How can EE: Add meaning to our lives?

1. Indigenous Knowledge and Practices - Key points, themes and ideas A Worldview based upon values of interconnectedness EE doesn’t “add meaning” to our lives – it “is” our lives something we live, all learning is EE – need to view the environment as the entire world, everything around us, everything we are, forms out identity Humans as an embedded part of the “natural” world – deep ecology, web of life Human activity social, economic, political as part of the environment No hierarchy of knowledge Every living thing is both physical and spiritual Indigenous knowledge reawakens memories within each of us of a time when our own people lived in harmony with the earth – Kawagley How can EE: Add meaning to our lives?

2. Indigenous Knowledge and Practices - Key points, themes and ideas ManyWays of Knowing, Teaching and Learning Two-eyed Seeing - Integrative thinking Recognize and support self identity in EE Importance of place and a sense of place Cross cultural education, building of dialogue between identities “Learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western (or Eurocentric or mainstream) knowledges and ways of knowing … and using both these eyes together, for the benefits of all.” Elder Albert Marshall, Eskasoni Community M’ikmaq Nation How can EE: Contribute to social innovation?

3. Indigenous Knowledge and Practices - Key points, themes and ideas Reciprocity, Respectful, Relationality – partnership and collaboration towards policy change and concrete action How to Share Knowledge – Protocols needed for each cultural group and many aspects are sacred (not all for “public consumption”) Decolonization and Cultural Revitalizationfor Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Peoples – circular relationships Knowledge embedded in Language Multiple Voices within the Indigenous Population – “polylogue” How can EE: Contribute to political innovation and influence public policies?