Aboriginal Worldviews

Circle
The circle is a model used for group interaction in both the symbolic realm (to convey teachings and promote the
development of individual and community values) and on the practical level (to use as a structure for discussion and
problem solving). Circles are part of the natural order of creation from the water cycle to the seasons to the cycle of
birth and death and as such, the circle signifies transformation and movement. Aboriginal peoples in North America
use the circle to illustrate their worldviews using models such as the medicine wheel, which illustrates the human
journey through life and explains relationships between various aspects of creation, both seen and unseen. The circle
is infinite and continuous. It is a way of understanding and explaining interrelatedness and interconnectedness (see
Interconnectedness).

There is some debate about whether pre-contact Aboriginal peoples used circles as a model for
discussion or problem solving. Some Aboriginal peoples contend that talking circles were introduced by the
Jesuits, and were actually a form of oppression in that the Jesuit facilitator controlled the talking stick and Aboriginal
peoples were not actually allowed to speak. What is clear is that most Aboriginal nations conceive of society as a
circle that functions partly as a result of tension and flux between the individual and the group. They see the natural
world as functioning in similar, interrelated cycles and relationships. Ancient drawings of circles and medicine wheels
appear at sites across the Americas. In ceremonies such as sweat lodges and sundances, participants gather in a
circle. Even if the circle wasnt used in daily activities, it was clearly used in governance, justice, and other sociopolitical frameworks as a conceptual model.
Aboriginal peoples do not own the concept of the circle. It is used by cultures worldwide, from Mennonite
communities to village councils in Afghanistan. Chinese Daoism describes the logic of relationships, flux, universal
oneness, and the cyclical nature of life using the circular yin-yang symbol. Interconnectedness and the necessity of
maintaining relationships is not a foreign concept to most cultures it is simply a forgotten one.

Community
Historically, Indigenous peoples prioritized collectivity and community over individualism. Individuals were free to
determine their own course in life, but every individual had a responsibility for understanding their role in the

community and how their actions affected other people and everything else in creation. By maintaining healthy
relationships, Indigenous peoples achieved harmony and balance, and collectivity was maintained. Today, the
importance of community is seen in various contemporary systems, including restorative justice frameworks and
community consultation processes on questions of self-government and models for health-care delivery, among
numerous others. The concept of community can encompass various circles of interconnectedness including family,
extended family, community, clan, and nation. It may also include ancestral territory. The concept of community can
also fluctuate between an on-reserve and an urban community, depending on where a person is living at the time.
Aboriginal social systems are often organized through a clan or society system. Historically, these systems helped
divide labour, as certain clans or societies were responsible for specific jobs in the community. Each clan or society
had a self-regulating council that assisted with the nations governance. Today, clans and societies still have a role in
traditional governance activities. They also confer kinship. A member of your clan, even if not a biological relative, is
considered a relation. The clan system ensures interconnectedness and balance among generations and even
between distant nations, as people from other nations are also considered relatives if they are from the same clan.

Many traditional Aboriginal social structures have been broken by the forces of colonialism.
Communities are now often divided among themselves, and traditional structures such as extended family and clan
systems have been replaced in many cases with colonial structures such as the nuclear family. The geographic
mobility of Aboriginal peoples from reserve to urban, from region to region, and from dwelling to dwelling within an
urban area often means that communities have a weaker social cohesion. However, because Aboriginal
communities are often marginalized from the dominant society and/or geographically segregated, there are often
strong ties within a community that translate into mutual support and community activism.
Aboriginal peoples employ a different value system for establishing relationships with other peoples. Aboriginal
peoples do not ask What do you do? They ask, Where are you from? or Who are your people? or What is your
clan? These questions establish individual identity with the construct of community.

Drum
The heartbeat rhythm (ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum) is what human beings hear first, while in the
womb. Making the heartbeat rhythm with a drum connects people to their origins and to the cosmos from which they
came. Because this action speaks of the transformation from spirit to human form, and because transformation is
sacred to Indigenous peoples, drums are considered sacred objects. A drums power to call the spirit and connect this
world with the spirit world means it must be handled carefully and used appropriately. Drums are created from living
materials wood and animal hide and are considered living entities and part of the web of creation. This is why
Indigenous peoples refer to the drum as the heartbeat of Mother Earth.
Different Indigenous nations have different teachings around the origin of various types of drums. For some
Anishinabe people, the hand drum is said to have been given to a childless woman during a full moon. She was told
that the drum represented Grandmother Moon, and that she must care for the drum as if it were her child. Some
Lakota people say that the big drum was given to a girl child who sneaked into an enemy village, as a way of bringing
peace to warring nations. These stories still inform the protocols that surround the care and handling of drums. Like a
relative, or as a show of respect for the gift given, drums must be cleansed, thanked, and loved through feasts and
prayers if they are to function properly. Offerings of tobacco or water are often made to drums. Drums arent left alone
for long periods of time; people take them when they travel or make arrangements for their care when they are away.
Drums are never placed face down or left in a casual spot where they might be damaged. They should not be used
as decoration, for example, hung on a wall and ignored.

