Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr., Ihanktonwan and Chickasaw Nations
May 28, 2026
Update-Global Centre for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom, May 7, 2026
In 1989, Four Worlds drafted a proposal to establish a Global Centre for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom, in consultation with the late Dr. Raymond Obomsawin (Oneida Nation) on** Indigenous knowledge systems.**
At that time, we were seeking to bring forward a** profound truth **that is too often ignored, dismissed, or misunderstood: Indigenous Peoples carry living science systems rooted in thousands of years of direct relationship with the lands, waters, forests, animals, plants, fungi, medicines, and unseen life of Mother Earth.
We understood then, as we do now, that Indigenous science is not a remnant of the past. It is a living, disciplined, relational, spiritual, and practical way of knowing that is essential for the healing and future of the Human Family and Mother Earth.
Western science has made remarkable advances, but it still knows only a portion of the living systems of Mother Earth. In 1989, when** Four Worlds **first envisioned the Global Centre for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom, Western science had formally described about 1.4 million species.
By 2025, the Catalog of Life listed more than 2.2 million extant species, with nearly 49,000 newly accepted species names added in one year alone. Yet even this** larger number remains incomplete, especially for insects, fungi, microbes, soil organisms, and many plant relatives **still unknown to formal taxonomy.
The deeper truth remains the same: many species called “unknown” by Western science are not unknown to Indigenous Peoples. They may be unnamed in** Latin**, unregistered in scientific databases, and absent from university laboratories.
**Still, they are known through stories, songs, ceremonies, harvesting protocols, seasonal observation, ecological relationships, healing practices, and teachings **passed from generation to generation.
This is one of the great misunderstandings of modern science: the absence of a **Western **name does not mean the absence of knowledge.
Even with advanced satellites, DNA sequencing, and artificial intelligence, Western science is still catching up to knowledge systems developed by Indigenous Peoples over thousands of years through direct relationships** with lands, waters, forests, animals, plants, fungi, medicines, **and the unseen life of the soil.
Indigenous science begins with relationship, respect, and understanding that all life is connected, emphasizing that respectful collaboration and Indigenous leadership are essential for meaningful progress.
What Four Worlds shared in our 1989 proposal for the Global Centre for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom has grown and expanded over the past decades. The original vision has become even more urgent in 2026.
**Our world is facing climate change, biodiversity loss, disease, food insecurity, water crises, soil exhaustion, spiritual fragmentation, **and social breakdown. These are not **separate crises. **They are symptoms of a deeper rupture in humanity’s relationship with Mother Earth.
Today, global botanical databases such as Kew’s Plants of the World Online allow users to browse approximately 1,447,000 plant names worldwide. These tools are valuable, and they represent an important contribution to** global botanical knowledge**. But they also reveal how vast and unfinished the work remains.
Indigenous plant knowledge is not merely a list of species. It includes knowledge of habitat, timing, preparation, dosage, relationships with other** plants, ceremonial responsibilities, spiritual protocols, harvesting ethics, seasonal cycles, community responsibilities, and the moral laws governing use.** This is not “folklore.” It is a discipline-based science rooted in observation, memory, testing, humility, accountability, and sacred responsibility.
**Indigenous plant knowledge **is also **inseparable from language. Many Indigenous languages **carry highly refined systems of ecological classification, healing relationships, seasonal indicators, and spiritual meaning.
A plant name may reveal where it grows, when it should be gathered, how it behaves, what **other beings **it lives with, what it can heal, what precautions must be taken, and what responsibilities accompany its use. Indigenous languages.
When an Indigenous language is weakened or lost**, a whole library of scientific, cultural, ecological, and spiritual understanding can be damaged.** When a language is protected and renewed, a living science system is strengthened.
**Western Science understands botanical medicine **as the oldest modern science. In 2026, the world is no longer able to dismiss traditional medicine as marginal. The World Health Organization now recognizes traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine as a major global health reality. Yet there remains a serious imbalance between the world’s dependence on these systems and the investment made to understand, protect, and support them properly.
In 2022, the World Health Organization established the Global Traditional Medicine Centre in Jamnagar, India, and by 2025, it had launched the Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034. This marks a **major shift **from the world of 1989 and 1990. 2022.
Traditional medicine is no longer being treated only as something outside modern systems. It is increasingly recognized as a living field that requires evidence, safety, cultural respect, biodiversity protection, intellectual property safeguards, and equitable benefit-sharing. Traditional medicine.
