Weaving Knowledge Systems Resource Materials

The goal for the project was to create an engaging site where people could experience Indigenous knowledge and philosophy and where educators could incorporate the site into their curriculum. FourDirectionsTeachings.com honors oral traditions by creating an environment where visitors are encouraged to listen with intent as each elder/ traditional teacher shares a teaching from their perspective on the richness and value of cultural traditions from their nation. [From Website]

In this article, the author, establishes a knowledge set for Indigenous social work practice based on Indigenous wholistic theory. An overall framework using the circle is proposed and introduced followed by a more detailed and elaborated illustration using the four directions. The article identifies the need to articulate Indigenous wholistic theory and does so by employing a wholistic framework of the four directional circle. It then systematically moves around each direction, beginning in the east where a discussion of Spirit and Vision occurs. In the south a discussion of relationships, community and heart emerge. The western direction brings forth a discussion of the spirit of the ancestors and importance of Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous knowledge production. The northern direction articulates ideas surrounding healing and movements and actions that guide practice. Finally, the article begins with a discussion on all four directions together with a final examination of the center fire where all elements interconnect and intersect. Lastly, the article proclaims the existence of Indigenous wholistic theory as a necessary knowledge set for practice. [From Author]

In the past few years scholarly discussions have characterized indigenous knowledge as a significant resource for development. This article interrogates the concept of indigenous knowledge and the strategies its advocates present to promote development. The article suggests that both the concept of indigenous knowledge, and its role in development, are problematic issues as currently conceptualized. To productively engage indigenous knowledge in development, we must go beyond the dichotomy of indigenous vs. scientific, and work towards greater autonomy for ‘indigenous’ peoples. [From Author]

The following guidelines address issues of concern in the documentation, representation and utilization of traditional cultural knowledge as they relate to the role of various participants, including Elders, authors, curriculum developers, classroom teachers, publishers and researchers. Special attention is given to the educational implications for the integration of indigenous knowledge and practices in schools throughout Alaska. The guidance offered in the following pages is intended to encourage the incorporation of traditional knowledge and teaching practices in schools by minimizing the potential for misuse and misunderstanding in the process. It is hoped that these guidelines will facilitate the coming together of the many cultural traditions that coexist in Alaska in constructive, respectful and mutually beneficial ways. [From Author]

Drawing upon multiple types of knowledge (e.g., Indigenous knowledge, local knowledge, science-based knowledge) strengthens the evidence-base for policy advice, decision making, and environmental management. While the benefits of incorporating multiple types of knowledge in environmental research and management are many, doing so has remained a challenge. This systematic map examined the extent, range, and nature of the published literature (i.e., commercially published and grey) that seeks to respectively bridge Indigenous and science-based knowledge in coastal and marine research and management in Canada. [From Author]

From 2006 to 2009, Indigenous Elders and scholars shared their insights in the Comprehending and Nourishing the Learning Spirit Animation Theme
Bundle of the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre (ABLKC). The ABLKC was an applied research, knowledge exchange, and monitoring program with
a mandate to advance Aboriginal education in Canada. One of the six bundles, Nourishing the Learning Spirit, was led by Mi’kmaw education scholar and Academic Director of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Marie Battiste. In this paper, the authors discuss how they applied knowledge gained in the Nourishing the Learning Spirit Animation Theme Bundle to their post-secondary classroom practice. The authors argue that teachers are better able to nourish the learning spirit of students when they understand themselves as lifelong learners, validate and learn from their students, and use holistic teaching pedagogies. [From Author]

In her film Angry Inuk , Inuk director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins a new tech-savvy generation of Inuit as they campaign to challenge long-established perceptions of seal hunting. Though most commercial sealing is conducted by Inuit in the Arctic, anti-sealing activism has created a perception of the industry that denies their central role in the sealskin market. To reinsert themselves into the international discussion, these Inuit activists must inconvenience the fundraising campaigns of animal groups by using all the tricks in the social media book, and invent some of their own along the way, like “sealfies.” Seal meat is a staple food for Inuit, and many of the pelts are sold to offset the extraordinary cost of hunting. Inuit are spread across extensive lands and waters, and their tiny population is faced with a disproportionate responsibility for protecting the environment. They are pushing for a sustainable way to take part in the global economy, but in opposition stands an army of well-funded activists and well-meaning celebrities. Arnaquq-Baril and her cameras travel through the Canadian Arctic, giving voice to the people the animal activists rarely bother to meet: the hunters, the craftspeople, the families for whom the seal hunt is a critical part of their livelihood and survival. She follows a group of students to Europe, where they plead the Inuit case before a European Union panel. The film interweaves the reality of Inuit life with the story of their challenge to both the anti-sealing industry and those nations that mine resources on Inuit lands while simultaneously destroying the main sustainable economy available to the people who live there. As one student said, “We need to stop the cultural prejudice that is imposed on us by not being allowed to benefit from our natural surroundings without having to drill into the ground. And that's really all we want as a people. [From NFB]

Five Nuu-chah-nulth Elders engaged in the examination of a Nuu-chah-nulth story for what they considered learning. A network of eight learning archetypes inhabited the story to demonstrate a range of learning strategies. The Elders identified features central to a cultural learning project, which included prenatal care and grandparent teaching, spiritual bathing, partnerships, ritual sites, and ancestor names. Learning strategies were understood as embedded and embodied in the form of characters displaying the archetypes. The storywork process used by the Elders, systematized as phenomenological orienteering and operationalized as metaphorical mapping, was found to be a useful methodology. [From Author]

This paper responds to the Government of Canada’s working partnership with First Nations to improve the quality of Aboriginal life and education in Canada through the Education Renewal Initiative. It reviews the literature that discusses Indigenous knowledge and how it is handed down from generation to generation, and it outlines for the National Working Group on Education and the Minister of Indian Affairs the educational framework and recommended steps required to improve and enhance First Nations educational outcomes. [From Author]

The essays in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision spring from an International Summer Institute on the cultural restoration of oppressed Indigenous peoples. The contributors, primarily Indigenous, unravel the processes of colonization that enfolded modern society and resulted in the oppression of Indigenous peoples." "In moving and inspiring ways, Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision elaborates a new inclusive vision of a global and national order and articulates new approaches for protecting, healing, and restoring long-oppressed peoples, and for respecting their cultures and languages. [From Publisher]

Written mainly by First Nations and Metis people, this book examines current issues in First Nations education. [From Publisher]

Narrative is a meaning-making tool used broadly across cultures. Individuals use their particular cultural narrative to interpret experiences and construct a personal narrative or life story. This research focused on the life stories of Anishinaabe people, an Indigenous group of the North American Great Lakes region, whose history is characterized by attempts at assimilation into the dominant Western culture. We sought to understand if maintaining traditional Indigenous knowledge affected meaning-making in life stories. Participants included four groups of volunteers: Elders and young adults, with and without traditional Indigenous knowledge. Results showed that the narratives of the two traditional Indigenous knowledge groups evidenced statistically significant greater efficacy and personal resolve than those of the non-traditional groups. Additionally, the Elder traditionalists’ narratives showed significantly greater involvement with existential/spiritual issues than other groups. We concluded that traditional Indigenous knowledge positively shaped participants’ narratives, thus confirming the importance of cultural narratives in the meaning-making process. [From Author]

