VALORES DE IC50 DEL EXTRACTO ACUOSO

The end of colonial governance, for example the end of the British Empire’s colonization of Hong Kong, or the successful restoration of local rule, such as in Taiwan in 2000 when the Democratic Progressive Party successfully replaced Kuomintang rule, undoubtedly heralds many changes. However, most modern formerly-colonized countries remain unable to completely shed the influence of the thinking of the past colonial rule with regards to social, political, cultural, and philosophic contexts, as well as their official governmental systems. This represents a major challenge for government and education systems. Due to the influence that these two areas have on the colonized, colonial ideas are deeply rooted in their minds, thoughts, and hearts. Postcolonialism12 offers the colonized (the “Other”) a theoretical basis upon which to rethink their cultural and political status. As the colonized become acutely aware of the marginalization of their cultural and political status, and as feelings of oppression and anxiety develop as a result, their awareness, criticism and resistance become an act of decolonization. Memmi (1965) has referred to the colonized as being in simple opposition to the colonizers. Roy Fraser Holland (1985) has proposed that the colonial dominion set up by the British, French, Dutch, Belgians and Portuguese were a set of deliberate governance systems, and this colonialism upset the original internal harmony of the colonized. The fact that decolonization took place in such diverse places, and yet over so compressed a timescale, suggests to Seephen Howe (1993) that the pressures produced in the decolonization process by the policies implemented by the last colonial powers are a key factor in determining local conditions. Howe’s idea raises the possibility of fear of moving forward and of avoidance among colonized peoples with regard to the decolonization. Since Howe, various scholars, such as Bhabha, have shown that the boundaries between the colonizer and colonized are vague, and that there are many complexities, contradictions and paradoxes in this relationship.

The term decolonization first appeared in the 1930s, but it was the 1960s before it truly received attention. However, decolonization is like colonialism: it does not stress process, but concrete action. It is a fight, a movement. Thus, the colonized do not need to emphasize or overly consider whether colonial power is far gone, because as stated previously, to the colonized, even though the last colonial power has been shed, it still

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The Western worldview of Eurocentric duality (i.e. Western/non-Western, center/margin, self/other, etc.) causes the colonized to be in a position of subjection to domination and oppression, and thus there is no cultural subjectivity.

remains influential in numerous official governmental systems, cultures, and even in the thoughts and minds of local peoples. Therefore, decolonization is a bottom-up action with an objective of attempting to end the current colonial governance, or to clear away the last vestiges of colonial rule. After the end of World War II, the world was developing in the direction of resistance to colonial rule. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in just three short years from 1960 to 1963, numerous countries threw off their colonial shackles and established independent rule. Colonial power was almost totally uprooted from this area. After this, Native Americans and Africans initiated social movements to struggle for equal rights. At that time, despite the negative influences of colonization, Vine Deloria (1969) described the positive changes of “American Indian culture” toward the decolonizing efforts by “Indian” people themselves, such as the increasing number of young indigenous generations who preferred to live and work in their own communities, or the introduction of “Indian” traditional religious and cultural practice into their “modern” lives. The results of such movements spread to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific region, and by the late 1970s, the indigenous people of New Zealand and Australia had initiated movements of cultural revival, striving for the right of tribal self- determination13. At the start of the 1990s, “third-world” peoples began struggling for political and economic autonomy. According to J. Ritchie (1992), the objectives of indigenous self-determination and cultural revival movements are mainly to retrieve control rights of resources in order to attain the goal of economic self-determination, to increase the voice and visibility of indigenous people, and preserve anything that can perpetuate traditional culture and promote cultural identity. We may say that decolonization also is a struggle, as representatives of indigenous peoples have made huge sacrifices and some have become martyrs to the cause.

Within literary criticism, one can find numerous decolonial “voices” and philosophy from indigenous “Self”. From practical resistance, sometimes silent, against colonial impositions, this resistance continues in modern nations, just as the impositions continue (David Luis-Brown 2008). From the practical examples of many educational reforms, one can see the positive developments resulting from decolonization actions, changing from the past dismissive attitudes of dominant educational authorities toward non- national languages and cultures to providing lessons in these languages in school education, even if the current development situation is quite immature and discouraging.

The Impact of Decolonization on Indigenous Education

Before the rise of postcolonialism, colonizers carried out cultural assimilation of the colonized through hegemony, which led to a disintegration of the traditional cultures of the colonized. This circumstance was most serious to the indigenous peoples of the “third world”. Thus, after the concept of postcolonialism became widely discussed, indigenous peoples began to think deeply about their right to exist. Lacking an ability to control or

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With the promotion and advancement of such actions by multinational indigenous organizations, such indigenous movements have become world-wide issues.

play a leading role in education, they began struggling for the right of self-determination; in other words, they began to initiate the act of decolonization.14

In 1970, the general Assembly of the United Nations formally declared ‘The principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples’, and proclaimed that

“all peoples have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” (UN General Assembly 1970)

