Due to the way I teach (coming from a one to many lecturing background), I have found it difficult to imagine an experiential activity for students. However I do use my own experieinces as a teaching tool to assist with knowledge transference.
My most 'reliable' story is that of our whanau connection to the Titi islands.
We experience 'strong sustainability' issues on a day to day basis on the islands: Titi are seabirds and require a certain topography to exsist within. the trees, the undergrowth, the soil substructure all play a part in making this environment home for the titi during the nesting season. The local seas provide the food sorce while the birds are nesting and rearing their chicks.
We know as traditional food harvesters that we hold a certain responsility to the environments that allow this harvest to take place.
And while the harvest is a 'cultural food right', it also plays a very important part of our economy, it is now used, informally, as a revenue source.
So this activity plays a part in our social (reaffirming whanau relationships) cultural (reconnecting with the practices of our tupuna), spiritual (a sence of recharging) and financial (income stream) selves.
Looking after these Islands and the flora and fauna that inhabits them is to all intents and purposes, looking after ourselves in a wider, holisitc manner.
This practice is pratising 'strong sustainability'.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Education and Hard Cash
Just reading Charles Hopkins and Rosalyn McKeown Education for Sustainable Development and the link between education and cash.
"Nations with high illiteracy rates and unskilled work forces have fewer
development options. These nations are largely forced to buy energy and
manufactured goods on the international market with hard currency. To acquire hard
currency, these countries need to trade, and usually this means exploiting natural
resources or converting lands from self-sufficient family-based farming to cash-crop agriculture."
Even in so called developed nations, it could be argued that we educate for cash. I lectured in a Commerce degree class with about 300 students and asked how many students would be using their business degree for a not for profit organisation: Two students raised their hands.
"Nations with high illiteracy rates and unskilled work forces have fewer
development options. These nations are largely forced to buy energy and
manufactured goods on the international market with hard currency. To acquire hard
currency, these countries need to trade, and usually this means exploiting natural
resources or converting lands from self-sufficient family-based farming to cash-crop agriculture."
Even in so called developed nations, it could be argued that we educate for cash. I lectured in a Commerce degree class with about 300 students and asked how many students would be using their business degree for a not for profit organisation: Two students raised their hands.
Sustainability @OP
Just a few thoughts about sustainability @ OP.
After reading what the Schools and departments are up to a few points became apparent.
1. Schools have different, often complementary, views on their sustainable practice. some schools (eg Art and Design) have quite comprehensive profiles while others (eg SAB, CLC) have less. However all statements on profiles appear to fit the core business
2. No Service centres (eg EDC) have made comments on their sustainable practice.
3. The last posting on the 'news' section was 2008 and this year only one post on the OP Sustainable Practice blog.
While we have leaders in the field of sustainable education and practice, it appears as though we are becoming complacent and the work that went into our much celebrated ITPNZ Award of 2008 may not be 'sustainable'
Or am I being cynical?!?!
After reading what the Schools and departments are up to a few points became apparent.
1. Schools have different, often complementary, views on their sustainable practice. some schools (eg Art and Design) have quite comprehensive profiles while others (eg SAB, CLC) have less. However all statements on profiles appear to fit the core business
2. No Service centres (eg EDC) have made comments on their sustainable practice.
3. The last posting on the 'news' section was 2008 and this year only one post on the OP Sustainable Practice blog.
While we have leaders in the field of sustainable education and practice, it appears as though we are becoming complacent and the work that went into our much celebrated ITPNZ Award of 2008 may not be 'sustainable'
Or am I being cynical?!?!
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Ahi Kaa
Kia ora koutou.
I have started this blog as part of my Education for Sustainability 2011 course with Niki Bould.
First off I would like to explain why I called this blog Ahi Kaa Roa.
The term ahi kaa roa literally translates to long fires burning. This term is usually used in Te Ao Maori in relation to land occupation and usuage. If you can keep your 'home fires' burning though occupation you have the rights and obligation to access the resources of that area.
Ko Rakaihautu te takata nana i timata te ahi kei ruka i tenei motu. Ka nohoia tenei motu, te Waitaha
Rakaihau is the man that started the fires on this island. The people that stay here are the Waitaha.
This whakatauki illustrates this point. The people of Rakaihau, an eponymous ancestor of some of the original inhabitants to the South Island, the Waitaha, keep those metaphorical fires burning through continued habitation.
However for me the ahi kaa concept goes further. From an economic perspective (whether that be financial, social or political economy) ahi kaa relates to the rights and obligation of living in a defined area or land occupation: while we inhabit land we have the rights to partake in the benefits that it allows. This being said, we also have a reciprocal obligation to ensure that resources are maintained for future generations.
A good case in point are the Titi Islands, which I will discuss in more depth at later dates. As whanau, we hold ahi kaa to these areas and therefore have the right to harvest the birds. But we do so knowing that we have the obligation to our children and their children so that they do the same.
Fire provides a necessity of life and therefore is vital in sustaining people. However in return people must sustain the fire to keep it burning. As we all know, fires need fuel, (part of the fire triangle that I will expand upon at another time), therefore to access the benefits of of the fire people have the obligation to provide the fuel.
If we view the metaphorical as practical, people need fires, fires need wood, people provide wood.
To ensure that these fires can be burnt inter-generationaly, which is at the heart of the concept, we must ensure that there is suffient fuel for the future.
So while the whakatauki initially speaks to the issues of land occupation and access to resources, for me the central theme inherent in this concept is sustainability. We have both the rights and the obligation.
For me this underpins my understanding of sustainability.
I have started this blog as part of my Education for Sustainability 2011 course with Niki Bould.
First off I would like to explain why I called this blog Ahi Kaa Roa.
The term ahi kaa roa literally translates to long fires burning. This term is usually used in Te Ao Maori in relation to land occupation and usuage. If you can keep your 'home fires' burning though occupation you have the rights and obligation to access the resources of that area.
Ko Rakaihautu te takata nana i timata te ahi kei ruka i tenei motu. Ka nohoia tenei motu, te Waitaha
Rakaihau is the man that started the fires on this island. The people that stay here are the Waitaha.
This whakatauki illustrates this point. The people of Rakaihau, an eponymous ancestor of some of the original inhabitants to the South Island, the Waitaha, keep those metaphorical fires burning through continued habitation.
However for me the ahi kaa concept goes further. From an economic perspective (whether that be financial, social or political economy) ahi kaa relates to the rights and obligation of living in a defined area or land occupation: while we inhabit land we have the rights to partake in the benefits that it allows. This being said, we also have a reciprocal obligation to ensure that resources are maintained for future generations.
A good case in point are the Titi Islands, which I will discuss in more depth at later dates. As whanau, we hold ahi kaa to these areas and therefore have the right to harvest the birds. But we do so knowing that we have the obligation to our children and their children so that they do the same.
Fire provides a necessity of life and therefore is vital in sustaining people. However in return people must sustain the fire to keep it burning. As we all know, fires need fuel, (part of the fire triangle that I will expand upon at another time), therefore to access the benefits of of the fire people have the obligation to provide the fuel.
If we view the metaphorical as practical, people need fires, fires need wood, people provide wood.
To ensure that these fires can be burnt inter-generationaly, which is at the heart of the concept, we must ensure that there is suffient fuel for the future.
So while the whakatauki initially speaks to the issues of land occupation and access to resources, for me the central theme inherent in this concept is sustainability. We have both the rights and the obligation.
For me this underpins my understanding of sustainability.
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