Earth worlds and Indigenous dream-making: A reflection on teaching for beauty, repair, and balance

Elizabeth Sumida Huaman

doi:10.5944/reec.43.2023.36610

Authors

Elizabeth Sumida Huaman University of Minnesota, Twin Cities https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2064-7496

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5944/reec.43.2023.36610

Keywords:

Educación Indígena centrada en la tierra, pedagogías Indígenas, la creación-realización de sueños Indígenas

Abstract

Based on long-term educational relationships with Indigenous communities in Peru, the U.S., and Canada, this article reflects on place-based Indigenous education in and out-of-school. From small community-based schools to tribal tertiary learning spaces, Indigenous educational leaders counter schooling as an instrument of coloniality/modernity by centering their knowledges toward relationships of interdependence for good human and planetary living. Confronting ontic and epistemic threats, Indigenous educators and students energize educational design and practice. I propose these processes as Indigenous dream-making, the daily work of honoring the beauty of Native earth worlds, repairing harms to the earth and her beings, and balancing difficult realities with good living. In this time of increased attention to sustainability in education and climate change action, bold Indigenous educational processes challenge human communities to learn in and across earth worlds and to teach for compassionate interconnection that can supplant the course of destructive relentless development.

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Author Biography

Elizabeth Sumida Huaman, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Elizabeth Sumida Huaman (Wanka/Quechua) is professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She studies the relationship between Indigenous lands, cultural practices, and learning in and out-of-school with communities and institutions in the Americas that center Indigenous knowledge systems for self-determination. Email: eshuaman@umn.edu; ORCID: 0000-0003-2064-7496.

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