Tuesday March 22 7:30 p.m. at the Whyte Museum. Limited live seating available or sign up on Zoom.
SUMMARY
From Leroy:
“You wake up every morning to what you think is ‘reality’……. ‘this is the way it is’. We never think about the underlying foundational basis for what we think is real. There may be an objective reality ‘out there’. But paraphrasing Stephen Weinberg, a quantum physicist, an objective reality exists out there but, as soon as you put a human being in the picture, the human being puts a human interpretation on it. So it is no longer an objective reality. It is simply an interpretation. Why does this happen?
All societies at one time or another claim a territory. Over time, through mutual relationship with the totality of the territory, a culture arises. As part of the culture, interpretive criteria we call metaphysics/paradigms are developed. These become the society’s interpretive tools. One society’s interpretive tools are going to be different from another because of different environmental and geographical settings. Therefore, different notions about nature and sustainability arise. The presentation will speak to these differences and their ramifications.”
Leroy
GUEST SPEAKER
Leroy was born and raised on the Blood Indian Reserve (Kainai First Nation). He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1971 and continued his education at the College of Law, University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, completing a Juris Doctor Degree in 1975.
Following his graduation, Little Bear returned to University of Lethbridge as a founding member of Canada’s first Native American Studies department. He remained at the University of Lethbridge as a researcher, faculty member and department chair until his official retirement in 1997.
Along with his wife, Amethyst First Rider, Little Bear brought about the historic Buffalo Treaty between First Nations on both sides of the USA-Canada border in 2014. Little Bear was inducted into the Alberta Order Excellence and the Order of Canada in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
He continues to pursue new research interests including North American Indian science and Western physics, and the exploration of Blackfoot knowledge through songs, stories and landscape.
About the Speaker Series
The Eleanor Luxton historical Foundation recently made the Bow Valley Naturalist speaker series even better with a five year grant to host a special program once a year in honour of early BVN enthusiasts, Bob and Mary Smith. It’s fitting Bob and Mary are honoured as part of the speaker series because they were very active in BVN, loved giving presentations, and sharing their knowledge, especially about wildflowers.. Even well into his 90’s Bob was giving talks where he lived at the Bow River Seniors lodge that would inspired people about nature.
Hi, I’m looking for registering Zoom or attend in person for the event I found through the Bow Valley Naturalist email.
However, I haven’t been successful to do so at all.
Could you give me any information about it?
March 22, 2022: Bow Valley Naturalists, the Luxton Foundation and the Whyte Museum present Leroy Little Bear: A Metaphysical Blackfoot Perspective on Sustainability
Hi Yumiko,
The Talk with Leroy Little Bear shows up in your question – that was last March’s program and there is a recording of it on the website. I will be posting information on this March’s talk on the weekend so please stay tuned for that.
Hello, I was looking for the recording of this event but cannot find it on the website, could you possibly help me find it please? Thank you!
Hi Emilie, thank you for pointing out that we had missed posting this talk. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMyfvA7N5Eg
and I will make sure it’s linked to our website now.
Thank you so much, very much appreciated!