knowledges

Questions for reflection...

Where do your ideas of what is real and ideal come from?

Are your ideas of what is good and what is true the same as other people’s or do they differ? Why do you think this happens?

What are the similarities and differences between what you think and what your parents think? Have you ever questioned why these similarities and differences exist?

Who or what shapes our understanding of what is real? For instance, would you say that what the media presents is necessarily true and neutral? Who controls the sources of your knowledge?

Do people in different parts of the world see things in the same way? Do you think there is something that is fundamentally true for everybody, regardless of where they come from or what their background is?

This project is based on the perspective that indigenous cultures are usually rooted in ways of life that have a different connection to the land and to processes of survival from those of "modernity". They have been historically exploited, conquered, policed and subjugated. Indigenous knowledges all over the world are malleable, altering in response to 'modern' ideas and practices, but also to an ever changing array of other ways of knowing and doing. This is due to economic and social change, especially as a result of modernisation[1]. Therefore, understanding indigenous knowledges involves not only an understanding of knowledge production, but an understanding of material and political conditions that shape local and global processes and relationships[2].