Palau. Selected participants were the youth of Ulimang village in Ngaraard and a particular group of Palauan elders and scholars that are involved in Palauan education, knowledge, and research. Data were analyzed in two stages: a questionnaire for Ulimang youth and interviews for the Palauan elders. A range of concepts addressed in the analysis, such as cheldecheduch and relationships, strengthened the belief that Palauan knowledge was important in the lives of the Ulimang youth. The need to maintain Palauan knowledge to empower Palauan identities and to support the quality of life for Palauans was articulated by the Palauan elders. The importance of Palauan knowledge and values was stressed from the participants and emphasized how it informs identity development in Palau.

As part of the paradigm shift from the transatlantic to the transpacific in transnational American studies, this volume not only offers critical ways in which we rethink American exceptionalism, but it also engages the critical visions represented by New American studies, Asian studies, Asian American studies, and Pacific studies. By calling attention to the “oceanic archives” and indigenous epistemologies, the volume addresses colonialism and imperialism at their roots from both sides of the colonizer and the colonized and articulates what has been central to de-colonial thinking—indigenous epistemologies and ontologies, non-Western knowledge production and dissemination. As the transpacific continues to hold the global spotlight as moments of military, cultural, and geopolitical contentions as well as spaces of economic integration, negotiation, and resistance on national and global scales, we develop transpacificAmerican studies as the new cutting-edge in transnational American studies, global studies, and postcolonial studies.The essays collected in the volume recover the early oceanic archives to remap transpacific movements in different directions and at different moments, interrogate the colonial archives to reinvent indigenous ontologies and epistemologies,explore alternative oceanic archives to develop competing visions and forms of the transpacific. Above all, it speculates upon new directions in which transpacific American studies may pursue.

This book was written at a time when there is a paradigm shift in the African continent where dependence on western epistemologies and ontologies are giving way to African indigenous knowledge systems. Africa has been an importer of knowledge from the west since time immemorial and this book contributes to the body of knowledge on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the African perspective. As a result, decoloniality and Inclusive Education have gained traction within the academic discourse, with University of South Africa (Unisa) hosting decoloniality annual conference and a summer school to stimulate academic discussions and debates with a focus on African indigenous knowledge systems and theoretical lenses as opposed to the western epistemologies. The book also demystifies some of the misconceptions that children with ASD are a curse and punishment from God or gods. Among others, Ubuntu seems to be the dominant theoretical framework underpinning some of the research studies reported in this book.

It is increasingly overwhelming that our societies are living in disintegrating environments and need for more sustainable design approaches and wiser ways of living and being. Anthropogenic design impact in corporate spheres is causing socio-ecological destruction that threatens the underpinnings of civilisation and bio-diverse nature. Hence, economies and life worlds are facing the limitations of narratives of progress and creeds of growth with their designs and actions that are inapposite to the flourishing of life on our planet. In this context that the LINK Conference has emerged. LINK is a research group created from reflections we always had about our actions as educators, researchers, and practitioners in the field of Art and Design. Over the last few years, we have noticed that such concerns have remained while they have multiplied, diversified, and become more complex. The more we dialogued with people worldwide, especially from the so-called “Global South”, the more we realised that these same issues were also dear to our colleagues, albeit with their colours and contours. The intensification of globalisation and commodities fostered by markets and technology has led today’s critical theorists to advocate for new kinds of engagement between Art, Design and the world. Not coincidentally, the last decades saw significant contributions to Art and Design Research in the Global South and Indigenous contexts, where inquiry is situated within an intelligent and intelligible world of natural systems, replete with relational patterns for being in the world. Indigenising methodologies centre the production of knowledge around Art and Design processes and pieces of epistemologies derived from Indigenous Cultures. The relationships between researchers, practitioners and practice are being challenged and redefined, empowering Indigenous peoples to collect, analyse, interpret, and control research data instead of simply participating in projects as subjects. These shifting orientations and approaches respond for the decolonisation of research in higher education institutions and research methodologies employed by academics. Art and Design can help to transform obsolete social and economic practices into novel forms of life or living a meaningful life, thus replacing anthropo-centric Design for more pluriversal and transformational approaches beyond apocalyptical visions and dystopia. LINK Conference focuses on ways of knowing that inform research and methods involving Art and Design Research in the Global South and Indigenous contexts . LINK 2022 will challenge emerging themes, new epistemologies, and the multiple relationships between theory and practice (if such a distinction can be made). This recipe has consolidated as a sort of amalgam of LINK Conference. In its 4th edition, LINK 2022 celebrates the relationship between practice-led Art and Design research, Global South and Indigenous world views, fostering cognitive shifts to address twenty-first-century issues and the creation of inclusive communities that emphasise the interconnectedness (physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual) between people and landscapes. We hope you enjoy the reading.

