Local and Indigenous Knowledge in the ECD Care Environment Project

1. Local and Indigenous Knowledge in the ECD Care Environment Project Presentation at the ELRU Heritage Seminar October 18 &19th, 2010

2. SHARING ABOUT THE PROCESS 1 “ Our organisational focus has been so much about centres, now we are finding more about the caregivers. Being among knowledgeable elders about cultural matters was appreciated. I was surprised that they could give reasons for specific practices. I did expect that there would be a huge understanding of child rearing.” “What was important was the wisdom behind the practices and the chance to document - Gogosas midwives have massive knowledge to share.” “It was important to me because of family empowerment, working directly with caregivers, finding how to involve grannies.” “To know more about research and participating fully. To understand the community I am working with is important because of our outreach programmes, understanding the values as well as the culture.”

3. SHARING ABOUT THE PROCESS 2 “Working with the community, I didn’t know they have a lot of information but today we get it. I was surprised at the level of participation from people in the sessions, they were not shy but spoke, did everything. Will have some programmes from this, the doors are open.” “There is a big gap between how we were brought up and how we are bringing up our children. Social ills do change and we need to change our solutions but not our values.” “Participation is about respect. To even respect we need to understand our differences even more for children 0 – 9.”

4. SHARING ABOUT THE PROCESS 3 “There was a strong relationship with the beneficiaries, this was new to us, we thought it would be hard to implement but when we started... Research can make us to start another programme after we get the findings... “ “I wasn’t aware how confused people are about rights – parents shifting things onto the teachers. What is expected from parents, what is expected from children...” “The research provided a space for older and younger to share”

5. SHARING ABOUT THE PROCESS 4 As a 'white' African I have often heard comments that imply that 'black' African parents are casual about caring for, or even neglectful of their children.  After being involved in the BvLF research, my impression is quite the reverse. The reports and stories which came in told us that black African people take protective measures for almost every actual and possible event in the baby's life. Many of the practices are protective measures against unseen 'adversaries', others are  against a combination of the physical danger and the spiritual danger; all of them together point to the deep love and detailed care that goes into rearing an African child.  (Jill Frow, FLP research)

7. Njakanjaka

9. Lusikisiki

11. Nkowa-Nkowa(4 villages and a township: Tzaneen area)

14. Group Reflection What are the implications for each of us in our ECD work ? • Are the types of ECD programme we offer appropriate for the communities where we work? • How do we reconcile respect for communities with local knowledge and practice which do not fit with antibias messages? • How do the ECD curriculum and activities offered fit with local and indigenous knowledge and practice? • We often hear that we should build on positive cultural practices in our programmes – how should decisions about which cultural practices are positive be taken? •  Has the past been presented in too positive a light? Why would this be the case?  What else...