POSSIBLE GIFT of INDIGENOUS EPISTEMES By

TOWARD THE HOSPITALITY OF THE ACADEMY: THE (IM)POSSIBLE GIFT OF INDIGENOUS EPISTEMES by RAUNA JOHANNA KUOKKANEN M.A., The University of Oulu, Finland, 1997 M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2001 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (The Centre for Study of Curriculum and Instruction) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA July 2004 © Rauna Johanna Kuokkanen, 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgements SV INTRODUCTION 1 The Concept of Indigenous Peoples 10 Structure of the Thesis 17 PARTI i. DEATNU - THE RIVER 21 ii. GIFT 52 Classic Gift Theories 55 The Logic of the Gift in Reciprocity with the Land 61 The Sami Perception of the World 62 Forms of Reciprocity 67 Scholarly 'Give Back' 73 Gift as a Threat 78 PART II CHAPTER ONE: CRITIQUES OF THE ACADEMY 81 'University in Crisis' 89 Feminist Critiques 92 Critiques of Anthropology 99 Indigenous Criticisms 103 Racism in the Academy 108 CHAPTER TWO: CULTURAL CONFLICTS AND EPISTEMIC IGNORANCE 113 Critiques of 'Culture' 120 The Concept of Episteme 123 Indigenous Epistemes 126 Epistemic Ignorance and Indigenous People 132 Passive Ignorance 136 Active Ignorance 140 CHAPTER THREE: THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE GIFT 146 The Problem of 'Speaking' 150 Native Informant 159 Gift as the Impossible 162 The Question of Recognition 167 CHAPTER FOUR: 'LEARNING TO LEARN' 174 Knowing the 'Other' 177 Problem of 'Indianism' 180 Indigenous Studies Programs and Indigenous Faculty 182 Teaching 'Tribal Values' 187 Liberal Multiculturalism 189 i Responsibility for Doing Homework 192 The Concept of Responsibility 196 Learning from Indigenous Epistemes 200 CHAPTER FIVE: TOWARD ACADEMIC HOSPITALITY 208 Hospitality and Academic Freedom 213 The Host and Responsibility 218 Unconditional Welcome and the Profession of the University 228 Interchangeability of Hospitality 236 CONCLUDING REMARKS: INVITATION TO RESPOND 241 Works Cited 254 ii Abstract The academy is considered by many as the major western institution of knowledge. This dissertation, however, argues that the academy is characterized by prevalent 'epistemic ignorance' - a concept informed by Gayatri Spivak's discussion of 'sanctioned ignorance.' Epistemic ignorance refers to academic practices and discourses that enable the continued exclusion of other than dominant western epistemic and intellectual traditions. The academy fails to recognize indigenous epistemes grounded on different conceptions of the world and ways of knowing, and thus, indigenous people 'cannot speak' (Spivak); that is, when they speak from the framework of their own epistemic conventions, they are not heard or understood by the academy. This dissertation suggests that there is a need for a radical shift in approaching 'cultural conflicts' in the academy. So far, various programs and services for indigenous students have been set up on the premise that they need special assistance to adapt to the academy. I argue, however, that the academy is responsible for 'doing its homework' (Spivak) and addressing its ignorance so it can give an 'unconditional welcome' (Derrida) not only to indigenous people but to their epistemes, without insisting on translation. This process must continually be watchful of the arrogant assumption of 'knowing other cultures' while engaging to 'learn to learn' (Spivak) from indigenous epistemes. If the academy does not assume its responsibilities, the gift of indigenous epistemes remains impossible. To counter epistemic ignorance, indigenous epistemes have to be recognized as a gift to the academy. This implies perceiving them according to the ethics of responsibility toward the 'other' and the reciprocity that foregrounds the gift logic of indigenous philosophies. With examples drawn primarily from Sami and Northwest Coast First Nations' contexts, I propose a new interpretation of the gift as a central part of indigenous worldviews. I also test the theories of Spivak and Derrida against the traditional indigenous notions of gift and hospitality. Following Derrida's argument of the 'limit of the impossible' where the academy is exposed to 'forces from without,' I suggest that this threshold is also the limit of possibility, a place where the gift eventually becomes possible. iii Acknowledgements First, I want to recognize the various gifts that sustain us and make life possible: the gifts of the land, water, air and fire. I am grateful for these and many other gifts that I have been given, share and give myself. I want so say giitos eatnat to my family back home, particularly my mother, father, brother and grandmother whose patience and encouragement have supported me during the time away from them. I