The Exploration and Investigation of Decolonization as Community, as Action and as a Part of a Pedagogy of Care by Amanda Fayant

The exploration and investigation of decolonization as community, as action and as a part of a pedagogy of care

(NTNU Decolonial Arts Education Research and Practice)

The word decolonization is a heavy word. It is heavy with proposed meanings, site specific meanings, misunderstandings and discussions about whether the decolonial can be a real thing anyway. Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang take on this discussion with the important distinction that “decolonization is not a metaphor” and explain:

“(o)ur goal in this article is to remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization. Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. The easy adoption of decolonizing discourse by educational advocacy and scholarship, evidenced by the increasing number of calls to “decolonize our schools,” or use “decolonizing methods,” or, “decolonize student thinking”, turns decolonization into a metaphor. As important as their goals may be, social justice, critical methodologies, or approaches that decenter settler perspectives have objectives that may be incommensurable with decolonization. Because settler colonialism is built upon an entangled triad structure of settler-native-slave, the decolonial desires of white, non- white, immigrant, postcolonial, and oppressed people, can similarly be entangled in resettlement, reoccupation, and reinhabitation that actually further settler colonialism. The metaphorization of decolonization makes possible a set of evasions, or “settler moves to innocence”, that problematically attempt to reconcile settler guilt and complicity, and rescue settler futurity. In this article, we analyze multiple settler moves towards innocence in order to forward “an ethic of incommensurability” that recognizes what is distinct and what is sovereign for project(s) of decolonization in relation to human and civil rights based social justice projects. We also point to unsettling themes within transnational/Third World decolonizations, abolition, and critical space- place pedagogies, which challenge the coalescence of social justice endeavors, making room for more meaningful potential alliances” (Tuck&Yang, p.1).

Many institutions, including academic institutions, have been busy absorbing the terms decolonial, decolonize and decolonization for the past few decades without seeming to have any real insight into what the terms mean, can mean or even should mean. Definitions are tricky and often come from one perspective, which is why is it is vital to provide decolonization and its related terms space to be seen, experienced defined and redefined from many perspectives.

As for myself, I have spent a lot of time thinking through decolonization and what it entails within an academic research situation. I am co-leader of a research group at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway called Decolonizing Artistic Education, Research and Practice and this means that I have a responsibility to ensuring that decolonial perspectives, actions and discussions take up space in the research sphere. This means that our group and I must use time and take time to discuss internally and externally what decolonization means to our group members, to our research and our work.

With this in mind, we have spent the last few years organizing a series of in person and online events dedicated to the themes of community. Relationships and responsibility play a large part in what community entails and so we wanted to begin with the concept of community as a part of decolonization in action. Many scholars explain the value of recognizing relationship as a source of knowing. Moreton-Robinson writes that, “(r)elationality forms the conditions of possibility for coming to know and producing knowledge through research in a given time, place and land” (Moreton- Robinson, 2017, p. 71). Community can also be understood as a form of kinship, which the authors of Indigenous Relationality and Kinship and the Professionalization of Maternity Care describe as such, “(k)inship consists of family, community, and all extended human and more-than-human relations. It links together all of these relationships because “there is no distinction between relationships that are made with other people and those that are made with our environment. Both are equally sacred” (Wilson, 2008, p. 87).”

The first series was called “Creating Community” and included "Incomplete" A conversation with: Julie Edel Hardenberg Visual Artist/Author/Educator from Nuuk, Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland, "Silencing the Other" A conversation with: Dr Zahra Bayati Activist/Researcher/Educator based in Gothenburg and "A collective reading" Ch’ixinakaxutxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization" by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui; A Co-reading and conversation with: Nikhil Vettukattil Artist.

The second series was called This is Community and included Raúl Alberto Mora Valez (Dr. Berry) Experimenting in the Studio, Tuula Sharma Vassvik- Podcasting Low Fi & Hi-Fi, "Vuostildanfearánat - Sámi stories of resistance", Polina Golovátina & Amanda Fayant: Decolonizing the gaze Film Workshop & Screening, Julie Edel Hardenberg- Identity and (post) Colonial perspectives in art practice, Dr. Alexia Buono- Sensing, Feeling, and Moving as Anti-Colonial Praxis and Dr. Patricia Scalco with “Is there an elephant in the room?” Exploratory exchanges on the dis/location and dis/embodiment of ‘whiteness’ in the Nordic region. A conversation with a lawyer and a social anthropologist currently based in Finland.

