I don't think this question can be answered without first looking at the true origin, which began with the tribal elders and the tribal community. These are the folks who provided the first truly community-based education. In the United States, the Europeans that came here originally forced children of the tribes to attend community schools and forsake all their tribal teachings. They forced the children to give up tribal clothing so they would look like the others. Hair length is important to American Indians, and this travasity also included the Europeans cutting the children's hair.

In other words, community-based education almost destroyed an entire culture here. I believe the same is true for experiences of other indigenous communities. Look at Austrailia indigenous, african, and even the Saami of Europe.

That's so true Cj Wright. Education wasn't used as violently here in New Zealand as it was in North America and Australia, but it was still used to destroy Indigenous communities.

I was also thinking about what the question "which scholar first raised this notion?" means. Che-Wei Lee, what do you mean by scholar? I got a telling off a few years ago by one of our Indigenous thinkers (Moana Jackson) for privileging published scholarship (based on western academic traditions) over our own academic traditions. So often, ideas like community-based education, restorative justice, permaculture and the like, have their origins in the way Indigenous communities organised, but they get re-discovered by Western academics, who re-package them, and give them a flash modern name. That person gets to build their career on the knowledge of Indigenous people . Much like the European 'discovery' of our lands, the discovery of our knowledge acts like we were never here.

I think we must start with acknowledging that the reason many Indigenous communities no longer practice their own forms of education, or justice, or agriculture, is because the state violently took away our ability to practice them. Starting from that premise, the only legitimate intervention into Indigenous communities, is one that empowers them to take back those practices and knowledges.

Dear Cj and Kim,

Thank you for your informative feedback for my question. I agree with your argument that indigenous community-based education derives from indigenous peoples. Here I define a scholar as an individual who has earned the degrees related to indigenous studies and published work related to indigenous issues, or who has engaged indigenous studies for a long time and has rich contextual expertise within indigenous studies.

I want to understand the role of scholars in this topic and am curious about when and why indigenous community-based education has become into a scholarly rhetoric or discourse to be discussed.

Knowing its origin is important for me and the future generations. I know that indigenous community-based education has existed in certain forms and at various levels for millennia, but I want to figure out why only recently has it entered mainstream awareness, motivating diverse researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders to acknowledge its significance in societies and to the histories of people worldwide.

I think you need to define "community-based education" before this thread can continue in a meaningful way. I have the impression that the contributors so far are talking about slightly different things.

Dear Dr. Lilon.

Thank you for your helpful comment. Here I provide our audience with a definition that I found in Stephen May's (1999) edited book entitled, "Indigenous Community-Based Education." Please feel free to share your feedback for the definition or other relevant topics.

Professor Stephen May (1999), who comes from the University of Auckland, offers a useful definition as follows:

Indigenous community-based education has developed in recent years as a response to the long historical colonisation, subjugation and marginalisation of indigenous peoples. It is predicated on, and framed within the wider principle of self-determination - a principle which is being articulated increasingly by indigenous peoples and their supporters, in both national and international arenas. A key concern within these wider claims to self-determination is the retention and promotion of indigenous languages and cultures, given that such languages and cultures have often been emasculated (some would say, eviscerated) as a result of the process of colonisation. (p. 1)

Professor David Corson (1999), who comes from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, also argues that indigenous community-based education not only includes the work/perspectives/practices of the school, but also draw on the community's knowledge, expertise, and cultural practice to form the work that schools make it relevant to the lived experience of children from Aboriginal backgrounds (see pp. 8-19).

Building upon their thoughts, I would argue that Indigenous community-based education is a critical cultural praxis or educational reform that must incorporate indigenous community's substantial engagement in various forms (e.g., synergistic pedagogy) that will lead to, or contribute to, the revitalization of Indigenous language, culture, and identity.

What's your definition of Indigenous community-based education? Welcome any follow-up discussion!

Reference

May, Stephen, ed. 1999. Indigenous Community-Based Education. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Interesting, I wonder hoe this is perceived around the global communities?

I think the book "Indigenous Community-Based Education" by "Stephen May" can not provide you an answer to your question and on the same hand I think it is very difficult to answer where actually it started as there were different systems in different tribes and cultures. I totally agree with Makere Stewart-Harawira that "Indigenous people are not a singular unitary group". It needs a detailed investigation.