Interrogating The “Natives”: Learning, Community And The Diasporic Native

Abstract

This study examines the interactive nature of learning between a community in a small Caribbean island and an African researcher. Relying on the works of such reflexive anthropologists, the study addresses the interactive nature of learning and reframes the subject/object division with the anthropological notion of “Diasporic native.” The questions under girding this autoethnographic study are: In what ways does the cultural familiarity between researcher and the researched enhance or hinder researcher learning from this experience and how are these lessons perceived to influence the work of a researcher and community educator? Preliminary findings from this study are: 1) for a Diasporic native researcher, history is embedded in the present; 2) the researcher is constantly negotiating his/her identity as he/she is claimed as an insider; 3) participating in the life of the community initiatives involves both giving and receiving and 4) observations made in the field make sense in the context of everyday interactions. The study concludes with implications for community researchers and educators.