Day 24. Indigenous Science – Knowledge Rooted in Relationship.
Indigenous science is not “alternative” medicine, it is foundational knowledge and practices passed from generation to generation informed by cultural memories, sensitivity to change, and values rooted in millennia of observation, experimentation, and respect for the web of life.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) offers pathways to sustainability that Western science is only beginning to understand.
From the fire stewardship practices of California tribes leading on the indigenous wisdom of Cultural burning, to Inuit climate data – traditional knowledge and modern scientific data, with Inuit observations highlighting rapid changes like thinner sea ice, melting permafrost, and shifts in weather patterns, and the ancient innovation of Polynesian ocean navigation, Indigenous knowledge systems integrate science and spirit. They teach that wisdom is relational: you cannot study the world without belonging to it.
As Unitarian Universalists who honor the interdependent web, we recognize that true knowledge requires humility. Science and spirit are not separate—they are both ways of knowing the sacred.
“The times we are in are critical—the Earth is dying. The people—Indigenous Elders and Indigenous Cultural Practitioners—who hold and are able to transmit critical knowledge of what we need to survive are actively prevented from being able to share their knowledge. ” – Dr Apela Colorado, Oneida-Gaul, traditional cultural practitioner, indigenous scientist, and Founder of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network.
Reflection: What are your ancestral ways of knowing, and how is this knowledge still present in the world?
Learn More
Discover We the Voyagers: Our Moana – a PBS Hawai’i documentary about the art and science of Polynesian Wayfinding
Listen to the What if to What Next podcast episode: What if Indigenous Wisdom Could Save the World? Featuring Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, an Indigenous attorney, activist, and author from the Penobscot Nation. You can also sign up for her blog ‘The Dance of Bear and Crow,’ and find her book award winning book, Sacred Instructions.
Explore the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network – Their purpose is to create places for ethical collaboration between the two ways of knowing—Indigenous and Western—not only for the survival of the knowledge systems, but for life itself.
View All of This Month’s Daily Posts
More 2025/26 Celebrating Diversity
For more information and access to other events, sign our Guestbook!