Worldview Literacy Project

"To shift from the dominant worldview to the original Indigenous worldview takes some 'decolonizing'  of the mind. Our minds have been suckled on the milk of civilization’s domination and coercion of life with industrialization and capitalism increasing disconnection and alienation from earth consciousness."  – Four Arrows

Discover the Worldview Literacy Project, which will help you get started on studying the fifty precepts of the Worldview Chart by Four Arrows. 

You can download the Worldview Chart in color, black and white, English, Spanish or German at the Worldview Literacy Project. 

Enjoy a variety of videos and podcasts with Four Arrows discussing the Worldview Chart and its precepts.

Visit the Worldview Literacy Project.

According to the United Nations 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: 

“The findings of this Assessment…are based on an unprecedented collection of evidence, integrating natural and social science perspectives, a range of knowledge systems and multiple dimensions of value. This is the first global-level assessment to systematically consider evidence about the contributions of indigenous and local knowledge and practices to the enhancement and maintenance of wild and domesticated biodiversity and landscapes.” (1) 

“The report shows that 75% of the land-based environment and about 66% of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human actions. On average, these trends have been less severe — or avoided — in areas held or managed by Indigenous Peoples.” (2) 

“The notion of a good life that most Indigenous Peoples share is deeply relational: the relation to the land with all its interconnected human and nonhuman inhabitants constitutes their collective self-understanding as community. Livelihoods sovereignty is an essential condition to keep this bond. These contributions of nature to notions of a good life may be under threat as access to nature—or key components of nature—are lost.” (3) 

“Consumption patterns area fundamental driver of material extraction, production, and flows, but they too are driven—by worldviews and notions of good quality of life.” (4) 

“The loss of Indigenous languages is potentially a major problem for value diversity and authenticity. In many regions, community values that support sustainable trajectories using indigenous knowledge are at risk of extinction, which results in the loss of biodiversity. The value of the knowledge-practice-belief complex of Indigenous Peoples relating to conservation of biodiversity are central to the sustainable management of ecosystems and biodiversity.” (5) 

Sociocultural framings, norms, worldviews and relational values influence the outcomes of sociotechnological innovations enormously. Nevertheless, these factors remain largely overlooked in studies on sustainable sociotechnological transformations. (6)

From Restoring the Kinship Worldview by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez, published by North Atlantic Books, © 2022. Reprinted by permission of North Atlantic Books.

What’s a worldview?

A worldview is a delocalized general sense of how the world works. It’s a cosmology about what humans are, what they should learn, how they should behave and their purpose; how humans relate to the rest of the manifest natural world; and what is our relation to the unmanifest, the spiritual?

Worldview and TEK

Worldview differs from traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that is localized knowledge Indigenous/First Nation Peoples develops from deep experience in a particular landscape. 

So, there are two kinds of Indigenous knowhow missing in the dominant culture that are apparent around the world in First Nation Peoples: the Kinship worldview and TEK. Our book focuses on the former.

How did we lose the Kinship worldview? 

Our baselines for normality shifted over time in terms of child raising and cultural practices, downshifting human nature to primate levels. Allowing unfettered inequality has led to endemic Wetiko virus (cannibalistic greed). Modern societies operate trauma-inducing pathways instead of the wellness-promoting pathway we evolved.

How does the Kinship worldview differ from the dominant one?

See the Worldview Chart. 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.” 

The Worldview Chart and introduction was created by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), a.k.a. Don Trent Jacobs, Ph.D., Ed.D. and originally published in The Red Road (chanku luta): Linking Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives to Indigenous​ Worldview, 2020. The chart is featured in Restoring the Kindship Worldview, 2022, by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D.  

• Learn or relearn the Indigenous or Kinship Worldview by studying the dominant and Indigenous worldview chart with respect, 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. Discover a plethora of resources on Indigenous Wisdom and Worldview on Kindred. 

• 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.   

• 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 practice that harmful practices.  

• 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.