Experiencing Indigeneity Pluriversality Indigenous Worldviews Local National and

Experiencing Indigeneity & Pluri-versality Indigenous Worldviews: Local, National and Pluri-versal

Distinct Ways of Knowing, Being and Doing Indigenous Worldview Setting the Stage • Relatedness to others, to culture, to ancestors, to land, to roles and responsibilities, to life stages • Sustainable ecological relationship to place • Traditional knowledge – non-rational & subjective Western Worldview • Spiritual and physical aspects of life separated • Progress as change, change as progress • Rational thinking - objective & neutral • Place-based knowledge - social, spiritual & relational • See all things as living & spiritual • Collectivism • Universal ‘truths’ are embedded in language & culture • Space-time (sacred places, abstract & symbolic time) ü Reciprocity ü Collective responsibility ü Respect • Knowledge - academic & formal ü Co-learning • Human beings & nature separate ü Recognition of Indigenous ways of • Individualism knowing, being • Land is tied to improvement & progress and doing ü Humility ü Make space for • Universal ‘truths’ predicted through Indigenous empirical observation, theories & voices For Change principles • Time-space construct (time & history)

Changing the Colonial Paradigm… Nth. Eyed Seeing What are they? And, what do these concepts mean in the context of working on distinctions-based approaches?

Pluriversality, The Next Wave… “Different ways of interpreting the world are manifest through different cultures…One of the problems with colonialism is that it tries to maintain a singular social order by means of force and law, suppressing the diversity of human worldviews…Typically, this proposition creates oppression and discrimination” - Leroy Little Bear 2000 “Mayan principle of In’Laketch: tu eres mi otro yo: you are my other me. Not only are we interwoven, we are one. I am you and you are me. To harm another is thus to literally harm one’s own being. This is a basic spiritual law in numerous traditions. ” – Laura Perez 2009

Ethical Space Plurality of Indigenous Worldviews Ethical space Nth Eyed-seeing configures ethical/moral/legal principles Theatre for cross-cultural conversation Elders, knowledge keepers & allies can articulate, define and assert Indigenous rights Convergence of disparate systems, cross-cultural relations and shift to a partnership model Canada & Other Worldviews