Elders Knowledge Circle
The Elders Knowledge Circle preserves, protects, revitalizes, and shares wisdom from Indigenous Elders. Initiated and led by a group of Elders, the Knowledge Circle plays a key role in the preservation of Indigenous culture, enhancing the capacity of our community’s Elders, and strengthening relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups.
The overarching goals of the Elders Knowledge Circle are:
Create a sustainable model to protect, revitalize, and share oral knowledge and practice
Bridge the gap in cultural understanding between Indigenous (oral) and Western (written) ways
Serve as a centralized resource of knowledge and wisdom for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous groups
In this era of reconciliation, municipalities, academic institutions, and private corporations can work with the Knowledge Circle in creating Indigenous policies and frameworks, which will positively impact their relationships with the Indigenous community.
Supporting Cultural Preservation
Research shows that Indigenous people who experience healing and cultural connection are less likely to live in poverty, experience homelessness, and are more likely to pass positive experiences on to the next generation. The Elders Knowledge Circle supports the cultural preservation of knowledge and is critical to rebuilding what has been damaged through a history of cultural disruption, such as residential schools.
To date, Elders have helped build recognition in the community and within organizations about the existence of the oral system and Indigenous ways of knowing and how to acknowledge, honour, and protect it. The Elders have built their capacity to engage in cultural interpretation of Western system and Indigenous oral system concepts including strengthening their ability to find parallels between the two systems.