Drums have both sacred (ceremonial) and social (celebratory) aspects. Drumming and dancing is a common practice
in Aboriginal cultures, happening during rites of passage such as fasts, births, deaths, marriages, healing
ceremonies, and ceremonies ranging from the shaking tent to the sun dance. Although there are social aspects to
drumming and dancing, drumming is not just about entertainment, as it is in European culture. The heartbeat and
music of the drum, although part of daily life, serve specific functions. Drums are not toys and are not merely musical
instruments. Children did not historically make drums, as they do not have the necessary experience and skills to
care for them.
In Aboriginal cultures, both women and men play the hand drum and the water drum. However, the big drum which
is also called the grandmother or grandfather drum by the Plains cultures with whom it originated is generally not
played by women. This is because the big drum is said to have been brought to humankind by a woman, to help men
stay connected to the Earth. As such, women stand around the drum as the men play, singing if they choose, but
always watching to make sure that the men are treating the drum with care and respect. This is a position of power
that is often greatly misunderstood.

Environment
From time immemorial, knowledge of the land, the plants and animals that live on the land, and the seasons and
cycles of nature have been central to the lives of Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. This knowledge was
passed on to younger generations, who were taught to show responsible action toward the environment.
Indigenous peoples do not conceive of the environment as a discrete entity. The environment is part of the web of
creation, and humans are one strand in that web (see Interconnectedness). The idea that humans are related to
everything else in creation leads to accountability. Accountability leads to personal responsibility. This responsibility
ensures the survival of indigenous cultures, which were and sometimes still are dependent on the land. Examples
of environmental degradation or over-exploitation by Indigenous peoples (such as Easter Island) were almost always
linked to the oppression and devastation of indigenous cultures by European slave raiding, colonialism, or the
introduction of European disease. Sometimes over-exploitation was caused by ecological changes that created
tremendous upheavals within Indigenous social systems.
When discussing Indigenous concepts about the environment, one must consider the following:

In most Aboriginal languages, there are no animate-inanimate comparisons between things: animals have
souls that are equal to humans, rocks have souls, trees have souls.

Indigenous cultures emphasize a close relationship with nature, as opposed to control over the natural
world.

Indigenous peoples managed forests with fire and hybridized and irrigated agricultural crops, which meant
that their actions did have an impact on the environment but these activities were done within a sustainable
model that emphasized responsibility and relationships.

Many people believe that feeling oneness with the Earth is only possible in a rural or bush setting, when in fact it is
possible in any setting, even an urban one (underneath the concrete, the land is still alive; falcons and coyotes live in
downtown Toronto). Indigenous ways of knowing are primarily experiential, and Indigenous peoples see the web of
creation everywhere.

Interconnectedness
Although Indigenous peoples are diverse in their cultural practices and perspectives, their worldviews are similar in
many basic respects, including a belief in the interconnectedness of all living things. This includes humans as
interconnected to other forms of life on the planet, as well as to the planet itself, in an infinite set of systems. This
vision of interconnectedness is a spiritual doctrine and provides guidance for the human journey through life. There
are different circles of interaction and interdependence such as family, community, nation, and creation and within
those circles, there are multiple reciprocal relationships (for example, individual to community, and community to the
environment). Each life form within each circle is a sacred being; everything has a spirit; and power with is valued
much more than power over. Power over is not considered a true form of power; only in relationships defined by
respect, reciprocity, and responsibility do human beings reach their full potential and create just societies. This unified
vision contrasts to the artificial fragmentation of systems within other cultures.
In Indigenous cultures, the survival of each life form is dependent on the survival of all others. This is why models
such as the medicine wheel are so central to Aboriginal cultures: envisioning the infinite set of connections present
within the medicine wheel creates the questions and reflections that guide the human journey (What is the individuals
responsibility to and relationship with the cosmos? To/with the community? To/with the land?). The positive actions of
one affect the whole. Likewise, trauma and hardship experienced by all is experienced by the one. Decisions made
today must be considered in light of the effect they might have on ones descendants. Interconnectedness fosters
harmony by promoting responsibility and reciprocity, and harmony is considered the most powerful energy in the
universe.

