Cosmovisions

Cosmovisions of the Pacific brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons interested in networking to collaborate and co-creating across cultures. 

Since the dawn of humanity, science and exploration have connected people, communities, countries and cultures. Indigenous peoples of the world have observed the Earth and the heavens above, and this Earth-sky connection has been a fundamental element in the development of their culture. The sky above helped them to define their culture, religion, agriculture and livestock cultivation, spiritual, and even temporal points of view (Cramer, Uzzo, Catricheo, Spuck et al., 2019). In addition, observations of the sky have been used to establish calendars, units of measure, the most optimal time to harvest or sow, travel time, orientation, etc. Through this worldview or cosmovision, Indigenous peoples have established connections with everything that surrounds them, including the rivers, plants and animals, and the stars and planets above (Cramer, Uzzo, Catricheo, Spuck et al., 2019). 

We define cosmovision as an individual or culture’s way of knowing and being, emanating from the wholistic natural cosmic processes that have led to the present state of the universe and what is yet to come (Begay, Catricheo, Kimura, Maryboy, and Spuck, 2022).