thank my partner Philip for his sustained, unconditional love and care without which my life and work would have lacked the necessary balance and laughter. I want to acknowledge and say kukschm to the Musqueam people on whose territory I have lived and studied the past several years. I also want to thank the Musqueam who welcomed me to share my work with them at one of the Musqueam 101 sessions. I thank my committee for its guidance, support and constructive feedback: Research Supervisor Margery Fee, Co-Supervisor Graham Smith and Karen Meyer. I would also like to thank Lorraine Weir who was my Research Supervisor at the initial stages of my dissertation. A special thanks to Kaarina Kailo for her invaluable mentorship and support since the early days of my academic life. Thanks also to my friends and colleagues around the world for our thoughtful conversations that have contributed to my understanding of the issues in and beyond this inquiry. INTRODUCTION Indigenous people and higher education is a topic that, in the past years, has increasingly received attention particularly by indigenous but also other educators and educational scholars.1 The issues commonly addressed by scholars include the invisibility, marginalization and under- representation of indigenous students in universities and colleges. From the perspective of the academic institution, these concerns are often defined in terms of inadequate achievement, retention and attrition.2 A large number of the difficulties experienced by indigenous students in the academy are rooted in differences between indigenous and mainstream cultures of the West (cf. Carney 147-8). These differences include the academic fragmentation and compartmentalization of knowledge in contrast to a more holistic frame of reference and the emphasis on individual status and competition in contrast to a collective identity, consensus and cooperation.3 When seeking solutions to challenges commonly referred to as 'cultural conflicts,' the representatives of educational institutions usually focus on indigenous students, rarely on themselves or the institution and its structures, discourses, practices and assumptions that operate in the academy. This reinforces the idea that the problem ultimately lies with indigenous students and their differing cultures, not with the university. The institutional response to this 'problem' usually is one of 'accommodating' and 'mainstreaming' indigenous students into the conventions of the institution. Most commonly this is done by establishing various support and counseling services and access programs with an intent to 'bridge' the assumed gulf between the cultures of indigenous students and that of the institution, or help students make the transition from their cultures to the academic 'culture' 1 In North American context, see, for example, Barnhardt; Carney; Castellano, Davis and Lahache; Deloria, "Higher Education and Self-Determination"; Grant; Guerrero; Kirkness and Barnhardt; Swisher and Tippeconnic; Stein; and Tierney. For higher education in the Sami context, see J. H. Keskitalo. 2 See, for example, Davis; Dodd et al.; Falk and Aitken; and J. C. Henderson. 3 On the cultural differences in learning and educational practices, see, for instance, Deloria, "Higher Education and Self-Determination"; Kirkness and Barnhardt; Sanders; and Thompson. 1 with its assumptions, expectations and values.4 The values and perceptions of the world held by Native students are not, by and large, recognized or respected in the academy but instead, students are frequently "expected to leave the cultural predispositions from their world at the door and assume the trappings of a new form of reality, a reality which is often substantially different from their own" (Kirkness and Barnhardt 6). As an institution, the academy supports and reproduces certain systems of thought and knowledge, structures and conventions that rarely reflect or represent indigenous worldviews, thus silencing and making invisible the reality of many indigenous students. This reality is obliterated not only figuratively but literally (Henderson, "Postcolonial" 59). Eber Hampton (Chickasaw) maintains that Universities typically operate on the assumption that Eurocentric content, structure, and process constitute the only legitimate approach to knowledge. First Nations history, culture, knowledge, and language are largely ignored, and even when they are subjects of study, the perspective is almost always Eurocentric. ("First Nations" 210) The academy remains, to a large extent, founded on exclusionary, selective epistemological practices and traditions reflective of and reinscribed by the Enlightenment, colonialism, modernity and in particular, liberalism. These traditions,

Load more