Debwewin Miikan-Zhidchigewin: The (Anishinaabe) Truth Road Art of Doing

Abstract:

Debwewin Miikan-Zhidchigewin or as I prefer to call it Debwewin Journey is a new scholarly Anishinaabeg methodology of knowledge production that emerges from the Anishinaabeg wholistic truthing tradition that predated European arrival on Turtle Island.  I developed and articulated this scholarly methodology through my doctoral dissertation work and then I relied on it to complete my knowledge production on the Algonquin land claims and self-government process.   In my process of developing Debwewin Journey methodology I relied primarily on my own experience with in the Algonquin context as well as the guidance of traditional knowledge teachers.

Debwewin Journey a wholistic way of knowing that involves two circles of knowledge working together: heart knowledge and mind knowledge. Debwewin Journey methodology begins from either the location of heart knowledge or the location of mind knowledge where the individual then journeys forward to complete and connect a wholistic understanding.  Debwewin Journey methodology is a personal, subjective, emotional, intellectual, and experiential way of completing and connecting knowledge that is consequently fluid in that it is ultimately rooted in one’s gifts bestowed from the Creator.  While in my dissertation work I completed and connected heart knowledge and mind knowledge of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg in a particular direction and through the methods of experiential knowledge, an analysis of the literature, and introspection the possibilities in terms of methods employed are endless.

In offering Debwewin Journey methodology I move beyond theory and offer a model and associated discourse vocabulary for others in their desire to expand knowledge within Anishinaabeg cosmological parameters, thus clearly producing Anishinaabeg knowledge. In this way Debwewin Journey is a valuable contribution to Anishinaabeg scholarship and culture.