Aboriginal peoples have lived in the lands now known as North America for at least 20,000 years (Assembly of First Nations, 1993), and yet Aboriginal child caring knowledge struggles for recognition alongside the relatively infantile western social work epistemologies (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples [RCAP], 1996; Smith, 1999; Kovach, 2005; Bennett & Blackstock, 2006). Western based child welfare practice has been imposed on First Nations children for over 50 years and the outcomes have been far from impressive. There are more First Nations children in state care today than at any time in history including during the residential school era (McDonald & Ladd, 2000; Blackstock, Prakash, Loxley & Wien, 2005). These poor results have revitalized calls from First Nations for traditional knowledge, values and customs to be placed at the center of the child welfare enterprise (Blackstock, Cross, Brown, George, & Formsma, 2006; Blackstock, Bruyere, & Moreau, 2006). [From Author]

The editors have challenged us to consider STEM within the Canadian educational context. We find that the push to STEM is based on stories that frame the need for STEM within an economic imperative. Though some people are questioning the prevailing story and attempting to tell stories about STEM as a more integrated approach to teaching and learning, this work remains based in Western assumptions and philosophies. Based on our work alongside Aboriginal
people, peoples, and communities, we offer another take on STEM, not as a framework for teaching and learning but rather as an artifact that emerges from teaching and learning. [From Author]

The Seven Sacred Teachings of White Buffalo Calf Woman, also known as the Seven Grandfather Teachings, are shared, valued and practised by many indigenous peoples. These Teachings are universal; however, for the purpose and framework of this telling we have used many of the beliefs of the Ojibwe/ Chippewa/Anishinaabe; that is, the colours of the Medicine Wheel, the direction of life’s journey beginning in the east moving clockwise, and associating certain wildlife, plant and tree life with specific Teachings. [From Author]

This essay examines the rebuilding and revitalizing of self-governance capacities in Indigenous communities, and how this is impacting their efficacy in resource management. The origins and experiences in Canada of integrating Indigenous peoples and knowledge into institutionalized resource management are discussed, and the essay posits necessary conditions for full and effective participation in environmental management, arguing that effective self-governance is vital to moving forward on these conditions. Two collaborative processes led by Indigenous peoples will be highlighted as they demonstrate the importance of self-governance initiatives for participation in environmental management processes: the Whitefeather Forest Initiative led by Pikangikum First Nation in Northern Ontario; and the Turning Point Initiative led by the Haida in British Columbia. [From Author]

This essay presents an overview of foundational considerations and perceptions which collectively form a framework for thinking about Indigenous community building in relationship to the tasks of addressing the real challenges, social issues, and consequences of climate change. The ideas shared are based on a keynote address given by the author at the International Conference on Climate Change, Indigenous Resilience and Local Knowledge Systems: Cross-time and Cross-boundary Perspectives held at the National Taiwan University on 13-14 December 2019. The primary audience for this essay is Indigenous Peoples and allies of Indigenous Peoples who are actively involved in climate change studies, sustainable community building, and education. As such, it presents the author's personal view of key orientations for shifting current paradigms by introducing an Indigenized conceptual framework of community building which can move Indigenous communities toward revitalization and renewal through strategically implementing culturally responsive Indigenous science education, engaging sustainable economics and sustainability studies. As an Indigenous scholar who has maintained an insider perspective and has worked extensively with community members around issues of culturally responsive science education, the author challenges all concerned to take Indigenous science seriously as an ancient body of applied knowledge for sustaining communities and ensuring survival over time and through generations. The author also challenges readers to initiate new thinking about how to use Indigenous science, community building, and education as a tool and a body of knowledge which may be integrated with appropriate forms of Western science in new and creative ways that serve to sustain and ensure survival rather than perpetuate unexamined Western business paradigms of community development. [From Author]

In Native Science, Gregory Cajete initiates the reader into a timeless tradition of understanding, experiencing, and feeling the natural world. He explores and documents the Indigenous view of reality--delving into art, myth, ceremony, and symbol, as well as the practice of Native science in the physical sphere. He examines the multiple levels of meaning that inform Native astronomy, cosmology, psychology, agriculture, and the healing arts." "Unlike the Western scientific method, Native thinking does not isolate an object or phenomenon in order to understand and work with it, but perceives it in terms of relationship. An understanding of the relationships that bind together natural forces and all forms of life has been fundamental to the ability of Indigenous peoples to live for millennia in spiritual and physical harmony with the land. It is clear that the First Peoples offer perspectives that can help us work toward solutions at this time of global environmental crisis. [From Publisher]

Dr. Gregory Cajete, Director of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico, explains how Indigenous physicists not only observe the world, but participate in it with all his or her sensual being because everything in native thought is “alive” with energy. Cajete was speaking to an attentive audience at The Banff Centre as part of the Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science: Contrasts and Similarities event. [From Youtube]

Tangible and intangible forms of indigenous knowledges and cultural expressions are often found in libraries, archives or museums. Often the 'legal' copyright is not held by the indigenous people's group from which the knowledge or cultural expression originates. Indigenous peoples regard unauthorized use of their cultural expressions as theft and believe that the true expression of that knowledge can only be sustained, transformed, and remain dynamic in its proper cultural context. Readers will begin to understand how to respect and preserve these ways of knowing while appreciating the cultural memory institutions' attempts to transfer the knowledges to the next generation. [From Publisher]

The sky is routinely overlooked in Northern Dene ethnology as a meaningful domain of linguistic and cultural knowledge. However, a decade of comparative ethnological research in Alaska and Canada has shown that Dene stellar knowledge is largely tied to sacred and covert knowledge systems. In this paper, we describe an Ahtna, Gwich'in, and Sahtúot'ı̨nę constellation identified as the incarnated spirit of an ancient Traveler-Transformer figure who circled the world in Distant Time. Although this Traveler is widely known in mythology, his enigmatic transformation to the sky embodies a specialized domain of knowledge rooted in the traditional beliefs and practices of medicine people. This "Traveler" constellation is not only a world custodian and archetype of an idealized medicine person, but it is also a teacher, ally, gamekeeper, and the embodiment of the world. We identify variations of this constellation throughout the Northern Dene region. [From Author]

Astronomer Rob Cardinal outlines how the idea of everything being inter-related is becoming more of a discussion in western science recently (albeit quietly), but has been talked about for millennia in Indigenous thought. Cardinal, a research associate at the University of Calgary and Executive Director of The First Light Institute, was speaking to an attentive audience at The Banff Centre as part of the Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science: Contrasts and Similarities event. [From Youtube]

Despite variations, can different forms of knowledge learn from each other without being taught in opposition or in isolation? Indigenous academics Leroy Little Bear, Dr. Gregory Cajete and Rob Cardinal examine how to create rich learning experiences by infusing traditional Indigenous knowledge with Western physics and astronomy. These esteemed panel members are moderated by science broadcaster and writer Jay Ingram in a presentation at The Banff Centre. [From Website]

Learning About Walking in Beauty: Placing Aboriginal Perspectives in Canadian Classrooms comes from the Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies (CAAS) with funding support from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF). Walking in Beauty is a term that speaks of conducting oneself in harmony with all of the living world, and is respectfully borrowed from the Navajo People.