**This is extremely important for Indigenous Peoples **because **Western institutions **still seek the benefits of Indigenous science while ignoring Indigenous sovereignty, consent, guidance, ownership, and law.
Healing plants are not simply raw material for laboratories. They are relatives within a living web. The knowledge connected to them belongs within relationships, responsibilities, territories, languages, ceremonies, and sacred laws.
The global policy world has begun to recognize what Indigenous Peoples have always known: biodiversity, health, culture, and spiritual responsibility cannot be separated.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework includes 23 global targets for 2030. This is another powerful confirmation of what Indigenous science has always taught: the health of the people and the health of Mother Earth are the same.
The World Health Organization’s work on biodiversity and Indigenous knowledges now explicitly includes protecting Indigenous intellectual property, supporting fair access, mapping biodiversity linked to traditional medicine, and linking health with environmental conservation.
In 2024, at COP16, nearly 200 countries agreed to establish a mechanism for companies using genetic information from biodiversity to contribute to conservation funding, with a portion directed toward** Indigenous Peoples **and local communities.
COP16 also created a permanent body for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to consult on United Nations decisions on nature.
The central message of the 1989 proposal for the Global Center for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom is much stronger in 2026: Indigenous science systems are not remnants of the past. They are essential knowledge systems for the future.
Western science separates the observer from the observed. Indigenous science begins from a relationship. A plant is** not merely a chemical container**. A forest is not merely a carbon sink. A river is not merely a resource. A medicine is not merely an active compound.
/Each is part of a living circle of reciprocity, and that circle includes human conduct, gratitude, restraint, ceremony, responsibility, and accountability to the generations still to come. Living circle of reciprocity.
The urgent challenge for 2026 is not simply to “discover” more useful plants. The deeper challenge is to protect the Indigenous peoples, languages, Elders, forests, waters, territories, and sacred responsibilities that carry this knowledge.
When a forest is destroyed, a library burns. When an Elder passes without a young person learning, a scientific archive disappears. When a language is lost, whole systems of classification, relationships, healing, and spiritual understanding can be broken.
Therefore, the future of botanical medicine must not be built on extraction. It must be built on Indigenous leadership, free, prior, and informed consent, community ownership, cultural protocols, intergenerational transmission, biodiversity protection, and fair benefit-sharing.
The world does not need Indigenous knowledge to be absorbed into Western science. The world needs Western science to learn how to enter into a respectful relationship with Indigenous science.
This is why the Global Centre for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom remains so vital. It is not simply a research centre. It is a living bridge between ancestral wisdom and the needs of the present and future. It is a place of** protection, renewal, education, healing, documentation, ethical research, intergenerational learning**, and respectful collaboration.
The Centre will help ensure that Indigenous knowledge is not taken out of context, reduced to data**, separated from spiritual responsibility, or exploited without consent.** The Centre will help create a new standard for relationships between Indigenous Peoples and the scientific, medical, educational, environmental, and policy worlds.
In this sense, Indigenous science is not “alternative science.” It is humanity’s original science. It is relational science. It is a science of life, tested across generations, held in memory, renewed through practice, and guided by the spiritual law that all life is related.
As the crises of climate change, disease, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, water scarcity, and social fragmentation deepen, the wisdom carried by Indigenous Peoples is not only relevant; it is essential. It is indispensable.
Our May 7, 2026, update is clear. The original Four Worlds vision has not diminished. It has expanded. It has become more necessary, more timely, and more urgent. The Global Center for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom is needed to help protect our Elders’ knowledge, strengthen the leadership of** Indigenous Peoples,** support the renewal of languages and cultures, guide ethical research, defend biodiversity, and help our Human Family remember that knowledge must serve life.
This is the path forward: not extraction, but relationship; not ownership outside our communities, but Indigenous sovereignty. Not separation from Mother Earth, but restored kinship; not knowledge without responsibility, but wisdom guided by love, humility, consent, and sacred law.
The knowledge and wisdom held by Indigenous Peoples are a gift to the future, but they must be protected. In this way, the Global Centre for Indigenous Sciences and Ancestral Wisdom can become a living vessel of renewal, helping to unite humanity, restore Mother Earth, and** guide the generations **yet unborn toward a more just, balanced, and sacred future.