U & D

Middle School teachers seeking an avenue into Worldview might consider the contemporary Slow Food movement – championed by Indian Country – as a point of discussion. Sustainability is certainly an element in this movement, as is environmental preservation. Begun as part of an Italian protest against MacDonalds, the movement has grown in this country to embrace grass-roots economics, organic gardening, and anti-obesity education. But from the worldview of a Native, Slow Food is not a change or a protest; it is one aspect of worldview made concrete.

Here are comments from a recent Indian Country Today editorial titled Back to the beginning:

For most of his life Haudenosaunee scholar John Mohawk extolled the virtues of the slow food movement, a worldview that appreciates food as medicine for mind, body and spirit. The idea that we can be nourished completely by the bounty of creation is catching on with a mainstream public increasingly concerned about the safety and environmental impacts of industrial agriculture. Although tough economic times may force families to spend less on groceries, there is also a growing awareness of the havoc cheap fast food can cause our bodies.

But indigenous knowledge goes far beyond “green” eating. It acknowledges a familial relationship between human beings and the rest of the natural world. Consider this part of the ancient address, Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen (“Words before all else”), recited by the Haudenosaunee to food plants: “Since the beginning of time, the grains, the vegetables, beans, and berries have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them too. We gather all the plant foods together as one and send them a greeting and thanks.” It is a relationship defined by humility, one that has sustained Native peoples since time immemorial.

We have in these word several key aspects of worldview: humility, an interdependent relationship with nature, deep knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world, patience, gratitude, and the 10,000 year timeline of cultural history and practice.

If students can reflect on these points as they share together a local harvest, or plant together a school garden, they will gain deeper understanding of Wabanaki worldview, without the pretense afforded by the use of “spiritual” and/or “mystical.” This is a contemporary, realistic worldview, not the collective memory of a distant culture.

Some resources for the teacher:

Slow Food (the global organization)

Slow Food USA