The salient truthfulness of Aloha 'Āina Theory and Guerrilla Praxis

Abstract

21st century higher education is a treacherous endeavor. It is a dangerous tool of setter-colonial hegemony but can also create opportunity for emancipatory action for Indigenous and marginalized peoples. Indigenous scholars in particular face a sophisticated array of neoliberal and neocolonial university policies that appropriate their ways of knowing and undermine the value of traditional and cultural knowledge with tokenism and a dollar. This chapter challenges the prevailing status quo of the Western academy through the application of Indigenous theory and praxis. Each section of this chapter will address salient issues concerning the neoliberal hegemony that maintains the academy's status quo, the settler-colonial phenomenon of “Indigenizing the university,” and the Indigenous theory and praxis that serve as pedagogies for liberation. Each salient point will provide space to introduce a developing Hawaiian pedagogy called Aloha 'Āina Theory and Guerrilla Praxis as a counter hegemonic challenge to mainstream higher education.