Thread by @IngridRobeyns

The 2020 HDCA conference has started! After some opening world by Kerry Taylor and Cynthia White from Massey University, and on behalf of The HDCA by me, we’re now moving to the first keynote - professor Linda Smith, a pioneer in indigenous scholarship. #HDCA2020

We should reflect on what it means to be well, to be part of a thriving and loving community. This should also hold for the scholarly community, Smith argues. #HDCA2020

When this year the pandemic broke out, the Maori were remembering the 1918 pandemic, since experiences had been passed on through generations. Mass graves; orphans; trauma. This year, the Maori took immediate measures, e.g. check points on roads.

This year, the (social) media created dominant narratives. In the beginning: quite apocalyptic. An indigenous scholar should always ask: are these our narratives?

first idea to take central: relationality. We will even have to think about our relation with the virus. Also think about human and global connections on the response to the virus.

Smith: this talk is based on a paper, but this is not the moment for a neat, tidy story.
#HDCA2020

One of the role of an indigenous scholar, is to remind us of the resilience of our people, that we had tools of survival that still exist. For example: we are able to feed ourselves. when the pandemic brought out, the tribal food parcels were distributed, and also 'care parcels'

this went much faster than the mainstream organisations, that also charge to deliver them. Why? We know our people, how many people, where they live, how many people in the households.

we also have to critique the mainstream narrative that go on, and remind our community of what living through a pandemic means. For example, here in New Zealand there was a lot of talk about 'protecting the vulnerably', people older than 70 years. But: Where does "70" come from?

the Maori community has a different health profile, with more comorbidity, hence over the age of 60 a Maori should be considered vulnerably (on the basis of age).
So ethnic disparities and differences are very relevant.
#HDCA2020

so governments making pandemic-related policies need to take those ethnic differences into account.
Also: were are the testing stations located? An inequitable health system will magnify the inequalities under a pandemic. Many Maori communities are isolated, do not have access.

reflecting on personal experiences under the pandemic: many students had never been learning online, yet education was expected to go on unabated - our institutions made wrong assumptions, e.g. that all students have a learning place, a device, access to parents to help them.

children are back at school, but university students are still learning online. We have learnt something about this virtual environmental. It is not the most ideal situation for most of our students. My students have come out very clear that they want face-to-face meeting. >

virtual environment helps in the pandemic, but does not replace the teaching we had. So it cannot replace what we had before!

[-> this is true all over the world, and also in the Netherlands a real concern, #WOinActie]

what students and teachers need, is social connection. Does online teaching and videoconferencing gives us a personal relationship? The pandemic has forced us to think about the future of education. How do we bring back to the center relational learning?