Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Chief Seattle's address to U.S. government demands during treaty negotiations in 1850 has been cited as reflecting the basic philosophical foundations of IWOK.

Indigenous Ways of Knowing (IWOK), also known as Indigenous worldviews, are epistemological frameworks and belief systems associated with Indigenous peoples around the world. According to proponents of IWOK, Indigenous knowledge comes from a community being in an interrelated relationship with the land in a particular location on Earth over many generations and continuously passing that knowledge on to future generations. While there is not a universal Indigenous belief system, since Indigenous peoples throughout the world vary widely in terms of geography, language, and social structure, some scholars assert that there are several key similarities among Indigenous philosophical approaches that together form the foundation of IWOK.

In addition to 'pre-colonial' knowledge, IWOK are informed by past and current sociopolitical dimensions of power in the Western world. IWOK differs from the dominant Eurocentric or Western worldview, sometimes referred to as Western Ways of Knowing (WWOK), and proponents of IWOK posit that Western colonization in many cases interrupted and undermined Indigenous belief systems. While many Indigenous belief systems hold that all things are interconnected, Western thought is generally embedded in claims to objectivity and a decoupling of culture from nature, viewing places as "devoid of a living force" and humans as separate from nature. IWOK have been described as ecological, sustainable, relational, cyclic, interdependent, and holistic in nature. Indigenous worldviews often emphasize belief in the presence of spirit in all things, as well as the existence of other worlds or dimensions that are distinct from the material world and yet overlap with it or are otherwise deeply interrelated with it.

Lisa Grayshield, Marilyn Begay, Laura L. Luna, Denny Hurtado, and Amileah Davis have cited the response of Chief Seattle (1786-1866) to U.S. government demands for ownership of the land during treaty negotiations in 1850 as reflecting the basic philosophical stance underlying IWOK: "This we know, that all things are connected like the blood that unites us. We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it—whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves." Scholars have cited the importance of sharing IWOK to decolonize and challenge the hegemony of WWOK.

Foundations

File:Indigenous and Western paradigms by Grayshield and Mihecoby.jpg

A diagram of what Lisa Grayshield and Anita Mihecoby (2010) outline as some of the fundamental differences between Indigenous and Western paradigms as they relate to IWOK.

Heather Harris notes that "although the outward manifestations of Indigenous cultures across North America and beyond vary greatly, there are surprising similarities in worldview, enough so that it is possible to contrast Indigenous worldview with Western worldview." Lisa Grayshield and Anita Mihecoby compare and contrast Indigenous and Western worldviews, referring to an Indigenous paradigm as a model of sustainability and a Western paradigm as a model that prioritizes economic growth or Gross National Product (GNP). James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson states that "the discord between Aboriginal and Eurocentric worldviews is dramatic. It is a conflict between natural and artificial contexts."

In a research paper on reconciling Indigenous and Western knowledge systems authored by Leah Levac, Lisa McMurtry, Deborah Stienstra, Gail Baikie, Cindy Hanson, and Devi Mucina, the authors state that there is a need to address "what constitutes 'Indigenous' and 'Western' ways of knowing." The authors conclude that while their research is grounded in the conceptualization that neither Indigenous nor Western beliefs systems are homogenous, that there is a "need to explain some broad and general differences between the two." The authors suggest that "the onus is especially on non-Indigenous peoples to learn more about and respond, with humility, to Indigenous ways of knowing, and to linking frameworks that facilitate connections between Indigenous and Western ways of knowing." In a chapter on "Comparative Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Learning," Katia Sol Madjidi and Jean-Paul Restole state:

Eurocentric and Indigenist are broad monolithic generalizations, as both categories are comprised of diverse national and cultural groups, each with their own unique traditions, perspectives, and approaches to knowing and learning. However, we use general categories as a basis for drawing out points of comparison between two distinct sets of worldviews and approaches to knowing and learning. We also name the specific affiliation of the author or tribe, wherever possible, to help distinguish and honour the specific cultural roots of each contribution.

