Knowledge Comes From Somewhere

Learning goal: I can describe key concepts from specific Indigenous knowledge systems such as interconnectedness, reciprocity, and relationship to land, and trace where those concepts come from.

The Point of This Lesson

In Goal 1 you learned what a worldview is. This lesson goes one level deeper. It looks at specific concepts from specific Indigenous nations and asks: where do these ideas come from, and what do they actually mean within the knowledge system that produced them?

This matters because it is easy to hear phrases like "Indigenous peoples value the land" and nod along without understanding what that statement means. The concepts in this handout are not slogans. They are precise ideas, developed over generations, grounded in specific languages and specific relationships to specific places. Knowing where they come from changes how you understand them.

What Is an Indigenous Knowledge System?

An Indigenous knowledge system is the full body of understanding a nation has developed about the world through generations of living in relationship with a particular place. It includes knowledge of plants, animals, weather, and seasons. It includes laws, governance, and ethics. It includes ways of learning, ways of teaching, and ways of passing knowledge forward.

Two things set Indigenous knowledge systems apart from the Western scientific tradition. First, they are relational: knowledge is not separate from the knower or from the relationships the knower holds. Second, they are place-based: knowledge grows from a specific land, river, forest, or coastline and cannot be fully separated from it.

Three Concepts From Three Nations

The following three concepts come from three distinct nations in different parts of the world. They share common themes, but they are not the same thing. Read each one carefully and notice both what they share and how they differ.

Cree Nation (nêhiyaw): Saskatchewan and across the plains

Wahkohtowin (wah-KOH-toh-win)

Kinship: the interconnected nature of all relationships

Wahkohtowin describes the Cree understanding that everything in creation is related. The word comes from the root for kinship and family, but its reach extends beyond human family to plants, animals, water, and the earth itself. Metis Elder Maria Campbell described it this way: "All of creation is related and inter-connected to all things within it. Wahkohtowin meant honouring and respecting those relationships -- human to human, human to plants, human to animals, to the water and especially to the earth." Cree law flows from wahkohtowin: if everything is related, then every action carries obligations to those relations.

Oceti Sakowin (Lakota/Nakota/Dakota): Great Plains

Mitakuye Oyasin (mee-TAH-koo-yay oh-YAH-seen)

All my relations: we are all related

Mitakuye Oyasin is a phrase spoken as prayer and as greeting across Oceti Sakowin communities. It holds that all things, whether plant, animal, mineral, water, wind, or human, are related and share a common space. Because all things are related, all things have a purpose and a responsibility to help those relations thrive. It is both a statement of fact about the nature of reality and a commitment to act accordingly. The phrase is spoken at the start of ceremonies and in everyday life as a reminder of those obligations.

Maori Nation (Aotearoa New Zealand)

Kaitiakitanga (kai-tee-AH-kee-TAHNG-ah)

Guardianship: active responsibility for the natural world

Kaitiakitanga describes the Maori responsibility to protect and care for the natural environment. A kaitiaki is a guardian. The concept is grounded in whakapapa (genealogical connection to the natural world), which holds that humans descend from the same ancestors as the land, sea, and sky. This means the natural world is not a resource to manage but a relative to care for. Kaitiakitanga requires action: managing relationships with the environment in ways that leave it in better shape for future generations. It has been incorporated into New Zealand law under the Resource Management Act.

What These Concepts Have in Common

Each of these concepts comes from a different language, nation, and territory. Yet three themes run through all of them:

• Humans are not separate from or above the natural world. They are part of it, related to it, and responsible to it.

• Knowledge carries obligation. Knowing that something is related to you means you must act accordingly.

• These ideas are encoded in language. The concept and the word that holds it are inseparable. When a language is lost, the knowledge it carries is at risk.

This last point connects directly to Goal 5 of this unit, which examines Indigenous language loss as a human rights issue.

Where Does Knowledge Come From?

For each of these nations, knowledge does not come primarily from laboratories, textbooks, or institutions. It comes from:

• Living on and with a specific land over many generations

• Observation, ceremony, and story

• Relationships with Elders and knowledge keepers

• Language, which carries meaning that cannot always be translated

This is what the learning goal means by "trace where those concepts come from." You are not just learning a definition. You are learning that the concept has roots, and that those roots matter.

Think About It

Answer the following in your notes or journal.

• All three concepts place human beings in relationship with the natural world rather than above it. What would change about how a society treats land, water, or animals if this idea guided policy decisions?

• Wahkohtowin, Mitakuye Oyasin, and Kaitiakitanga come from three different nations. What do the similarities tell you? What do the differences tell you?

• Kaitiakitanga has been written into New Zealand law. What does it mean for an Indigenous concept to be adopted into a national legal system? Is that a good thing, a complicated thing, or both?

Key terms: Wahkohtowin (Cree: kinship, the interconnectedness of all creation) | Mitakuye Oyasin (Lakota/Dakota: all my relations) | Kaitiakitanga (Maori: guardianship of the natural world) | Indigenous knowledge system: the full body of understanding a nation has built through generations of relationship with a specific place.

References

Sources Used

The following sources informed the content of this handout.

Campbell, M. (2007). Cited in Flaminio, A. C. (2019). Keeoukaywin: The visiting way -- fostering an Indigenous research methodology. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 15(1), 52--60.

Kawharu, M. (2000). Kaitiakitanga: A Maori anthropological perspective of the Maori socio-environmental ethic of resource management. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 109(4), 349--370.

Saskatchewan Education. (1992). Native Studies 20: A curriculum guide for Grade 11 International Indigenous Issues. Saskatchewan Education.

Wikipedia. (2025). Wahkohtowin. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahkohtowin