This theoretical/conceptual paper proposes three key lessons ecopsychology might gain from Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (ITEK). While ITEK refers to a type of knowledge, the scope of what this term really means extends beyond cognitive understandings. For environmentalism, this may mean moving from the head to the heart and from facts to emotions. ITEK as viewed by Indigenous people refers more to a way of life than a body of knowledge. In fact, a key theme of ITEK concerns people's lived relationships with the natural world in which they live. ITEK calls for an acknowledgement “that Western versions of ecopsychology are culturally situated” and may even be perpetuating cultural imperialism. The three lessons discussed in this paper address this concern.
Lesson 1 – “Pluralism, listening and aesthetic discrimination” – is about listening for other voices that have long been excluded from the dominant Western discourse. The Western approach generally prioritizes Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) viewpoints and interests. Lesson 1 is also about recognizing that “poetry, art, music and dance – together with the aesthetic sensibilities and discrimination to appreciate them – may be as essential a component of an ecologically sane culture . . . as our scientific discriminations.”
Lesson 2 – Post-secularism and cultural imperialism – is about recognizing the dangers inherent in efforts or beliefs that “render extinct the nonmodern and the Indigenous.” Such efforts and beliefs tend to romanticize Western techno-scientific modernity while denigrating the Indigenous and the “mystical.” Such efforts and beliefs reflect an unconscious arrogance of cultural imperialism.
Lesson 3 – Re-storying ecopsychology – is about re-framing or telling a different story about ourselves, about modernity, and about our environmental challenges. ITEK can be an ethical force in framing this new story. A key message of the new story needs to articulate ways in which globalized modernity has contributed to the “rapacious destruction of the natural world.” Globalized modernity reflects an imperial cultural dominance which, unfortunately, has ravaged, not only the natural world, but also Indigenous cultures and our own intimate inner lives. Looking to ITEK to inform ecopsychology may help this field of study play an important role in addressing the global challenges of climate change.
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