Here in Alaska my focus is on learning about a group called the Alaskan Native Knowledge Network and the work they are doing to create 'place-based' learning where what students do in school grows out of the community they come from. It has already been an amazing few days of talking to new colleagues about their journey so far, their successes, their struggles and the things that keep them going. So many conversations have included genuine acknowledgement of just how similar our two contexts are. Strange to think that two places, two peoples so far apart geographically could be so similar in so many ways. But then if you think about it, it's not so strange. Native Alaskans and Indigenous Central Australians both live in harsh environements where surivival id difficult and you depend on your family, your community to look after you. In both cases contact with Europeans has led to disease, death, missions, loss of culture and language. In both cases the people have had to fight to regain control over their traditional lands - the core of their being and sense of self. In both cases knowledge is passed on through the telling of stories and the experiential learning gained through hands on activities such as hunting. All of this just makes me feel at home here, and feel a sense of kinship with the people I have met so far. Their ways are familiar to me.
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