Restoring the Kinship Worldview

Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth

By: Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), Darcia Narváez PhD

Narrated by: Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), Darcia Narváez PhD, Sage Ryan

Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Selected speeches from Indigenous leaders around the world—necessary wisdom for our times, nourishment for our collective, and a path away from extinction toward a sustainable, interconnected future.

Indigenous worldviews, and the knowledge they confer, are critical for human survival and the wellbeing of future generations. Editors Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez present 28 powerful excerpted passages from Indigenous leaders, including Mourning Dove, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Winona LaDuke, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Accompanied by the editors’ own analyses, each chapter reflects the wisdom of Indigenous worldview precepts like:

• Egalitarian rule versus hierarchical governance
• A fearless trust in the universe, instead of a fear-based culture
• The life-sustaining role of ceremony
• Emphasizing generosity and the greater good instead of pursuing selfish goals and for personal gain
• The laws of nature as the highest rules for living

The editors emphasize our deep need to move away from the dominant Western paradigm—one that dictates we live without strong social purpose, fails to honor the earth as sacred, leads with the head while ignoring the heart, and places individual “rights” over collective responsibility. Restoring the Kinship Worldview is rooted in an Indigenous vision and strong social purpose that sees all life forms as sacred and sentient—that honors the wisdom of the heart, and grants equal standing to rights and responsibilities.

Inviting listeners into a world-sense that expands beyond perceiving and conceiving to experiencing and being, Restoring the Kinship Worldview is a salve for our times, a nourishment for our collective, and a holistic orientation that will lead us away from extinction toward an integrated, sustainable future.

©2022 Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), Darcia Narvaez (P)2022 North Atlantic Books

Critic reviews

“Humans have a particular ecological niche, a role as the custodial species of this earth. We must return our species to this niche within the next decade, or perish. This book is a perfect place to start—the foundation is good relations, making kin both human and nonhuman—and here we have story from a gathering of some of the finest Indigenous thinkers on the planet. Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez have a particular way of bringing the right people together for such purposes.” —TYSON YUNKAPORTA, author of Sand Talk, senior research fellow at Deacon University, woodcarver, and poet

“Mahalo Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez for this collection, this eloquence and grace through time so we can recognize and honor the common sense and purpose of continuity. All of it is needed now. We are all meant to wake up together.” —MANULANI ALULI MEYER, director of Indigenous education, University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu

“Darcia Narvaez and Four Arrows have gathered an inspiring pastiche of wise Native American voices woven together by their own insightful and heartfelt dialogues to gift us with an invaluable bundle of tenets and templates for the urgent project of decolonizing and rewilding our minds and communities.” —BILL PLOTKIN, PhD, author of Soulcraft, Wild Mind, and The Journey of Soul Initiation

The best of the best!

There’s no book that I am highly recommending to more people than this one… specifically with respect to nurturing, a kin-centric, relational, empowering worldview in a time of already underway, accelerating, and unstoppable biospheric and civilizational collapse. - Michael Dowd, postdoom.com

A book truly worth your time and consideration

From the ingenious format, the erudite synthesis of what could be challenging concepts to those with alternate worldviews, to the excellent vocal performances of the authors and narrators, this book is paradoxically timeless and timely. A wonderfully important work.

Maravilloso

Los autores nos dan un amplio y muy completo recorrido por los principales conceptos de su filosofía de sostenibilidad y respeto.

Es un libro lleno de sabiduría y conocimiento valiosísimo del que podemos aprender todos.

La forma en que está escrito y narrado lo hace sumamente interesante. Me encantó de principio a fin.

A'ho day baht haw

Take my thank you! (Kiowa) I loved this book definitely recommend to any other natives or allies who are interested in how to see the world more traditionally

Good wisdom

Wonderful wisdom and interesting format, the recording jumps a little but being the recording was done by the authors it is an excellent work of art.

Kinship

If we don't stop fighting nature and each other we are lost. Embrace each other in kindness.

Highly Recommend this one

Amazing book. Right up there with Braiding Sweetgrass, Sand Talk and Becoming Animal. Give yourself or someone you care about the gift of this book.

Powerful healing gift to us all

Healing for us all. Everyone on earth needs to hear this. Full of knowledge love and deep wisdom

A necessary dialogue

Thank you for this book and all its teachings. Thank you for putting it in audio format and it paired nicely with my physical copy.

For anyone struggling to keep up with the reading, a devotion to learning what this book has to offer may require both the audio and physical. There are many references in this book that you may not find useful as you read but can be useful after when you seek for more information and teachings that coincide this book.

Great content, unfortunate recording

I was so happy to discover this title and enjoyed listening to the available content. I’m bummed the recording is flawed, so parts are missing (like chapter 25 is truncated). Still worth listening!