The continuation of our community series will include "The Four Directions that Guide and Teach us". An introduction and conversation about the four directions (the Medicine Wheel) and the multiplicities of relationships between research, knowledge and art production. Amanda Fayant Artist/Writer, "Ajmoejimh ajtoejimh - land, traces, past and future" Creating engagement and knowledge in Sami history and belonging through co-operation with schools. A conversation with: Sissel Mutale Bergh Artist

The research group has this definition of our goals on the NTNU website:

“The decolonial arts education research and practice group is an inter institutional and inclusive platform for artists, researchers and teachers engaged in higher education. We also invite and include interested parties from the field of practice, locally and globally. The research group is a location to collaborate and energize arts education in the Nordic region towards pluralistic understandings of art making, teaching, and scholarship. We specifically seek to do this through first reflecting together on definitions of decolonial and second expanding meanings of the relationship between decoloniality, art and arts education through topics such as ethics, whiteness and critical race theory, inclusion/exclusion, Nordic migration, Indigenous knowledges and methodologies, power positions and curriculum. We aim to always promote a safe and care focused atmosphere.”

We want to continue to investigate the definitions of all terms related to decolonial and to continue working towards putting those definitions into actions. This is the second part of decolonization – action. Acts in the institute, outside of the institute and acts including community. Linda T. Smith writes, “research is not a distant academic exercise but an activity that has something at stake and that occurs in a set of political and social conditions” (L. T. Smith 2012, 5).

The third (not the last) part of the decolonization equation so far is care. A pedagogy of care for oneself, for others and for the environment – the spaces we inhabit. Much is written about the term “a pedagogy of care” and I draw on the work of scholars including Gay, Barek, Noddings, Freire, and hooks when I define it as a pedagogical perspective which draws on an ethics of care, reciprocity, responsibility in sharing and creating knowledge in relationship and action. I quote Dr. Sharon Ravitch as she explains in her post on Methodspace, “(a) pedagogy of care emphasizes mutual respect and engenders authentic dialogue that attends to preconceived assumptions, enacts compassion, affirmation, and investment in transformative action (Noddings, 1984) and reciprocal transformation (Nakkula & Ravitch, 1998).

One of the most important parts of decolonization is incorporating community, actions and care in our work in order to diminish the trend of artists, activists and scholars from leaving academics. The goal is to open space, to provide safety for discussions and for knowledge creation and not to diminish the importance of communities that include discussion and make space for a multitude of perspectives. I have no real answer for the puzzle of what is decolonization, or if there can be a decolonial world, however, I know that together, we can discuss, relate and imagine. Decolonization is a process and no one has a handbook, not one that really works anyway. Sometimes I believe we can decolonize and sometimes I wonder if we even know where to begin. And then, other times, I see the way, a path made by the connection between stories, communities and care, care for each other, ourselves and everything.

I have recently found out that several important new and experienced scholarly allies are leaving academia because of the untenable relationship between institutions and decolonization. This has pierced through my heart, mind and hope. If academia loses its’ most important voices, where will the project of decolonizing academia end up and how many people (researchers, artists, writers among them) will be hurt and trampled on the way down. This question I pose very seriously. These voices that we are losing are brave and constant in their journey towards decoloniality. Every voice is important, vital to creating a waterfall of movement, change and hope for a decolonial future. Sometimes these voices are oppositional, sometimes they are detailed (critical) and sometimes they are sharp. This is essential to an active process of looking inward and upward, hopefully building something better. As I’ve heard from many allies lately, we and the work we do grows out of the land. Continuing with that terminology, we grow out of our experiences, we grow out of relating to each other.

We grow out of and through this world, and in doing so, we must aim to decolonize along the way. We must imagine we can and more importantly, that we will.

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