{"id":219,"date":"2025-11-10T15:05:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T20:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/contemplative-pedagogy\/?post_type=chapter&p=219"},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:04:47","slug":"conflicting-world-views","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/contemplative-pedagogy\/chapter\/conflicting-world-views\/","title":{"raw":"Conflicting world views","rendered":"Conflicting world views"},"content":{"raw":"

Kariwentha<\/span> Lee Scott and <\/span>Karonhiaktatie<\/span> David McComber, summary written by Erika O'Hara<\/span><\/h4>\r\n
\r\n\r\nIn this session, Kariwentha Lee Scott and Karonhiaktatie David McComber led a discussion on the challenges which arise from the conflicts between the Western colonial materialist world view and the Indigenous land-based relational world view. Whatever we are doing, we ought to ask ourselves: At what cost?<\/em>\r\n\r\nThey highlighted the importance of rethinking how we interact with nature and remind us that contemplation can only help us foster new thoughts about this relationship \u2013 it can\u2019t hurt. More specifically, contemplation in nature is healing when we allow ourselves to be healed by the earth \u2013 to sit in contemplation and appreciation. Spending time in nature can help alleviate many of our troubles because it is a space where we can feel our emotions and we are reminded that if we need to cry, we can cry; if we need to yell, we can yell.\r\n\r\nWe all need the earth to survive \u2013 everything relies on the natural systems of the world \u2013 and so it is crucial to change our worldview away from materialism. However, there is no expectation that this will be easy. Teach in a \"success through failure\" way, which is far more communal than the individualist, city-life way. Parents for children, and educators for students, need to be role models. If you do it first, they will follow. If a child, or student, tells you a story about how they spent time with nature and if you don\u2019t have a base line, all you can do is listen \u2013 you can\u2019t understand. It is also important to accept certain realities: If you\u2019re in the city, there is no hack or trick to getting to be in nature, you have to travel for it and go to it, because it isn\u2019t here.\r\n\r\nContemplation, relationship-building between ourselves, others, and the earth, and the necessary changing of systems like education (along with institutions like the university) are best as grassroots activities. Change is made by those who see a problem, and come together to develop a solution without waiting to ask for permission.\r\n\r\nThey posed the following questions for deeper reflection:\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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\r\n\r\nQuestions from Kariwentha Lee Scott and Karonhiaktatie David McComber<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWhere do you call home?\r\n\r\nHow do you feel about the assimilation processes used by governments on [pb_glossary id=\"492\"]Onkwehon:we[\/pb_glossary] around the world?\r\n\r\nIs it okay to seize any land base to suit the needs of the economy or people?\r\n\r\nIf you feel change is needed, what would that change be, and what would you be willing to do to facilitate this change?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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