The Nêhiyawak Nation through Âcimowina: Experiencing Plains Cree Knowledge through Oral Narratives

Abstract

This paper connects you to the Nehiyawak Nation of Western Canada by sharing key elements of our intellectual traditions and knowledge systems that have been shared through countless generations. The basis of this paper extends through the Indigenisation and decolonisation initiatives of preceding Indigenous scholars who have begun sharing their knowledge in a means to rewrite and challenge the dominant systems and methodological approaches that we ourselves find ourselves in. Since it does, I want you as the reader to understand that the concepts found in this paper are not the typical knowledge you are taught, and I ask you to come with an open mind as you read it since our Western society has been removed from metaphysical elements of our environment. The stories and insights of the Nehiyawak culture found in this paper delivers an emphasis on the deep-rooted understanding of the universe linked within our language, understanding of the world, and ancestral knowledge. It is shared with you for the purpose of enlightenment, and not for academic debate. I do not own this knowledge, but these are the stories of the Nehiyawak Nation, of which I am a part. You may not understand this paper now, but the information presented and given to you will keep with traditional customs and will make sense to you maybe not this year but maybe couple years down the road, as this is the lifelong effect of storytelling found in the Nehiyawak Nation.