Place: Land & Identity

For Indigenous peoples, land plays a role in symbolic identity and in creating the everyday interrelatedness that forms
the basis of Aboriginal values and beliefs. Prior to colonization, Indigenous peoples gained identity from the land.
During creation, spirit beings created the natural environment; today, certain markers remain as rocks, rivers, and
places on the land where specific cultural activities take place. The land, therefore, also forms the basis for Aboriginal
oral narrative, as stories relating to these landmarks and of migration to new landscapes with new landmarks
create and sustain identity and connection to place. Prior to colonization, Aboriginal peoples learned from childhood
the history and spiritual significance of each feature of the landscape. Memory was embedded in the land and in the
observation of the transformations of landmarks within the territory.
Land transmits and strengthens the relational nature of Aboriginal life. Whereas European cultures believe in
dominion over the land, Indigenous cultures believe that humankind must live in accordance with the land, because
the land has stories to tell. These stories teach us how to be human; they present us with key questions such as Who
am I? Who are we? Where are we? What does this place mean?

Because the land nurtures people, Aboriginal peoples believe they have a sacred responsibility to
protect it. This is why they are often opposed to resource development and other invasive activities on traditional
lands, especially sacred or special sites. However, if their right to control the use of and access to their lands are
recognized, Indigenous peoples are sometimes willing to negotiate shared access to the land through land-use
agreements. Environmental justice is important to the contemporary struggle for Aboriginal self-determination
because sustainable practices will ensure the continued survival of all peoples, as well as the maintenance of
traditional Indigenous knowledge.

The land once ensured self-sufficient living in terms of providing food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and connections to
the oral narratives that conferred identity. The creation of reserves, the forced relocation of some communities, and
the marginalization and displacement of other groups has had devastating effects on Aboriginal cultures because
Aboriginal peoples can no longer be self-sufficient, proud, or purposeful. Most are not able to provide adequately for
their families, as environmental degradation has resulted in Aboriginal peoples being unable to hunt, fish, or gather.
The loss of land and relocation to reserves has meant the loss of traditional social, economic, and other culturebound systems. The contemporary situations in many Aboriginal communities stem from this dispossession from the
land and subsequent rupture of oral narrative not from an innate inability to function as self-sufficient societies.

Self-Determination
Although Aboriginal peoples have not yet achieved political decolonization, they still need to be understood as selfdetermining. Prior to contact, Aboriginal peoples in Canada were sovereign nations, and were recognized as selfgoverning in various treaties and in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Today, many people believe that Indigenous
peoples worldwide should be entitled to choose their own forms of government within existing states as a way to reestablish traditional forms of governance. Aboriginal peoples in Canada want the same rights and freedoms enjoyed
by all Canadians, but they also want to maintain their distinct cultural identities and determine their own political
status.
Self-determination for both on-reserve and urban Aboriginal peoples will require Aboriginal people to work together to
govern themselves, run their daily affairs, and engage in long-term planning in areas such as land management. That
doesnt mean delivering programs designed by someone else it means designing programs for themselves. This
will require a social cohesiveness that does not currently exist due to the intergenerational trauma that has been
created as a result of colonization. Self-determination will require a return to traditional ways of being that stress
respect, responsibility, reciprocity, and relationships. Self-determination will also require programs and resources to
assist Aboriginal peoples in rebuilding their self-governing and decision-making capacities and that will cost money.
Many Canadians will see that as continued dependence, but in fact, the investment will lead to greater selfdetermination and a gradual return to self-sufficiency.

Aboriginal rights are older than Canada. The right to be autonomous and self-governing is
acknowledged and protected by the Canadian Constitution.
Many First Nations people believe that the first step to returning to self-determination begins with scrapping the
federal Indian Act, which regulates the lives of status/on-reserve Indians. There is, however, some concern about
what would replace the Act. How would human rights on-reserve be protected? How would status Indians who are
Canadian citizens be assured of their Charter rights? How would the status of women be protected in on-reserve
communities and on-reserve governments? Would there be taxation? How would each community ensure
accountability around issues of programming and spending? Non-status and urban Aboriginal peoples do not face the
same challenges, as they are integrated into municipal, provincial, and federal systems alongside other Canadians.

Time
In a 1995 video of Mayan refugees in Chiapas, Mxico, fleeing paramilitary violence in their villages and walking into
the mountains, an amateur videographer asks an elder in Spanish, Grandfather, where are you going? The old man
answers, Here. We are going. The place the current relationship is the here and now; so is the movement. The
destination isnt as important as the transformative action; the future cannot be known.

