View to the future
Role of humanities through Mi’kmaw lens explored in new book
A new book of Mi’kmaw scholarship will be launched Tuesday, May 16, at the Unama’ki College (L-151) at Cape Breton University.
Written by Potlotek native and professor at the University of Saskatchewan Dr. Marie Battiste, “Visioning a Mi’kmaw Humanities: Indigenizing the Academy” includes contributions from 11 educators who show how generations of indigenous peoples have endured the Eurocentric education forced upon them. The Eurocentric approach has led to the loss of many indigenous languages, spiritual identities and traditions linked to their ways of knowing, disconnections from elders, lands and livelihood and much more.
According to Battiste, the current vision of humanities education is a kind of “cognitive imperialism” that is its own authority to define what is considered normal and desirable.
“All other ways of thinking, learning and understanding the world are viewed as deficient,” she writes. “It’s the cognitive equivalent of racism.”
The book urges restoration with a vision of society and of education where knowledge systems and languages are reinforced, not diluted, where they can respectfully gather together without resembling each other, and where peoples can participate in the cultural life of a society, education and their community with dignity.
Visioning a Mi’kmaw Humanities is already in bookstores and on-line stores, including as an e-book. Everyone is invited to the May 16 launch.