Re: [Paddlewise] ACA Greenland certification

Winters wrote:

> Tim:
> 
> When I say 'denigrates the ACA' I mean that the ACA is now taking a
> stance that it is wanting to certify aspects of seakayaking that have
> little to do with the critical judgement and the skills necessary to be
> safe on the water and instead is wanting to stand in a place of
> authority over an area of seakayaking that has, in the past (and outside
> of Greenland), been relegated to historical and ethno-kayaking buffs.  I
> also find it denigrating to the developing role of the ACA as the
> national "benchmark" of kayaking safety in the US to develop a course
> such as this (with certification as the goal) simply because there is a
> demand in the market. It makes matters infinitely worse that the culture
> that created seakayaking and evolved with and because of seakayaking for
> well over a thousand years was not even consulted.
>
> It speaks at best to a gross insensitivity and at worst to an attempt at
> control over an area to which it has no right other than self-proclaimed.
>
> The crux of the contoversy is the ACA wanting to grant certification.
> Certification allows the ACA and its instructors to charge applicants
> and students for instruction for which it is not qualified to provide.
> Who is certifying the certifiers?  What connection do they have to the
> Greenland National Kayak League or to the elders that sanctioned them?
> You say that the need to provide consistency between their instructors
> is the compelling reason for the ACA wanting to establish a certification
> process.  This sort of rationale can be used to justify anything.
>
> If the ACA is willing to compromise its standards in this instance for
> the sake of market demands or any other non-compelling reason, it brings
> the entire organization into question.

I think Winters has the high ground on this one, though I understand where Tim
Mattson is coming from.

If the ACA put up a certification process for "surf kayaking" it would not
bother me in the slightest.  As a former board/body surfer, I would not feel
my huarache sandel culture to be threatened. <grin>  

How would I decide the certification was valid?  By whether or not the
instructors could themselves handle surf, and whether or not they were
effective in getting their students to learn safe techniques for kayak
surfing.

Surf kayakers do not have an "indigenous people status" to confuse the issues.

Greenlanders (an oxymoron we use to refer to the indigenous peoples of the
subcontinent) do have that status, and deserve respect for their culture, in
the same way the Hopi, Navajo, Tlingit (etc.) do.

That's the part of this that bothers me.

If the ACA wanted to offer instruction on use of skinny paddles *and called it
that,* I'd have no problem with it.  I'd evaluate the effectiveness of the
certification, just as I would for surf kayaking, and be done with it.  It is
the obvious exploitation of traditional aspects of an indigenous people's
culture that is out of place.

Would we endorse certification in Hopi sand painting if taught by
nontraditional folks in a Club Med setting?  Hope not.  Perhaps the ACA's
foray into ethnic paddling will die for lack of interest.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
A pollyanna tonight.
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************