Native Wellbeing Part III

Week 1

May 19-May 25, 2024

Wellbeing in Self

Introduction to Topic

Wellbeing in Self

This week, we hope that you will take the opportunity to relax a little and slowly let yourself get oriented to our new book, the course changes and shifting towards the downward arch of our experience together within the Indigenous First Steps program. The following questions are some reflective prompts to get to know yourself better, consider these and pause to ask yourself three of these as we kick off our first week of Native Wellbeing Part 3:

Who am I, really?
What worries me most about the future?
If this were the last day of my life, would I have the same plans for today?
What am I really scared of?
Am I holding on to something I need to let go of?
If not now, then when?
What matters most in my life?
What am I doing about the things that matter most in my life?
Why do I matter?
Have I done anything lately that’s worth remembering?

masi,

Valeria

Instructor's Notes

Protecting the Promise

For now, we will be closing The Seven Circles book and hope that you will revisit it throughout your career and as you continue practicing wellbeing in your personal and professional life. Keep making those small changes and reaching your goals, remember wellbeing is not a constant state but rather a balance to continuously work on.

Our newest text, titled Protecting the Promise by Timothy San Pedro is one of my personal favorites of the class. As a parent to two native children in the K-12 system, this book opened my eyes to better understand the discord I felt as a youth attending a very small and rural district school as well as how I am still to this day reconciling with feelings of not belonging and the erasure of native peoples within public education across the U.S.

Kaitlin B. Curtice says "When we force our children to forsake who they are to enter a colonizer society, we commit a horrific harm that often goes unnoticed," I believe what she is speaking of here is a continued silent erasure through the miseducation of Native children. San Pedro follows five families in their journey of re-educating their children about what it means to live and walk in a good way as native people from various perspectives. His research is focused on removing the barriers of western science methodology and transforming the way we understand what learning is, where it happens, and who is a holder of knowledge. I hope that you enjoy this book as much as I have!

Reading & Reflecting

Protecting the Promise

Author: Timothy San Pedro Forward by Megan Bang

Protecting the Promise is the first book in the Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Series edited by Django Paris.

It features a collection of short stories told in collaboration with five Native families that speaks to the everyday aspects of Indigenous educational resurgence rooted in the intergenerational learning that occurs between mothers and their children. The author defines resurgence as the ongoing actions that recenter Indigenous realities and knowledges, while simultaneously denouncing and healing from the damaging effects of settler colonial systems. By illuminating the potential of such educational resurgence, the book counters deficit paradigms too often placed on Indigenous communities. It also demonstrates the need to include Indigenous Knowledges within the curriculum for both in-school and out-of-school settings. These engaging narratives reframe Indigenous parents as critical and compassionate educators, cultural brokers, and storytellers who are central partners in the education of their children.

Week 1 Reading Assignment: Pages xi - 19

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