As promised in an earlier post, some textual rambling ... (Photograph of an artist/craftsman who uses recycled glass to make stained glass artworks 1st September 2010)
I have begun thinking about the most respectful ways to approach the local/traditional/Indigenous knowledge systems such as those reflected in the photographs. Thus, you’ll note some of my explorations of Indigenous knowledge systems, such as those from the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. Literature is scarce when it comes to affording cognitive justice* to the distant and exotic Other.
These are artisans and craftsmen situated outside the formal economy (an alternative economy) and for the most part, their skills and practices go unrecognized by the formal knowledge system dominated by western science.
Their creative use of waste materials, discards from mainstream consumer society, their ingenious ways to generate an income from what looks like a chaotic mess at first sight, all of these tend to be lumped together as “survival” or “livelihood” activities.
Their skilled craftsmanship, their creativity and aesthetic sense, their trades and occupations, all remain ignored and uncrecognized. The media would have you believe they are all “poor Africans” or “poor Indians” scrambling for a bite to eat by the side of the road with their crude tools and scavenged raw materials. The experienced cobbler above made my scuffed shoes brand new with his pots of paints and creams - some of his own making. (Cobbler, Old Delhi, India, 9th January, 2009).
What do our eyes see here?
A crude self-constructed hut of a subsistence farmer in one of the poorest counties in Kenya.
A man so committed to educating his children that he invested half his monthly income into a small solar power kit so that the kids could do homework at night. Kerosene lamps emit noxious fumes, and candles flicker. He’s arranged the tiny solar panel on the roof and hooked everything up so that he has radio for the news, a place to charge his phone, and modern clean energy in his home.
Which narrative you choose to describe him has the power to grant him respect and recognition for his hardwork, ambition, and creativity or to rob him of his agency and determination by diminishing his action into that of a poor scrambling primitive. The photo above shows all the furniture he made himself for his home. How many of us can do that for ourselves?
This is the power of narratives.
Narratives of Change, led by Cognitive Justice
Choosing our frame of reference and thus the lens by which we approach the people whose stories I share with you here on Tumblr, can open gateways to recognizing not only their inherent creative spark and the craftsmanship involved in using whatever materials and tools are available, and contribute to a Cultural Interface (Nakata, 2007) that allows us to learn from them and be inspired in our own efforts to transform our world towards a more humane and just lifestyle that respects all life and our shared planetary home.
This conversation will continue.
