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8. Tapping Intergenerational Creativity and Wisdom Through Native American Leadership
- 2023/05/10
- 再生時間： 56 分
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Tapping Intergenerational Creativity and Wisdom Through Native American LeadershipIn our culture, talking about the weather is considered small talk and unimportant. And yet, it's so much a part of our lives. Maybe the weather isn't small talk. Maybe it needs to become central to our conversations because it is central to our lives. One of the things we may need to do is integrate our schooling with our lives. The BYU Arts Partnership’s Native American curriculum initiative is one place where this is really happening. It was started in 2017 in an effort to improve teacher professional learning curriculum by removing culturally insensitive or stereotypical content. The initiative began with a question to the eight sovereign nations in Utah, “What do you want the children of Utah to know about your tribe?” Resoundingly, all of the tribes said that they wanted the children of Utah to know, “We are still here.” The native tribes feel invisible. Lesson plans were created in collaboration with the tribes, and bear the tribal seal of approval on them. Working with sovereign nations is all about relationships, and honoring the timeframe. One of the common threads in these lesson plans is that Native Americans have a kinship with the earth. They see everything is connected. and this kinship worldview says that what happens to the trees happens to us, and how we respect the animals and how we live in harmony. We're all connected. We're connected to the weather. There's a reason and purpose in that web of life. At last summer’s conference, Native artists told the story of their life. As they shared their stories, everyone became more aware and sensitive and human together. Everyone's stories emerged as relevant and powerful. After the conference, a group of teachers went to Capitol Reef National Park to learn about how to bring the environment to children. Ben Abbott, a professor at BYU of ecosystem ecology took the teachers out into the wilderness to look at the artifacts from indigenous people hundreds of years ago. Going into the desert with this environmental scientist who studies global issues and permafrost and how the world operates brought such hope for this planet, and helped teachers fall in love with the planet again. Teachers can't teach the Native American lesson plans, until they understand sustainable living and fall in love with the planet. How do we help children fall in love with nature and the outside world as part of schooling? We must bridge the gap between what's happening in schools and what's happening in life. Learning from Native American tribes and spending time in nature provides teachers the experiences to connect the curriculum and science to make it more relevant for kids. There are many examples of this happening that are ready to be shared more broadly.We Are Here. We Each Have A Story.LouiseI love this description of what teachers are doing. They're taking children out into nature and using the arts to help them, look, see, express and connect. But what must happen first is what the tribes said: an acknowledgement that we are here. Children need that too. I am here and I have a story. And I think that's a big missing piece in school. We get so focused on the curriculum, and the curriculum will emerge when the teachers and the children show up authentically. When we are present, there is the opportunity for potential to manifest. But when we are not present, the opportunity for potential and possibilities to manifest actually collapses. Lois Four Arrows is a 76 year old Native American thinker and writer who says that he is optimistic because he thinks optimism is about living in the present, and letting go of outcomes. I think it's fascinating to look at the lineage of Native Americans thinking which has been so diminished in our contemporary consciousness, to the point of it almost being non-existent, or if it does exist, it's like magical thinking or New Age. The truth is, this is human thinking. I keep thinking of Joanna Macy saying that this is the third turning, with agriculture being the first and the Industrial Revolution being the second, and then this being the third. If human beings get this one figured out it's going to be a real change in human consciousness. Indigenous Wisdom Is An Essential Resource to the PresentHeatherOne of the things that Ben Abbott, scientist and professor at BYU tells us is that scientists will describe research on water and say, water research is young. We've only had two or 300 years to really research what we know about water. They are talking about the Anthropocene or this contemporary time as the only time that we have presently studied water and what we know about water. But Ben Abbott reminds us indigenous people have studied, worked with, understood, and been in relationship with water for way longer than present research or empirical study in the way that we've adopted in this contemporary ...