Emergent Themes

Below are more particular themes and sub-themes that have also been identified in the conference narrative.

EDUCATION

• For all students, and particularly for Native students, it is vital to have Native instructors, traditional and professional, delivering significant portions of the curricula.
• Native graduates from education programs are needed in rural and urban communities to lead their communities.
• Both learning and healing tied intimately to place and community. Circumstances in higher education must be structured such that students and educators have opportunity to participate in culturally appropriate and culturally responsive activities.
• Non-Native people must learn Native culture, not merely observe it.

MENTAL HEALTH

• Historical trauma must be confronted as a significant component of any healing process.
• The Native community is central to healing – its strong elements and members (e.g., elders) create a safety net.
• Spirituality is central to healing. Most Native communities and cultures do not separate spirituality and public life (i.e., church and state). In addressing spirituality in the preparation of counselors a spirituality must be taught that is unifying of all peoples, all traditions and all creation (rather than a reaching religiosity that divides and separates).

ECOLOGIES AND RESTORATION

• The scientific integrity of indigenous knowledge systems warrants serious respect and study.
• Native communities must guide their own planning; they have learned how to adapt.
• Native communities sometimes partner with conservation groups with similar concerns to heal the Earth based on indigenous understandings. These understandings are not a simple or simple-minded environmental spiritualism, but historically and contemporarily grounded in the epistemologies and traditions of the people.
• Place-based education and counseling are key components of healing for Native peoples and for the Earth.
• Economic development is immediately tied to the environment of historic Tribal lands. Such development must include reciprocal efforts with non-Tribal communities, identification of allies and maintenance of strategic partnerships, and control of those relationships.

LEADERSHIP/PERFORMING SOVEREIGNTY

• For Native peoples it is not enough to talk about sovereignty, sovereignty must be performed. Tribal autonomy is crucial to management of Tribal resources: Human resources, educational resources, environmental resources.
• Native leaders lead, teach and learn by and from example.

RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP

• The Graduate School must maintain and support relationships with Native advocates of IWOK who will be available for consultation as curricular, instructional and programmatic questions arise.
• Research and study reciprocal relationships that make a positive change work.
• Continue the dialogue among Tribal Leadership and between Leadership and the Graduate School’s faculty.
• Create assurances for right action that include the regular, open, honest and respectful sharing of ideas and articulation of standards.