Global indigenous nations and communities—Oscar Arnold
We spoke with Oscar about their approach to this assessment.
What drew you to an interest in the kaupapa you chose? - Why did you choose this approach/take/aspect/theory?
I chose to take a global approach in my mapping exercise because while each indigenous nation is unique, there are commonalities that unite them. For example, each indigenous nation would feel the grief of environmental degradation and climate change, the loss of their traditional knowledge, and would feel the historical and ongoing impacts of colonisation. I was interested to see what resonated between these experiences on a global scale.
What was an interesting discovery you made during the creation of this assessment (personal or academic)?
I think an interesting discovery I made was that Indigenous nations developed alongside their environments - they know how to live in sustainable synchronicity with their contexts. As opposed to consumerist and colonial perspectives that seek to dominate or control their contexts. Throughout the research, it was interesting to see the different timescales that indigenous nations think on. They have an intergenerational perspective, a long-sightedness that is hard to come by in today's fast-paced world. Throughout the course and research for this assignment, it was clear for me to see how much indigenous perspectives can enrich our understanding and problem-solving if we are open and generous to the partnership.
How did the assessment challenge your thinking or approach to the learning of the course?
This assessment challenged my thinking/learning about the course by requesting a visual summary of what I had learned. I had written essays a lot throughout my degree but this was one of 2 assignments where we could approach an academic context with a sense of creativity and represent our understanding visually. I enjoyed the challenge/opportunity to be artistic.
How did the assessment aid your understanding of the theory/course content?
This assessment aided my understanding of the course content by visually contextualising it. This exercise helped me to connect the local case studies to a global context. While the context changes internationally it was interesting to see what commonalities there were between contexts and that helped me to see common humanity in each situation.
What did you enjoy most about this assessment?
I enjoyed the opportunity to be a little more playful and artistic in this assignment. We could still progress our understanding of the course but it was done in a way that gave us agency over how we did that. I thought there was enough structure and expectation from the assessment that gave us something to work with but it was also open-ended enough for us to think about how we were going to do it, how we could be creative.
Why did you want to showcase your work?
I wanted to showcase my work to be part of the discussion - there were some great interpretations of this assignment and by sharing mine I hoped to connect more to other people's work and approaches.
Would you recommend the course, and why?
I would totally recommend this course. It was a really profound course in lots of ways. I think the biggest takeaway was that it presented a diversity of worldviews. I think it can be hard to imagine alternative perspectives or worldviews if you have only been exposed to one - I thought this course did a really good job of revealing the multiplicity of perspectives. We are all looking at the same world but there are so many different ways to connect the dots and understand the world - ones not better or worse than any other but they have different perspectives - this course was really good at revealing different contexts, values, priorities, and beliefs.
This course made it easier to see things that are usually out of sight - for example, the discussion around positionality. Western science tends to formalise writing and "remove" the human perspective as much as possible, this can obfuscate who is making decisions and why. Whereas indigenous approaches are grounded in the human perspective and the relationship and connection that is removed from academic writing are seen as a foundation for development. I thought this course explored the "behind the scenes" aspects really well.
Another part I really enjoyed was the sense of comradery and discussion in the class. The weekly blog posts that we could all read and add to, facilitated some really interesting discussion and made it easier to connect with people in the class. It was also really interesting to collaborate with the University in Alaska - I thought that drew some insightful parallels between contexts in Aotearoa and in Alaska. This course was eye-opening for sure.