Abstract:
In her work alongside Indigenous collaborators from the Peruvian Andes de la Cadena (2015) depicts the role of education as a modernising agent, animated by evolutionary expectations of Indigenous people abandoning their ‘backwardness’ and becoming Modern subjects. She highlights the role of schooling in forcing Indigenous people to abandon their ontoepistemologies so that they will be eligible for citizenship and political agency in the Modern state (where there is no place for ‘superstitions’ or ‘beliefs’). In this way, education has exercised ontological occupation in exchange for the promise of inclusion, an inclusion that denies the reality of Indigenous worlds and the possibility of their political or educational self-determination. An example from Aotearoa is the enduring opposition to Māori self-determining education, as manifested by the opposition to mana orite or the equal status of matauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and Western Science in the Māori school curriculum. Meanwhile, Māori scholars and educators continue to resist ontological occupation.
The framework of political ontology (de la Cadena, 2015; Blaser, 2009) contests the foundation of the State and its institutions in Modern rationality, reimagining a political sphere no longer defined by the silenced antagonism of those that exceed the Modern/rational logos. Given the intertwining of education and the political realm, political ontology affords the contestation of the assumptions and the reality that underpins educational projects, opening up possibilities for Indigenous self-determining education. This presentation engages with some theoretical and practical tools offered by political ontology (de la Cadena, 2015; Blaser, 2009) for supporting those resisting ontological occupation. One of those tools is the ethnographic concept ‘not only’ which affords the suspension of the Modern habit of reducing difference to sameness through translation and deficit-framing. The practice of ‘not only’ entails remaining open to what exceeds one’s understanding and holding space for difference without cannibalising others’ knowledges and worlds. Thinking with and practising ‘not only’ as educators and educational researchers can foster an education for ontological coexistence, moving beyond the ontological occupation so often advanced through schooling, and nurturing a world where sovereign Indigenous worlds can fit.
References
Blaser, M. (2009). Political ontology. Cultural Studies, 23(5–6), 873–896.
de la Cadena, M. (2015). Earth beings: Ecologies of practice across Andean worlds. Duke University Press.
The framework of political ontology (de la Cadena, 2015; Blaser, 2009) contests the foundation of the State and its institutions in Modern rationality, reimagining a political sphere no longer defined by the silenced antagonism of those that exceed the Modern/rational logos. Given the intertwining of education and the political realm, political ontology affords the contestation of the assumptions and the reality that underpins educational projects, opening up possibilities for Indigenous self-determining education. This presentation engages with some theoretical and practical tools offered by political ontology (de la Cadena, 2015; Blaser, 2009) for supporting those resisting ontological occupation. One of those tools is the ethnographic concept ‘not only’ which affords the suspension of the Modern habit of reducing difference to sameness through translation and deficit-framing. The practice of ‘not only’ entails remaining open to what exceeds one’s understanding and holding space for difference without cannibalising others’ knowledges and worlds. Thinking with and practising ‘not only’ as educators and educational researchers can foster an education for ontological coexistence, moving beyond the ontological occupation so often advanced through schooling, and nurturing a world where sovereign Indigenous worlds can fit.
References
Blaser, M. (2009). Political ontology. Cultural Studies, 23(5–6), 873–896.
de la Cadena, M. (2015). Earth beings: Ecologies of practice across Andean worlds. Duke University Press.