Open AccessRelational Systems Thinking
Author(s) -
Melanie Goodchild
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of awareness-based systems change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2767-6021
pISSN - 2767-6013
DOI - 10.47061/jabsc.v1i1.577
Subject(s) - mohawk , indigenous , epistemology , systems thinking , decolonization , traditional knowledge , sociology , space (punctuation) , twenty first century , environmental ethics , political science , anthropology , politics , computer science , ecology , philosophy , law , linguistics , artificial intelligence , biology
We explore the notion of the need to decolonize systems thinking and awareness. Taking a specifically Indigenous approach to both knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, we look at awareness-based systems change via a Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) two-row visual code. The authors explore the sacred space between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of thinking and knowing, to identify pathways for peaceful co-existence of epistemologies. Based on conversations with Haudenosaunee elders and Western systems thinkers, along with data from a DoTS webinar, we identify cross-cultural dialogues as a doorway to healing, to transformation and to spiritual understanding. A reconnection with Mother Earth and with each other is fundamental to disrupting global patterns of trauma and mass corrosion of the spirit.