Week 14 Last blog

These blog assignments were intended to take you beyond the rather dry text to encourage you to learn in greater detail about interesting aspects of each region. I've asked you to consider ways of thinking about (or conceptualizing) the world. While some of the material has been disturbing or sad, I have tried to show you that there are also efforts ongoing to make the world a better place.  

Over the semester some students have said  they are interested in doing something helpful and of bringing about positive change.  In this blog I'd like you to: 


a) Share some way of acting based on the type of understanding you have gained here (and in other classes or life experiences).  Are you interested in changing the world? How?

Here are a few thoughts I have on this matter: One of the most direct and personal ways is just wanting to learn. In addition to formal education, I'd advocate learning through travel -- going places with an open mind, seeking to learn rather than trying to teach others what's best for them. After college you could join Americorp -- basically Peace Corps in the US. UWL has linked a number of study/intern abroad -- something to do during school.

Some organizations I look to for inspiration and information include: Global Exchange, Oxfam America, Partners in Health (works in Haiti), Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Occupy, US Social Forum, Applied Research Center, Greenpeace, and Democracy Now. All of these organizations have links on their websites for things you can do. There's also lots of student activism on things like food,  sweatshops, and climate change.

You can also directly change how much and what you consume (some good sites to help with that are The Good Guide, the Environmental Working Group and Fair Trade International, The Campaign for Fair Food, Restaurant Opportunities Center). 

or if that 'hopey changey' thing (to quote Sarah Palin) isn't what you're interested in.

b) post here about something from class that might stick with you. No need to say that you liked the class, just write about something that got your attention, made sense or stood out. It's always interesting to me to know what resonates with students.

Week 12-13 Australia: Rabbit Proof Fence

The focus of lectures this week is on indigenous Australia and New Zealand. First review the powerpoint. Then, watch Rabbit Proof Fence. This is in the library on reserve. You have two weeks to do the assignment. Because this is a popular film, you can probably get it from your local library or Netflix.  On d2l, you will find a word document 'Questions for discussion'. Please fill in your answers to those questions and upload to the dropbox.

On the blog, please discuss specific aspects of the film that resonated with you. If you've seen other films that deal with indigenous issues in settler societies, you can discuss them here. Popular ones include Once Were Warriors (NZ), Smoke Signals (US) and Whale Rider (NZ).  You can relate the theme of this lecture/blog to others over the semester. You can consider some of the questions raised in lecture. One student listened to the You Tubes on Maori TV and said, "that's like the importance of BET to African Americans." That's the sort of connection that's useful to make. One of the course themes has concerned representation. Representations can depict whole continents as backward and hopeless (Africa) or assume indigenous people are mystical and closer to nature. The idea of the 'noble savage' is a romantic notion as harmful as making American Indians into mascots. Representations 'intervene' in the world -- they shape reality. The questions I've asked you to answer for this blog assignment concern representation to a certain extent but the focus is more on practices. There are discursive practices--the laws, policy statements and terminology used. And there are physical or material practices--stealing children from their mothers, forcing them to speak English, making them pray to a Christian god. It's important to know this history (and similar things happened in the US and Canada) because of how history lives on in the present in indigenous suicide rates and impoverishment.