Our Children Our Future Our Vision - People for Education

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Our Children, Our Future, Our Vision edge system. This is the typical Eurocentric approach to analysis and categorization of “other” knowledge systems since they believe that most cultures are not capable of invention, change or “progress”. 17 This is the fundamental core of Eurocentric categorization of Indigenous peoples and cultures as “inferior”. Additionally, there are often attempts to lump all Indigenous knowledges into one set of rules that will apply to all “Indians” making the management and conversion of individuals with those belief systems much easier. It is as if the varied histories, stories, values, experiences, territories and local conditions make no difference to the knowledge contained in each system. However, Indigenous knowledge is something very different from European conceptions of it: Indigenous knowledge thus embodies a web of relationships within a specific ecological context; contains linguistic categories, rules, and relationships unique to each knowledge system; has localized content and meaning; has established customs with respect to sharing of knowledge…and implies responsibilities for possessing various kinds of knowledge. 18 Outside observers lack the conceptual understanding or worldview to understand traditional Indigenous knowledge systems which are based not only on the cultures they observe, but from the deeply complex concepts and meanings inherent in Indigenous languages. First Nations speak about language and culture as being intertwined. Fluent speakers, particularly elders, note that unique concepts are expressed through the language and that it is impossible to translate the deeper meanings of words and concepts in the languages of other cultures. Linguists agree that language shapes the way people perceive the world and how they relate to the world around them, as well as how they describe it. The intimate relationships between language, culture and thought underlie the insistence of First Nations peoples that language education must be a priority. 19 That being said, there are several characteristics of traditional Indigenous knowledges that separate them from Eurocentric and other knowledge systems. Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing are holistic and based on local conditions which reflect the inter-relationships between people, animals, plants, and everything that exists in the ecosystem – including those things seen and unseen. Instead of being a predictable “science” based on theories about how the world should be, it is instead a more accurate science based on how the world (seen locally) actually is. 17 Protecting Indigenous Knowledge, supra note 2 at 21-23. 18 Indigenous Knowledge, supra note 2 at 14. 19 R. Powless, “The New Agenda: Building Upon the History of First Nations Education in Ontario” in Manifesto, supra note 11 [Building Upon the History] at 3. 5 Chiefs of Ontario
Our Children, Our Future, Our Vision Thus the importance of local knowledge is far greater than often characterized. Indigenous ways of knowing share the following structure: (1) knowledge of and belief in unseen powers in the ecosystem; (2) knowledge that all things in the ecosystem are dependent on each other; (3) knowledge that reality is structured according to most of the linguistic concepts by which Indigenous describe it; (4) knowledge that personal relationships reinforce the bond between persons, communities, and ecosystems; (5) knowledge that sacred traditions and persons who know these traditions are responsible for teaching “morals” and “ethics” to practitioners who are then given responsibility for this specialized knowledge and its dissemination; and (6) knowledge that an extended kinship passes on teachings and social practices from generation to generation. 20 One can see how important that knowledge about local conditions and one’s traditions and languages are to the well-being of both individuals and communities. While the concepts within each unique Indigenous language may be different and traditional knowledge about each territory will depend on the elements of those specific ecosystems, the passing down of this knowledge was historically key to each Nation’s survival and prosperity - just as it is today. Since Traditional Indigenous knowledge (TIK) is based on local conditions, then the right to protect such knowledge involves far more than just the knowledge itself, but “issues of human rights, rights to the land and rights to self-determination”. 21 In this way, Indigenous knowledge is so inherently tied to the land that one cannot separate an Indigenous Nation from their land without significantly impacting their entire knowledge system and sense of identity. Why TIK is for us indeed a political question, a question of survival and rights for our future? There are a broad range of types of ideas as characteristic of TIK: ideas pertaining to environment, livelihoods; pertaining to oneself (health, medicine); pertaining to others (members of a community, ancestors and children); to conflicts, to pedagogy, and esthetics. Ideas as characteristic of TIK are not a collection of articulated biological, ecological, geographic observations and information about nature, society and humans, ideas are the mover of the actions of an indigenous person, they motivate his current activities and provide the means of cultural continuation for his descendants. 22 20 Protecting Indigenous Knowledge, supra note 2 at 42. 21 E. Khamaganova, Buryat Baikal Center for Indigenous Cultures, “Traditional indigenous knowledge: local view” (Panama: United Nations, 2005), online: UN [Local View] at 1. 22 Ibid. at 3. Chiefs of Ontario 6
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