Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways

The Aboriginal Delegation speaking at the Indigenous Earth Day Summit is also touring through many of Michigan’s Native communities to establish a Three Fires branch of Aboriginal Australia’s Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP) project.  TKRP recently established a branch in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and, following on invitations extended to them from Indigenous communities, plans to expand TRKP to Turtle Island and Saamiland in an effort to unite Indigenous efforts at cultural and ecological restoration under an international Indigenous umbrella.

TKRP, founded by one of the delegation’s members, is a government-funded multimedia traditional knowledge revitalization project.  The goals of the project are to:

*Preserve and record Indigenous knowledge from the elders using methods approved by the elders involved;

*Share the knowledge with others in culturally appropriate ways; and

*Involve Aboriginal youth in recording this traditional knowledge as a means to invigorating their interest in and knowledge of traditional Aboriginal culture.

At the heart of TKRP is the philosophy that traditional knowledge belongs to Indigenous communities and only Indigenous communities should have say over if and how they will share that traditional knowledge.  Thus, the TKRP-Three Fires project will be initiated and run by Michigan’s Native communities.  Universities, corporations and other entities may offer support if the Native communities involved desire it, but it is the Native community working to revitalize its traditional knowledge that has control over how that knowledge is preserved and shared.

For more information, please contact Aimée Cree Dunn at adunn@nmu.edu or 906-227-1397 or write her at: Center for Native American Studies, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avene, Marquette, Mich. 49855.