For Indigenous peoples, the past, present, and future are interconnected. Time is circular, and it is also connected to
place. What happens today might be related to the experience of an ancestor, and linked to a particular environment,
but it also belongs to the person who carries the memory of that experience. After 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner
Rigoberta Mench Tum, a Quiche from Guatemala, published her autobiography, she was accused of fabricating
parts of the story because she used a first-person narrative to describe events that happened to other people in her
family and community. However, her storytelling reflects an indigenous understanding that time is circular and stories
are linked through time and space. While some cultures have a linear understanding of time and experience, for
Indigenous peoples, the world is an eternal now of interrelated circles of experience. The actions of one affect the
whole in this and other times; whatever is experienced by the group is experienced by the individual.
Aboriginal concepts of time also extend to ways of learning, teaching, and knowing. In Indigenous societies, learning
is conceptualized as interconnected spirals. These learning spirals are non-linear, extending throughout the lifetime of
the learner and including experiences that happened before birth. Learning is lifelong and not located only in the
present.
The myth of Indian time, which is used in Canada and the U.S. as an excuse for lateness, is sometimes repeated by
Aboriginal peoples themselves. Prior to colonization, Indigenous peoples relied on the interrelated cycles of plants,
animals, weather patterns, and other facets of life on Earth. Communities that were not sedentary travelled in small
family units and stayed away from enemy territory. If Indigenous peoples anywhere had ever a whenever, whatever
attitude toward hunting, planting, or moving their village when the scouts informed them that the enemy were two
days away, theyd never have survived. Indigenous cultures had and continue to have a well-developed
understanding of both calendar time (including weather and seasons) and mythic time (oral tradition, memory, spirit
world), using highly sophisticated systems based on math and astronomy. Indigenous concepts of time do not include
being late, disrespecting others by keeping them waiting, or waiting around instead of taking action. Indigenous
concepts of time do, however, include the idea that what is meant to happen will happen, and that individuals should
live in the eternal now, trusting that the experience will make sense when it is supposed to (in the appropriate now).
Life is about balancing destiny and acts of personal volition in the present not worrying about the future.

Ways of Knowing
Worldviews are closely connected to ways of knowing. How Indigenous peoples come to know and understand the
world around them creates a body of knowledge that is expressed in science, political systems, economic systems,
and artistic expression such as drumming, dancing, writing, or other storytelling (storytelling can include pictographs,
petroglyphs, wampum belts, crested blankets, totem poles, winter counts, or the sides of a painted tipi). There are
many nations, and therefore many worldviews. There are, however, some common themes that run across most
Indigenous worldviews, characterized by the concept of the circle, interconnectedness, connection to place, and the
four Rs (respect, reciprocity, responsibility, and relationships). Indigenous worldviews are also characterized by a
belief in the power of creating harmony: by creating a positive shared mind with all of creation, and honouring ones
connection to all other sacred beings within creation, one creates power with, as opposed to power over. The four
Rs are honoured daily through experiential interactions with the cosmos, the environment, and other people. Through
empathy, compassion, and kinship, Indigenous peoples believe that it is possible to create a harmonious world.
Elders say that words and thoughts have the power to create and change the world.
Language reflects worldview. Most Aboriginal languages focus on action and transformation (Cree uses more verbs
than nouns), relationship, and more than one way of understanding. For Aboriginal peoples, there may be multiple
realities. There is no such thing as absolute truth; all truth is relative to a particular context, and reality is represented
in the relationship one has with truth. Thus, an object or thing is not as important as ones relationships to it. Reality is

represented in relationships, which means that reality is not a static state it is a process, and this process will be
different for each person.
Indigenous learning addresses the whole person, encompassing the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional
capabilities of that person in relation to all living things. This unified vision is in contrast to the European focus on an
analytic approach, and the fragmentation of concepts within discrete disciplines. For Indigenous peoples, analysis is
cumulative, collaborative, and circular. These ways of knowing are reflected in Indigenous worldviews, which
emphasize connectivity, relationality, and interrelatedness.

Aboriginal worldviews are characterized by a belief that all objectivity is subjectivity that is, the
only thing that humans can really know is themselves. First Nations people believe that humans take
multiple trips around the medicine wheel; this spiral learning starts with gaining knowledge, continues with using
reason, engaging in deep thought, and, finally, being rewarded with insight. But each journey around the wheel
reveals deeper, different truths. Life is about constant transformation and greater self-awareness. Thus, within the
interrelatedness of Aboriginal worldviews lies a deep and abiding freedom of the individual.