“Indigenous knowledge is not static, an unchanging artifact of a former lifeway.

It has been
adapting to the contemporary world since contact with “others” began, and it will continue to
change. Western science in the North is also beginning to change in response to contract with
indigenous knowledge” (Bielawski as cited in Kawagley and Barnhardt, 1998, p. 2).

The above quote stuck with me after I completed this week’s readings. Over the past month,
and in preparation for my final project, I have been thinking about the Indigenous sense of
place in learning, Indigenous education and more recently, Indigenous Science. I’ll admit that
I have mostly thought of Indigenous Science to be what Indigenous people learned about
Science a long time ago. I’ve thought about how useful it can be but I have really had a then-
and-now type complex- I was thinking about Indigenous Science being more a long time ago
and Western Science as being more modern. Reflecting on this, however, it seems foolish. Of
course Indigenous Science is not static; it must adapt to the cotemporary world.

“The complexities that come into play when two fundamentally different worldviews
converge present a formidable challenge” (Kawagley and Barnhardt, 1998, p. 3) but I found
the comparison table of different knowledge systems helpful. This got me to thinking about
teaching Science and the curriclium in the elementary school classroom. In her article Linda
Smith argues that, “…research is not an innocent or distant exercise but an activity that has
something at stake and that occurs in a set of political and social conditions” (Smith, 1999, p.
5). I think that research should be based on morality; researchers should complete their work
with honesty and integrity. Smith’s argument also made me think about classroom curriculum
and what it is based on. Is the curriculum based on honesty and integrity?

The example of teaching about weather systems rang home to me as an elementary school
teacher. By including both the Indigenous knowledge of subtle messages passed along to
elders by the wind and sun 24 hours earlier and modern meteorologists tools, this example
illustrates the two knowledge systems as being mutually beneficial (Kawagley and Barnhardt,
1998, p. 10). It’s not an either-or situation; Indigenous Science and modern Science both
have a place in the classroom. “The Indigenous perspective adds breadth to the scientists’
depth” as Indigenous people really were the first scientists (Kawagley and Barnhardt, 1998,
p. 12).

References

Kawagley, A.O., & Barnhardt, R. (1998). Education indigenous to place: Western Science
meets native reality. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Knowledge Network.

Smith, Linda, Introduction to Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous

Peoples, London: Zed Books Ltd, 1-18.

Can different knowledge systems be mutually beneficial?