Quilting; an act of sedition. Post 3

 

My contribution to the quilt for care and justice began via a twitter call from Frances Bell on FemEdTech#


Hutia te rito o te harakeke
Kei whea to kōmako e kō?
Ki mai ki ahau
He aha te mea nui o te Ao?
Maku e kī atu,
he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata!

If the heart of the flax was removed,
where would the bellbird sing?
If I was asked what was the most important thing in the world
I would be compelled to reply,
it is people, it is people, it is people!


My distance from others was bridged by twitter. I have passion for learning networks, uses of technology that might enhance a learning endeavour. Coming from the other ends of the earth and a relatively small country, My quilt square is an acknowledgement of the twitter bird, but with artistic licence has the wattle of one of our native birds, the tui. The songs of tui and bellbird are exceptionally beautiful and the tui  will also learn and carry the bellbird's song.

These are protected birds in our country and it was my joy crafting them, with trips to fabric shops for fabrics such as our kowhai and ferns. A trip to a public library was a first for me this century, as i learned applique and quilting techniques.

The white wattle scrap of lace is from my daughter's lehenga. She had recently taught herself to sew on my machine using the internet with youtube clips providing the wisdom needed.

Similarly, i used the internet also. My te reo  (Māori language) is very limited, but i knew of this whakataukī (Māori proverb) as an invocation to care and nurture, for we are all interconnected.
One obvious meaning is that the flax bush provides haven for the bellbird, but if the heart of the plant is ripped out, such life is prone to predators. The flax is also a plant that spreads from the centre to the outer edges, the heart of the flax is where it grows from. The harvesting of flax, were it to take from the heart, is not sustainable. The proverb is a reminder of interconnectedness and of obligation, of human fragility, and the need for nurturing relationships, for looking after people, and taking care with how others are treated.

In its making, i also drew on the internet for instruction in how to use some of the potentials of my sewing machine. (Look! No hands!)

 
How to make more than one letter occur at a time, but also discovering its limitations of no more than 69 characters. And then of the limitations of the technology; of scripts none of which had capacity for the macron common within Māori words. A reminder of how our processes often serve dominant cultural groups.

The imagery is evocative of what prompts the need for open education and our collective actions, for if education is for anything it is for freedom, and it is people who make it so.

This quilt square is a reminder of a need to protect, support and nurture open access. 
While a quilt might be warm and fluffy, the message is not. 
Drawing on the power of a meme, the medium provides a message that is far from comfortable. 

link to the FemEdTech site along with all the quilt squares here https://quilt.femedtech.net/2020/02/12/if-the-heart-of-the-flax-was-removed-where-would-the-bellbird-sing/ 

Quilting; an act of sedition. Post 1

This is research, but not as I have known it; reclaiming the joy

In response to a call from Frances Bell via the #femedtech twitter network, I've committed to making a quilt block for #FemEdTech Quilt of Care and Justice in Open Education. The #femedtechquilt  will be submitted to the #OER20: Open Education Conference (Organised by the Association for Learning Technology in the UK, and is the 11th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy.) ALT.ac.uk (conference of the association for learning and teaching)  themes this year being:

• Theme 1: Openness in the age of surveillance
• Theme 2: Sustainable open education communities
• Theme 3: Open education for civic engagement and democracy
• Theme 4: Criticality and care in open education
• Theme 5: Caring pedagogies and designing for diverse communities of inclusion
• And also Wildcard submissions: open education practice, research or policy session proposals that address the overarching conference theme.

The commitment to criticality, care and justice are ones that seriously i just cant go past.

So/Sew, a quilt square,  intention is 13-inch block, finished size 12 and a 1/2 inch block, and the rough draft alludes to how tweeting provided me freedom i would not have encountered otherwise. Being from 'downunder' i intend representation freeing the caged bird (a reference to Maya Angelou) but with a NZ twist.

So far I have talked about alt.ac.uk with three academic colleagues, took one with me on what felt like a workplace truancy trip to a quilting shop to obtain NZ specific materials, and then talked with her further on how education if it is for anything, it is for freedom. All over the light banter of shopping and coffee  I introduced her to the poetry of Maya Angelou. 

I've now learned a bit more about the technology of my sewing machine. BTW it feels so academically disobedient to use a women's art for the creation of a research output !!!!
I couldn't reprogramme my mac to stop going to sleep every 5 mins of inactivity (discovered a work placed firewall to what i can and cannot do with my own password), but i did manage to programme my sewing machine to write "I know why the caged bird sings"

I'm feeling somewhat chuffed with myself. I love the word chuffed. It seems so archaic, and relevant not only is it an old fashioned word but I've relearned some lost skills- how to use iron (let alone...) on interface to stiffen a fabric (and how to do this without making a gluey mess). I've reclaimed some house space (a sewing room subject to male colonisation!) and I've had a better conversation at work with some colleagues that reinvigorates a passion for education. 
A head nod to Colin Lansheare and Jim Marshall for having taught me that education actually had a purpose beyond social control; that if education is for anything it is for freedom.

Having an opportunity to talk with colleagues of what education is, or should be, provides opportunity also to talk of the UNs sustainability measures that frames the absence of internet access as a measure of poverty; as well as giving consideration to women's ways of knowing and doing. All a very brilliant way to spend a day. 

This will be the first post in a series, so far I've just reclaimed a passion for research, for freedom in education and reclaiming a  (this) women's way of being.