When I Am Among The Trees

By Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

David Turnbull, in his 2000 book, “Masons, Tricksters, and Cartographers: Comparative Studies in the Sociology of Scientific and Indigenous Knowledge,” explores the concept of modernity. In particular, he highlights:

“The illusory nature of one of the core tenets of modernity—that the technoscientific knowledge, upon which the concept of modernity is based, epitomises planning, rationality and order.”

David Turnbull. (2000). Masons, Tricksters and Cartographers : Comparative Studies in the Sociology of Scientific and Indigenous Knowledge. Taylor & Francis (p. 1).

Far from being the epitomy of planning, rationality, and order, Turnbull argues that:

“Modernity’s drive for order conceals its messy, contingent, unplanned and arational character. If we wish to rethink the way we produce knowledge and the forms of knowledge we value, we need to recognise, even celebrate, its unplanned and messy nature.”

David Turnbull. (2000). Masons, Tricksters and Cartographers : Comparative Studies in the Sociology of Scientific and Indigenous Knowledge. Taylor & Francis (p. 1).

It is often through cross-cultural learning that Western scholars in particular can gain a better understanding of themselves. Western culture is often forced on others but is not always so good at reflecting on its own habits and assumptions. One of these assumptions is that certain forms of science and technology represent the pinnacle of human progress. This can make these forms of science and technology seem planned, predictable, and inevitable – when in fact they are unpredictable, highly local, and dependent on opportunity in order to come to fruition. Hence the argument for recognizing and celebrating the unplanned, messy, incomplete nature of scientific knowledge, and valuing multiple knowledge systems and the expertise they bring to bear on human understandings of the world.

This month, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) released its initial report on Federal Indian Boarding Schools. Indigenous organizations such as the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and Native News Online have been working hard to document people’s experiences in these schools and facilitate healing. Now the DOI, drawing on its own records of the federally-run boarding schools, is contributing a series of investigative reports.

“The Federal Indian boarding school system deployed systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies to attempt to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children through education.”

Newland, Brian (2022). Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, p. 7.

It is striking both to see the similarities between the US boarding schools and residential schools in Canada, and to realize that it has taken until 2022 for a government report on these schools to be conducted. This important work is ongoing.

This just came out – contact me if you are interested in reading the full text!

Reading Deborah McGregor, Jean-Paul Restoule and Rochelle Johnston’s edited book on Indigenous research, I came across this amazing quote about the nature of knowledge:

“Knowledge is bigger than we are, something we can uncover only a part of. It was here before we were: ‘Knowledge is received or gifted from all living things and from the spirit world’ (Wilson & Restoule, 2010, p. 33).”

Johnston, Restoule & McGregor, 2018, p. 7

The authors write that knowledge has its own being; it is its own entity. Knowledge exists independently of humans and can be accessed by humans through deep relationships with place – with particular places on the Earth, including all of the living things within them.

Thinking deeply about Indigenous epistemologies – Indigenous understandings of what knowledge is and where it comes from – is an important part of engaging with Indigenous knowledges, and I am grateful for this book.

Cities around the world are developing Age-Friendly Communities plans, following the World Health Organization’s guidelines. We recently had a conversation with ten older First Nations and Métis women in the city of Prince George, Canada, comparing the expressed needs of these women with two age-friendly action plans: that of the city of Prince George, and that of the Northern Health Authority. Findings indicate four main areas of concern for these women: availability of health care services; accessibility and affordability of programs and services; special roles of Indigenous older people; and experiences of racism and discrimination. There are many areas of synergy between the needs expressed by the women and the two action plans; however, certain key areas are missing from the action plans; in particular, specific strategies for attending to the needs of Indigenous and other older populations that are often marginalized in health care and in age-friendly planning.

This is a chapter from my dissertation that has recently been published in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

Click here for a copy! It is available without a subscription until November 29, 2018.

Community presentations of the research are an opportunity to hear about the results of the research and to give feedback or ask questions.

They are happening Monday, February 19 (1:00-2:30pm) and 20 (5:00-6:30pm) at the Prince George Native Friendship Centre.

If you can’t make it out, stay tuned for brochures available on this site for download and feel free to get in touch with me.

I will be in Prince George from January 16-21, 2018. This is a planning visit for community presentations in February. Find me at the Friendship Centre or get in touch for more information.