School Failed Coyote, So Fox Made a New School: Indigenous Okanagan Knowledge Transforms Educational Pedagogy
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SCHOOL FAILED COYOTE, SO FOX MADE A NEW SCHOOL: INDIGENOUS OKANAGAN KNOWLEDGE TRANSFORMS EDUCATIONAL PEDAGOGY by William Alexander Cohen M. Ed., Simon Fraser University, 1999 B. A. & Sc., University of Lethbridge, 1995 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Educational Studies) The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) November, 2010 © William Alexander Cohen, 2010 ABSTRACT This project examines how Indigenous Okanagan knowledge embedded in traditional stories, life histories and people‘s practices, responsibilities and relationships are relevant and applicable to current and future Okanagan people‘s educational and cultural aspirations. Okanagan language proficiency, cultural and territorial knowledge and practice, provincial curriculum and world knowledge are all important elements in creating Okanagan identity. The focus of this thesis is to identify, understand and theorise the transforming potential of Okanagan pedagogy through the development of an Okanagan cultural and language immersion school where language and cultural knowledge recovery are key elements, and express a new and current understanding, through a Sqilxw- Okanagan, children centred, extended family pedagogical approach and curriculum structure for current application in schooling projects and communities. Indigenous and world knowledge that improves, complements, and is compatible with evolving Okanagan knowledge and practice is included to generate an interconnected web; a convergence that may be useful in Okanagan, Indigenous and world educational contexts. ii PREFACE My research is informed by Sqilxw-Okanagan epistemology which suggests knowledge is a continuously evolving web of relationships. By gathering bits of old and current knowledge, engaging in dialogue, action, and reflection, a new understanding emerges. My research, to create a new understanding, is guided by academic practice through Certificate of Approval No. B06-0801 issued by the University of British Columbia‘s Behavioural Research Ethics Board, and by Sqilxw ethical accountability that I honour individuals, families and communities, who have contributed knowledge and experience to my understanding, by applying and sharing that knowledge in ways that they approve of. To affirm through practice the notion that Sqilxw knowledge, values and ways are also valid academic knowledge, I combine conventional academic referencing with traditional acknowledgements that are part of the continuing story of evolving knowledge as oral tradition merges with academic discourse. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii Preface........................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................. vii List of Figures................................................................................................................ viii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ ix Foreword ........................................................................................................................ xi Dedication ..................................................................................................................... xiii Glossary ........................................................................................................................xiv Chapter 1. Introduction: Sqilxw Vision Emerging ................................................... 1 1.1 Sqilxwlcawt in Practice (Thesis Purpose and Research Questions) ........................ 6 1.2 Chapter Descriptions ............................................................................................. 10 1.3 Kl Sqilxwtet: Toward Our Sqilxw Ways By Being Sqilxw ........................................ 13 1.4 Questions and Answers About Nkmaplqs i Snmamayatn kl Sqilxwtet ................... 18 1.5 Shared Struggle Globally ...................................................................................... 24 1.6 Culturally Informed Research Question: What Will You Do For the People To Be? .................................................................................................................. 27 1.7 Spider‘s Web: Okanagan Organic Theory and Praxis ........................................... 30 1.8 Sqilxwlcawt: Okanagan Transforming Theory ....................................................... 35 1.9 The Spiders‘ Web Expanded: More Strands Connected ........................................ 45 1.10 Gifted Translators and the Wishing Rock: Creating Space for Indigenous Aspirations for Knowledge ..................................................................................... 53 Chapter 2. Swit Askwist? Who Is Your Name?....................................................... 65 2.1 My Story: Who, What and Where Inform My Praxis ............................................... 67 2.2 The Early Years .................................................................................................... 69 2.3 Elementary Education ........................................................................................... 74 2.4 High School ........................................................................................................... 78 2.5 An Indian Student Survival Guide .......................................................................... 80 2.6 Back to School ...................................................................................................... 82 2.7 Discussion/Reflection on ―My Story‖ ...................................................................... 89 Chapter 3. Okanagan Knowledge, Leadership and Cultural Practice ................... 92 3.1 Coyote and Fox: An Okanagan Research Paradigm ........................................... 101 3.2 Knowing the Captikwl and Relationships With Elders .......................................... 105 3.3 Four Food Chiefs Enowkinwixw for the People to Be .......................................... 114 3.4 Four Okanagan ―Organic‖ Leaders ...................................................................... 125 3.4.1 Johnny Chillihitzia, Yelmixwem—Okanagan High Chief ........................... 126 iv 3.4.2 Chief Gus Gottfriedsen ............................................................................ 129 3.4.3 Doctor Jeannette C Armstrong ................................................................ 133 3.4.4 Sarah Samtic‟a Peterson ......................................................................... 135 3.5 How Turtle Set the Animals Free: Transforming Vision ....................................... 138 Chapter 4. Coyote Learns from Other indigenous Peoples and Places ............. 142 4.1 Gathering Bits of World‘s Indigenous Peoples‘ Praxis ......................................... 148 4.2 Kura Kaupapa Maori Schooling: A Maori Grandfather‘s Insights ......................... 157 4.3 Secwepemc Transforming Praxis: Chief Atahm School ....................................... 172 4.4 Key Insights Learned from Maori, Chief Atahm and Other Indigenous Projects ............................................................................................................... 177 Chapter 5. Sqilxw Resistance (With strands of transforming praxis and conscientization) to Colonization ............................................................................ 181 Introduction: Tommy Gregoire‘s Warning .................................................................... 182 5.1 What Has Gone Wrong on the Reserves?........................................................... 189 5.2 ―We Are the Ones to Fix That‖: Enowkinwixw and P‟ax ....................................... 195 5.3 Making Space in the University for Okanagan Pedagogy and Indigenous Aspirations for Knowledge ................................................................................... 202 5.3.1 Indigenous Studies: The Four Food Chiefs Go to University .................... 203 5.3.2 Support Networking Among Indigenous People Across the Globe ........... 207 5.3.3 Support Efforts That Strengthen Communities by Inclusiveness and Validating Members. ................................................................................ 208 5.3.4 Support Language, Traditions, and Values from a Tribal Perspective ...... 209 5.3.5 Support and Validate Pride Among Our Young People and to Support Tribal Name of People ................................................................ 210 5.3.6 Support Collaborative Partnerships. ........................................................ 211 5.3.7 Focus on Experiential Learning ............................................................... 212 5.3.8 Develop Teaching Practices That Follow Traditional Methods and Develop Evaluation Processes That Are Non-Judgemental ..................... 213 5.4 The Indian Crab Bucket: Colonizing Hegemonies and Indigenous Transforming Praxis ............................................................................................ 216 5.5 Academic Politics of Distraction: A Personal Engagement, and the Re- emergence