Indigenous Peoples, Globalization, and Education: Making Connections

This article emphasizes the importance of including Indigenous people in discussions of globalization and education.It features two narratives based on ethnographic research that I, an Indigenous person from the first world-a Cree/Metis from Saskatchewan, conducted among an Indigenous people in the third world, the Ju/'hoansi 1 from the village of /Kae/kae in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, Africa.I build on the concept of globalization from below to comment on these two narratives.Globalization from below can be said to consist of "an array of transnational social forces animated by environmental concerns, human rights, hostility to patriarchy, and a vision of human community based on the unity of diverse cultures seeking an end to poverty, oppression, humiliation, and collective violence" (Brecher & Costello, 1994, p. 80).Globalization from below provides a framework for the inclusion of voices such as those of Indigenous peoples, presently marginalized in the debate on globalization.It is in this larger context of globalization that Indigenous voices must be heard and addressed, especially as these peoples presently occupy land and are in possession of both knowledge and resources that are in high demand by transnational corporations (Shiva, 1991a(Shiva, , 1991b)).This article explores a different aspect of marginalized voices than that discussed in the large body of postcolonial literature that theorizes the effects of Diaspora on various colonized people (Bhabha, 1994; Said, 1978; Spivak, 1988).Whereas these writers explore the movement of colonial subjects into the West, in this article I support the need for Indigenous people both to join this general discussion and to speak with one another across national boundaries.The need for developing connections between Indigenous peoples in the context of globalization is reflected in my work with the Ju/'hoansi and highlights coalition-building as an important aspect of globalization from below.As Brecher and Costello (1994) suggest, resistance to globalization by the "formation of extraordinary coalitions" is occurring, but at this time those efforts of resistance are "still highly fragmented" (p.83).They suggest that if the various forms of resistance occurring around the world are not directed and developed under both local and international coalitions, the resulting effect is fragmentation that "is easily exploited by those who would make workforces, peoples, and communities compete with each other in the 'race to the bottom'" (Brecher & Costello, 1994, p. 84).If efforts to make stronger connections between the

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