Indigenous Parenting Knowledge

One quite beautiful story comes from the Native American Culture and regards one of their rights of passage customs.

Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) of the Wahpeton Santee Sioux, explained that “It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. It appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one’s spiritual balance. Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving”.

In this light, when children reach a certain age, they were told they needed to go and get what they cherished most, and then were explained the reasons why it was important that they should now give this away.

This is not necessarily something you should do with your child unless you have fully explained to them the reasons behind such an event in their lives. The concept is quite beautiful though and has profound teachings behind it.

The parenting wisdom that was held in the indigenous knowledge traditions that perhaps we have now overlooked and forgotten is something our research team is keen to explore and research in much greater depth in our membership sections and with our community.

We also wish to research and provide you with some of the best practices that we find from different countries and cultures around the world. Our objective is not to create a standard way of best parenting, but to provide best ideas so that you can decide what is appropriate to include in your unique parent-child relationship.

One of the beautiful aspects of our planet and the universe is the way it accepts such wide diversity.

There are around 7,000 different types of apples worldwide. Due to the nature of effectiveness and efficiency, it is in some way understandable that our supermarkets stock such a poor selection. However, we as individuals can vote with our purchasing power and other methods to encourage the maintenance of a wider diversity in all matters as best we can.

There is a balance to be had between the rights of the individual and of the larger communities. We as individuals of these larger communities should help to decide what that balance should be.

This is an important factor for you to include in your parenting. The rights of your child balanced with the way he or she views the rights of the wider communities.