In Ceremonies of Renewal, everything from the movement of the sun to the stability of society is in a state of flux. It is through negotiating compacts with the energies of the universe and carrying out periodic ceremonies of renewal that stability and balance can be ensured. Thus, the People of the Plains meet each year to celebrate the Sun Dance, which is performed for many days around the sacred cottonwood tree. They claim this ceremony plays its role in maintaining the harmony and balance of the cosmos. For the author, the Sun Dance became his introduction to the world of Native American science. In sacred mathematics, numbers are not abstract, static things, but living entities that transform one into the other. And history is not written down but passed on by storytellers who recount events of past generations, including migrations that took place before time as humans experienced it.

Drawing on themes from John MacKenzie’s Empires of Nature and the Nature of Empires (1997), this book explores, from Indigenous or Indigenous-influenced perspectives, the power of nature and the attempts by empires (United States, Canada, and Britain) to control it. It also examines contemporary threats to First Nations communities from ongoing political, environmental, and social issues, and the efforts to confront and eliminate these threats to peoples and the environment. It becomes apparent that empire, despite its manifestations of power, cannot control or discipline humans and nature. Essays suggest new ways of looking at the Great Lakes watershed and the peoples and empires contained within it.

"The modern version of The Tao of Physics. . . We gain tantalizing glimpses of an elusive alternative to the thing we know as science. . . . Above all, Peat's book is an eloquent plea for a fair go for the modes of enquiry of other cultures." --New Scientist One summer in the 1980s, theoretical physicist F. David Peat went to a Blackfoot Sun Dance ceremony. Having spent all of his life steeped in and influenced by linear Western science, he was entranced by the Native American worldview and, through dialogue circles between scientists and native elders, he began to explore it in greater depth. Blackfoot Physics is the account of his discoveries. In an edifying synthesis of anthropology, history, metaphysics, cosmology, and quantum theory, Peat compares the medicines, the myths, the languages—the entire perceptions of reality of the Western and indigenous peoples. What becomes apparent is the amazing resemblance between indigenous teachings and some of the insights that are emerging from modern science, a congruence that is as enlightening about the physical universe as it is about the circular evolution of humanity’s understanding. Through Peat’s insightful observations, he extends our understanding of ourselves, our understanding of the universe, and how the two intersect in a meaningful vision of human life in relation to a greater reality.

From forward-thinking resolution to violent controversy and beyond. Since its passage in 1989, a state law known as Act 31 requires that all students in Wisconsin learn about the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin’s federally recognized tribes. The Story of Act 31 tells the story of the law’s inception—tracing its origins to a court decision in 1983 that affirmed American Indian hunting and fishing treaty rights in Wisconsin, and to the violent public outcry that followed the court’s decision. Author J P Leary paints a picture of controversy stemming from past policy decisions that denied generations of Wisconsin students the opportunity to learn about tribal history.

In 2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples became law, extending inherent human rights for the first time to the approximately half a billion Indigenous people around the planet. But nation-states have been slow to rethink their laws and policies. Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage situates Canadian progress in undertaking these reforms within a global context and explains what Indigenous knowledge is, who may use it, and how to provide it with legal protection. By tracing decade-long negotiations with British Columbia and Canada, this book demonstrates the fundamental role of Indigenous advocacy in developing legislation and action plans to implement inherent rights. This fully new edition tackles current issues in intellectual property rights and topics such as the revision of educational curricula to incorporate Indigenous content and methodologies. What emerges is a proposal for cooperative legal reform that will invigorate Indigenous knowledge systems and heritage.

In more than twenty powerful films, Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin has waged a brilliant battle against the ignorance and stereotypes that Native Americans have long endured in cinema and television. In this book, the first devoted to any Native filmmaker, Obomsawin receives her due as the central figure in the development of indigenous media in North America. ø Incorporating history, politics, and film theory into a compelling narrative, Randolph Lewis explores the life and work of a multifaceted woman whose career was flourishing long before Native films such as Smoke Signals reached the screen. He traces Obomsawin?s path from an impoverished Abenaki reserve in the 1930s to bohemian Montreal in the 1960s, where she first found fame as a traditional storyteller and singer. Lewis follows her career as a celebrated documentary filmmaker, citing her courage in covering, at great personal risk, the 1991 Oka Crisis between Mohawk warriors and Canadian soldiers. We see how, since the late 1960s, Obomsawin has transformed documentary film, reshaping it for the first time into a crucial forum for sharing indigenous perspectives. Through a careful examination of her work, Lewis proposes a new vision for indigenous media around the globe: a ?cinema of sovereignty? based on what Obomsawin has accomplished.

​This book describes research undertaken by leading Australian researcher in Indigenous communities. While the chapters are Australian in their focus, the issues that are discussed are similar to those in other countries where there are indigenous people. In most cases, in Australia and internationally, Indigenous learners are not succeeding in school, thus making the transition into work and adulthood quite tenuous in terms of mainstream measures. The importance of being literate and numerate are critical in success in school and life in general, thus making this collection an important contribution to the international literature. The collection of works describes a wide range of projects where the focus has been on improving the literacy and numeracy outcomes for Indigenous students. The chapters take various approaches to improving these outcomes, and have very different foci. These foci include aspects of literacy, numeracy, curriculum leadership, ICTs, whole school planning, policy, linguistics and Indigenous perspectives. Most of the chapters report on large scale projects that have used some innovation in their focus. The book draws together these projects so that a more connected sense of the complexities and diversity of approaches can be gleaned.