Infusing Indigenous Artistic Methodologies and Practices into Western Learning

This is a qualitative study, to examine how Indigenous ways of knowing could inform Western standardized learning by taking part in a series of learning experiences related to Hula and building connections to the local environment. I enacted a series of site-specific visitations that focused on Indigenous artistic practices related to Hawaii's highest art form, Hula, as well as local sites dedicated to Indigenous environmental preservation. These visits examined dance, chant, talk-story, and environmental practices taught from an Indigenous way of knowing. The purpose of these enactments was to know how embodied learning approaches, informed by Indigenous methodologies, impact learners’ connections to pedagogical content and the learning environment, and how that subject matter was conveyed and received through the embodied act of site-specific visitations. I will address the ways in which understanding through site visits emerged in these Indigenous ways of knowing. I will explain how the Indigenous practices and ways of knowing offer a different understanding of standardized learning, and argue what could be gained by adding these methodologies to art curriculum in site-specific locations.