In 2000-2001, the CAAS conducted a national Student Awareness Survey, measuring awareness, attitudes and knowledge of facts about Aboriginal Peoples' histories, cultures, worldviews and current concerns. Five hundred and nineteen young adults (460 Canadian, 35 Aboriginal and 24 Newcomer students in first year university and college courses across Canada) responded to this 12-page survey. The survey questionnaire was developed and administered by Aboriginal and Canadian educators, scholars, traditional Elders and advocates within the 300-member CAAS network.

The Learning About Walking in Beauty report includes the findings from this survey, together with pedagogical, social and historical analyses. The report offers a pedagogical framework and proposals for learning about "walking in beauty" together. [From Website]

This narrative begins in 1950, a conversation between Sam Jim, an Indigenous Elder in British Columbia (BC), and a university professor researching Sam’s community. Sam troubles the privileging of Western thinking, knowledge, values, and practices. The story fast-forwards to a contemporary research partnership between an Indigenous researcher, the same BC Indigenous community and an Indigenous community in Peru. Each community faces different struggles in protecting their lands from resource extraction and in regenerating traditional ecological knowledges for future generations. They meet these challenges by reviving their traditional knowledges and practices, including human and more-than-human interrelationships and interdependencies. The communities have different cosmologies, histories, geographies, languages, economies, and socio-political contexts. This requires research methodologies and methods that acknowledge the challenges and opportunities of working across different contexts toward more complex, culturally inclusive possibilities for living together on a shared planet. [From Author]

Filmmaker Barb Cranmer, a member of the Namgis First Nation, explores the rich fishing traditions of the Sto:lo, Heiltsuk and 'Namgis peoples of Canada's west coast. With over fifteen years' experience fishing Johnstone Strait with her father, Cranmer presents rarely heard stories of traditional fishing practices and documents native people's efforts to build a sustainable fishery for the future. [From Publisher]

Building on the seminal work of Linda T. Smith in decolonizing research methodologies, this paper introduces Ancestral Knowledge Systems (AKS) as a conceptual framework for social science research methodologies. We use autoethnography and critical self-reflection throughout the article to make visible the components of AKS. First, we lay out the context in which AKS was re-created after a doctoral course on decolonizing research methodologies. We unpack internalized colonization to address the need to go beyond identity politics and towards AKS thinking as an approach to promote a multiplicity of knowledge systems. Next, we discuss family epistemologies and collective memories as methods for reconnecting accountability systems to ancestral homeland(s). Finally, we discuss our visions for AKS across learning ecologies. The scholarly significance of our research is twofold: (1) it develops a framework for critical introspection and connectivity for decolonizing research, and (2) it promotes a multiplicity of knowledge systems in the academy. [From Author]

This article outlines the methodological process of a transdisciplinary team of indigenous and nonindigenous individuals, who came together in early 2009 to develop a digital narrative method to engage a remote community in northern Labrador in a research project examining the linkages between climate change and physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being. Desiring to find a method that was locally appropriate and resonant with the narrative wisdom of the community, yet cognizant of the limitations of interview-based narrative research, our team sought to discover an indigenous method that united the digital media with storytelling. Using a case study that illustrates the usage of digital storytelling within an indigenous community, this article will share how digital storytelling can stand as a community-driven methodological strategy that addresses, and moves beyond, the limitations of narrative research and the issues of colonization of research and the Western analytic project. In so doing, this emerging method can preserve and promote indigenous oral wisdom, while engaging community members, developing capacities, and celebrating myriad stories, lived experiences, and lifeworlds. [From Author]

As a First Nations student, educator, and researcher, I articulate my journey that has taken me from a Western academic perspective to a Tahltan world view. This article is based on the process I went through while writing the methodology paper for my doctoral candidacy exams. The Tahltan research paradigm that I have developed-grounded in Tahltan epistemology, methodology, and pedagogy-is based on the connection that Tahltan people have with our Ancestors, our traditional territory, and our language. It involves receiving the teachings of our Ancestors, learning and knowing these teachings, and sharing these teachings with our people. By using a Tahltan research process, I hope that my research will be transformative and positive, respectful and honorable, and will be relevant and useful not only for my people, but for the larger Indigenous community as well. [From Author]

In recent decades, educators have been seeking ways to improve outcomes for Indigenous students. Yet most Indigenous education still takes place within a theoretical framework based in Eurocentric thought. Teaching Each Other provides an alternative framework for teachers working with Indigenous students – one that moves beyond merely acknowledging Indigenous culture that actually strengthens Indigenous identity. Drawing on Nehinuw (Cree) concepts such as kiskinaumatowin, or 'teaching each other', Goulet and Goulet demonstrate how teachers and students can become partners in education. They provide a template for educators anywhere who want to engage with students whose culture is different from that of the mainstream. [From Publisher]

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) and the protection of Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions is complex and challenging. The following is intended to provide an overview to stimulate and inform broader policy discussions in Canada. [From Website]

What are the role and responsibility of the professor of European ancestry, who has also battled for legitimizing Indigenous epistemologies and educational considerations in academe, in working with students who take up the challenges involved in this scholarship? This article focuses on an analysis of some of the articulated responses to a panel presented at a graduate conference in a faculty and university committed to equity and social justice. It creates space to address such questions as What does it mean to take Indigenous thought seriously in an educational institution? How can the relational and traditional/historic aspects of these knowledges, with their commitment to spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical dimensions, move beyond acceptance to being seen as normal? How to ensure that intellectual space is open to this turn to the re-creation of such knowledges in the context of the post/colonial university? The article interrogates the roles, limits, and possibilities of education in addressing persistent epistemological inequities as certain knowledges are valued in the university whereas others are relegated to secondary status when they are acknowledged at all. Guswentha and Homi Bhabha's notion of third space provide analytic moments to investigate the tensions and contestations as knowledges collide, interact, and reform in confined discursive spaces. [From Author]

In this article, I explore the question, “What is the relationship between appropriation of Indigenous thought and what might be called ‘deep learning’ based in years of education in Indigenous contexts.” Beginning with an examination of meanings ascribed to cultural appropriation, I bring texts from Gee on secondary discourses, Foucault on the production of discourse, and Wertsch on the deep structures underpinning discourse into conversation with critical fieldwork experiences extracted from years of research and teaching. Ultimately hopeful, I conclude the article with direction from Indigenous scholars on appropriate cultural protocol in the use of Indigenous knowledges by non‐Aboriginal people in educational contexts. [From Author]

