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Introduction
Indigenous knowledge, the term I use frequently, is in itself an act of self determination. What I propose here is an Indigenous piece of work that moves beyond "voice", or even perspective. Rather, it embraces Indigenous knowledge which operates on several levels crossing cultural boundaries, time and space. Within this essay, I demonstrate that Indigenous people have a common set of assumptions which forms a context or paradigm, that is to say, a collective core of interrelated assertions about Indigenous reality. Indigenous, for my purposes, is defined as she/he who: a) is born into lands with which she/he maintains an intimate and spiritual relationship with; b) belongs to a distinct linguistic cultural group; c) has maintained a collective oral memory reaching as far back as creation; d) has unique customs and ceremonies that sustain her/his cultural survival and well being; e) has maintained the view that elders are the knowledge carriers and cultural historians.
In response to modernization, Indigenous peoples world wide have found a resounding similarities their philosophical, ideological and cosmological concepts. Collectively, Indigenous peoples from North America have denounced assumptions about Indigenous people presupposed in "Western thought". (Mohawk, Alfred, Smith, Colorado, Warrior, Monture Angus, Churchill, Lyons to name a few) have also begun to construct an inclusive discourse (albeit one which outlines base assumptions and critiques) which is as yet sporadic, and yet not fully articulated. The justification for the validity of Indigenous knowledge is founded on Indigenous Universal law; as such, knowledge is spiritually based and spiritually derived. To remove the spiritual foundation of Indigenous knowledge would be to destroy its very soul; and that very fact has never been lost to the colonialist regimes.
Indigenous people bring with them an ancient knowledge system that serves both to demonstrate their distinctive form of knowledge, as well as its dynamics; its ability to recreate itself in modern settings is testimony to its resiliency. The historical (that is colonial) misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples within a Western political structure is viewed by many as a systematic rhetoric developed precisely in order to justify the oppression and genocide of Native and "others" (Churchill 1997:1 & 1998, Jaimes 1992:1). Nor is academic research free of systemic bias. In this capacity, Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith...