Evolving towards Ethical Space: The authority of Earth Knowledge in Western and Indigenous societies

Background/Question/Methods

Ethical Space is a conceptual framework for dialogue designed to result in new outcomes supporting reconciliation of disparate world views. The application of Ethical Space to guide scientific inquiry provides some insights related to questions about the nature of science and the inherent authority held by science in Western societies. Both science and indigenous knowledge offer interpretations of observation-based information. Indigenous societies have a comparable way of understanding the Earth, both science and indigenous knowledge are based on Earth observation and interpretation. However, how this knowledge guides societal participants is vastly different. In Indigenous societies the earth knowledge, the earth observation data, the indigenous stories, directly informs the legislative frameworks, i.e., the knowledge is the law. In Western societies, the earth knowledge, the science, does not directly inform legislation, science-based information is subject to a 'policy validation loop' wherein the scientific information is subjected to politics, personal perspectives, legal engineering for consistency with other laws, and temporal constraints. The question of how to 'integrate', 'incorporate' or 'include' indigenous story and law into science, inherently subjects indigenous societies’ highest level law to this Western 'policy validation loop'. In Western Society, there is no inherent authority granted to earth-based knowledge. How can indigenous and western societies begin to reconcile this fundamental difference? Scientists aim to do the right thing by including indigenous knowledge, some even suggesting the scientific method should be informed by indigenous methodologies. These attempts do not reconcile the fundamental conflict over the inherent authority of science and indigenous knowledge within each society. Once we understand the essence of this conflict, we can begin to understand the societal evolution necessary to truly be respectful of indigenous knowledge. These differences are not solved by making space in science for indigenous knowledge, although that is a good thing, it is not a solution to the conflict.

Results/Conclusions

When we practice reconciliation and ethical space-based dialogue, in a way that recognizes these fundamental incongruencies, we can better understand the role of science and indigenous knowledge in our societies. Reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous nations depends upon this understanding. The Dual Authoritative Hierarchy Ethical Space-based Conceptual Framework offers an outline for describing pragmatic steps for acknowledging and reconciling the inherent conflict between indigenous knowledge and science and points the way for an evolution of a society that is based on equality of indigenous law and knowledge and Western knowledge and law.