Nehinuw Pedagogy and Philosophy

[Originally posted at willdaddario.com]

In preparation for an article about Kent Monkman's online installation Casualties of Modernity, I am researching—with great care and slowness—Two-Spirit people and related topics. In addition to the relevant literature on Two-Spirit art and literature, I'm branching off into Indigenous pedagogy. Coming at this topic from my Western, White, Heterosexual, Cis-gendered, Male, Able-Bodied, Christian-raised (primarily Jesuit) point of view requires me to re-think even the most basic concepts and words that I use to think about Monkman's art. As such, I have turned to books on Indigenous pedagogy in order to understand how words like "think," "understand," "know," "truth," and how phrases like, "help each other" and "teach each other" operate for Nehinuw (or Cree) people.

I have recently finished reading Linda M. Goulet and Keith N. Goulet's Teaching Each Other: Nehinuw Concepts & Indigenous Pedagogies (Vancouver; Toronto: University of British Columbia Press, 2014). I am struck, yet again, at the relevance of these ideas for all teachers, not only those who encounter students from Indigenous populations. This book should be assigned for all who hope to teach and counter the pervasive banking model of school-as-usual, even though the stories included in its pages mainly address primary and secondary school populations.

Having taken notes on the book, I decided to compile a glossary of relevant terminology and to share that glossary here. While certain passages dealing with the role of "interaction, practice, and action by doing" are exciting and relevant to me—given my work in performance philosophy—I figure that others will benefit from spending time with these words and concepts, too. For example, all of us engaged in critical pedagogy will marvel at the fact that this book on Nehinuw pedagogy must contain discussions of "trustworthy belief in one another" (mumiseetotatowin), "standing up for oneself" (neepuhistumasowin), and "standing up for others" (neepuhistumagehin).

Glossary:

Achimohina: Stories of people, living beings, and entities

Achunoogehina: Legends

Ahtotumohina: Stories of events and happenings

Atoskestumasowin: Working for oneself

Ininiyuk: Indigenous peoples (205)
     Inineesiw: adjective to describe someone who has a great deal      of initiative and the skills to carry things through

     Ininiw: Being self-determined as a person and as a people—to        be strong as an individual within a reciprocal relationship with      the collective, including kituskeenuw

Kinaskahtotumowin or kinaskachimowin: Lying stories

Kinistooten: Do you understand?
     Kinistootuhin: Do you understand me?

Kiskinaumagehin: Teaching another. Has a focus on teacher-directed knowledge or teacher-directed action. This word is used when referring to both formal and informal education (65)

Kiskinaumasowin: Teaching oneself

Kiskinaumatowin: Teaching each other

Kiskeneetumowin: Knowledge The root is “to know,” but “understanding” is emphasized

Kistenimitowin: Respect

Kituskeenuw: Our land/world

Mamitoneneetumasowin: Thinking for oneself

Mumiseetotatowin: Trustworthy belief in one another, connotes reliance on each other

Neepuhistumasowin: Standing up for oneself

Neepuhistumagehin: Standing up for others

Nisitootumowin: Understanding and meaning Itootu is ‘do’ or ‘act,’ so the stem -itootum in nisitootumowin (understanding and meaning) relates to a person’s activities or doings and gives a conjoint sense that learning by interactive doing is dynamically interconnected with understanding

Osamachimohina or osamahtotumohina: Stories of exaggeration

Otootemitowin: Openness to others

Pehegenimisowin: “number one thinking,” a form of excessive individualism (62)

Pimachihowin: Life force system Example of a Cree “action noun,” nouns that refer to “the act of.” Thus, this word could also be translated as “the lifehood act.”

Pimachihisowin: (most commonly used word when referring to life in Cree) The self-determined action of individuals, groups, and nations in the quest for life, livelihood, and survival (59).
   
(Pim- indicates action. The middle stem, -ihiso, signifies the self-determined intentionality of an individual or self-group (60))

Pimatsiwin: Life, or the state of aliveness

Saseepeneetumowin: “One perseveres,” or one has long-term stamina in their mind, or has the stamina of determined, focused thinking

Tapehin: Truth “In Cree, belief and truth come from the same frontal stem, tap-, and are therefore closely related in Nehinuw thought” (88-89).

Tapuhaugeneetumowin: Belief
     Tapuhaugenimitowin: Believing in one another

Tipenimisowin: Developing authority over oneself

Wagootowin: Relatives

Weechihiso: One helps oneself

Weechihisowin: Helping oneself/themselves

Weechihisowuk: They help themselves

Weechihitowin: Helping or supporting each other. Whereas the focus of weechihisowin is on the self or self-group support, in the case of weechihitowin, the focus is on the interactive collaboration and cooperation within the context of a supportive relationship (61).

Weechitowuk: They help each other Mamuhi weechitowuk: They all help each other

Weechiseechigemitowin: Alliances for collaborative action

Weechiyauguneetowin: Partnerships

Weetutoskemitowin: Work together with others; shared collaborative work among individuals, self-groups, and people, or simply the idea of working together (61)

Weetumatowin: the interactive sharing of information among people on a daily basis A dialogic sharing of information (61)