Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez share four ways we can integrate our Kinship Worldview this Earth Day:
Indigenous worldviews, and the knowledge they confer, are critical for human survival and the wellbeing of future generations. Author and Professor of Education, Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), and author and Professor Emerita of Psychology Darcia Narvaez have both written and lectured extensively on the need to integrate Indigenous worldviews into every aspect of society—from education to sustainability, wellness, and justice.
Through their work and writing, Four Arrows and Darcia emphasize the deep need to move away from the dominant Western paradigm—one that dictates we live without strong social purpose, fails to honor the Earth as sacred, leads with the head while ignoring the heart, and places individual “rights” over collective responsibility. Their most recent collaboration as editors of the anthology Restoring the Kinship Worldview, presents 28 powerful excerpted passages from Indigenous leaders including Mourning Dove, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Winona LaDuke, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez.
Discover more podcasts, excerpts, and posts about Restoring Kinship Worldview
Download Four Arrows’ Worldview Chart
What are the best things that we can do on Earth Day and everyday thereafter?
- Learn or relearn the Indigenous or Kinship Worldview by studying the dominant and Indigenous worldview chart with respect, below, seeking complementarity when possible, and seeing the sacred dialogical space between the different beliefs about healthy living on planet earth and realizing we are all participating in continuing the unhealthy coloniality built into our dominant worldview.
- Do everything possible to educate parents and all adults about the vital importance of practicing the Kinship Worldview precepts from prenatal through infancy and early childhood. Enable the provision of “the evolved nest” to all children. Provide education so that people of all ages grow the capacities for authentic kinship connections with all life forms. Visit the Evolved Nest on Kindred, and EN’s self-directed learning center, and watch EN’s film, Breaking the Cycle.
- Utilize CAT-FAWN “dehypnotizing” technology that uses concentration-activated transformation (Trance-based self-learning) to bring non-dominant understandings about Fear, Authority, Words and Nature into one’s life in ways that can actually transform the practices that have been so hurtful to ourselves and to our world.
- Do what you can to support Indigenous Peoples efforts to gain and maintain sovereignty, save their languages and ceremonies, and maintain and implement place-based knowledge that leads to thriving eco-systems.
Kindred’s Worldview Poster by Four Arrows
Kindred World was founded on the values and beliefs of stewarding and protecting all life as interconnected, interdependent, and therefore, Kindred. Over the past quarter century, we have focused on creating sustainable, peace-loving humans through the integrated and interdisciplinary fields of science that support a life-affirming worldview, identified below in the Indigenous Worldview column. You can read more about our nonprofit’s history here, and discover how our many initiatives help ourselves and our culture make the shift from a Dominator Worldview to an Indigenous Worldview.
Please support our nonprofit work generously!
See below for download options, including PDFs, PNGs, and a black and white version for printing out.
Download your Worldview Chart poster or graphic below:
Kindred Worldview Chart Starry Night Background in PDF format: Download
Kindred Worldview Chart Starry Night Background in PNG format: Download
Kindred Worldview Chart in black and white for printing in PDF format: Download
Kindred Worldview Chart in black and white for printing in PNG format: Download
About the Worldview Chart:
This chart is not intended as a rigid binary, but a true dichotomy best viewed as a continuum. It is meant to encourage seeking complementarity and dialogue. Absolutism is discouraged with the realization we are all participating in DW precepts to some degree. The chart assumes that all diverse cultures, religions, and philosophies can be grouped under one of the two worldviews. “Indigenous Worldview” does not belong to a race or group of people, but Indigenous cultures who still hold on to their traditional place-based knowledge are the wisdom keepers of this original Nature-based worldview. All people are indigenous to Earth and have the right and the responsibility to practice and teach the IW precepts. All have the responsibility to support Indigenous sovereignty, dignity, and use of traditional lands.
For non-Indians who are concerned about misappropriation, see the peer reviewed article,
“The Indigenization Controversy: For Whom By Whom.”
Worldview Chart and introduction by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), a.k.a. Don Trent Jacobs, Ph.D., Ed.D. Originally published in The Red Road (chanku luta): Linking Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives to Indigenous Worldview, 2020. Featured inRestoring the Kindship Worldview, 2022, by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D. Find Four Arrows and more on Indigenous Worldview at www.KindredMedia.org