Focuses on the place of education in renewing Indigenous culture and tradition. The film is part of a larger Social Science and Humanities Council funded study and is based on interviews with the children and grandchildren of residential school survivors first interviewed for a 1986 study done by Celia Haig-Brown. The offspring are actively engaging in regenerative educational initiatives such as art, language immersion schools, traditional wilderness camps and filmmaking. Helen Haig-Brown, Celia's neice and the daughter of one of the initial residential school survivors interviewed, is not only a participant and co-investigator in the project but the film's director and co-writer. The research explores with selected children and grandchildren of the survivors of residential schools the place of education in renewing culture and language. In this case, education refers to both formal schooling and other less direct approaches to teaching and learning. Specifically, the guiding question is: What is the role of education in the regeneration of Aboriginal/First Nations cultures and languages? How does it serve the re-creation of indigenous knowledges in contemporary contexts? [From Website]

This article presents the initial development of one Indigenous research paradigm. The article begins with an overview of worldviews and Indigenous knowledge before addressing how these perspectives have been blinded by Eurocentric thought and practices. These sections set the background for the focus of the article, namely the development of an Indigenous research paradigm. This paradigm is based upon the framework shared by Wilson (2001), who suggested that a research paradigm consists of an ontology, epistemology, methodology, and axiology. By presenting Indigenous perspectives on each of the framework components, an Indigenous research paradigm that was used for research with Indigenous Elders and Indigenous social workers who are based within Indigenous worldviews and ways of being is presented. [From Author]

Over the last decade, I have articulated what I have termed “A Conceptual Framework of Aboriginal Knowing.” The understanding that I bring to this originates out of my lived experience with traditional knowledge holders, and an examination of the literature pertaining to the ontology and epistemology of Aboriginal knowing, Aboriginal ethics or guiding principles, and the characteristics of Aboriginal knowledge transmission. This descriptive analysis gathers together a range of conceptualizations to build a comprehensive graphic for understanding how the literature describes Aboriginal knowledge. I believe this conceptual framework can be utilized to broaden our understanding of how we can develop and maintain respectful relationships and processes as we incorporate Aboriginal knowledge within our work in the academy. [From Author]

Aboriginal people are alarmingly under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related careers. This under-representation is a direct result of the lack of academic success in science and mathematics, an issue that begins early in elementary and middle school and often escalates in secondary school with the majority consequently doing poorly, not completing these courses and often dropping out. This makes them ineligible to pursue STEM-related paths at the post-secondary level. The greatest challenges to success in these courses are the lack of relevancy for Aboriginal learners and, as importantly, how they are taught; impediments that are also paramount to the increasing lack of success for many non-Aboriginal students in STEM-related courses. This paper explores how Aboriginal ways of knowing and learning and those of the 21st century learners of today very closely parallel each other and illustrates how the creative multidisciplinary approach of a liberal education might be the way to enable early academic engagement, success and retention of Aboriginal learners in the sciences and mathematics. [From Author]

Indigenous knowledge and wisdom continue to guide food and land practices, which may be key to lowering high rates of diabetes and obesity among Indigenous communities. The purpose of this paper is to describe how Indigenous, ancestral, and wise practices around food and land can best be reclaimed, revitalized, and reinvented through the use of an online digital platform. Key informant interviews and focus groups were conducted in order to identify digital data needs for food and land practices. Participants included Indigenous key informants, ranging from elders to farmers. Key questions included: (1) How could an online platform be deemed suitable for Indigenous communities to catalogue food wisdom? (2) What types of information would be useful to classify? (3) What other related needs exist? Researchers analyzed field notes, identified themes, and used a consensual qualitative research approach. Three themes were found, including a need for the appropriate use of Indigenous knowledges and sharing such online, a need for community control of Indigenous knowledges, and a need and desire to share wise practices with others online. An online Food Wisdom Repository that contributes to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples through cultural continuity appears appropriate if it follows the outlined needs. [From Author]

Indigenous peoples throughout the world have sustained their unique world views and associated knowledge systems for millennia. Many core values, beliefs, and practices associated with those world views have an adaptive integrity that is as valid today as in the past. However, traditional educational processes to transmit indigenous beliefs and practices have frequently conflicted with Western formal schooling and its world view. This paper examines the relationship between Native ways of knowing and those associated with Western science and formalized schooling in order to provide a basis for an education system that respects the philosophical and pedagogical foundations of both cultural traditions. Although examples are drawn from the Alaska Native context, they illustrate issues that emerge anywhere that efforts are underway to reconnect education to a sense of place. Elements of indigenous and Western world views are contrasted. Vignettes and examples depict the obstacles to communication between state agency personnel and local elders discussing wildlife and ecology issues; a cross-cultural immersion program for non-Native educators, held at a remote camp with Native elders as instructors; areas of common ground across world views; and indigenous implications for a pedagogy of place. Educational applications of four indigenous views are discussed: long-term perspective, interconnectedness of all things, adaptation to change, and commitment to the commons. [From Author]

Indigenous peoples worldwide honor plants, not only as our sustainers, but as our oldest teachers who share teachings of generosity, creativity, sustainability and joy. By their living examples, plants spur our imaginations of how we might live. By braiding indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with modern tools of botanical science, Robin Kimmerer, professor of Environmental Science and Forestry, of Potawatomi ancestry, explores the question: “If plants are our teachers, what are their lessons, and how might we become better students”? [From YouTube]

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return. [From Publisher]

American Indian/First Nations/Native people have been historically under-represented in the ranks of college and university graduates in Canada and the United States. From an institutional perspective, the problem has been typically defined in terms of low achievement, high attrition, poor retention, weak persistence, etc., thus placing the onus for adjustment on the student. From the perspective of the Indian student, however, the problem is often cast in more human terms, with an emphasis on the need for a higher educational system that respects them for who they are, that is relevant to their view of the world, that offers reciprocity in their relationships with others, and that helps them exercise responsibility over their own lives. This paper examines the implications of these differences in perspective and identifies ways in which initiatives within and outside of existing institutions are transforming the landscape of higher education for First Nations/American Indian people in both Canada and the United States. [From Author]

In this article I draw on our Creation story as Haisla people to illustrate the multiple teachings I hold and carry that shape my knowledge, scholarship, research, and teaching methods. The keeper of the name then pays the name-giver (either in money or dry goods). Because I received my traditional name at this feast, the teachings say that I will always know where I come from and who I am. [From Author]

Winona is an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. As Program Director of Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on the issues of climate change, renewable energy, and environmental justice with Indigenous communities. In her own community, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, where she works to protect Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, LaDuke has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. She is the author of five books, including Recovering the Sacred, All our Relations and a novel, Last Standing Woman. [From YouTube]

Based on a review of works by Indigenous educators, this paper suggests a four-domain framework for developing course outcome statements that will serve all students, with a focus on better supporting the educational empowerment of Indigenous students.
The framework expands the three domains of learning, pioneered by Bloom to a four-domain construction based on the four quadrants of the Medicine Wheel , a teaching/learning framework that has widespread use in the Indigenous communities of North America (Native American, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, etc.). This paper expands on the cognitive (mental), psychomotor (physical) and affective (emotional) domains to add the fourth quadrant, spiritual, as being essential for balance in curricular design that supports students in their learning goals. The description of the spiritual quadrant includes a progression of learning outcomes and suggested verbs for developing learning outcome statements. Evaluation and practical implications are also discussed. [From Author]

Kayla Lar-Son from the Xwi7xwa library discusses OER and Indigenous Knowledge and content.

