Kanahele, Smith, Vizenor, Teaiwa

Pua Kanahele makes an absolutely brilliant observation when she says “that the delineation between students and teachers is a porous one. It is often, a reciprocal relationship, in particular those of Indigenous or native peoples, which transcends implicit or implied edges and makes apparent the idea of knowledge shared between the giver and receiver of `ike.

Perhaps when we look at Tuhiwai Smith’s  statement about Indigenous communities having “quite a different set of questions that frame key educational issues as being primarily abut epistemological basis” (pg. 93), the incorporation of Kanahele’s five suggestions of which epistemological value is inherent and necessary can serve as the foundational template for the education of kānaka `ōiwi and their children. Surely the sad state of affairs in the educational process of the public school system requires changes that must transcend fine examples like Kura Kaupapa Maori, which was replicated here in Hawai`i with much success, but not without its own challenges within the state DOE system that supports it, while still applying criteria for achievement based on the colonial model.

Tuhiwai Smith urges the “talking back” in the reformation of the education system.  Based on the observation of Hawai`i’s public school system, I believe her suggestions for the re-structuring of the systemic structures that repeat underachievement is vital for keiki `ōiwi. The kinds of foundations that must be built on a future that envisions an `ōiwi template which encourages cultural, resource, and skills, alongside the academics of science, numbers, reading, spelling, and history. However, it must be a model, like Tuhiwai speaks of, that incorporates native languages, art, performance, oral, audio, and visual methods of engagement for better outcomes that are Indigenously inclined. A new and improved pedagogical method.

Vizenor tells us, “Metaphors provide a more expansive sense of signification and literary survivance than simile.” He speaks to stories of survival. I look at the `ōiwi mo`olelo, and history as methods of survivance. In this way, and as Vizenor states, “I am declaring our native presence, human rights, and sovereignty through stories.”

Native literature is no longer absent, and as Tuhiwai Smith implies, “new epistemologies will produce new questions and raise new challenges for research.” I find this exciting as I embark on my dissertation, which indeed uses literal, visual, and creative methods to present historical scholarship from the past and apply it to a nationhood project of the future. It becomes  “Indigenous Rhetoric” (Vizenor).

I found Teaiwa’s “L(o)osening the Edge” to be exceptionally relevant for Indigenous scholars today, in particular to the posturing, positions, and politics centered around Native, Indigenous, Pacific, and Cultural Studies. One must be able to navigate the waters around the tricky paths of migration and, as Teaiwa points out, “the grappling of various components.”

Teaiwa manages, through her own personal journey at the Pacific Studies Dept. of the University of Hawai`i, the Histcon experience at University of Santa Cruz, to describe the “edge” as a constant point of contention, locations of contestation that must be dealt with even as it provides lessons. She juxtaposes these experiences, side by side, on the pages of her essay, with a chronology of academic Pacific Studies or such themed conferences, allowing us to become a part of her journey that finally takes her back to Suva, Fiji at the University in the Department of Pacific Studies.

She deftly handles the subjectivity of “native” in terms of Hawaiian Studies and Pacific Studies, and whether the term “native” belongs more to kānaka `ōiwi, or whether Pacific Island Studies should conflate Pacific ethnicities for a broader range of scholarship with and amongst all Pacific Peoples.

I found her essay to be very personal and informative. The only question I would have, or rather a longing for more clarification would be her comment on her “deepest ambivalences about blessings that occur beforehand in the conferences she attended. I understand that conferences are places in which to exchange ideas, and that mana`o and ideas are not restricted, but a pule and/or `oli is about opening up the space for a greater reception.

 

Kameha`iku