Decolonising approaches have challenged conventional Western research creating spaces for Indigenous, culturally-appropriate, and context-based research alternatives. Decolonising design movements have also challenged dominant Anglo-Eurocentric approaches giving visibility to other ways of thinking and doing design(s). Indigenous peoples have considered metaphors as important sense-making tools for knowledge transmission and research across different communities. In these contexts, Indigenous craft-design-arts have been used as metaphorical research methodologies and are valuable sources of knowledge generation, bringing concepts from the unseen to the physical realm manifested through our hands and bodies. In particular, Indigenous women have used the embodied practices of weaving and textile making as research methodology metaphors connecting the mind, body, heart and spirit. Situated in the highlands of Chiapas, this research proposes backstrap loom weaving as a decolonial design research methodology aligned with ancestral knowledge from Mesoamerica. For Mayan Tsotsil and Tseltal peoples, jolobil or backstrap loom weaving is a biocultural knowledge linked to the weaver’s well-being as part of a community and is a medium to reconnect with Indigenous ancestry and heritage. Resisting colonisation, this living textile knowledge and practice involve collective memory, adapting and evolving through changes in time. Mayan textiles reflect culture, identity and worldview captured in the intricate patterns, colours, symbols, and techniques. Jolobil as a novel methodological proposal, interweaves decolonial theory, visual-digital-sensorial ethnography, co-design, textiles as resistance, Mayan cosmovision and collective well-being. Nevertheless, it requires the integration of onto-epistemologies from Abya Yala as fundamental approaches like sentipensar and corazonar. Jolobil embodies the interweaving of ancestral knowledge with creative practice where the symbolism of the components is combined with new research interpretations. In this sense, the threads of the warp (urdimbre) representing patrones sentipensantes findings are woven with the weft (trama) as the embodied reflexivity of sentipensar-corazonando. As the weaver supports the loom around her waist, the cyclical back and forth motion of weaving jolobil functions as analysis and creative exploration through sentirpensar and corazonar creating advanced reflexive textile narratives. The interweaving of embodied metaphors and textiles with sentipensar, corazonar, mind, body, heart and spirit, contribute to the creation of decolonising alternatives to design research towards pluriversality, aligned with ways of being and doing research as Mesoamerican and Indigenous women.

This presentation advances a case study for an ongoing intercultural animation project which seeks to meaningfully educate New Zealand Tauiwi (the country's diverse groups, including migrants and refugees) on the values, customs and protocols (Tikanga) of Māori (the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand). Ako For Niños (‘education for children’), implemented by a migrant social services organisation and media-design team, introduces Latin American Tauiwi to Tikanga through an animated children’s series, developed with a community short story writing competition and co-design with a kaitiaki (Māori guardian/advisor). Māori are recognised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the founding document of New Zealand) as partners with Pākeha (European New Zealanders), and Māori knowledge and Tikanga are important to society and culture in Aotearoa. Notwithstanding, there has been a historic lack of attention paid to developing meaningful understandings of Māori perspectives for New Zealand Tauiwi. Ako For Niños endeavours to address current shortages of engaging resources on Māori worldviews for Tauiwi communities, create opportunities for Tauiwi to benefit from Māori epistemologies, and foster healthy community relationships between Māori and Latin American Tauiwi. Through the project’s short story competition, Tauiwi were given definitions of Tikanga through a social media campaign, then prompted to write a children’s tale based on one of these in their native language. This encouraged Tauiwi to gain deeper comprehension of Māori values, and interpret Tikanga into their own expressions. Three winning entries were selected, then adapted into stop-motion and 2D animations. By converting the stories into aesthetically pleasing animated episodes, the Tikanga and narratives could be made more captivating for young audiences and families, appealing to the senses and emotions through visual storytelling, sound-design, and music. The media-design team worked closely with a kaitiaki during this process to better understand and communicate the Tikanga, adapting and co-designing the narratives in a culturally safe process. This ensured Māori knowledge, values, and interests were disseminated in correct and respectful ways. We argue for the importance of creative participation of Tauiwi, alongside co-design with Māori to produce educational intercultural design projects on Māori worldviews. Creative participation encourages new cultural knowledge to be imaginatively transliterated into personal interpretations and expressions of Tauiwi, allowing indigenous perspectives to be made more meaningful. This meaningful engagement with Māori values, which are more grounded in relational and human-centred concepts, can empower Tauiwi to feel more cared for and interconnected with their new home and culture. Additionally, co-design with Māori can help to honour Te Tiriti, and create spaces where Tauiwi, Pākeha and Māori interface in genuine partnership with agency (rangatiratanga), enhancing the credibility and value of outcomes. This session unpacks the contexts informing, and methods undertaken to develop the series, presenting current outcomes and expected directions (including a screening and exhibition). We will also highlight potential for the methodology to be applied in new ways in future, such as with other Tauiwi communities, different cultural knowledge, and increased collaborative co-design with Māori.