The Indigenous Worldview | Four Arrows

My guest today is Four Arrows also known as Wahinkpe Topa or Dr. Don Trent Jacobs. Four Arrows is internationally respected for his expertise in Indigeneity and applications for living life in balance. He is a prolific author of many books and writings about the vital necessity of restoring our pre-colonial worldview. I first came across his work when I read the most recent book he co-wrote with Dr. Darcia Narvaez, Restoring the Kinship Worldview: 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Mother Earth. It is absolutely worth the read, it is a thought-provoking exploration into how we’re living and what we can learn from Indigenous and ancient cultures that have lived in harmony with all of life for centuries before colonization and industrialization became the norm. The book was selected as one of “the most thought-provoking, inspiring, and practical science books of 2022” by U.C. Berkeley’s Science Center for the Greater Good.

In September of 2023, Four Arrows presented before the 9th annual Sustainability Summit at the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.  He is truly a unique human being, he’s a former world-class equestrian, a horse whisperer, a world champion old-time piano player, holds two Ph.D.s and lives next to and surfs on the Costalegre waves of Jalisco Mexico.

In this episode, Four Arrows takes me on a journey exploring the Indigenous worldview, non-duality, and origin stories and myths. We talk about anthropocentrism, this idea that humans sit atop the pyramid of life and that everything else on Earth is inferior to and here for humans to use and then discard as they see fit. This human-centric worldview lies at the root of our entangled crises and we explore some untraditional ways that worldviews and ultimately culture, might shift.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qi4OPdVQ4X8

Four Arrow’s Links & Resources:

https://www.fourarrowsbooks.com

The Indigenization Controversy: For Whom and By Whom? 

The Red Road: Linking Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives to Indigenous Worldviews 

Unlearning the Language of Conquest

Primal Awareness 

Differing Worldviews in Higher Education - Don (Four Arrows) Trent Jacobs & Dr. Walter Block

Hypnotic Communication in Emergency Medical Settings - Don (Four Arrows) Trent Jacobs & Bram Duffee

Critical Neurophilosophy & Indigenous Wisdom - Don (Four Arrows) Trent Jacobs, Greg Cajete & Jongmin Lee

Other Resources Mentioned:

Yanatin and Masintin In the Andean World - Hillary S. Webb

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution - Peter Kropotkin 

https://provensustainable.org/

A Time Before Deception - Thomas Cooper