On November 28, 2023 the Center for Indigenous Knowledge Systems at Anaadi Foundation organised an online virtual global symposium on Traditional Knowledge Systems based education.Speakers from India, Brazil, Peru, Kenya and New Zealand spoke from their research and field experience at the symposium. With more than 200 participants from various countries, the symposium brought together a synthesis of ideas and models from diverse indigenous/local/native cultures.
This symposium on Traditional Knowledge Systems based education (TKSE) created a platform to bring together global stakeholders working on diverse Traditional Knowledge Systems to create global awareness , provide a platform to foster mutual respect and cross-cultural understanding and bridge the gap between traditional wisdom and modern scientific paradigms.
The symposium speakers included:
Prof. Jacoba Matapo, New Zealand on Pasifika education
Matrushree Smrithi, India on Gurukulam Education, Anaadi Foundation
Dr. Mala Kapadia, Director, Center for Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Prof. Sushila Madan, India on Ekal Vidyalaya
Sh. Avtar Sahni and Smt. Khulna Laimayum, India on Manipuri dance perspective
Wayanki Hoffman, Kenya on Ubuntu perspective
Francisco Lopez and John Nicolas, Argentina, Incan perspective
Vanessa Gocksch, Colombia, Colombian perspective
Access Video Recordings at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06ZLT1E8VKIOfyWuCZnMugRkWrHjd-P1
The symposium began with an invocation from the sacred upanishads followed by blowing of the conch (shankh naad) by Prof. Jacoba. Already, the participants started to see how connected various cultures are. Prof Jacoba highlighted various philosophical and pedagogical aspects of Pacifica and Maori education.
Dr Jacoba provided us with background on New Zealand as a land of belonging for all pacific nations. It was mesmerizing to hear Jacoba's own poetry "Feel my reach" that she wrote from her insights of her mother's migration from Samoa to New Zealand. One line from her poem that touched my heart was "use your hands wisely in the choices you make, push strong fist forward, so generations to come will feel your reach".
Prof Jacoba continued her presentation with providing a timeline of the first Pasifika ECEs in New Zealand. Prof Jacoba and her team's research "Embedding Samoan indigenous philosophy in ECE for Samoan children under two" emphasizes honoring the child as a spiritual entity and the curriculum is based on this virtue. Her examples of 1) Children feel the morning dew and sing outside revitalizing their body, mind and soul 2) Touch pedagogy or pedagogy of the hands to communicate love, care, service and respect for example baby healing massage 3) weaving samoan baby mats by the parents and grandparents where wisdom and experience is passed down to the newborn are all fantastic traditions that will truly nurture children with positive wellbeing, spiritual wisdom and a strong identity to move forward in life.
This was followed by suryanamaskar (sun salutations) by students of Dharma Gurukulam, an Indian Knowledge systems based learning space at Anaadi Foundation. The students also offered various chants from Indian math, astronomy and ayurveda. This was followed by a talk by Matrushree Smrithi Adinarayanan, Founder, Anaadi Foundation, on Bharatiya education, gurukulas as futuristic learning spaces and the core aspects of Dharma Gurukulam.
Prof. Sushila Madan highlighted the integrated work done by Ekal Sansthan in the areas of one-teacher schools, societal upliftment, preservation of culture and ecological conservation. shared that Ekal has adopted a ‘Panchmukhi Shiksha Model’ or the ‘Five-Fold Model of Education’, which has elements from Basic Education, Ethics and Value Education, Health Care Education, Village Development and Empowerment. In addition to reading and writing, Ekal children are taught basic arithmetic, basic science, ethics, health and hygiene, and culture to ensure their holistic development.
Sh. Avtar Sahni and Smt. Khulna Laimayum provided a glimpse into native Manipuri culture and how faith in the divine is interwoven into all aspects of daily life. They also highlighted how theater transforms lives and the role of Manipuri dance and drama in transmitting the rich culture and heritage to the next generation. Shri Sahni went on to explicate his own experience as a theatre-in-education practitioner. Borrowing from his training background as an exponent of Manipuri classical and folk theatre artist, inspired by the Gujarati educationist and pedagogue, Shri Gijubhai Badheka and his insightful profound literature on human behavior, laws of natural learning, and the cry to decolonize the indian education system in the three volumes titled ‘Divaswapna,’ ‘Abhibhavakon ke liye’ (for parents), and ‘Adhyapakon ke liye’ (for teachers). Inspired by his writings Mr. Sahni evolved his unique methodology of teaching and learning which he along with his wife, Shrimati Khulna Laimayum applied at the Children’s theatre wing at the National School of Drama.
