Indigenous Ways of Knowing
amiskwacîwâskahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ), or, the Edmonton area, is on Treaty 6 territory. It has a tremendously long and rich history as a meeting place for many peoples. Our journey of coming into relationship with Indigenous peoples, as well as ways of knowing and being, has been an ongoing process, full of many learnings — steps forward, and sometimes, steps back. We acknowledge that we have much work to do, as individuals, as a city, and as a culture, to decolonize and to reconcile the tremendous harms that continue to negatively affect Indigenous Peoples — in Treaty 6 territory and beyond. This is omnipresent for us as we work with communities.
In 2020, Recover worked with Naheyawin to try to better understand Indigenous concepts of wellness and wellbeing. Naheyawin also prepared stratetegic recommendations to help all those involved with Recover to build understanding, build good relations and develop capacities.
“Indigenous ways of knowing and being help us understand the work of finding and maintaining connection and balance as more than just the challenge of our time—but rather the work of life.”
~ Jacquelyn Cardinal, Naheyawin
At the outset, we recognized that a significant and disproportionate number of people we serve, and co-create with, self-identify as Indigenous. These folks represent communities from all over Turtle Island (North America), carrying with them vibrant and diverse traditions, worldviews, and stories, as well as the direct and intergenerational effects of historic and ongoing colonization.
We believe that Indigenous peoples have unique and complete knowledge sets, well-suited to healing wounds and creating thriving communities, and we have much to learn from their perspectives and ways of coming into wellbeing.
We see it as a part of our mission not only to approach our work with an eye towards respectful and appropriate inclusion, but to go further in transforming our own processes through Indigenous ways of knowing, as we continue our work and our wellbeing journey.
In support of this, Naheyawin prepared resources related to ethical space making and ethical space taking. This is a video that explains what ethical space is, why we need it, and a summary of ways to approach reliably creating and nurturing ethical space. This is a short primer on the origin, development, and strategies for implementing this approach in the context of the work of RECOVER.