Kindred Announces Worldview Literacy Project and Partnership with Veterans for Peace
Kindred World is proud to announce the launch of the Worldview Literacy Project, a self-directed or community learning program exploring rebalancing life on earth with worldview literacy.
The WLP features the Worldview Chart by internationally renown Indigenous studies scholar, Four Arrows, as well as instructions for how to participate in a 90-day engagement with the Worldview Chart ending with a survey to gather participant’s stories and insights.
In addition to the WLP resources and survey for the public, Kindred World has partnered with Veterans For Peace, VFP, to create and distribute the WLP Survey to their members. Kindred World’s nonprofit partnership with VFP is made possible through a grant for the research project from Fielding University.
Four Arrows will officially introduce the WLP during his opening presentation of the VFP Convention on August 16, 2024. (Register for the VFP Convention here.) The Worldview Literacy Project website features a dedicated page for VFP members to participate in the survey study. (Go to the VFP Member page here.)
“Veterans For Peace is a global organization of military veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars,” shares Susan Schnall, president of VFP.
“As military veterans of war, we have been witness to and experienced war and its destruction on all living things; we inform and educate people about its true nature and impact on the earth. It is an honor for us to partner with Kindred World View in this project which will help us both individually and organizationally to becoming nature-centered and interconnected partners with other beings that make up the world,” says Schnall.
“We are delighted to partner with Veterans For Peace and for the opportunity to work together to gather their members’ insights and stories,” said Lisa Reagan, Kindred World’s founder and Kindred Magazine’s editor. “Kindred World has focused on bringing worldview literacy to our followers for over a decade. Fifty years of human consciousness research show the critical need for worldview shifting. Four Arrows’ Worldview Chart and Indigenous Worldview scholarship reveal there are only two essential worldviews: one where Nature is conscious and one where it is not. The WLP can help us discover which world we want to live in.”
Kindred introduced the Worldview Chart by Four Arrows in 2020. The chart has been expanded from 40 to 50 precepts through a collaboration with Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, PhD. You are welcome to download a color or black and white PDF of the chart here. You can also purchase a poster of the chart here. Your purchase will support our nonprofit work.
In addition to featuring the updated Worldview Chart by Four Arrows, the WLP draws heavily from Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Earth, written by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, PhD, Kindred World’s president and founder of the Evolved Nest Initiative. The Worldview Chart was created by Four Arrows and originally published in The Red Road (chanku luta): Linking Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives to Indigenous Worldview, 2020.
Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, PhD, are Kindred World board members and contributing editors for Kindred Magazine.
Visit the WLP website to discover extensive resources from Kindred Magazine, including interviews, articles, videos, and podcasts with Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez curated for self-study and community learning: www.WorldviewLiteracy.org.
About Four Arrows
Four Arrows (Wahinkpe Topa) aka Dr. Don Trent Jacobs is now core faculty at Antioch University’s online Ed.D. in Educational and Professional Practice. He is proud to be part of the educational team maintaining the progressive legacy of Antioch’s original founder, Horace Mann.
He was formerly with Fielding Graduate University for 24 years, Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota College and tenured Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University. With doctorates in health psychology and in Curriculum and Instruction (with a cognate in Indigenous Worldview) he has authored 21 books and numerous other publications relating to wellness, critical theory, education and Indigenous worldview. His publications have been praised by a number of notable thinkers, including John Pilger, Greg Cajete, Noam Chomsky, Thom Hartman, Henry Giroux, Sam Keen, Bruce Lipton, Dan Millman, Vine Deloris, Jr. and many others.
AERO elected him as one of 27 visionaries for their text, Turning Points, and he is recipient of a number of recognitions for his activism, including the Martin-Springer Institute’s Moral Courage Award.
Read Four Arrows on Kindred.
Read the Seven Consideration for Using the Worldview Chart by Four Arrows below for more information.
