Yarning with Indigenous Traditions

Available on-demand

In an era of compounding global crises, our speakers offer a strategic intervention: a move beyond the transactional toward the relational. This dialogue interrogates the “myth of progress,” dismantles the currency of academic perfection, and retrieves custodial responsibility through the protocols of “Embassy.” Dr. Tyson Yunkaporta, Dr. Ashlee Bird, and Dr. Sousan Abadian examine how Indigenous wisdom provides essential checks on the malignant narcissism driving modern global disconnection and institutional failure.

This event was recorded on October 2, 2022 at the inaugural Nasr Book Prize Symposium hosted by the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion at the University of Notre Dame. For more information on the award, now known as the Book Prize on Religion and the World, please visit the Ansari Institute website.

Indigenous Voices is co-sponsored on ThinkND by the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, the College of Arts & Letters Native American Initiatives, and the Native American Alumni of Notre Dame.

This “yarning” session at the Ansari Institute represents more than a cross-cultural exchange; it is a fundamental epistemological challenge to the categorical silos of Western thought. Yarning—a relational, open-ended methodology of inquiry—is positioned here as a critical tool for addressing global crises by exploring the radical interconnectedness of creation. For the Notre Dame community, this dialogue reframes the search for truth not as an individual pursuit of data, but as a collective responsibility to the “Right Story.”

The Concept of Embassy and Nested Governance

At the heart of Tyson Yunkaporta’s work, particularly in his book Sand Talk, is the concept of “Embassy.” Rooted in the Bunya Mountains Embassy protocols, this framework views knowledge sharing as an intimate act of relationship-building. Unlike Western governance, which often operates through top-down mandates, Embassy is a system of “nested fractal governance.” It suggests that relationship-building begins at the subjective center and expands outward, establishing protocols of respect and mutual obligation that transcend borders and even species.

The Wisdom of Not Knowing and Modern Disconnection

The panelists offer a provocative critique of the “idiot,” a term Dr. Susan Avadian and Yunkaporta trace back to the Greek idiota—referring to a person in a state of disconnection from their relationships, place, and community. In modern academia, knowledge is often treated as a currency of power and security, where perfection is the standard. Indigenous traditions, conversely, value the “gift of not knowing.” This humility allows for the repetition of questions to foster trust, contrasting sharply with the “lonely buildings” of modern infrastructure—structures Dr. Avadian notes are fragments of the Earth to which no one prays or gives thanks. This disconnection is the hallmark of the modern idiota.

Knowledge as Custodial Responsibility

The dialogue facilitates a critical shift: moving from “knowledge as power” to “knowledge as custodial responsibility.” When knowledge is treated as a gift rather than a means of production, the focus shifts to how that knowledge lives within a person and their accountability to it. This perspective reframes cultural appropriation; rather than mere policing of content, it emphasizes the responsibility of the seeker. To seek knowledge for the sake of placing oneself above others is a failure of custody. This transition requires us to view ourselves not as owners of information, but as stewards of creation.

Challenging the “Nordic Male” and the Emu’s Narcissism

The most radical aspect of the session is the interrogation of the “Arrow of Progress.” Yunkaporta critiques the pervasive “wrong story” of linear evolution—the charts that show humanity moving from “primitive” origins toward a “civilized” peak represented by the “Nordic male.” This narrative creates a myth of primitivism that justifies extraction.

To counter this, Yunkaporta shares the Emu story. In this tradition, the Emu represents malignant narcissism—the destructive idea that “I am greater than you.” Crucially, the Emu is not managed by an individual hero but by a “team effort.” In the Milky Way, the Emu is held down by the Southern Cross (the Kangaroo), grasped by the Echidna, and coiled by the Great Serpent. This serves as a vital metaphor for governance as the collective containment of narcissism.

Retrieving Things Forward

Instead of moving away from the past, the panelists advocate for “retrieving things forward.” In a deep time continuum, ancestors and descendants are simultaneously present. This Indigenous inquiry moves beyond objective Western geography—exemplified by the “seven directions,” where the seventh direction is the subjective center where each person sits—to a reality where ancestral wisdom is brought into the future to correct the “wrong story” of constant, destructive growth.

This conversation reminds us that our global trajectory is a choice between the narcissism of the Emu and the custodial intimacy of Embassy.

For the modern professional, these insights provide a strategic framework for navigating complex systems by addressing the relational foundations of our organizations.

Reframing Disconnection as “Idiot” Behavior: We must recognize that organizational “idiocy” is a state of being disconnected from environment and community. Strategically, this requires prioritizing relational connectivity over isolated, specialized expertise.
Interrogating the “Sustainability” Narrative: Following Potawatomi scholar Robin Wall Kimmerer, we must ask: What is being sustained, and for whom? This forces a shift from sustaining existing power structures toward fostering genuine, long-term systemic health.
Pivoting to Custodial Responsibility: Modern professionals must move from viewing knowledge as a currency for success to seeing it as a responsibility. This impacts how we handle intellectual property and cultural exchange, prioritizing the “how” and “why” of knowledge over simple retention.
Retrieving Forward vs. The “Nordic Male” Chart: By dismantling the linear “arrow of progress” that places modern Western man at the peak, we can “retrieve forward” ancient concepts—such as freedom of thought and human rights—that existed in Indigenous cultures long before their “discovery” by the West.
Implementing Nested Fractal Governance: Adopting “Embassy” protocols means viewing relationship-building as an intimate, centered act. Governance should be viewed as a series of nested relations that extend from the individual to the land itself, rather than a top-down extraction of compliance.

These takeaways demand that we stop taking our connections for granted and become active participants in the “Right Story” of our collective existence.

“The original meaning of [idiota] was somebody who becomes disconnected from the relationships around them, not just with people but with place and non-humans as well. A person in a state of disconnection—that’s what an idiot is.” — Tyson Yunkaporta
“Knowing isn’t simply retention of information. When you know something, especially something tied to culture or faith, you are responsible for that knowledge. You are responsible for how you use it, for how it lives in you, and how you put it into the world.” — Ashlee Bird
“The buildings are lonely. Nobody prays to them, nobody thanks them… they’re fragments of the Earth. That kind of shift about—to honor what [to] honor everywhere we are.” — Sousan Abadian
“Emu is a troublemaker who brings into being the most destructive idea in existence: I am greater than you; you are lesser than me. This is the source of all human misery… containing the excesses of malignant narcissism is a team effort.” — Tyson Yunkaporta
“What is the dream We’re Dreaming? What are the destructive elements that We’re Dreaming into reality… and how do we come back into right relations with each other, with the world, with the Earth, and with ourselves?” — Sousan Abadian