Barbara Wilkes“space,” and “place,” as opposed to the more familiar time and con-
text of the Western world (Little Bear 2002 , 82 ; Crow, personal com-
munication, 1998 ). Space refers to a specific physical location in an
environmental context. Place denotes an inherently reciprocal posi-
tion in the relational order of family, community, and the larger global
village (Crow, personal communication, 1998 ). Each human being is
unique among all others and is at liberty to interpret the collective cul-
tural code based on his or her experiences (Little Bear in Battiste 2002 ,
84 ; Crow, personal communication, 1998 ; and Calf Robe, personal
communication, 1999 ). Each person is, therefore, capable of making
a “contribution” to society through innovation or adaptation of that
collective code. The value of wholeness (flux, place, space, relations)
ensures that if all do their part, social order, harmony, and balance
will be the result (Little Bear, in Battiste 2002 , 84 ).
In the Kainai worldview, knowledge is stories, as each story con-
tains both ideas (subjective theories) and actions (objective methods).
The potentialities within stories are vitalized by experience. As a pro-
cess, experience mediates between ideas and actions, and the trans-
formation that occurs is a result of human creativity and innovation
and reflects the ongoing flux of the universe, understood as a natu-
ral tendency toward change through growth and adaptation. Thus,
as the essential element of the universe, flux acts upon both the envi-
ronment and human beings. Humans experience flux as birth, the de-
velopmental stages of life, death, and reincarnation. In an endless and
self-sustaining cycle, flux takes the form of the self-sustaining gener-
ative, degenerative, and regenerative cycles that produce regular pat-
terns or occurrences, such as the seasons; annual animal migrations;
the spiritual ceremonies of individual and communal renewal, such
as the Sundance; and the songs and stories of the people and the aes-
thetics and conventions by which they are formed and performed (Lit-
tle Bear, in Battiste 2002 , 78 ). In this manner, the ceremonies, songs,
and stories of the Kainai are the repository of the full corpus of cul-
tural knowledge.
Accordingly, the goal and the product of all knowledge is the in-
troduction of change into the world. Understood as the potential for
growth, adaptation, and transformation, knowledge is essential for