Abstract
Elizabeth Sumida Huaman and Bharath Sriraman offer a compelling and ambitious collection of case studies of indigenous communities resisting the forces of colonialism and neocolonialism in Indigenous Innovation: Universalities and Peculiarities. Departing from a traditional neoliberal definition of “innovation” as solely based on economic or technological advance, Huaman redefines “Indigenous innovation” 1 as a tool of cultural resistance that responds to historic and present-day realities and is concerned with the “values linked with the maintenance, preservation, restoration, revitalization of Indigenous knowledge systems that merge episteme with place and cultural practice” (p. 4). As such, the complex case studies in the book from communities across the globe illuminate multiple dimensions of indigenous education in its broadest sense—formal, nonformal, informal, lifelong, intergenerational, ecological, and anticolonial. The historic and often-current role of formal schooling as a force of marginalization and symbolic violence for indigenous communities in many countries emerged across various chapters; as a response, the book focuses on innovative community-based and place-based education designed and implemented by indigenous communities in a variety of settings and contexts.
One of the greatest strengths of the book is the detail of each local example of innovation provided in each chapter. Readers get a glimpse into distinct indigenous worldviews and innovative local initiatives from diverse places: New Mexico, India, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Bolivia, Peru, Chicago, the Great Lakes region of Michigan, Kenya, and Norway. The book centers indigenous knowledges and the chapters offer readers thorough information on each context as well as authors’ positionality within them. Most of the contributing authors are members of the indigenous groups they discuss and espouse a scholar-activist approach to their work; for those who are not members of the communities under study, they exhibit and discuss their deep allyship and mutual learning with the indigenous communities they research (see, e.g., chapters 5 and 9).
A book on comparative case studies of indigenous education, with a focus on innovative community-based projects, written by mostly indigenous scholars, is indeed a unique contribution to the literature. Taken together, the chapters provide multiple perspectives on issues ranging from decolonizing the diet and agricultural sustainability among diverse rural and urban indigenous communities in the United States (chapters 3, 6, and 11); place-based education for youth in Aotearoa (chapter 4); conflicts between development efforts and modernization discourses versus local indigenous knowledges and practices in Bolivia, Kenya, and Peru (chapters 5, 7, and 8); and the creation of culturally appropriate curriculum and pedagogy in indigenous-operated educational spaces in India and Norway (chapters 9 and 10). The common threads that unified the chapters were emphases on indigenous knowledges, resistance to colonial and imperial forces, the creation of hybrid identities and alternative imaginations, as well as the reciprocity of ecosystems, sustainability, ancestral landscapes, and culturally relevant education.
There were a couple of areas in which the book could have been strengthened. The multiplicity of voices from different indigenous communities across the globe offered insightful case studies; however, some of the contributors provided more in-depth historical background than others. In this regard, further contextual background in all of the chapters could have provided a more suitable point of entry for readers without prior knowledge of a particular indigenous community’s history. This may have also provided greater coherence across the chapters, allowing authors to speak more to each other throughout the book. Last, the editors could have provided a concluding chapter in which they tied together the various strands woven throughout the book, zooming out and returning to the questions set forth by Sumida Huaman in the excellent introductory chapter.
Nonetheless, minor caveats aside, this book is an excellent resource that provides a comprehensive overview of indigenous innovations in education broadly conceived. The editors and contributing authors make rich contributions to the fields of indigenous studies, comparative education, and international studies by placing indigenous worldviews and knowledge systems at the center of the discussion within the framework of ongoing struggles for autonomy and cultural survival. This book is also a welcome invitation to inspire other scholars of indigenous and marginalized groups to document and disseminate educational strategies and innovations. In the introduction, Sumida Huaman notes the book’s intention to “share critical narratives that link together Indigenous worldviews, culturally-based notions of ecology, and educational practices in places and times where human relationships with the world that are restorative, transformative, and just are being sought” (p. 1). The book meets and surpasses this goal by providing an extensive cross-section of narratives and cases from all over the globe. Indigenous Innovation is a superb book for university and graduate students seeking to understand the historical and current state of diverse indigenous communities innovating for community empowerment amid uneven and unequal processes of globalization.