week 12: Indigenous Epistemologies

Indigenous Epistemologies

Joaquin Villegas, God the Father Painting the Virgin of Guadalupe, mid-18th c.

    The Virgin of Guadalupe is said to have been made by the hands god and the image above is to represent this story. The way we learn of the importance of this image came from an indigenous man who had a vision and this image had appeared naturally, she became a strong religious figure for the indigenous people. The way knowledge is shared varies from place to place and Kovach discusses the Indigenous epistemologies that show exactly that we can learn from many places and learning is infinite and can mean much more than what we are normalized to learn within our society knowledge can come from many sources.

    Kovach describes indigenous epistemologies as being a different way of learning that is very strongly connected to the beliefs and practices of the indigenous people. These practices compared to western epistemologies are viewed as being extreme and not practical. The western practices are seen and considered as the norms, so it makes sense that these new ways of obtaining knowledge is strange, it comes across as foreign and some people either except it or resent it; in the reading Kovach specifically talks of a buffalo hunt and says, 1“Underlying the hunt was a way, a methodology, that Plains Cree people used to undertake a sacred act that kept the tribe and its people alive. The hunt involved preparation for the hunt, a method, protocol, ceremony, and respectfulness for going about the procurement of these animals and sharing the bounty.”

This method of research is very similar to today's process of research as we use the scientific method and this specifically calls for making an observation and creating a question to answer. just as the preparation portion from Kovach’s example; then comes the protocol which is similar to the portion of scientific method when we create the hypothesis and start making a plan to test out our theory. Then the ceremony is like the process and going through with getting the results just like testing an experiment to get the results. In the end we both share the accomplishments of the experiment.

    When someone is writing and communicating about research in another language it is more likely to be reflective of their own worldview when sharing their knowledge, because I believe language and communication is what connects people of the same cultures or regions. When there is an understanding or connection within the language the way you communicate about it is going to reflect the way you feel and view something. If your someone who comes from a life style of working for your everyday survival like hunting and then went to a place with grocery stores, the way you’d view grocery stores would be more admirable, and appreciative while as someone who is use to the grocery stores are not gonna really look at them with much appreciation because its normal and it's a regularly accessible. The way the two people view food is gonna reflect from where they came from and how they grew up. In the reading the cree individuals where learning cree fluently and therefore had the ability to understand the different cree and how they relate or are similar they can see the differences and they are more likely to understand more by knowing more ways of communication. People who can speak multiple languages get to experience the world from different perspectives because they can communicate with locals and generally understanding the language helps you understand more, especially when you're fluent in multiple languages it’s just more likely to give that person a connection with a place if they understand the language, and their cultural ways. While someone who speaks only one language is gonna be closed off from being able to experience that same thing as a bilingual person would they would just be stuck in their own ways and be observing from the outside without really getting invested in the culture around them.

    When it comes to using indigenous techniques to support your knowledge in universities I feel like this is a difficult idea to think about. The way we view indigenous methods requires lots of spiritual energy and beliefs in gods that determine their knowledge and ways of learning. To use those techniques in a college is interesting and could work, but also if your in a research course; and it involves getting certain sources to support your paper I believe finding a reliable source that the professor would except would be harder if your using Indigenous epistemologies because most of their ways rely in the knowledge of beliefs and their religion plays a huge part in the way that they learn. Now using this in a college writing class can be very interesting; it’ll be a fun way to not only learn of different studying methods but also teaching it and exposing this new idea; of how knowledge is acquired from somewhere else. The way we use the Indigenous learning really determines how useful these techniques can be for us when trying to incorporate it in our universities. I can understand why Micheal Hart avoids revealing too much about scared sources, because the question of whether these knowledgeable sources could be recognized really could harm a student if they chose to use these methods and most colleges tend to follow a criteria for their classes and those kinds of sources aren’t necessarily gonna be appropriate for some classes.

 
    With the suppression of non-christian religions and cultures are embedded within western ideas of science because the origins of these practices fall back to the days back in Europe and that wealthy high class perspective normally followed the ideas of christianity anything besides that wasn’t considered worthy of that ideal life. Society grew on that idea and anything other than that norm was considered less than. When this idea is stronger than any others it became the superior way of thinking more, preferred it was thought of as being more and having a professional label sticked to this idea easily but it discriminated towards others from different backgrounds and knowledge In the reading it said’ 2“Sacred Knowledge is not really Accepted in Western research, other than in a peripheral, Anthropological, exotic kind of way. This can create a difficulty for the Indigenous-researcher, for if one chooses to embrace Plains Cree knowledges one Must honour all that they are.” The author knew that is wasn’t easy to turn against the norm and make something new acceptable at all times. It’s a process and it takes a while for everyone to learn. Yet the Indigenous people shouldn’t be forced to learn outside the way they do, it should just be accepted and taught willingly to show the world's true diversity.




















Citations_

Kovach, Margaret Elizabeth. Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. University of Toronto Press, 2000.

1- pg.65

2- pg.67