In the Dene worldview, relationships form the foundation of a distinct way of knowing. For the Tlicho Dene, indigenous peoples of Canada's Northwest Territories, as stories from the past unfold as experiences in the present, so unfolds a philosophy for the future. Walking the Land, Feeding the Fire vividly shows how--through stories and relationships with all beings--Tlicho knowledge is produced and rooted in the land. Tlicho-speaking people are part of the more widespread Athapaskan-speaking community, which spans the western sub-arctic and includes pockets in British Columbia, Alberta, California, and Arizona. Anthropologist Allice Legat undertook this work at the request of Tlicho Dene community elders, who wanted to provide younger Tlicho with narratives that originated in the past but provide a way of thinking through current critical land-use issues. Legat illustrates that, for the Tlicho Dene, being knowledgeable and being of the land are one and the same. Walking the Land, Feeding the Fire marks the beginning of a new era of understanding, drawing both connections to and unique aspects of ways of knowing among other Dene peoples, such as the Western Apache. As Keith Basso did with his studies among the Western Apache in earlier decades, Legat sets a new standard for research by presenting Dene perceptions of the environment and the personal truths of the storytellers without forcing them into scientific or public-policy frameworks. Legat approaches her work as a community partner--providing a powerful methodology that will impact the way research is conducted for decades to come--and provides unique insights and understandings available only through traditional knowledge. [From Publisher]

YouTube Video of lessLIE (Leslie Robert Sam): Coast Salish Artist walking around UVIC campus discussing his art.

Indigenous academic Leroy Little Bear compares the foundational base of Blackfoot knowledge to quantum physics to an attentive audience at The Banff Centre as part of the Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science: Contrasts and Similarities event. [From Youtube]

The TK and BC Labels are an initiative for Indigenous communities and local organizations. Developed through sustained partnership and testing within Indigenous communities across multiple countries, the Labels allow communities to express local and specific conditions for sharing and engaging in future research and relationships in ways that are consistent with already existing community rules, governance and protocols for using, sharing and circulating knowledge and data. [From Website]

In traditional times, storytelling was used for many reasons---to teach values, beliefs, morals, history, and life skills in Indigenous communities. Storytelling still holds value as it has become a powerful and interactive instructional tool in today’s classrooms. In this naturalistic research study, the co-researchers used conversational interviewing to explicate how teachers use storytelling as a teaching practice throughout the curriculum in elementary, middle, and secondary schools. Seven First Nations and Métis teacher participants were asked how, why and when storytelling was integral to their professional practices. [From Author]

The goal of Read, Listen, Tell is not only to share with readers an incredibly diverse collection of Indigenous stories, but also to transform methods of reading by bringing into the forefront practices in interpreting texts that are grounded in Indigenous knowledge and scholarship. Each of the chapters offers particular strategies for reading the stories in multiple ways, encouraging readers to expand the scope of the "short story" by including a broad range of story forms. The chapters consist of five to seven stories, accompanied by a critical essay that helps contextualize some of the questions and issues the stories raise. [From Publisher]

The United Nations defines Indigenous knowledge as the “knowledge that an indigenous (local) community
accumulates over generations of living in a particular environment,” including “technologies, know-how skills, practices and beliefs … that enable the community to achieve stable livelihoods in their environment” (United Nations, 2011, n.p.). This definition provides a helpful starting point for considering the role of Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs)—more appropriately conceptualized in the plural form—in education. It is important to recognize the heterogeneity of these systems: There are 370 million Indigenous people in the world, residing in 90 countries and on every continent. Each knowledge system and the ways of knowing associated with it are uniquely designed to prepare the young for productive citizenship within a distinctive physical, social, and cultural landscape. Moreover, as is the case with all knowledge systems, knowledge and skills are differentially distributed among community members. Nonetheless, certain shared patterns can be discerned that have significant implications for education inside and outside of school. [From Author]

The relationship between Indigenous peoples and the academics who study us is fraught with the memories of Western colonialism and its attendant history of disruption and appropriation. Perhaps if it was only a memory we could creatively reinvent the past and get on with it. But it is our present too. As I write this, a large multinational corporation is planning to run crude oil tankers through the culturally and ecologically important waters of my home community on Canada’s northwest coast. Another company wants to place a large ship loading facility over a place of cultural significance. Yet another company wants to plant several hundred gigantic wind turbines over the top of a culturally significant resource harvesting area and watershed. Government agencies continue to act as facilitators of these projects, and social science continues to be applied to justify the displacement of indigenous peoples from meaningful decision-making processes and ultimately to marginalize us further from our homes. [From Author]

Dr. Charles Menzies (Gitxaała) gives a talk about his struggles to assert Indigenous rights against the Colonial desire for "strength of claim" and "proof." Part of the SFU Library Open Conference Systems, Sorting Libraries Out: Decolonizing Classification and Indigenizing Description 2019.

Indigenous education initiatives within the academy have always performed revolutionary work in clearing spaces for thinking at cross sections between disciplines. Perhaps none of these is more challenging than the conversation between Indigenous ways of knowing and Western science. For 10 years now, a Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and University of Alaska, USA, university course on Indigenous knowledge(s) and science has given us and our students a shared space within which to consider, discuss, and analyze some of the most difficult and pressing issues at this interface. The course is co-taught by a Māori and a Dene’/Athabascan scholar and draws Māori, Alaska Native and non-Indigenous students and their interests into conversation, using online forum discussion, videoconferencing, and skype. This chapter surveys Indigenous knowledges and science in the context of this course. We describe the course, its background, review the issues discussed, and describe the learning outcomes for students. Finally, we discuss the future direction of the conversation and its potential impact on global issues, such as climate change and biotechnology. [From Author]

Non-Western perspectives emphasizing community, lifelong learning, and holistic conceptions of learning are expanding our understanding of adult learning. [From Author]

The issue of Indigenous engagement, participation and success in the sciences is a concern both in Australia and in Canada. The authors of this paper have taught Indigenous students in tertiary enabling programs, undergraduate science and science education. Their experiences bridging Indigenous and Western cultures in science and science education through Both-Ways (BW) or Two-Eyed Seeing (TES) pedagogical and methodological approaches form the data for this paper. Their teaching experience with tertiary level Indigenous students using BW/TES pedagogies serves as case studies for the epistemic insight (knowledge about knowledge) they have gained. Each of the case studies considers the role of the Nature of Science (NOS) and potential conflicts through engagement with the two knowledge paradigms. Rather than being in conflict, the two worldviews are seen as complementary, a situation leading to epistemic insight. [From Author]

This chapter highlights some selected aspects of Indigenous knowledges and cultures, an important project of reclamation because these have been largely devalued, undermined, appropriated, and diminished by colonizers. Given the European attempts to eradicate Indigenous cultures, we must work diligently to understand what colonization has tried so hard to erase. [From Author]

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has sparked new discussions about reforming education to move beyond colonialist representations of history and to better reflect Indigenous worldviews in the classroom. Trickster Chases the Tale of Education considers the work of educators and Mi’kmaw community members, whose collaborative projects address the learning needs of Aboriginal people.

