​The Importance of Relations

Indigenous communities are traditionally based on a collective, not independent, mantra.  That is, healthy interdependence is a way of life.  Western societies, on the other hand, emphasize the individual over the collective.  This emphasis minimizes the importance of relations in one’s life and education.  Again, this perspective is at odds with Aboriginal cultures. Barnhardt & Kawagley (2005) point to the importance of elder knowledge in highlighting the value of relations.  Elders connect ideas, concepts, and themes to back the larger community, providing immediate grounding and purpose for learning. The focus on relationships also lends itself to individual accountability; where a person is contributing to a larger whole, more engagement can be expected. Keeping relational knowledge central helps learners and educators critically and reflectively consider which connections are important for what reasons and how to go about developing and maintain those connections to the benefit of all parties involved (Nicol et al, 2012). It is crucial to know how to seek information and support; relationships are an important resource central to knowing where to find sought after information. 
An introduction to kinship for Australian Aboriginal Peoples.  This is similar to North American Aboriginal views.
Another important consideration regarding relationships is that not all relations are blood connections among humans or groups of humans.  “Relations” here refers to a broader, holistic vision of an interrelated world.  Relations include all people, plants, animals, land, sea, and air.  Relations are the connections among all things in the universe, not only one’s immediate family (Brown, n.d.).  When this understanding of “relations” is not included in the school environment, it is an immediately exclusionary practice; the learner cannot reconcile his perspectives with those of his educators. Including a focus on relations supports identity building for indigenous and non-indigenous learners alike.  Students will be able to consider their own identities in relation to past and current conceptions of their own cultures as well as in comparison to other cultures (Scollon, 1986).