Okay, so, talking about early contact period one of the things that changes is
that we were talking about indigenous education being indigenous teachers,
teaching indigenous knowledge to indigenous learners.
Now that you have newcomers on this land, indigenous education can be about teaching
the newcomers indigenous knowledge. But it's also about indigenous learners
receiving knowledge about non-indigenous ways and technologies from non-indigenous
teachers. So what we have in you know, in effect is
Aboriginal education being talked about as the knowledge that's being transmitted.
That's what's indigenous about it. Or, learning that's taking place among the
indigenous population. But the content and the teachers are not
indigenous. So this becomes a kind of significant
change. It still talked about educating Indians,
but now what they're learning is things like literacy or how to use certain
technologies. And in the early contact period, this is
one of the, the things that kind of characterizes the exchange between people.
Because they're at a relative position of strength.
Indigenous people, that is. A relative position of strength when, when
that early contact is happening. When, when settlement is, is happening.
And there's definitely a need to know indigenous knowledge of shelter and foods
in order to survive on this land. They had to understand and adapt to some
of these practices and, and knowledge. So the settlers were in essence, receiving
some indigenous education. And there was a sense of exchange because
Aboriginal people saw some of the tools strategies and things that were being used
by newcomers that they would like to have access to as well.
So, like a real physical exchange of goods was taking place.
But the knowledge that went with the use of those goods was also taking place, so
they were learning about how to use these things.
They were also very interested in literacy.
Some of the early accounts of, of missions, where you know, some of the, the
people reading the, the Bible would be able to say the same thing without talking
to each other and they saw that magic writing on the, on the books and said, oh,
you know, I'd like to understand how that works cause that seems really powerful.
So literacy was certainly something that indigenous people from the, the very
earliest days respected and thought was, was something they would like to have.
And these, these kinds of understandings and desires for more education from each
other from different peoples carries on into, you know, what, what eras are to
come. You know, in, in terms of, of education
and indigenous education, I think it's important to move in to the next step, but
there's a, there's a question here. Yeah.
>> I noticed Professor [inaudible] that you're going through the [inaudible].
>> Yeah. >> I don't recall you saying the word
education. Is that deliberate?
Is education a concept within indigenous cultures, or is it, has it been more
formalized and introduced through contact with settlers, because it seems to me as
if knowledge is more preeminent to indigenous culture and then formalizing
that knowledge, educating for a purpose. Is that deliberate on your part or part,
or am I misunderstanding? >> No, No.
That's a really good question, the question of was I deliberately not saying
education when I was talking about pre-contact learning.
Yes, I was trying to stay away from using it.
I did say it a few times but, in my, in my view education is like a formal process
and it's a way of, of replicating what a society feels is important for its
subjects or citizens to know. And so, given the informal nature of
learning in that time, I don't, I didn't really see it as education per se.
And so I, I was trying to avoid that.
Jean-Paul RestouleAssociate Professor