Writing in the form of a trickster tale, Sylvia Moore contrasts Western logic and Indigenous wisdom by presenting dialogues between her own self-reflective voice and the voice of Crow, a central trickster character, in order to highlight the convergence of these two worldviews in teaching and learning. Exploring the challenges of incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being into education, this volume weaves together the voices of co-researchers, community members, and traditional Mi’kmaw story characters to creatively bring readers into the realm of Indigenous values. Through a detailed study of a community project to highlight the important connection between the Mi’kmaw and salmon, Moore reveals teachings of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility, and emphasizes the need for repairing and strengthening relationships with people and all other life. These dialogues demonstrate the need for educators to critically examine their assumptions about the world, decolonize their thinking, and embrace Indigenous knowledge as an essential part of curriculum. [From Publisher]

Concerned by the need to decolonize education for Aboriginal students, the authors explore philosophies of Indigenous ways of knowing and those of the 21st century learning movement. In their efforts to propose a way forward with Aboriginal education, the authors inquire into harmonies between Aboriginal knowledges and tenets of 21st century education. Three stories from the authors’ research serve as examples of decolonizing approaches that value the congruence between 21st century education and Indigenous knowledges. These stories highlight the need for two-eyed seeing, co-constructing curriculum for language and culture revitalization, and drawing from community contexts to create curriculum. [From Author]

I am aware as I begin this plenary paper that members of the library profession that are drawn to a presentation slotted under the theme, Indigenous Knowledge, are most likely interested in the systems and issues for managing information in that area.
And as soon as I presume that, the breadth of the issues springs to mind - the classification of information about Indigenous peoples’, collection, storage, retrieval, access, copyright, intellectual property, the sensitivities of culturally different clients and communities, the politics, funding, distance issues, networking issues, the concerns about historical texts - and the list can go on (e.g. Edwards, 2000). This paper is not a discussion of these issues although I hope, from what I say today, you can draw some broad implications. [From Author]

This project is the culmination of work done over the past two and a half years by 13 members of OSSTF/FEESO, most of whom are First Nation or Métis, or work extensively with Aboriginal students.

The lessons are designed to be implemented in a range of courses, such as civics, history, social sciences, English, geography, business, careers, physical education and science. The resource has been produced as a PDF file on CD with an accompanying video on DVD. Although the lessons are intended for use with high school curricula, the video and activity sheet may be of use to all Federation members who work with students. [From Website]

Learning involves conceptual frameworks embedded in worldviews and values. The overarching problematic of Aboriginal post-secondary education is complex and multifaceted. Normative and institutional forces as well as the credentialing and certification agenda of post-secondary education limit the degree to which Aboriginal education at any level can simply go its own way. To what degree and in what ways should Aboriginal post-secondary education differ from mainstream post-secondary education— and can it? The parity paradox (Paquette & Fallon, 2010, p. xii) prevails in post-secondary as in lower-level education. Education that purports to be meaningfully “Aboriginal” must fulfill two seemingly opposing purposes: provide education that is grounded in Aboriginal cultures but also provide a reasonable degree of parity with the content and quality of mainstream education. In short, Aboriginal post-secondary education is situated at the nexus of colliding epistemic universes of hugely unequal power. What can and should be Aboriginal in Aboriginal post-secondary education? What is the Canadian experience to date in that respect—with particular focus on the British Columbia case example—and what can be learned from it? [From Author]

In this time of reconciliation, Indigenous researchers-in-relation are sharing research paradigms and approaches that align with Indigenous worldviews. This article shares an interpretation of the Mi’kmaw concept of Two-Eyed Seeing as the synthesis of Indigenous methodology and participatory action research situated within an Indigenous paradigm of relevant, reciprocal, respectful, and responsible research. Two-Eyed Seeing is discussed as a guiding approach for researchers offering Indigenous voices and ways of knowing as a means to shift existing qualitative research paradigms. The author offers practical considerations for conducting research with Indigenous peoples in a “good and authentic way.” Through the co-creation of knowledge with Indigenous communities, a collective story was produced as a wellness teaching tool to foster the transfer of knowledge in a meaningful way. [From Author]

Since the 1970s there has been increased focus by institutions, government, and Indigenous nations on improving Aboriginal peoples participation and success in Canadian higher education; however disparity continues to be evident in national statistics of educational attainment, social determinants of health, and socio-economic status of Aboriginal com-pared to non-Aboriginal Canadians. For instance, post-secondary attainment for Aboriginal peoples is still only 8% compared to 20% of the rest of Canada (Statistics Canada, 2008, 2013). A challenge within higher education has been creating the space within predominately Euro-Western defined and ascribed structures, academic disciplines, policies, and practices to create meaningful spaces for Indigenous peoples. Indigenization is a movement centering Indigenous knowledges and ways of being within the academy, in essence transforming institutional initiatives, such as policy, curricular and co-curricular programs, and practices to support Indigenous success and empowerment. Drawing on re-search projects that span the last 10 years, this article celebrates the pockets of success within institutions and identifies areas of challenge to Indigenization that moves away from the tokenized checklist response, that merely tolerates Indigenous knowledge(s), to one where Indigenous knowledge(s) are embraced as part of the institutional fabric. [From Author]

As Indigenous educators who share a passion for innovative approaches using instructional media, we are inspired to explore the ways in which technology can
support teaching and learning from Indigenous perspectives. Several scholars advocate the use of technology in reclamation of First Peoples’ voices, stories and other ways of knowing (Ginsburg, 2000; Iseke-Barnes, 2002; Dyson, Hendriks & Grant, 2007). Reflecting social constructionism, we believe media can be designed to build educator capacity within these special interest areas. By highlighting work that is currently underway within Indigenous education, we invite readers to imagine their own possibilities for transformative and decolonizing pedagogy. [From Author]

In the winter term of 2016, Cape Breton University launched a revised version of a second year Mi’kmaw Studies course entitled Learning from the Knowledge Keepers of Mi’kmaki (MIKM 2701). This course was designed to be led by local Elders and Knowledge keepers with facilitation support from university faculty. It was designed by course facilitators as a dual-mode course, with the opportunity for students to participate face-to-face and online, and the excitement it generated quickly went “viral.” In this paper, we describe the experiences of the participants in the course through an analysis of their own reflections on the 13 weeks of instruction. The aim of this analysis is to share course design considerations for post secondary institutions attempting to “Indigenize the academy” at a course level, but also to evaluate the process of co-learning as it was evidenced in the course as a means to address educational complexity and decolonization efforts in the classroom. [From Author]

Indigenous knowledges are understood as the commonsense ideas and cultural knowledges of local peoples concerning the everyday realities of living. This definition refers to the epistemic saliency of cultural traditions, values, belief systems and world views that, in any indigenous society, are imparted to the younger generation by community elders. It is also refers to world views that are products of a profoundly direct experience of nature and its relationship with the social world.

