One of the dangers in talking about aboriginal world views, and educaiton, is that we can start to make them sound like they are very much the same across all the different first nations and the aboriginal peoples. In fact, they are quite diverse and the map that is included on the list of resources for the course should show just how, diverse linguistically, culturally and regionally, the people are. You can see there are literally hundreds of first nations in North America, and if you look globally, there are thousands of indigenous peoples to talk about their world views in, in one way. As I like to say, the average aboriginal world view, elides this great diversity of, of peoples, cultures and languages. That being said, the reason we do talk about the similarities is that there, there are, profound differences, from the European world views and world views that were imposed upon the various indigenous peoples globally, you know, in the, in the last, 500 years and, and even earlier, in the case of, the African and Asian continents. So, when we think about the, the ways in which world views across, aboriginal peoples are similar, it's useful to think about that process of colonization that occurred. Because, within that process, there became a shared history of colonization, which then aboriginal people shared with each other. And part of that worldview has been so altered by the, the colonial process in the way that aboriginal peoples were described, talked about and, and, and enacted upon through policies and legislation and actions. This is one way in which aboriginal people came to share, a certain worldview as well. Bodies like the, en, United Nations, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and now Indigenous Issues, Show how quite diverse regions and peoples can come together an actually share a surprising amount of, similar issue, struggles and, concerns. And the U.N declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, definitely shows that people from very diverse regions and cultures can agree upon some very fundamental issues and rights, The other thing that's very similar across the different aboriginal world views, is a relationship to place, that, that, informs the peoples sense of themselves and their cultural values and the traditional knowledge of a place. And, to demonstrate that I've, brought together a couple of videos, where our respected elders can describe in their own words, and their own ways, just how profound this connection to place really is. So I encourage you to watch these videos and, take away from it the, the, the notion of how the world view emerges from a connection to a particular place.
