Indigenous Worldviews of Relatedness (self-paced)

This is a compilation of courses we have filmed with Indigenous Elders, and scholars of relatedness.

It includes our courses

• • Becoming a Real Human Being with 'Kuuyux' Ilarion Merculieff
• • Deprogramming the Colonial Mind with Tiokasin Ghosthorse
• • Indigenous Cosmologies with Alika Atay, Darcia Narvaez, PhD, Tashka Yawanawa

When we consider the pillars of Hearth Science work, they derive from three primary streams: Polyvagal Theory and cutting-edge work in neuoscience and psychophysiology, The Evolved Nest work of Darcia Narvaez, PhD, which situates the story of safety and connection within the long lineage of the human evolutionary story, and Indigenous worldviews of relatedness.

Indigenous cosmology, across cultures, tends to be radically relational in its orientation, a strong corrective to the domination dynamics of modernity. In this collection, we present three related courses that explore indigenous cosmologies of relatedness.

'Kuuyux' Ilarion Merculieff was among the last generation of Unangan people (Aleut) raised in a traditional manner in the Bering Sea. Born on the Pribiloff Islands, three hundred miles off the coast of Alaska, his people created a culture with the densest linear mile of population in the Americas, in a climate that is Artic, and fogged in most of the year. In their anthropometric kayaks, they plied the Pacific Ocean as far south as the tip of South America. Kuuyux - his name means a hand reaching out from the body- is a bridge from this culture to the world. He is President of the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Lakota, and a speaker of the old Lakhota language, which he calls a 'non-mathematical quantum mechanical language of intuition'. An activist for peace, and on behalf of our Mother Earth, he is Founder of the Akantu Institute.

Alika Atay is a traditional Hawaiian farmer and activist. He was President of the West Side Mauna Kahalawai Chapter of the Maui Farmers United Union when this footage was recorded. Alika is a community leader, farmer, and mentor from a 10th generation Indigenous Hawaiian family. His relationship to the land is deeply spiritual and political in the sense that food sovereignty is at the heart of his concerns.

Tashka Yawanawá is Chief of the Yawanawá tribe in Acre, Brazil. During his tenure as chief, the Yawanawás have reclaimed ancestral territory and developed a lifeplan for their community.

Darcia Narvaez, PhD, is Professor Emerita in Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, and Developer of the Evolved Nest.

Half of the proceeds from this course will be directly contributed to the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways (Ilarion's organization), Akantu Institute (Tiokasin's organization), and the Yawanawá tribe (Tashka's tribe).