Bringing new and complex readings to the term 'indigenous', this collection of essays from Canadian and international contributors is an invitation to critically engage in the discussion of indigenous knowledges and their implication for academic decolonization. The essays are divided into four sections: Situating Indigenous Knowledges: Definitions and Boundaries; Indigenous Knowledge: Resistance and Advocacy; Indigenous Knowledge and the Academy; and Indigenous Knowledge and Transforming Practices. Collectively the essays situate indigenous knowledges in relation to conventional knowledges, validate the existence of multiple sources of knowledge, and examine the varying strategies, projects, and theories that are currently being developed in support of indigenous knowledges. [From Publisher]

Dancing with a Ghost is Ross’s attempt to give some definition to the cultural gap that bedevils the relationships and distorts the communications between Native peoples and the dominant white Canadian society—and to encourage others to begin their own respectful cross-cultural explorations. As Ross discovered, traditional perspectives have a great deal to offer modern-day Canada, not only in the context of justice but also in terms of the broader concepts of peaceful social organization and personal fulfilment. [From Publisher]

Aboriginal Peoples are facing a number of serious and complex environmental issues within their territories. Post-secondary environmental education programs in Canada have been slow to adopt curriculum and develop programs to meet the needs of Aboriginal students and their communities. This manuscript outlines necessary components of successful Indigenous environmental education programs at the postsecondary level based on the author’s participation in three such programs as a program developer/director, curriculum developer and instructor, the current literature and in addition to her experiences as an Anishinaabe student studying western science.[From Author]

Simpson explores philosophies and pathways of regeneration, resurgence, and a new emergence through the Nishnaabeg language, Creation Stories, walks with Elders and children, celebrations and protests, and meditations on these experiences. She stresses the importance of illuminating Indigenous intellectual traditions to transform their relationship to the Canadian state. [From Publisher]

Knowledge Translation (KT), a core priority in Canadian health research, policy, and practice for the past decade, has a long and rich tradition within Indigenous communities. In Indigenous knowledge systems the processes of ‘‘knowing’’ and ‘‘doing’’ are often intertwined and indistinguishable. However, dominant KT models in health science do not typically recognize Indigenous knowledge conceptualizations, sharing systems, or protocols and will likely fall short in Indigenous contexts. There is a need to move towards KT theory and practice that embraces diverse understandings of knowledge and that recognizes, respects, and builds on pre-existing knowledge systems. This will not only result in better processes and outcomes for Indigenous communities, it will also provide rich learning for
mainstream KT scholarship and practice. As professionals deeply engaged in KT work, health librarians are uniquely positioned to support the development and implementation of Indigenous KT. This article provides information that will enhance the ability of readers from diverse backgrounds to promote and support Indigenous KT efforts, including
an introduction to Indigenous knowledge conceptualizations and knowledge systems; key contextual issues to consider in planning, implementing, or evaluating KT in Indigenous settings; and contemporary examples of Indigenous KT in action. The authors pose critical reflection questions throughout the article that encourage readers to connect the content with their own practices and underlying knowledge assumptions. [From Author]

Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science is far more than a set of research papers or curriculum studies. The project outputs include both, but they are incorporated into a theoretical structure that can provide the methodological basis for future efforts that attempt to develop culturally responsive Indigenous Science curricula in home places. It is not just one or two angels to organize, but multiple interwoven approaches and cases that give this project its exceptional importance. Thus, the project outputs have been organized into two books. [From Author]

Knowing Home attempts to capture the creative vision of Indigenous scientific knowledge and technology that is derived from an ecology of a home place. The traditional wisdom component of Indigenous Science—the values and ways of decision-making—assists humans in their relationship with each other, the land and water, and all of creation. Indigenous perspectives have the potential to give insight and guidance to the kind of environmental ethics and deep understanding that we must gain as we attempt to solve the increasingly complex problems of the 21st century. [From Website]

I am still struggling to eliminate the schooled tension that I acquired in believing that every question has one right answer, so I am always waiting for the thinking to stop, for that one glorious, culminating second when I know the whole answer to one question. I have been relearning that moment will not come, at least not while I am in a thinking mode. I am also realizing that I must have learned to trust other thinkers or, at least, relearned to trust my own thinking.

I begin with this passage because it best describes one of the major dilemmas I struggled with as I attempted to write an article on Indigenous research methodologies. I spent several weeks going through books, articles, and journals trying to find one good definition of Indigenous research methodology, and in the end I realized that I would not find a specific answer. [From Author]

As more people ripen to understand the new world holocaust of our First Nations, Blair Stonechild's book is timely. To bring to light the spiritual relationships, attitudes, and practices of Indigenous people makes a real contribution to the world of thought.' Buffy Sainte-Marie In The Knowledge Seeker, Blair Stonechild shares his sixty-year journey of learning-from residential school to PhD and beyond-while trying to find a place for Indigenous spirituality in the classroom. Encouraged by an Elder who insisted sacred information be written down, Stonechild explores the underlying philosophy of his people's teachings to demonstrate that Indigenous spirituality can speak to our urgent, contemporary concerns. [From Publisher]

This article examines the possibilities around what we have come to call a pedagogy of Land. The authors explore what it means to bring a pedagogy of Land into classrooms and communities within urban settings. The authors consider the ways Land as pedagogy might translate from rural to urban contexts while addressing some of the ways this work moves forward in meaningful and relevant ways. Further, the authors share some aspects that have allowed Land to inform both pedagogy and praxis in teacher education focusing on student success, particularly Aboriginal students within schools and teacher education programs. [From Publisher]

When Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies was first published, it ignited a passion for research change that respected Indigenous peoples and knowledges, and campaigned to reclaim Indigenous ways of knowing and being. At a time when Indigenous voices were profoundly marginalised, the book advocated for an Indigenous viewpoint which represented a daily struggle to be heard, and to find its place in academia.

