Only-in-winter stories pass on teachings
By: Giovanna dell’Orto
Indian Country Today
March 5, 2022
Keywords: Ojibwe people, Lac La Croix First Nation, oral storytelling, tradition, ancestral teachings, cultural identity
https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/only-in-winter-stories-pass-on-teachings
Schoolchildren listen to only-in-winter stories told by Lac La Croix First Nation speaker Gordon Jourdain at an elementary school in Minnesota. Oral storytelling plays a crucial role in many Native American peoples’ spiritual traditions. Organizers are looking to incorporate such stories during gatherings and events in order to preserve ancestral teachings as well as Native languages.
Ethical Landscapes, Sacred Plants
Panelists: Linda Black Elk, Janelle Backer, and Kyle Whyte
New York Botanical Garden Humanities Institute
November 13, 2020
Key words: plant medicine, harvesting, respect, reciprocity, commodification, cultural keystone species, charismatic species, self-determination, sovereignty, kinship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_TfTjVXPQ8&t=15s
Linda speaks about the broken relationship between plants and people because of commodification. Janelle discusses the preference for native foods and the misunderstanding of certain common plants. Kyle discusses ethics and processes for working with tribes.
Dialogue 4: Two-eyed Seeing and Beyond
Panelists: Albert Marshall, Jesse Popp, Andrea Reid, and Deborah McGregor
Reconciling Ways of Knowing
October 28, 2020
Key words: Two-eyed seeing, decision-making
https://www.waysofknowingforum.ca/dialogue-4
Mi’kmaq elder Albert Marshall developed the concept of two-eyed seeing, which involves the consideration of two or more perspectives when making decisions. Two-eyed seeing can help us care for Mother Earth. This webinar focusses on this concept with the panelists discussing how it influenced and was incorporated into their work.
Indigenous solutions to climate crisis could lie in archaeology, experts say
By: Ian Morse
May 6, 2020
Mongabay
Keywords: Caribbean, Indian Ocean, climate change, resilience
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/indigenous-solutions-to-climate-crisis-could-lie-in-archaeology-experts-say/
Archaeologist believe they can aid Indigenous communities in having a voice in global climate policy debates. Archaeology can document Native peoples’ successful adaptations to changing climates in the past. Examples illustrate opportunities for revival of past Indigenous climate adaptations.
Inuit sharing ancient knowledge of ice, sea and land with new app
By: The Canadian Press
CBC/Radio-Canada
Dec 5, 2019
Keywords: Inuit, technology, hunting, sea ice, language
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/inuit-app-land-siku-1.5384727?fbclid=IwAR0W_qbc6o2kn7CChCaPoK8PXBjYznxr-7V3EqCZGKCqHs72yZHHu8cpxgM
A new phone app created for Inuit hunters enables users to share information on ice conditions, animal movements, weather and trade hunting stories. Called Siku (for the Inuktitut word for sea ice), the app represents a way for Inuit elders to transmit their oral history with young people and use technology to address needs within their communities. One of the app’s biggest advantages is its potential to keep hunters safe in the highly variable conditions of the Arctic. The app allows users to upload photos and comments about dangerous areas, as well as access weather data and satellite imagery.
Study reveals a fragile web of knowledge linking plants to people
By: Liz Kimbrough
June 4, 2019
Mongabay
Keywords: Matapi, loss of traditional ecological knowledge, Amazon rainforest, biodiversity and medicine, ecosystem services, Indigenous culture, medicinal plants, plants, rainforests
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/study-reveals-a-fragile-web-of-knowledge-linking-plants-to-people/
Describes research on Indigenous use of palm plants in Amazon Rainforests and how that knowledge is held. Native communities use palm plants for many purposes. Researchers found that cultural heritage was as important as the plants themselves in realization of nature’s services.
How Native American food is tied to important sacred stories
By: Rosalyn R. LaPier
The Conversation
June 15, 2018
Keywords: Sacred, food, foodways, stories, transfer, connection, ancestors, religion, plants
https://theconversation.com/how-native-american-food-is-tied-to-important-sacred-stories-97770
Plant foods like maiz for the Mayas, salmon for Northwest Coast tribes, and prairie turnips for the Blackfeet are considered sacred. Young people have renewed interest in learning about collecting and cooking indigenous foods, which is meaningful for cultural transmission, natural conservation, and religious observation.
Implementing Indigenous Knowledge in Western Science Education Systems and Scientific Research on Alaska's North Slope
By: Linda Nicholas-Figueroa, Daniel Wall, Mary van Muelken and Lawrence Duffy
International Journal of Education, Vol. 9, No. 4
2017
Key words: Indigenous knowledge, place-based, STEM, environment, culture, Elders, community
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321099383
This article discusses how Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods can be combined with western knowledge and teaching methods to improve students' learning and understanding.
Ethnobotanical Knowledge Acquisition during Daily Chores: The Firewood Collection of Pastoral Maasai Girls in Southern Kenya
By: Xiaojie Tian
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 13:2
2017
Key words: Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Pastoral Maasai, Children, Daily Practice, Adaptive Knowledge Acquisition
https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13002-016-0131-x
Researchers considering children’s traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) highlighted the importance of examining children’s daily activities as empirical contexts for its acquisition. Many of them evaluated children’s TEK acquisition linearly as gain or loss, and paid less attention to the adaptive nature of this knowledge system and the social relationships arising from its acquisition processes. This study approaches children’s TEK acquisition considering these abovementioned aspects.
A Comparison of Traditional Plant Knowledge between Students and Herders in Northern Kenya
By: Brett L. Bruyere, Jonathan Trimarco, & Saruni Lemunes
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 12:48
2016
Key words: Samburu, Kenya, Local knowledge, Traditional ecological knowledge, Moran
https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13002-016-0121-z
The Samburu region of northern Kenya is undergoing significant change, driven by factors including greater value on formal education, improvements in infrastructure and development, a shift from community to private ownership of land, increased sedentary lifestyles and global climate change. One outcome of these changes are an increasingly greater likelihood for adolescent boys to be enrolled in school rather than herding livestock on behalf of the family in a landscape shared with numerous native vegetation and wildlife species. This study compared identification and knowledge of native plant species between boys enrolled in school with boys of similar age but primary responsibility as herders, called moran.
Children’s Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Wild Food Resources: A Case Study in a Rural Village in Northeast Thailand
By: Chantita Setalaphruk & Lisa Leimar Price
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 3:33
2007
Key words: Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Wild Food Resources, Thailand
https://ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-4269-3-33
Consuming wild foods is part of the food ways of people in many societies, including farming populations throughout the world. Knowledge of non-domesticated food resources is part of traditional and tacit ecological knowledge, and is largely transmitted through socialization within cultural and household contexts. The context of this study, a small village in Northeast Thailand, is one where the community has experienced changes due to the migration of the parental generation, with the children being left behind in the village to be raised by their grandparents.
Indigenous Environmental Education for Cultural Survival
By: Leanne Simpson, Trent University, Canada
Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 7(1)
Spring 2002
Keywords: Environmental Education; Program Development; Indigenous Students, Indigenous Education
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.466.4855&rep=rep1&type=pdf
This paper advocates use of traditional teaching methods of traditional knowledge and western science to address environmental ills. It looks specifically at what makes up successful indigenous knowledge education problems based on the author’s experience as an indigenous person leading these programs in a variety of settings.
Last updated: June 27, 2023