1.2 Holistic Academic Writing
Nancy Ami; Natalie Boldt; Sara Humphreys; and Erin Kelly
The Manager of Blended Learning Success at Royal Roads University, Theresa Bell, has generously given permission to share the Four Feathers Writing Guide with you.[1] She consulted with Cowichan Nation Elders and received permission to share this information with students. We are currently working to reciprocate in kind.[2] While it is designed specifically to support Coast Salish students, there may be elements of the resource that will help many Indigenous students to develop a process for writing in academic settings. While we include The Four Feathers Writing Guide to mainly serve Indigenous students, we also recognize that Indigenous philosophies of learning and teaching are beneficial for all students and teachers.
The knowledge we share from the Four Feathers Writing Guide is Traditional Knowledge and therefore “remains the intellectual property of the Indigenous Knowledge Keepers.” While it is a commonplace in Canadian culture to assume knowledge in a textbook is fully accessible, Traditional Knowledge is not currently protected by intellectual property laws and systems. Therefore, as per the agreement made with the Cowichan Nation by Theresa Bell and Royal Roads University: “The ownership of Traditional Knowledge remains in perpetuity with the appropriate Nation. The Traditional Knowledge in this section of the textbook should therefore not be re-used in any way without obtaining explicit permission from the Nation” (Alphonse, Charles, & Bell, n.d., Preface section). You are more than welcome to benefit from the holistic approach to learning and writing offered in this section of the textbook Why Write?, but you should and may not share Four Feathers Writing Guide content without obtaining permission.
Because we all live on Indigenous land in Canada, it is our responsibility as visitors or settler-colonists to respect Indigenous knowledge. Non-Indigenous readers can learn lessons from this resource as long as they remain aware of their responsibilities. If you would like to learn more about your responsibilities if you are a visitor/settler, please read this short essay “Cultural Teachings: Welcome to Territory & Land Acknowledgements” by Tim Manuel.[3] As academic writers, we need to take responsibility for the information we use and how we approach that knowledge.
The Four Feathers Writing Guide shares First Peoples Principles of learning (www.fnesc.ca), which offer fruitful ways to approach writing. We can all benefit from understanding:
- Learning to write involves patience and time.
- Learning to write requires an exploration of one’s identity.
- Learning to write involves recognizing the consequences of one’s actions.
- Learning to write is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential and relational.
We will say this many times in this chapter (and other chapters) but there is more than one type of writing process. Your writing process may be cu