Twenty years on, this collection celebrates the breadth and depth of how Indigenous writers are shaping the decolonizing research world today. With contributions from Indigenous female researchers, this collection offers the much needed academic space to distinguish methodological approaches, and overcome the novelty confines of being marginal voices. [From Publisher]

This article presents findings from TechTales, a participatory design research (PDR) project where learning scientists, public library staff members, informal science educators, and staff members from Native-American-serving organizations collaborated to design a family-based robotics workshop that was grounded in storytelling. We approach this by engaging Indigenous ways of knowing and being from a sociocultural learning theory perspective. Through analyzing families-in-interaction as they constructed dioramas with robotics that told their family stories, we explore how cultivating consequential learning environments in STEM is intimately intertwined with historicity, knowledge systems, and the agentic positioning of learners to design new technologies. We find that using storywork as the design focus of building dioramas created learning environments where computer programing and robotics became dynamic tools toward family-making, collaboration, and the active presencing of Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural practices. Living and interrelating with story and its knowledge systems through making were enactments of Indigenous resurgence in everyday ways. From a structure of social practices perspective, this opens up learning spaces for engagement in STEM-Art practices and in relation to other social practices of consequence, such as cultural flourishing and affiliation, collaboration and family-making, and societal repositioning. [From Author]

In Principles of Tsawalk, hereditary chief Umeek builds upon his previous book, Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview, to elaborate an alternative framework for responding to global environmental and political crises and to indigenous peoples' poverty, dispossession, and displacement in the realms of education and politics. These problems, Umeek argues, stem from an historical and persistent failure to treat all peoples and life forms with respect and accord them constitutional recognition. By contrast, the Nuu-chah-nulth principles of recognition, consent, and continuity, embodied in songs, language, and ceremonies, hold the promise of achieving sustainable lifeways in this shared struggle for balance. [From Publisher]

Although we have been subjected to colonial forces for several centuries, we retain and affirm all of our inherent collective rights as sovereign nations. These rights include the right to protect our own survival, in particular, by protecting our cultures, languages, and knowledge systems from expropriation, encroachment, or theft. [From Author]

We are showered every day with the gifts of the Earth, gifts we have neither earned nor paid for: air to breathe, nurturing rain, black soil, berries and honeybees, the tree that became this page, a bag of rice and the exuberance of a field of goldenrod and asters at full bloom.

Though the Earth provides us with all that we need, we have created a consumption-driven economy that asks, “What more can we take from the Earth?” and almost never “What does the Earth ask of us in return?” [From Website]

As we celebrate Mother Earth, Let us begin with gratitude, for we are showered daily with the gifts of Mother Earth, food to eat, sweet air to breathe and the preciousness of water. Gratitude for each other as people, for the privilege of our work and for the original peoples in whose homelands we meet today. Although we come from many different places, we stand upon the ultimate common ground, with our feet upon Mother Earth. No matter what language we speak we are grateful for the birdsong that greets the day, Can we agree that our lives are made possible, and made sweeter by the other lives which surround us, both the human and the more-than-human beings with who we share the earth? [From Author]

A Digital Bundle demonstrates the great potential for digital technology to contribute to Indigenous self-determination, resurgence, revitalization, and the rebuilding of nations. Wemigwans redefines online Indigenous Knowledges as "digital bundles," grounding online projects within Indigenous traditional paradigms. She elevates both cultural protocol and responsibilities within this designation, representing new possibilities for both the Internet and Indigenous communities. Her own website was produced and created within Indigenous community cultural protocols, showing the reader a clear example of how one can respectfully follow Indigenous practices and apply Indigenous ethics in the construction of a digital site. [From Publisher]

As for the aesthetics of the project, Four Directions Teachings was designed to avoid the simplistic rendering of metaphysical and philosophical ideas through boiled-down or stereotypical "avatars",1 nor was the project designed to reflect an "archaeological" outsider's view that merely provides and catalogues informational text and pictures; rather, it was conceived as a space where one could experience and engage with Indigenous cosmological and metaphysical teachings through symbolic imagery. This imagery was designed to be grounded in myth, and to restore some measure of respect to the sophistication of mythological thought that has been expropriated and belittled by modernity. After all, modernity sees "mythology," even its own European root myths, as quaint (or even somehow "alien") at best, "just for fun," and, as with all forms of fundamentalism, reduces myth to its simplest level-thus allowing it to become equated in modern terminology with a "lie." The intent was to create an alternate space with a more complex rendition of culture, identity and notions of community. In so doing, we hoped to get away from replicating existing physical structures and hierarchies and instead wanted to embrace an Aboriginal holistic philosophy through the interface design and presentation of the teachings. [From Author]

Marvin Williams of the Babine Nation talks about his hunts though archives to find Colonial proof for Indigenous land claims.

The title of this article is from the Líl̓wat language. In this language, there are various ways to speak about knowing. “Zwaten’ ” describes what a person knows, and the closest word that could be translated as “knowledge” is “emham,” meaning “to be skilled at doing something or to be good at something.” “A7xa7” is the state of wholistic knowing, knowing after a lifetime of training, practice, and study. Like most Indigenous languages, the Líl̓wat language focuses on the process, on the action, not on the object (Battiste, 27). How do we become “emham” or “zwaten” or “a7xa7”? For each individual, it is a process from before birth and continues throughout life. When asked to define the term “Indigenous knowledge,” it is a struggle because of the disruption of the languages and lives of Indigenous peoples due to colonization and the need to discuss the term using another language and worldview. The knowledge of Indigenous peoples is of value today as Indigenous peoples rebuild their lives after near annihilation. All people can learn from this knowledge. [From Author]

Indigenous researchers are knowledge seekers who work to progress Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing in a modern and constantly evolving context. This book describes a research paradigm shared by Indigenous scholars in Canada and Australia, and demonstrates how this paradigm can be put into practice. Relationships don’t just shape Indigenous reality, they are our reality. Indigenous researchers develop relationships with ideas in order to achieve enlightenment in the ceremony that is Indigenous research. Indigenous research is the ceremony of maintaining accountability to these relationships. For researchers to be accountable to all our relations, we must make careful choices in our selection of topics, methods of data collection, forms of analysis and finally in the way we present information. I’m an Opaskwayak Cree from northern Manitoba currently living in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Australia. I’m also a father of three boys, a researcher, son, uncle, teacher, world traveller, knowledge keeper and knowledge seeker. As an educated Indian, I’ve spent much of my life straddling the Indigenous and academic worlds. Most of my time these days is spent teaching other Indigenous knowledge seekers (and my kids) how to accomplish this balancing act while still keeping both feet on the ground. [From Publisher]

The statement in the title, what if Indigenous Knowledge contradicts accepted scientific findings (Fowler, 2000), is an expression of the dilemma people who research Indigenous Knowledge think they find themselves in when they are confronted with different interpretations of what it means to be human, or, as I may summarize it, with different cultural interpretations of human existence. I sense a certain amount of fear in this statement, which, indeed, suggests an Indigenous interpretation that threatens the accepted scientific worldview. The question is, of course, who the accepting entity is and what the acceptance is measured on. The statement was made by an academic (PhD) executive of a diamond company who, responsible for inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in the environmental assessment the company had to do before starting the mine, suspects contradictory interpretations on land use by the Indigenous people who occupy the land that should be developed by the company he represents. With this statement, he sets the stage for an analysis of research data on Indigenous Knowledge the company collected in order to follow recommendations of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (1996) that would dismiss the validity of the very subject, Indigenous Knowledge, that is to be integrated in environmental assessment done on Indigenous lands. [From Author]