Respect, Connect, Reflect, Direct.

Notes from Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta

“An appropriate way of coming to Indigenous Knowledge and working toward sustainable solutions:

The first step of Respect is aligned with values and protocols of introduction, setting rules and boundaries. This is the work of your spirit, your gut.

The second step, Connect, is about establishing strong relationships and routines of exchange that are equal for all involved. Your way of being is your way of relating, because all things only exist in relationship to other things. This is the work of your heart.

The third step, Reflect, is about thinking as part of the group and collectively establishing a shared body of knowledge to inform what you will do. This is the work of the head.

The final step, Direct, is about acting on that shared knowledge in ways that are negotiated by all. This is the work of the hands.

Respect, Connect, Reflect, Direct—in that order.”

Indigenous Knowledge

Notes from Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta

”We wanted to find a pattern that was common to all different groups, a process that could be used by anyone to come to Indigenous Knowledge productively and without doing damage.

We had four questions:

What can we know?

What do we know?

How do we know it?

How do we work with that?

The answers we found were as follows:

What we can know is determined by our obligations and relationships to people, Ancestors, land, Law, and creation.

What we know is that the role of custodial species is to sustain creation, which is formed from complexity and connectedness.

The way we know this is through our cultural metaphors.

The way we work with this knowledge is by positioning, sharing, and adapting our cultural metaphors.”

What is my real body?

"I can lose my hands, and still live.

I can lose my legs and still live.

I can lose my eyes and still live.

I can lose my hair, eyebrows, nose, arms and many other things and still live.

But if I lose the air I die.

If I lose the sun I die.

If I lose the earth I die.

If I lose the water I die.

If I lose the plants and animals I die.

All of these things are more a part of me, more essential to my every breath, than is my so-called body.

What is my real body?"

• Jack D. Forbes