Tuesday, October 02, 2018
Critical Thinking
Language is not neutral. That is one of the lessons drawn by Paige Raibmon, professor of history at the University of British Columbia, in As I Remember It: Teachings from the Life of a Sliammon Elder--the K-12 textbook she co-authored about relations between Indigenous Peoples and Europeans.
As Raibmon observes, assumptions are not universal, but rather, culturally specific to a people, place and time. Many assumptions presented by Europeans as universal, she says, unwittingly promote continuity of the racist concepts these assumptions are based on.
As Raibmon observes, assumptions are not universal, but rather, culturally specific to a people, place and time. Many assumptions presented by Europeans as universal, she says, unwittingly promote continuity of the racist concepts these assumptions are based on.
As Raibmon notes, We all believe at some point that our particular ideas and practices are the norm. Those of us who benefit from various forms of privilege can retain that illusion because the world around us endorses our perspective. This is why the “First Peoples Principle of Learning” that “Learning requires exploration of one’s identity” applies to all learners of all ages. It invites non-Indigenous learners to start with themselves, rather than the Indigenous “other.”
