History and Spiritual Foundation of Four Worlds
For countless centuries the Indigenous peoples of the Americas depended on the wisdom of their elders and their sacred traditions to guide them.
Through that system of knowledge, they were able to heal themselves in times of sickness, and they knew how to approach even the most complex of survival problems flexibly and holistically.
By 1970, however, the social devastation in Indigenous communities of Turtle Island was pushing Indigenous peoples to the brink of extinction. The litany of problems is an all too familiar one for Indigenous peoples anywhere on our Mother Earth – economic dependency, despair, political repression, alcohol, and drug abuse, cultural disintegration, educational failure, and the collapse of the traditional family and community – to touch only the tip of the iceberg.
Like everywhere else in the world, a fragmented army of programs arose; practically one for every problem the “experts” could identify. But, predictably, not much changed in the lives of ordinary people, the ones the programs were supposed to benefit. In fact, some things got much worse.
Indigenous Peoples Respond
On December 27-30, 1982, a Council took place on the High Plains of Alberta, Canada, which was destined to have a transforming effect on our understanding of what human development is, how it is connected to human learning, and how the complex web of problems the people of many cultures are facing are interrelated and must be seen as such to be solved.
Forty traditional elders and community leaders, with a small multicultural support team, deliberated intensely for four days. Although our focus was eliminating alcohol and drug abuse, that quickly became an entry point into the complex inter-connected web of human difficulties and possibilities. Nevertheless, the common ground these cultural leaders shared was an unshakeable belief in the essential capacity of human beings to heal themselves and to individually and collectively re-create themselves in a new image.
Out of this gathering came the fundamental key principles upon which Four Worlds has worked for 40 years. Through similar Elder Councils and ongoing consultation, these basic principles have evolved into Sixteen Principles for Building a Sustainable, Prosperous, and Harmonious World.
Those gathered at these Councils shared a set of broad principles concerning the nature of universal existence, human nature, and the processes of healing and development.
Four Worlds:
1. Considers culture to be the primary key to unlocking the forces that move people on the path of their own development.
2. Considers the spiritual and moral dimensions of human development to be inescapable.
3. Considers articulating a vision of the future, of possibilities other than the current reality, as a critical element in human transformation.
4. Views development holistically and takes a multi-dimensional,inter-sectoral and inter-disciplinary approach.
5. Places learning at the center of the development process.
6. Is community-based in orientation.
7. Promotes active participation in all levels of development (from needs assessment through planning, implementation, evaluation, and beyond) by developing people themselves.
8. Bases development activities on culturally appropriate, community-based, participatory research.
9. Balances bottom-up and top-down approaches.
10. Supports proactive, catalytic support to developing communities and programs based on a clearly defined relationship that underscores the people’s ownership of the healing and development process.
