Decolonizing The Lens Of Power Analysis

The Sense of Art: A First Nations View by Carolyn Bereznak Kenny, Decolonizing the Lens of Power by Kerstin Knopf, and When Science Meets Aboriginal Oral History by Kate Allen all consisted of a similar main focus: the importance of Indigenous oral history and its comparison to modern Western culture. The Sense of Art introduced the wide variety that art has to offer, as well as its different meanings to several societies. Likewise, Decolonizing the Lens of Power discussed oratories and film, along with contrasting them and explaining the significance of the two. Although When Science Meets Aboriginal Oral History was written in a different type of narration from the former two pieces, the article stated the differentiations of Indigenous tradition and science in a similar fashion. In the end, these pieces expressed the powerful authority …show more content…
In Indigenous cultures, oral tradition exists, whereas a technological and literary society lives within the modern age. Oral arts play a notable role in the lives of the Indigenous peoples, seeing as how the spoken word is “tightly interwoven with the everyday life of the people in the forms of songs, chants, ceremonies, dances, speeches, stories, and legends” (Knopf, 2008, pg. 86). Oratories tend to embody a trait most literary pieces cannot convey: an exclusive sense of magic and wisdom. I, myself, could not grasp the unique concepts of oratories until I was left alone with a book. Literary works have a special way of communicating, but a form of comprehension is lost when emotion is not able to be expressed within the words. For many years, oral tradition was not understood for its importance to society, compared to works originating from literature. This misunderstanding led to a divide between the Indigenous peoples and other cultures for hundreds of