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The fourth characteristic of indigenous knowledge that Caslando describes is it's
holistic nature. So what is meant by knowledge as holistic?
One of the things is to understand, reality ends in it's set of relationships
to one another. And what do I mean by this?
If we look at western knowledge, it tends to get very specialized, and look at
things more concentrated, more minutely, more in detail to understand how things
work, in isolation. So the scientific experiments and
knowledge often get write down to the components trying to isolate out any other
variables or factors to understand the relationship between two variables.
With indigenous knowledge, the concern is more about relationships of the, of the
whole. How does one part of the whole relate to
another part of the whole. And this is taking up, you know, in, in
the Western knowledge ways as systems theory try to understand all those
elements that contributing to the whole. This becomes very important in the
indigenous knowledge. When we think about power, it's one of the
most powerful things about participation in say a, a ceremony, is that
complimentary energies are brought together.
So you might see in any indigenous ceremony that the 4 elements are present.
There is usually fire and water earth and air all operating at one time.
The pipe ceremony is when, is the only time when the male and the female parts of
the pipe are brought together. So, because it's a powerful moment of, of,
of union of energies these things often only happen in those sacred times and
spaces. So this is kind of understanding how those
energies work with each other holistically.
The medicine wheel is another kind of example of understanding holism in
indigenous knowledge that the component parts of that medicine wheel are not the
most important part to focus on but where they come together, where the necessity of
balancing aspects of that wheel. So when we look at the wheel the, the idea
is to understand how different components work together.
Or how to balance them and Susan Steward will be talking a little bit about
understanding indigenous health through this medicine wheel model.
About the need usually, then the focus is on restoring balance.
So if any part of that wheel is over emphasized, or parts are not, or there's
an absence of one part, it's working to balance those, those energies, those
aspects of being those relationships, bringing them into balance with one
another. It's not so much about focusing in on any
one of those pieces but, but how the pieces fit together.
So this is an important part of the holistic understanding of knowledge.
Another piece too is understanding that there is, there's an external world beyond
a person but there's also an inner space as Willie Ermine talks about it.
And Willie Ermine talks about the inner space being as profound and a deep and,
and expansive as outer space. So bringing together that, that inner
space with external reality, what we see out in the world, how we relate to that
world.Is an important part of, of indigenous knowledge too.
Where we bridge, the inter world and understanding that, that we get from,
contemplation and meditation with. What is going on that we can see through
our senses that experiential piece. So when we bring the experiential together
with reflection and deduction and thought these, this is a powerful moment of
holism. We bring these, these locations of
knowledge together in a holistic way and this is what Caslando is trying to
highlight with her fourth characteristic of holisim.
Jean-Paul RestouleAssociate Professor