Shrimati Laimayum recalled her journey as a theatre-in-education practitioner by sharing snippets of their work through photos of both contemporary and classical theatre, including Manipuri folk and classical theatre. She once again panned the audience’s attention toward Manipuri culture and the classical and folk performing art forms practiced in the state as she recalled her training days. She candidly shared that the life of each household in Manipuri Meitei culture revolves around the local deity or Lei Haraoba. A child learns to worship Lei Haraoba growing up in their family and that it is a way-of-life to learn the stories, music, dance, the musical instruments and martial arts forms. She also shared that this way of educating children is consistent across genders, i.e. boys and girls both learn to practice martial art forms. She went on to add that the women in Manipur grow up to be strong and self-reliant women and that to some degree theirs is a Mahila Pradhan Samaj (women-centric society). Further recalling her journey she shared how once when the
Wayanki Hoffman, a global educator of African indigenous knowledge systems spoke about the importance of Ubuntu philosophy of Africa. She also highlighted the importance of preserving indigenous educational models and pedagogies- and how these knowledge systems are a big missing puzzle in how we understand our interaction with the world today. She highlighted that Ubuntu plays a central role even among African indigenous knowledge systems, and eas often passed down from generation to generation, often in the form of oral storytelling. Principles of Ubuntu interweave people together as communities into an intricate story of our shared existence as human beings, removing humans from the center of life, and instead placing us in a circle of life where we become custodians of other life forms. A community of living beings, including nature, plants and other creatures share the planet as a common space. This philosophy gives centrality to storytelling as a pedagogical tool which passes knowledge across time. This philosophy can guide us through the complexities of modern existence, especially when we are discussing what it means to be human in the face of non-human intelligence. The five ethical principles within Ubuntu are- survival, solidarity, compassion, respect and dignity- these ethics can be wrapped in a single word- reciprocity, which can be a golden rule of human flourishing. This principle of reciprocity is also found in other systems of knowledge, including scientific principles which have rediscovered this principle in different ways. She also opened up the possibilities of working on NativeGPT - LLMs based on native culture and knowledge which keep indigenous knowledge at the center.
Francisco Lopez and John Nicolas brought out how the traditional knowledge of Incas is being preserved by the Andean school that Nicolas runs. With beautiful pictures, they highlighted how the dual principle of Masculine-Feminine is woven into various aspects of education. When they shared how time is perceived as cyclical and not linear, it immediately struck a chord with all participants who were able to relate this with their own cultural thought process. The Wiñaypaq Educational Institution has administered these 4 principles in terms of curriculum i.e. Intercultural, Ecological (school curriculum is design in such as way that all the learning comes from the nature, children study and grow plants, learn how to cook them and makes medicines out of them), Integral (Andean culture’s indigenous Elders and senior members plays an important role in parting the knowledge and learning to children) and Inclusive (all children regardless of their intelligence and abilities study together) . The whole curriculum of the school is sync with the cycle of nature and the learning is organized according to the seasons such that the beginning and ending of each of the seasons includes celebrations to mark the learnings.
Vanessa Gocsch presented the Colombian way of learning. A beautiful life footage of a colombian learning space - Selvatorium for was shown. The importance given to nature and the local language was highlighted. Her students also shared their educational experience in the symposium.
What next?
Overall the symposium brought out some key common dimensions that pave the way for future work:
Teachers are not just the sole custodians of knowledge by the entire community with all the living beings are holders of knowledge.
Indigenous/Traditional education focuses on the well-being of the individual as compared to objective contemporary colonized education.
Indigenous/Traditional education must be looked at as futuristic as it will to solve modern-day problems of economics, health, education, ecology etc
Interconnected (as opposed to compartmentalisation of modern education) is core to traditional education.
Story-telling plays a vital role in preserving culture and is an important pedagogical tool.
There is a need for using tech to preserve indigenous/traditional knowledge.
There is a need to bring these various core and common ideas together to create holistic and contemporarily relevant curricula.