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Yolanda made her classes as interactive as possible.
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When Yolanda
Teran, a Kichwa Indian from Ecuador, received a Fulbright Visiting
Scholar grant to
be a scholar-in-residence at Sisseton Wahpeton Community College
in South Dakota, she was very excited.
"I felt
that I was coming to work with my brothers and my sisters,"
says Teran, who is national coordinator of indigenous education
and culture for the National Council of Indigenous Women in Ecuador.
"I was eager to exchange information about our two cultures.
I had in my mind that we were all Indians and all the same."
She was surprised
when she experienced "culture shock" in the cold northern
climate and rural setting of Sisseton, and as she discovered that
while there were, indeed, many similarities between the two cultures,
there were also important differences.
"I think
people in the north use more the mind and are more subdued and
reticent," she explains. "In the south, we use more
the heart. We tend to be more expressive and emotional.
At first,
she confesses, she felt like an outsider. In the class she taught
fall semester, 'Growing Up Indian,' her students were quiet and
didn't react very much at the beginning of the term. However,
she kept reaching out - both in class and in the community - and
the cultural differences quickly evaporated.
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Yolanda received the gift of a star quilt at a reception
in her honor held by Sisseton Wahpeton Community College.
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"When
Indian people here see how hard you are working, they come to
respect you and will help you get established, but it takes time,"
notes Teran, who holds a master's degree from the University of
Leicester in England and has had a stellar academic career in
a variety of countries. "By the end of the term my class
and I felt very comfortable with each other. And the college and
community have been wonderful to me and my son. In fact, they
wanted me to extend my stay, and I will be here for another two
months."
During the
spring term she taught "Contemporary Issues of Indian Life."
In both classes, her goal was to help her students understand
the significance of culture, cultural identity, and multiculturalism.
She asked her students make comparisons between Dakota and Kichwa
cultures and to find the differences and similarities. She also
encouraged them to recover their ancestral roots and feel proud
of being Indians.
"There
was a lot of sharing and they taught me a lot about their culture,"
she says. "It was interactive learning. They brought music
and stories and sang and danced. I also went through the Sweat
Lodge purification ceremony, and it had a deep affect on me."
During the course of the year, she and her students also discovered
that their peoples face many of the same problems. In both Americas,
indigenous people are still "dealing with the culture of
shame," says Teran, because of historical circumstances.
"We
also have the same problems about land. They are trying to recover
their ancestral lands and we are, too," she states. "We
are also both struggling to recover and maintain our culture.
Society is changing so quickly that our people feel lost. We want
them to be able to retain their values and customs."
She adds
that Indians from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are working
hard to recover spirituality. "We believe that is a good
way to teach little kids and young people to be proud of their
heritage."
Teran's 4-year-old
son, Curi Mallqui (which means "Sacred Life"), has been
enrolled in a tribal Head Start program and has greatly enjoyed
his stay in Sisseton, she says.
"I think
we've both learned a lot," she states. " Most important,
I've learned that although there are differences, North and South
American Indians have the same faces, the same needs and the same
problems. Maybe can work together to find a common solution to
those problems."
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