Education

Decolonizing educational systems and promoting traditional and other community-based education reinforces positive cultural identity, traditional knowledge, and languages. These opportunities are sources of future and present strength and leadership for Barrow and Indigenous communities more broadly. They have the potential to increase opportunities for youth and sustain cultural lifeways.

Part of the colonizing schooling process was a devaluation of Indigenous ways of knowing. Assimilating pressures meant that cultural identity, traditional knowledges, and languages were being lost. Positive, decolonizing forces, both in the school system and in community settings, are being developed to increase Indigenous knowledges and languages in education. Elder mentors, leaders, and community involvement are all important for decolonizing processes.

There are many examples of indigenizing education in Barrow. These include the North Slope Borough School District’s Iñupiaq Learning Framework, the VIVA Iñupiaq learning software, Ilisaġvik College, the Uqautchim Uglua Iñupiaq immersion early child education program, and the vast archive of oral histories and other materials available from the North Slope Borough’s Iñupiat Heritage, Language, and Culture commission.

 
“Absolutely, the elders are the wisdom keepers. A lot of that isn’t being taught to the younger generations. Respect for elders. Their rules, their laws are more powerful than western laws even. If we live by them it would be good.”