Auto-decolonisation: Lifelong education for decolonisation

ABSTRACT

In this article I will first address what decolonisation is with specific reference to the colonisation and enslavement (Nelson, 2006) of Indigenous peoples, specifically my own people, the Indigenous Amami of the former Ryukyu Kingdom. According to Laenui (2006), there were five steps of colonisation, many of which I suggest are not yet complete. These steps, as a linear progression, are based on the colonisers’ viewpoints rather than the perspectives of the colonised (Nakagawa & Kouritzin, 2018). While Laenui puts forward five steps to decolonisation, I suggest that Indigenous peoples must live more than one lifetime to overthrow the mental shackles of colonisation, in particular our reliance on capitalism and its ideologies. Specifically, Indigenous peoples must first learn everything there is to learn from their oppressors, and then we must come to the limits of their knowledge and overcome the colonial mindset. I will address this, our collective lifelong learning project of auto-decolonisation, citing examples from my People’s encounters with the impact of Western education systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Tokunoshima
• Auto-décolonisation
• Indigenous languages
• language revitalization

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Satoru Nakagawa

Dr. Satoru Nakagawa is Indigenous Amami, from Tokunoshima, Japan. He teaches in Asian Studies and Education in Winnipeg, Canada.