Reconciling Spirit and Place

One of the more intriguing and promising developments in the 21st century has been the proliferation of indigenous educational institutions and curricula placing indigenous history and values in perspective from their own point of view. With the advent of international conferences sponsored by indigenous communities and universities from New Zealand to Norway from Papua to Peru, mainstream academia has begun to take notice.

As indigenous scholars continue to propose new ways of teaching respectful relations that lie at the root of their way of life, the world at large can't help but be positively influenced. Where we once lauded the development of multidisciplinary education, the introduction of multidimensional indigenous higher education fills a void we've long needed addressed.

As an example of what this means, at sites like Lore of the Land Reconciling Spirit and Place in Australia's Story, you can find lessons, ideas and music about indigenous culture and understanding. As children from Montana to Melbourne grow up with access to these ideas, they will have a more cosmopolitan sense of the world--a world where both settlers and indigenous peoples are fully human.

Sweet Haven

One week left in Sweet Haven. Summer evening of crickets and cicadas with Saigon beer.

The Rhythm of Life

He had at last begun to sense the rhythm of life in the ancient town, and how it was that his own pulse should eventually conform to it. And this in itself was a grave satisfaction to him. He had always been on the lookout for reverences, and here was a holiness more intrinsic than any he could ever have imagined--a slow, druidic procession of the seasons in the narrow streets.

--House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

Sorrow of War

Bao Ninh was born three weeks after me in October 1952. He spent 1965 to 1975 in the North Vietnamese Army fighting the American Army, and then spent ten more years retrieving bodies from the jungle. His novel The Sorrow of War was published in 1994.

Poetics of Creation

When we strip away the superficial banter blaring from media noise machines, three essential questions emerge. Who are your people? Where did they come from? What is their story? In answering these questions, Indian Country Today correspondent Hans Tammemagi takes a walk on Kangaroo Island with Walker, a descendant of the first Aborigine met by Europeans in South Australia.

G-Men

It was a trait in the past I had most often seen in psychopaths. I wanted to give Lindell the benefit of the doubt so I chalked it up to the sort of federal arrogance I had also seen before as a genetic trait in bureau men.
--Lost Light by Michael Connelly

Expectations

Success is irrelevant. You raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons.
--Joey Fagan in The Commitments