In the quest to successfully overthrow assimilation policies, many indigenous peoples are actively working toward the objective of self-determination. Such declarations for indigenous peoples’ self-determination open the doorway to hope. The basis for this movement is Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights published by the United Nations in 1976, which states that self-determination is the right of all people, and that

“by virtue of the right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” (The United Nations 1976)

The power of this declaration lies in the fact that indigenous peoples could now get strong support from an international organization for their own educational reform. Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) has offered a further explanation of decolonization:

Decolonization, however, does not mean and has not meant a total rejection of all theory or research or Western knowledge. Rather, it is about centering our concerns and world views and then coming to know and understand theory and research from our own perspectives and for our own purposes. (Smith 1999:39)

The decolonization theory comes from the Western academic world, and I do not believe that every event occurring in real life needs theory to analyze its context. Following Smith’s suggestion, theory, to colonized indigenous peoples, is perhaps not so useful, but if indigenous peoples can use their own worldviews, perspectives and cultural knowledge, then after listening to their own voices and clearly understanding their own needs, they can learn Western theory or conduct research in the Western academic world to strengthen the “real” indigenous voices within the academic institution.15 This is a decolonization action (Cathryn McConaghy 2000). Yet, it is a challenge to help indigenous future generations develop a proper idea of a de-colonial mind, and the formal educational system is a very concrete means to this end. So, in what direction should indigenous educational reform proceed? Under the influence of globalization, there is no way to avoid the influence of top-down philosophy on the developing ideas of indigenous education, but if there is a lack of bottom-up action for changing dominant educational system, or creating possibilities for adequate schooling, then indigenous students will not able have their educational needs met by schools. The acknowledgement of this fact may

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For example, in Oaxaca (a multiethnic state in Mexico), school teachers as well as the indigenous population are struggling and fighting for better quality education for Oaxaca indigenous students which includes indigenous languages and cultures education.

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Notable indigenous scholars include Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Michael Yellow Bird, Yvonna S. Lincoln, and Norman K. Denzin.

help us to understand that decolonizing education is in need of indigenous cultural heritage revitalization and support from outside the indigenous world.

Decolonization through Cultural Reconstruction and Language Survival

If one was to take a look at every case of the dominant ideas of settler around the world, one would see that without exception colonizers have adopted policies of assimilation (K. N. Panikkar 2007; Melvin E. Page and Penny M. Sonnenburg 2003). There are a number of different dimensions to assimilation, according to Tony Chafer (2002), and one of these is cultural assimilation. In Orientalism, Edward W. Said (1979) argues that Western presumptive attitudes toward East Asian culture have provided European powers with legitimacy in their own minds regarding the colonization of others. This legitimacy has become a means of pressing Western cultural leadership or hegemony onto others’ cultural and political lives (see also Susan Yulie Najita 2006).

Under the concept of “self-determination”, indigenous peoples must strive for schooling policies and the right of economic participation, and enjoy the right to choose an ideal school education that meets their specific educational needs in order to work together with the government to operate their own schools. A crucial part of this movement is to incorporate the languages, cultures and values of indigenous peoples into the overall education system as a means of empowering and improving the educational success of indigenous students. Such thinking has incited the development of community-based education. Community-based education courses have had a positive influence on the development of indigenous education, and on the revitalization of language and culture.

Let us consider the example of te Kohanga Reo and te Kura Kaupapa Maori educational programs of New Zealand. These two programs are run by Maori people, and the Maori people participate directly in the schooling, not only promoting the development of the Maori language effectively, but at the same time boosting self-identity among Maori students. This corroborates the words of Ngugi wa Thiong’o16 (2000) that language choice and use affects a person’s definitions and views toward the overall social environment and natural world, and that the worldview expressed by the language speaker is inseparably linked with the specific language. This is one of the main reasons why the Maori people, after noticing that their cultural heritage knowledge faced extinction, made concerted efforts in language education.

Such a successful experience has had an effect on other indigenous peoples around the world. For example, in 1982 the indigenous people of the Hawaiian region followed the example of the Maori people and founded the Punana Leo pre-school language educational institution. This is a positive example of the application of decolonization in education. The following quotation from Waziyatawin Angela Wilson (2005) illustrates the ideal of decolonization in education:

If we can imagine a future in which our languages are flourishing, we have beaten the colonial mindset and we can begin the hard work that is necessary to save our language. (Wilson 2005: 125)

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Decolonization is a means of countering colonial power, which has applied its self-made legal procedures and status to forcefully take land from indigenous peoples, used a dominant educational system to carry out cultural assimilation, and taken action to deprive human rights. Therefore, bottom-up action has received positive feedback from indigenous peoples within multicultural societies with regards to countering marginalization and unequal social status (Robert Odawi Porter 2005). Thus, if the colonized (indigenous peoples) are able to thoroughly change the top-down and outside- in thinking behaviors of long-term colonial education, this would represent a successful act of decolonization.