‘Indigenous knowledge link to academia vital’
Doctor Kabini Sanga says indigenous wisdom, languages, way of life, and traditional protocol are vital in bridging the gap to academia.
The sentiment was raised by the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society (OCIES) president and Victoria University of Wellington School of Education associate professor during the 50th annual conference at the Fiji National University campus in Natabua, Lautoka. It began on Monday and will conclude today.
The event is being co-hosted by the Victoria University of Wellington and FNU with around 150 academics and practitioners from Samoa, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the United States of America
“In the school systems, we neglect much of our indigenous wisdom, indigenous understandings of the world and most times we think about that as in the past and hence doesn’t have relevance for today. I am saying no, it has relevance for today,” he said.
“The theme of the conference is rethink reconceptualising education in Oceania, you’re looking backward as a way of walking forward. So, that brings two different tensions, the tension between the present and the past and the tension between the present and the
future.”
He said the conference theme gives educators time to think about education in Oceania in a way that honours the past by using the wisdom of the past to inform expectations of the future.
“That link between the past, our traditional wisdom, the link between people who live in villages, or live in communities, and those of us who live in modern institutions, whether it’s universities or governments is important,” he said.
“People of Fiji must appreciate that wisdom does not just come from schools, that doesn’t just come from universities, wisdom is also very much in our people in their local context, in our indigenous languages, in the realities of everyday life, our people.”