Improving Academic and Personal Success for Native Learners Seeking Culturally Relevant and Authentic Anishinaabe Knowledge as Shared by a Knowledge Keeper

• Main Author: Poitras-Collins, Tracey Jeanne
• Other Authors: Ottmann, Jacqueline, Louie, Dustin William, Steeves, Phyllis, Spencer, Brenda L.
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2018
• Subjects: Anishinaabe; Indigenous Knowledge; Native Traditional Teachings; Native Students; Native Identity; Personal and Academic Success; Education > Administration; Turtle Island; anishina*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1880/106507; https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/31795

This study of culturally relevant and authentic Anishinaabe Knowledge was possible through the discussions with a well-respected and well-known Knowledge Keeper who comes from the community that call themselves Runners. He does not consider himself an Elder in my observation as he is too humble and wishes not to be identified to ensure his privacy. With the arrival of the European ideologies and degradation of Native cultures, mores and education systems, the Runners were given the responsibility to retain their Knowledge. This Anishinaabe cultural system, that the Runners have retained, has existed since time immemorial and sustained the people of Turtle Island for millennia. Native education is a land and sky, creation and cosmos-based learning system that is as applicable today as it was four hundred years ago. However, the teachings of our ancestors are being lost and very few remember the authentic teachings. Through the documentation of the oral land and sky teachings, these teachings will continue for another millennium. Using a combination of Indigenous and narrative inquiry methods, teachings of the Knowledge Keeper have been recorded and shared as truth. This knowledge will be available for all who wish to learn it. By balancing this ancient Anishinaabe education system and today’s Eurocentric and English-based education system, the academic attainment of Native learners and the education of non-Native people may be supported. The term Native has been selected for this dissertation based on the Knowledge Keeper’s explanation where he shared, “Native is from the land”. This dissertation is the documentation and dissemination (storytelling) of an Anishinaabe Knowledge Keeper who shares traditional teachings of the natural organization related to Native education.