Foundations for sustainable indigenous environmental education and community re-vitalization

Background/Question/Methods There is a crisis of “sustainability” which has evolved as a result of the global application of the Western development paradigm of “progress” through unfettered capitalism with little regard for social, cultural and ecological consequences. The Western development paradigm and its focus on material economic indicators as the sole measure of development perpetuates a distorted vision of what is in fact a multi-dimensional and multi-contextual process. Even the word development may be defined, from an Indigenous perspective, as an extension of colonialism. Indigenous communities have experienced the most negative aspects of the application of this ideology in terms of continued economic disparity, environmental degradation and socio-cultural issues. As a result of such negative manifestations many Indigenous peoples have begun to actively search for alternatives and new paradigms of “development” which are sustainable and more in-line with their cultural and spiritual ethos. The key goals of this search have been efforts to find sustainable, culturally responsive, and community based models which help to “build Indigenous communities” rather than continue to perpetuate their long standing social or cultural issues. Over the last two decades various programs in the United States have evolved which attempt to “rebuild Native nations from the inside out.” That is, to build an infrastructure that serves a broader spectrum of the community, find local resources and solutions, advocate local rather than federal control of community development and most importantly evolve from the cultural knowledge foundations of the communities themselves.

Results/Conclusions All of these efforts might be termed an Indigenized approach to applying “sustainable -environmental education for community revitalization and renewal.” This process oriented approach to education can form a contemporary context for the application and even evolution of Indigenous education.