Science and sustainability: learning from indigenous wisdom

Abstract

"This book is about indigenous science: sustainable knowledge and practice of Indigenous peoples around the world which has usually been developed and handed down for generations, but which was often largely ignored by settlers in their lands. Such science has been passed on in performance, art, stories, and in embodied practice, so the book will necessarily examine the meaning of science, problematizing the idea that Western science is the only type that deserves that name, and drawing attention to some of its shortcomings. Methods of acquiring "science" are also examined, notably including a personal account of the author's dissatisfaction with her own undergraduate training, and a realization much later of the reasons for this disillusionment. Throughout the book, the author takes the reader with her on the learning process that brought its content to her attention, and therefore introduces the reasons for wanting to share the examples gathered"--