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Campfire sessions as pedagogy: a new twist on the Indigenous art of story-telling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2019

Helene Connor Open the ORCID record for Helene Connor [Opens in a new window]  and
Ksenija Napan Open the ORCID record for Ksenija Napan [Opens in a new window]
Helene Connor*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education and Social Work, Te Puna Wānanga School of Māori and Indigenous Education University of Auckland, Private Bag 92601, Symonds St Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Ksenija Napan
Affiliation:
College of Health, Massey University, Albany, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
*
Author for correspondence: Helene Connor, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Campfire sessions are springing up at conferences and educational institutes as an alternative to PowerPoint presentation workshops. As an educational tool, the campfire session is presented as innovative pedagogy, yet sitting around an open fire, telling stories, talking and ‘yarning’ has long been practised in Indigenous societies. This paper reflects on story-telling as an Indigenous educational method with a focus on traditional Māori society in Aotearoa/New Zealand. More specifically, the authors reflect on a campfire session facilitated at the Ako (reciprocal teaching and learning) Aotearoa (Māori name for New Zealand) Conference in Christchurch in November 2018. The campfire session was designed to draw on participants' experiences and stories of biculturalism and their own bicultural journeys. Its intention was to enable participants to explore what it means to be bicultural in Aotearoa/New Zealand and how being bicultural manifests in practices of ako across a range of disciplines and fields of practice. The paper endeavours to be an instructional article for educators interested in experimenting with the Indigenous teaching method of campfire sessions. Detailed explanations and descriptions of the campfire method are provided to assist teachers to design their own campfire sessions. The campfire method was well received by the initial audience, as evidenced by their full engagement and participation. All participants fed back that they felt enabled to design their own campfire sessions. The main benefit of this method is its engagement and appreciation of Indigenous wisdom. The main challenge is its unpredictability as just like fire, it can produce a wonderful warmth and transformation, but also engender inflamed discussions. It requires skilful facilitation and appreciation of potentially diverse views and opinions.

Keywords

Aotearoa/New Zealandbiculturalcampfire session instructionscampfire sessionsIndigenous teaching methods
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , August 2021 , pp. 80 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019

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