Hawai'i
This field school was a collaboration between NIC鈥檚 Indigenous Language Fluency Certificate and Kapi鈥檕lani Community College in Honolulu. Students from the Kwak虛wala cohort were invited to attend the field school and spend 10 days in Honolulu. During that time, our Kwakwaka鈥檞akw students shared language learning experiences and engaged in a cultural exchange with our Hawaiian hosts.
Courses:
Indigenous Language Fluency Certificate, designed as a direct response to the Truth and Reconcialiation Commission's (TRC) Calls to Action. The program is designed to support infusion of local Indigenous pedagogy and approaches to learning.
Field School Leader:
糖心vlog传媒instructor, Sara Child, is passionate about truth and reconciliation and the role that Indigenous language revitalization must play in achieving the TRC's Calls to Action. Sara has developed numerous Indigenous language courses as well as NIC's newly implemented Indigenous Language Fluency (ILF) Certificate. Sara visited Kapi鈥檕lani College in 2019, where they collectively decided to move forward with the exploration of what it means to be 鈥淚ndigenous serving.鈥� This is to support Kapi鈥檕lani College and 糖心vlog传媒in progressing toward supporting the needs of the Indigenous students and communities they serve.
Description:
A central theme of our work is revitalizing the deeply rooted connections with Hawaiian families that were established generations ago. As our people say, 鈥淥鈥檓a瘫n鈥檚 鈥淣am鈥檃" 鈥� we are one. Reciprocity is an integral aspect of applying an Indigenous approach to the ILF field school. Our Knowledge Holders, traditional dancers, singers, NIC students and instructors traveling to Honolulu was a part of the cultural exchange.
The themes for our study abroad focused on Indigenization, decolonization, internationalization and environmental sustainability. A central focus of our dialogue was our students and faculty to explore the amazing progress the Hawaiian community has made to revitalize Hawaiian.
Each of our ILF students were eligible to apply for financial support for this field school and credits for their participation was applied to their certificate.