Four Generations For Generations: A Pow Wow Story to Transform Academic Evaluation Criteria

Abstract


 Within this article, I share a story of four generations of my family and community coming together through pow wow dancing. I present the storying and re-storing of Indigenous scholarly engagement through pow wow regalia making and dance to accomplish two things: 1) to center Indigenous knowledge, kinship and community work through scholarship; and 2) to generate merit and value in the good work in which Indigenous scholars engage. Our creative and cultural selves are often excluded in terms of what receives value and merit in collective agreements. The academy wants us to teach, publish, and engage in community service. My community service is often within Indigenous kinship and community service where I engage in creativity and expressive arts. Evaluations of our tenure attribute value, credit, and merit for work produced, service generated, and research conducted steeped in a eurowestern definition of scholarly work. We theorize about the significance and importance of our culture and traditions; however, our families and communities’ practices are regarded as external and outside of the eurowestern academic contexts. This article brings together the knowledge of preparing for and dancing in a pow wow as valued and good work of Indigenous scholars within the academy. It calls attention to a need to revise systems of value and merit in a manner that benefits Indigenous scholars’ whole knowledge systems. 
 

Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Indigenous TikTok Videos

“…In the photos shared by Creators 3 and 4, there were present-day to historical representations of Indigenous people. The photography showed that each Indigenous community has unique aesthetics and adornments historically representative of social, monetary, and spiritual status (Absolon, 2021;He, 2023). From an Indigenous perspective, re-representations of culture do not dilute sacredness or meaning but rather diversify identity and safeguard heritage for the next generation (He, 2023).…”

“…There are even instances where researchers such as ), Bowler (2020, Absolon (2021), and He (2023) categorized beading as a theme under space or TEK, whereas regalia could be a theme under time or IK. For example, Indigenous beading customarily was community-based and used natural resources or animal products like teeth and shells Bowler, 2020), whereas regalia like Powwow attire has evolved due to fabric innovations and improvements over time (Absolon, 2021;He, 2023). While there is an argument for either categorization, the distinction for this study relied on video context.…”