Tewa educator Gregory Cajete stated in reference to what he refers to as the rise of the Indigenous mind that while Indigenous people globally are very diverse "in terms of languages and in terms of places in which we live, what we have in common is this understanding of connection, of relationship, to the places in which we live." Hawaiian writer Huanani-Kay Trask states that "Indigenous knowledge is not unique to Hawaiians, but is shared by most Indigenous peoples throughout the world." Lakota thinker Vine Deloria Jr. recognized that there is "a great unanimity among Aboriginal nations when they express their views on the natural world and on the behavior of humans in that world" while also emphasizing that Indigenous nations are distinct because of the different places they live and learn in. Osage-Cherokee thinker Rennard Strickland stated "cosmologies differed from tribe to tribe, but basic beliefs were constant. Central to all tribes was the perception of an organic cosmos precariously balanced."

Those writing in the field emphasize that while IWOK contrast with WWOK, that it is important not to view Indigenous worldviews as opposite of Western worldviews or vice-versa. For example, Western scientists and historians have recognized that in some aspects Western thought is only now 'confirming' what Indigenous peoples have already known. It has been noted however that when Indigenous worldviews conflict with Western scientific or historical accounts that "its utility is questioned or dismissed as myth" in the Western world because of the ways in which WWOK are privileged. Additionally, Carl Mika of the Tuhourangi and Ngati Whanaunga have noted that, although they are not dominant, that there are strands of anti-colonial thinking present in Western thought such as in aspects of continental philosophy. Arthur W. Blume notes that "generalizing about the prevailing worldview of colonial cultures is nearly as risky as generalizing about Indigenous worldview," yet determines that "with that acknowledged, colonial belief systems do have common elements that can be discussed, evaluated, and contrasted with an Indigenous worldview."

Indigenous vs. Western worldviews

Colonialism as apocalypse

An image reflecting the apocalyptic devastation enacted by colonizers on buffalo herds to destroy lifeways for Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains.

IWOK were effected with the arrival of colonizers to Indigenous lands. The violence, disease, and death that the invaders brought totally altered the landscape often times beyond recognition. Indigenous lifeways and knowledge in many cases were intentionally destroyed and targeted by the invaders so as to control and exploit Indigenous people and the land. For this reason, many Indigenous peoples express that they live in a post-apocalyptic world, which differs from Western worldview. In response to the apocalypse, Indigenous artists and writers imagine worlds that explore concepts of Indigenous futurisms, creating ways in which, as described by Joni Adamson and Salma Monani, post-apocalyptic "communities recover and survive for viable, healthy futures."

Lower Brulé Lakota activist Nick Estes contextualizes settler colonialism as an apocalypse: "Indigenous people are post-apocalyptic. For my community alone, it was the destruction of the buffalo herds, the destruction of our animal relatives on the land, the destruction of our animal nations in the nineteenth century, of our river homelands in the twentieth century. I don’t want to universalize that experience; it was very unique to us as nations. But if there is something you can learn from Indigenous people, it’s what it’s like to live in a post-apocalyptic society." Estes recognizes that while Indigenous worlds have been destroyed in many ways, they can be reclaimed: "we’re trying to rebuild them, reclaim them, and reestablish correct relations. The severity of the situation shouldn’t undermine the willingness to act. Not to act, to succumb to a kind of paralysis, of inaction, is itself an action."

Community

A number of Indigenous worldviews are based on the approach that each member of a community is interdependent on every other member, and that this must extend beyond human relationships. As summarized by Arthur W. Blume, "the community cannot exist without each member working together to ensure the survival of the community and therefore is as strong as its most vulnerable member and as weak as its inability to get along well together... Existence is a function of we and us in an Indigenous worldview. However, connectivity goes beyond human relationships. Indigenous people often live with an awareness of the connectivity of their lives with all other nonhuman things in Creation, an approach that is not typically appreciated in non-Indigenous social orders." Indigenous worldviews are not based in using systems of punishment or force to maintain community. Wanda D. McCaslin writes, "just as harm occurs when we are not mindful of how we are related, so we are healed as we live more mindfully of our relatedness. This awareness is not reducible to specific techniques or practices. Instead, it constitutes our worldview which then permeates every aspect of our lives and societies."

