Abstract
In the act of researching, what does it mean to be in relation with those whom one is intending to research? What are the ethics in relation to field practices regarding Native cultures? How, and though what means, do spaces of communication open? And, important to the field of art education, how does art function as a living practice in relation to culture, ethics, and communication? These are but some of the questions that Kevin Slivka has attempted to ask and pursue in his doctoral research, on which his current essay is based. Building on his Great Lakes field experience in Minnesota with Bruce Martin of the University of Minnesota, he conducted an ethnographically informed study of five Ojibwe artists from the Leech Lake, White Earth, and Mille Lacs Reservations. Kevin examines issues such as cultural identity, ecology, place, materiality and innovation pertaining to Ojibwean artistic practices, a holistic and relational examination of art education. In addition to studying the relational aspects such as the one between art and local ecology, Kevin has also attended to the relational aspects between participant and researcher, what he refers to as critical proximity and Nel Nodding’s (1998) concept of an ethics of care in an effort to remain sensitive to practices pertaining to indigenous research. Indeed, a large part of his dissertation deals directly with notions of reciprocity, communication, and ethics in relation to fieldwork. With his study, Kevin seeks to offer alternative accounts of American Indian ways of life as they are constructed through, and with, artistic cultural practices.
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