Every day you probably think about or talk with somebody about indigenization.<\/p>\n
Maybe you even think “ah ha,” my colleagues should hear about this story or idea; it might inspire them or give them insight.<\/p>\n
Storytelling , oral histories, the perspectives of our people are an integral part of First Nations culture. Stories contribute to a collective story in which every indigenous person has a place: for many, stories are ways of passing down the beliefs and values of a culture in the hope that the new generations will treasure them and pass the story down further.\u00a0 The story and the story teller both serve to connect the past with the future, one generation with the other, the land with the people and the people with the story. The themes of the stories tell us about our cultures: they employ familiar characters and motifs which can reassure as well as challenge\u00a0(Tuhiwai Smith, 1999, pp. 144-145). Researcher Russell Bishop suggests that the indigenous community becomes a story that is a collection of individual stories, ever unfolding through the lives of the people who share the life of the community\u00a0(Bishop, 1996, p. 169).<\/p>\n
Bishop, R. (1996). Collaborative Research Stories.<\/i> Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.<\/p>\n
Tuhiwai Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples.<\/i> London, England: Zed Books Ltd.<\/p>\nPreparing for the Future:\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to do the Hard Work<\/h2>\n
or Searching for the Bone Needle, has heard from Eber Hampton at the Indigenizing the Academy Conference, Guest Speaker Discussions<\/p>\n
Story: Coyote is in the forest and loses his needle. Owl comes and asks coyote \u2018what\u2019s wrong\u2019? Coyote tells Owl \u2018I\u2019m looking for my needle.\u2019 Owl says to Coyote \u2018I\u2019ll help you find your needle\u2019 and then soars up into the sky and circles the area looking for the needle. He comes back down and tells Coyote \u2018I didn\u2019t find it, so it must not be here because if it were I would have seen it.\u2019 Coyote was sad and tells Owl \u2018I really need my needle\u2026\u2019 Owl sees the stress in Coyote\u2019s face and asks him \u2018where did you lose the needle?\u2019 Coyote points to a completely different area and says \u2018I lost it over there behind the bushes.\u2019 Owl, looking perplexed asks Coyote \u2018If you lost it way over there, why are you looking here?\u2019 Coyote responds \u2018because there\u2019s light over here.\u2019 The point of this story is that we must not do something because it\u2019s easier or not-not do something because it\u2019s harder.<\/p>\n
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