Indigenous communities were increasingly conditioned to conform to the colonizing Western or Eurocentric paradigm. In many instances, Indigenous ways of knowing were lost, replaced, and excluded from colonial institutions while Western values were privileged. Indigenous peoples often prefer to let their actions speak for themselves "and see little reason to highlight how they are better than hypothetical others," which has been noted to be oppositional in a colonial capitalist world that stresses individualism and self-promotion. As stated by Masiiwa Ragies Gunda in the Zimbabwean context, "as Christianity made significant inroads among Indigenous communities, the monadic Western cultural traits found their way to the converts and eventually workers and their dependents. Pre-colonial cultural traits were throughout this period stigmatized and receding from public view. By the time of the end of the colonial period, the Western monadic cultural traits had become the dominant culture of the 'elite' who aspired to whiteness."

Gender and sexuality

Vasco Núñez de Balboa executing Indigenous Panamanians by war dog for same-sex practice (1594). Colonizers imposed Christianization European worldviews through violence.

Pre-contact attitudes to gender and sexuality were diverse, and continue to be so in the modern era. Post-contact, the colonial narrative of gender was imposed on Indigenous nations. Khoesan teacher Dr. Yvette Abrahams states that colonial religions instructed Indigenous peoples "to reject our own children." As a result, Abrahams explains the following:

our very concept of the divine, our very concept of the proper relationship within an ecosystem was being challenged, and what we were being asked to do was to turn our backs on beliefs that were so ancient and so inherent in our way of life that there is no other way to describe it but as a huge shock, an incredible trauma. So it's not so simple to say that 'we could keep the rest of our precolonial culture, just that we accepted queer people.' It was that our very precolonial culture was so diverse and so accepting that the notion of queerness in fact didn't exist. We didn't think of gender as a binary.

Mark Rifkin states that "the civilization, allotment, and Indian education programs, illustrate how the U.S. government has sought to enforce Christian heteronuclearity as the structuring principle of the social order." This, along with the work of early anthropologists, has been cited as influencing Indigenous peoples "to distrust ethnographers and hide evidence of gender diversity."

Metaphysics

The whistling kite (pictured), black kite, and brown falcon, colloquially referred to as 'firehawks' in northern Australia were 'discovered' by Western scientists in 2017 to intentionally carry burning sticks to spread fires. However, this has long been known to the Alawa, Mulluk-Mulluk, Jawoyn and other Indigenous peoples of Australia, who incorporated this knowledge into their ceremonies

In many Indigenous worldviews, nothing is inanimate and everything is alive, including plants, animals, rocks, mountains, weather phenomena, celestial bodies, and the Earth itself. Conversely, as noted by Heather Harris, "the dichotomy between animate and inanimate held in the Western worldview usually has little meaning in Indigenous ways of seeing." Leroy Little Bear (Blackfoot) compares: "in Blackfoot there is no such thing as 'inanimate'" while stating that in the Western worldview, while humans and animals are often understood as animate, trees and especially rocks are seen as inanimate or as not sentient. Little Bear reflects how Western thought conceives of the world as stagnant and primarily full of matter and that this worldview is reflected in Western noun-based languages such as English. In contrast, IWOK reflect that the world is fluid and primarily full of energy or waves, or what Little Bear refers to as "constant flux."

IWOK understand humanity as interconnected with nature in a web of life and not above any other being or placed higher in a hierarchy. For example, the Tongva/Kizh approached reality with "the cosmological belief that humankind was not the apex of creation but simply a strand in the web of life," as summarized by Edward D. Castillo. As another example, Chief Joseph, a Nez Percé, stated, "the Earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the measure of our bodies are the same. Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection to the land." Conversely, Western worldviews believe that Indigenous ways belong to a "failed savage past" that should be abandoned for "a better civilized future." James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson states, "Europeans self-righteously set out to convert all others with whom they came into contact to their understanding of an artificial future society."

Indigenous understandings of time differ from how time is understood in the Western context. Some note that many people with Western-trained understandings may view their perception of time as universal because of the effects of colonization throughout the world. In a number of Indigenous worldviews, time is cyclical, while in most Western worldviews time tends to be viewed as linear. Vongai Mpofu states that "time is programmed into socio-cultural norms and values that shape human behavior and interpersonal relationships." For example, Mpofu notes how in the unhu worldview, or ubuntu philosophy, this means that "apart from being reckoned by animal sounds, plant behavior, and astronomic patters of the stars, moon and sun, time is attached to social activities such as milking cows, fetching water, and time of return from the fields."

