Abstract

This entry will focus on the role of college students in taking decolonizing action, using two primary guiding questions. First, with our positionality as students at a college or university, how do we begin to take decolonizing actions? And second, how can we go about challenging our college to make changes, take decolonizing action and engage with indigenous survival? I will be referencing one specific reading from class: Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenious People by Linda Tuhiwai Smith.

Content

Our institution, Oberlin College, like most every college or university in the United States, is both a beneficiary and an upholder of colonialism. This starts with the fact that these institutions are built on land that was once occupied by Indigenous people. The idea of higher education stems from a belief that society would benefit from scholarly knowledge, more specifically white settler knowledge. Linda Tuhiwai Smith says there are “complex ways in which the pursuit of knowledge is deeply embedded in the multiple layers of imperial and colonial practices” (2012)

With our positionally as students at a college, a conception fundamentally built on colonialism, how do we begin to take decolonizing actions? I think it first begins with education, advocacy and accountability in a student’s role, or lack of a role, in taking decolonizing action. Oberlin requires its students to take at least quote “9 credit hours in courses dealing mainly with cultural diversity”. There are likely still a large number of students at Oberlin who have never taken a class on Indigenous culture or knowledge. When speaking to some of my friends about the things I've learned in this class I was surprised by how little they had engaged with indigenous issues, both before and while attending Oberlin. One friend, a computer science major, had no familiarity with the concept of a land acknowledgement, saying she had never heard of it. I hadn’t fully realized until that moment just how fortunate I was to talk about Indigenous issues at all, and how rare that was. 

I think a lot of students on this campus have likely not engaged with indigenous issues. I think before challenging the larger student body to engage in advocacy and take accountability, is it first important to become aware and get the proper education. Students who are fundamentally lacking knowledge on these issues may have a hard time both understanding and wanting to engage with them. There may simply be students who would rather not engage. I think it’s important to push these students to think about why they don’t want to engage. 

I was thinking as a student body we could begin to hold meetings in an open dialog style that include both a component of education, best from a willing Indigenous perspective, and a component of open dialogue where students can voice their opinions. I think it is important to include this component so we can identify where students' beliefs may differ, why they differ and what further education or conversations are needed to fill in the gaps. Once this is done I think we can begin asking the student body to advocate for and even begin taking decolonizing actions in their individual lives. 

While it is important to engage on an individual level, how do we begin to take decolonizing action on a larger scale? I am specifically thinking about my second guiding question: How can we go about challenging our college to make changes, take decolonizing action and engage with indigenous survival?

There is a definite power imbalance that exists between the student body and the institution. One might not want to sully one relationship with the institution or specific teachers and faculty. I think as students we can often feel powerless to our larger institutions, and that voicing our opinions often does not make tangible change. But there is definite power in numbers and I do believe making an impact is possible if the larger student body gets involved, specifically through the education and awareness ideas I mentioned earlier. I think what should be done here is a call to action for the college. Asking the institution to acknowledge the ways in which they have and continue to benefit and uphold colonialism and extractivism. And challenging them to begin to make tangible changes and take decolonizing action. I think it is important we put the pressure on the college to actually do something and this could be done through petitions, protests and even getting the larger media involved. 

My final idea is for the creation of an Indigenous Knowledge Center on Oberlin Colleges campus. This could be a new office or center of Oberlin that is created and run by willing Indigenous people. This place could help hold the college accountable in the ways they do employ colonialism, identifying areas where reflection and change is needed. There could be a sort of system where students report things they are seeing in class or on campus that either stem from or contribute to colonialism. It could also function as a place for education and awareness, possibly having classes or groups on Indigenous knowledge that are again taught and run by willing indigenous people. Maybe even making engaging with the center or taking a class a graduation requirement. Maybe people at the center could also hold professors accountable in the ways their courses or course materials engage in colonialism and white settler knowledge. In the same reading, Linda Tuhiwai Smith states “It is from within these spaces that increasing numbers of Indigenous academics and researchers have begun to address social issues within the larger framework work of self-determination, decolonization and social justice.” It is hard to make change or impact as an outsider to an institution. I believe bringing in Indigenous people who are willing to help or more accurately guide our college in taking decolonizing action is an essential part in making sure this is done right.

As students there are a lot of ways in which we can engage with decolonizing actions. On an individual level we can be more mindful about the knowledge we are engaging with as college students. Thinking about where the knowledge you are getting originates from, identifying who was given credit versus who wasn’t and how the knowledge you are engaging with has in some way benefited from and upholding colonialism. On a larger scale, this means challenging the student body, faculty and the members of the community to engage with these issues. And finally, challenging our larger institution, Oberlin college, to take accountability and begin taking decolonizing action. Talking about these issues is only going to get us so far, we need to begin to take action if we want to see concrete change. We as students have both a role and obligation in taking decolonizing actions. 

Sources: 

• Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Porou, Māori). 2012. “Introduction” in Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. London; New York: Zed Books. 30-55. 

Salma McLaughlin