About NCCIE
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Knowledge Weavers Hub
Explore land-based learning, traditional governance principles, and cultural perspectives through rich multimedia collections.
Much careful thought – ayâkwâmisiwin – has gone into the creation of this Knowledge Weavers Hub. The Elders of kêhtê-ayak, the Elders’ Council of First Nations University of Canada, welcome you, and in choosing to share some of their knowledge, they ask that you kindly practice careful thought as well. With the expanding digital age, reliance solely on paper and two-dimensional representations of Indigenous knowledges have given way to being able once again to privilege voices over written words. NCCIE has been honoured to work with kêhtê-ayak, the Elders at First Nations University of Canada, who have bravely embarked on a journey with NCCIE to explore the opportunities to learn visually and orally through the World Wide Web and documentary filmmaking. We have grounded this journey in ceremony and have asked for blessings of the ancestors to guide this work in good ways. We have been careful to consider what can and cannot be shared.
Our new storytellers have a big job. They must understand … the new language [English] and use it to express their stories without losing the thoughts and images that are culturally unique to them. This new storyteller must also be a translator of the old way, so that it will not be lost to a new generation. And all this must be done on paper, for that is the new way.
Wheeler, W. (2005). Reflections on the social relations of Indigenous oral histories. In D. McNab & U. Lischke (Eds.), Walking a tightrope: Aboriginal people and their representations (pp. 189-213). Waterloo, ON; Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
A Message from the Elders
This Knowledge Weavers Hub is just a beginning. The spirit and intent of what is being shared in this space is to awaken people to the importance of Indigenous knowledges in today’s world.