Seven Considerations for Using the Worldview Chart
1. Understand “Worldview”: Consider “worldview” as a set of fundamental, and often uninvestigated, beliefs that manifest in primary aspects of cultures, religions, educational institutions, economic systems, sports, science, and media. Not all individuals within these systems believe all the precepts on one side of the chart or the other, but enough support, tolerate, or comply, whether forced or not, allowing these systems to operate in ways that ultimately reflect either the “Dominant Worldview” or the “Indigenous Worldview.”
2. Distinguish Between Worldviews: The “Dominant Worldview” refers to beliefs that emerged around ten thousand years ago, reflecting human-centeredness and a sense of human superiority over nature. It also generally describes the consequences of colonialization. The “Indigenous Worldview” refers to beliefs that guided humanity for most of our history. It is nature-centered and understands humans to be interconnected partners with other sentient beings that make up the rest of the world.
3. Practical Phrasing of the Contrasting Worldview Precepts: The chart uses well-researched and practical contrasting worldview beliefs to help individuals “walk in balance” by recognizing the degrees to which they engage with the precept. One may believe in the Indigenous worldview precept but still live in ways that help maintain the Dominant worldview precept in life systems. For example, consider the contrasting precept pairs described in #12 on the chart. While an individual may espouse the Indigenous perspective that “words are sacred and truthfulness is essential,” the use of “words to deceive self or others” is a prominent reality in most Dominant Worldview systems listed in #1. For positive transformation, the person studying the chart should do so with honest self-reflection. Acknowledging the degree to which one is engaging or supporting the Dominant side and the reasons for it, and using other related precepts, one can make affirmations for transformation, using trance-based learning (and believing in it as per the Indigenous worldview precept) to actualize it in one’s life.
4. Interconnected Precepts: Many people hold beliefs represented on both sides of the chart in varying degrees. However, the precepts are highly interconnected and ultimately inseparable. One cannot pick and choose a few Indigenous worldview precepts while practicing a number of Dominant worldview precepts to rebalance life systems. Each Indigenous worldview precept must be lived as interrelated for a life system to be considered balanced via the Indigenous Worldview. For example, one may decide to no longer support rigid hierarchy or strict authoritarian control and may begin transformational work with much success. However, if they continue to have low respect for the feminine or see humans as superior to animals, the Dominant worldview is maintained.
5. Non-Binary Thinking: The Indigenous worldview precept about non-binary thinking is crucial for understanding the two sides while realizing the goal of moving toward the proven healthier Indigenous Worldview precept. Seeking complementarity between the two sides is not about acceptance of or compromise with the Dominant Worldview. Rather, it is about understanding the Dominant worldview precepts empathetically and holistically in ways that complement or enhance the ultimate embracing of the Indigenous pathway for rebalancing life systems, always recognizing the tension and potential of the contrasting pairs.
6. Contemporary Indigenous Cultures: Individuals in contemporary cultures we define as being Indigenous may or may not still live according to the original “Indigenous worldview,” depending on the degree of colonization they have suffered. However, where this worldview is still operating in the categories described in #1 above, life systems are proven to be healthier. We define this nature-based, interconnected, non-materialistic, spiritual, kinship-oriented worldview that potentially belongs to all people as “Indigenous” to recognize its “indigenous” (small i) aspect and to recognize the groups most likely to still express it. (See ProvenSustainable.org for contemporary examples).
7. Misappropriation vs. Embracement: While misappropriation of Indigeneity is a real problem, studying, teaching, or embracing Indigenous Worldviews is not misappropriation. The “Indigenous worldview” belongs to all creatures on Mother Earth. With a good heart and being an ally of the remaining First Nations as one can, restoring the Indigenous worldview should be a goal for all of us. Indigenous place-based knowledge, however, can only belong to each of the unique Indigenous cultures or First Nations. To have such knowledge requires fluency in the language, intimate knowledge of traditional ceremonies, generations of handed-down wisdom about local flora and fauna, etc. Saving such cultural knowledge and giving sovereignty to those who have it is a vital goal for everyone.