In the Indigenous Vugalei Fijian conceptualization, there is an understanding that the spiritual and material worlds are interlinked, as described by Dr. Akanisi Kedrayate. Grace L. Dillon states that "incorporating time travel, alternate realities, parallel universes and multiverses, and alternative histories is a hallmark of Native storytelling tradition." Dillon claims that what is perceived as "cutting edge" in Western science "replicates what Natives have lived for millennia and what Euro-Western science has only recently come to understand."

Philosophy

Carl Mika writes that "utterances of knowledge or propositions of truth about things were likely secondary to the sheer initial and primordial perception of a phenomenon" and notes that Western philosophy rejects this approach because it is non-analytical and therefore should be rejected as legitimate philosophy. Some Indigenous peoples view the Western philosophical tradition in bleak terms because of its tendency since the scientific revolution (and even since Plato) to obsess over recording and measuring knowledge and to dismiss any approach that does not conform to its version of truth.

Property

Indigenous and Western worldviews concerning property can differ substantially. Through colonialism, European perspectives have been imposed, including how property is to be understood. In the Western worldview, property is seen as something which can be "owned and alienated" with exclusive rights rather than with collective responsibility, as summarized by Natsu Taylor Saito. Western philosophers such as John Locke asserted that private property improved human society: "he who appropriates land to himself by his labour, does not lessen but increase the common stock of mankind." However, this notion of property was not applied equally or at all when in consideration of race and gender. For example, enslaved Africans were not able to own property but instead became the property of the white property owners who enslaved them. Saito argues that this is because in the Western worldview, "only those identified as White were legally recognized as full persons."

George P. Nicholas writes that this does not mean the concept of property does not exist in an Indigenous worldview: "within Indigenous societies, individuals, families, clans, and other entities could and did possess not only objects, but also places, songs, stories, and much more. With these came types of immediate but also intergenerational attachments, responsibilities, and entitlements perhaps unfamiliar to Western understanding." Brian Noble conveyed this in what he referred to as "owning as property" vs. "owning as belonging." Noble states that "owning as property" describes the Western system, which "emphasizes property as a commodity capable of individual ownership and alienation for the purposes of resource use and wealth maximization." In contrast, "owning as belonging" in Indigenous ways of knowing describes a worldview that "places greater emphasis on transactions that strengthen relationships of respect and responsibility between people and they regard as 'cultural property.'"

The division of property types between tangible and intangible forms is not relevant in an Indigenous worldview. This is because objects are not seen as "reflections of past lives, but as vessels that contain some essence of those lives." Heritage objects in Indigenous cultures are those which have "have a role - a life - within their respective communities." This is a part of cultural property and is simultaneously tangible and intangible, breaking the lines between the distinction.

Race

The racial diversity of Asia's peoples, Nordisk familjebok (1904)

According to Natsu Taylor Saito, "race is presented by the master narrative as a preexisting reality rather than a colonial construct." Race as a human categorization emerged through the process of settler colonialism, since the original settlers did not see themselves as "white" but rather as Europeans. Over time, whiteness became a way for settlers to differentiate and see themselves as superior from Africans (Hausa or Mandinka, Yoruba, Ibo, Ashanti, or any other African nation) who became "Black," the thousands of Indigenous nations in the Americas who became "Native American," and similarly in regard to Asia and the Middle East.

Indigenous ways of knowing contrast from the Western view of race and identify themselves primarily by clan and nation. Sandra Styres states that a clan generally may be defined as "a group of close-knit and interrelated families with strong common interests, roles, and responsibilities." Clan systems are common among Indigenous peoples and nations are composed of various clans. Styres states that through the clan system, an individual is able to position themselves in relation to the world; "the self-in-relationship to natural and spiritual worlds." Signifying the interrelated relationship between land and people in an Indigenous worldview, clans are often named after flora and fauna which are integral to the nation and people of the clan.

Natsu Taylor Saito states that in order to "reconcile the discrepancy between claimed values of liberty, democracy, and equality and actual social conditions," the United States used racialization to systematically deny racialized people rights and values it claims to uphold. American Indians were denied the ability to own land because they were racialized as belonging to a people of "savagery and lawlessness." Similarly, chattel slavery was 'justified' in the United States because enslaved people were racialized as "less than human."

