Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts: Multiple Readings of Our Worlds

Indigenous knowledges are understood as the commonsense ideas and cultural knowledges of local peoples concerning the everyday realities of living. This definition refers to the epistemic saliency of cultural traditions, values, belief systems and world views that, in any indigenous society, are imparted to the younger generation by community elders. It is also refers to world views that are products of a profoundly direct experience of nature and its relationship with the social world. Bringing new and complex readings to the term 'indigenous', this collection of essays from Canadian and international contributors is an invitation to critically engage in the discussion of indigenous knowledges and their implication for academic decolonization. The essays are divided into four sections: Situating Indigenous Knowledges: Definitions and Boundaries; Indigenous Knowledge: Resistance and Advocacy; Indigenous Knowledge and the Academy; and Indigenous Knowledge and Transforming Practices. Collectively the essays situate indigenous knowledges in relation to conventional knowledges, validate the existence of multiple sources of knowledge, and examine the varying strategies, projects, and theories that are currently being developed in support of indigenous knowledges. The book draws attention to some of the nuances, contradictions, and contestations in affirming the place of indigenous knowledges in the academy, while maintaining that different bodies of knowledges continually influence each other to reveal the dynamism of all knowledge systems.

Table of Contents:
Updating Aboriginal traditions of knowledge / Marlene Brant Castellano -- Heart knowledge, blood memory, and the voice of the land: implications of research among Hawaiian elders / Leilani Holmes -- Indigenous knowledge : lessons from the elders- a Kenyan case study / Njoki Nathani Wane -- African development : the relevance and implications of 'indigenousness' / George J. Sefa Dei -- Oral Narratives as a site of resistance : indigenous knowledge, colonialism, and western discourse / Elizabeth McIsaac --The retention of knowledge of folkways as a basis for resistance / Patience Elabor-Idemudia -- Indigenous nations and the human genome diversity project / Sandra S. Awang -- Toward indigenous wholeness : feminist praxis in transformative learning on health and the environment / Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg -- Native studies and the academy / Joseph Couture -- Toward an embodied pedagogy : exploring health and the body through Chinese medicine / Roxana Ng -- Not so strange bedfellows : indigenous knowledge, literature studies, and African development / Handel Kashope Wright -- Breaking the educational silence : For Seven Generations, an information legacy of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples / Budd L. Hall -- Ayurveda : mother of indigenous health knowledge / Farah M. Shroff -- Partnership in practice : some reflections on the Aboriginal healing and wellness strategy / Suzanne Dudziak -- Peace research and African development : an indigenous African perspective / Thomas Mark Turay -- Mpambo, the African multiversity: a philosophy to rekindle the African spirit / Paul Wangoola.

About the Author :
George J. Sefa Dei is Professor, Department of Sociology in Education, University of Toronto. Dorothy Goldin-Rosenberg is Professor, Department of Sociology in Education, OISE/UT. Budd L. Hall is co-chair of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education and a professor of community development in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria.