Recent arguments have suggested that literacy in the Pacific does not give added status to vernaculars and that it should be discouraged, because it is not part of traditional cultures. This article disputes this interpretation, arguing that as these cultures have changed since colonial contact, literacy has been fully incorporated into many local…

Aboriginal literacy encompasses oral tradition, culture, language, identity, and world view in addition to the written word, and is a process of lifelong learning, much of which occurs beyond school walls. When defining Native literacy, one must move away from measuring Aboriginal students by Euro-Western definitions and move toward a balanced,…

The history of the Hmong people of Southeast Asia is based mainly on oral traditions, and until recent decades there was no written Hmong language. With the introduction of writing, a new view of history is beginning to emerge, as demonstrated by college student term papers. (SLD)

Draws on Isabelle Knockwood's memoir about Mi'kmaw children's experiences in a Nova Scotia boarding school to examine the contradictory impacts of English literacy on American-Indian peoples and cultures. Discusses literacy as a weapon of colonial assimilation and, conversely, the appropriation of literacy within a Mi'kmaw system of knowledge…

This book introduces the general reader to the mosaic of American Indian languages and cultures as they exist in time and space, and supplies limited technical linguistic orientation to encourage further exploration of language interrelationships, cultures, and other ways of knowing. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the status, diversity, and…

Many American Indian students are alienated from schooling by the obvious disparities and conflicts between language usage in the oral tradition of their communities and that required in written academic discourse. A community-based language model used with Lakota college students empowers students by teaching critical writing that fuses…

Native Americans have oral traditions that are distinct from the European literacy consciousness, having different modes of discourse, different kinds of metaphorical thinking, and different conceptions of teaching as storytelling. Storytelling is important in children's education, but to be effective and respectful of Native culture, school…