Implications

In 2020, Gregory Cajete stated that "for quite some time Indigenous thought has been placed in this anthropological, archaeological sphere, as if it was interesting to study, but really not of consequence to modern life, contemporary living, and what's happening with the rise of Indigenous scholarship, with the rise of many of the issues that are being faced today worldwide, is that that kind of thinking, that Indigenous thinking, that way of knowing and understanding relationship is rising as well and becoming much more active."

Healing

For people who have been disconnected from Indigenous ways of knowing because of colonialism, IWOK has been cited as a way to heal spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Lara Medina states that IWOK is critical to Chicano/a spirituality and healing. In a book with Martha R. Gonzales on Xicanx and Latinx spiritual expressions and healing practices, Medina and Gonzales state "reclaiming and reconstructing our spirituality based on non-Western epistemologies is central to our process of decolonization, particularly in these most troubling times of incessant Eurocentric, heteronormative patriarchy, misogyny, racial injustice, global capitalist greed, and disastrous global climate change."

The Circulo de Hombres group in San Diego, California spiritually heals Chicano, Latino, and Indigenous men "by exposing them to Indigenous-based frameworks, men of this cultural group heal and rehumanize themselves through Maya-Nahua Indigenous-based concepts and teachings," helping them process integenerational trauma and dehumanization from colonization. A study on the group reported that reconnecting with Indigenous worldviews was overwhelmingly successful in helping Chicano, Latino, and Indigenous men heal, with many of the men stating that this was more helpful than the presence of Christian or Catholic organized religion in their lives.

In a 2008 American Journal of Public Health article, Patricia A. L. Cochran, EIT, Catherine A. Marshall, PhD, Carmen Garcia-Downing, MSc, Elizabeth Kendall, PhD, Doris Cook, MPH, Laurie McCubbin, PhD, and Reva Mariah S. Gover, MA state "working in partnership with individuals who have indigenous knowledge, skills, and abilities in the area of health might help us to minimize rates of chronic conditions or disabilities and to ensure equitable access to appropriate health and rehabilitation services."

Gender and sexuality

In 2010, the Indigenous Ways of Knowing Program of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon was founded "to engage tribes; two-spirit community members; and organizational partners, such as the Native American Program of Legal Aid Services of Oregon, Western States Center, and Basic Rights Oregon, in order to develop resources for tribes seeking to adopt policies that affirm two-spirit people and their families." In 2013, a Tribal Equity Toolkit was created by this coalition to address and Support Two Spirit and LGBT Justice in Indian Country.

Research

In a 2008 American Journal of Public Health article, Patricia A. L. Cochran, EIT, Catherine A. Marshall, PhD, Carmen Garcia-Downing, MSc, Elizabeth Kendall, PhD, Doris Cook, MPH, Laurie McCubbin, PhD, and Reva Mariah S. Gover, MA write "It is important to consider the ways of knowing that exist in indigenous communities when developing research methods" and "We need to continue to explore our understanding of knowledge, what constitutes valuable knowledge, and how it is gathered and how it is shared." Linda Tuhiwai Smith writes about decolonizing methodologies as being of critical importance to changing the colonial method of research which is currently prioritized in the Western academy. Tuhiwai Smith states that Western research is rooted in "a set of ideas, practices and privileges that were embedded in imperial expansionism and colonization and institutionalized in academic disciplines, schools, curricula, universities, and power." Tuhiwai Smith explains that decolonizing methodologies bring about "new ways of knowing and discovering [and] new ways of thinking about research with indigenous peoples."

Sustainability

Lisa Grayshield (Washoe) Anita Mihecoby (Comanche) describe the differences in Indigenous and Western perspectives on the Earth as follows: in an Indigenous worldview "the Earth is our Mother and our Teacher to be loved and respected" while in a Western worldview "the Earth is a commodity for man to exploit for his own gain."

In an article for the United Nations, the UN Resident Coordinator of Guatemala stated "the whole world, has much to learn from indigenous peoples. It is a painful irony that they have been so exploited and oppressed, and yet they may hold a key to our collective survival. It is a painful irony, too, that indigenous people are among those most affected by climate change, and yet they contribute the least to it."

See also

• Decolonization of knowledge
• Indigenous intellectual property
• Traditional knowledge

References

This article "Indigenous Ways of Knowing" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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