The Environment is Us!

At the 2008 Working Forum for Teacher Educators hosted by New Zealand Tertiary College in Auckland, New Zealand, Unaisi Nabobo-Baba and Lavinia Tiko from Fiji, explained how mentoring of future generations works in Fiji (as documented in the forum report, Conversations on Early Childhood Teacher Education):

"In terms of indigenous Fijian epistemologies, the environment is part of one's inheritance, hence the tautology, The Vanua (environment included) is Us! The environment is a subset of what Fijians called Vanua (tribal wisdoms), which includes the tribe, its chief, its people, their land, environment, seas, forests, their spiritualities, and all things living and non-living that live within it. The natural environment is the Vanua — the two are not different — and hence, when we submerge islands, fell forests through  intensive logging, mining, and agriculture, we are slowly killing off a people, their culture, wisdoms, and life. In the small islands of Fiji and the Pacific Islands generally, these processes can be irreversible or may take millennia to reinstate or redress. Mentoring becomes crucial for survival. Thus, mentoring is happening all the time, paid only because one is nurturing one's blood so to speak. This means that mentors who do their work well are highly respected in society."

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.

© 2005 Child Care Information Exchange - All Rights Reserved | Contact Us | Return to Site