Indigenous Peoples and their deep knowledges offer a fundamentally important way of seeing the world and the environment. Through relationships to distinct ancestral homelands, Indigenous Peoples have developed unique ways of surviving, adapting, connecting, and relating to their respective environments. Indigenous Sacred Places themselves are connections to ancestors, to all beings on the planet, and to different planes of existence. Sacred Places serve an important environmental role in many Indigenous Nations around the globe. Yet, Indigenous Sacred Places, and in particular understandings of spirit that connect Sacred Places, have been historically and contemporarily marginalized and excluded from environmental health academic discourse and spaces. This despite concrete calls for the amplification of Indigenous traditional knowledges—that of which does not separate spirit from knowledge, or spirit from action—they are intertwined. With this, we sought to amplify in this Perspective, understandings and connectivity between Sacred Places, spirit, and environmental health through the stories from Indigenous Elders, processes of ceremony, and personal synthesis.
Indigenous knowledges, spirituality, environmental health, planetary health, spirit, traditional knowledge, Indigenous Peoples
Featured Resources
Melissa L. Palma, Donna Lynne Demanarig, Kristine Cecile Alarcon, Maria Acedo Kronenburg, Meredith Anne Capuli, Jamille Nagtalon-Ramos, Melanie Sabado-Liwag, and Joyce Javier
2025 | United States
Kuwentuhan is an indigenous Filipino oral storytelling method used to preserve history and values and demonstrates how cultural values and knowledge are passed down through generations. Kuwentuhan incorporates collaborative experiences as individuals share their personal stories and perspectives. Indigenous Filipinos use the practice of kuwentuhan to build kapwa (shared identity)…
Robyn Williams (Noongar), Francine Eades (Noongar), Justine Whitby (Noongar Yamatji), Katiska Davis (Noongar), Christopher McKay (Wiradjuri), Lina Gubhaju, Sandra Eades (Noongar)
2024 | Australia
Indigenous research frameworks are key to enhancing cultural safety for participants, while facilitating capacity building for Indigenous researchers. Indigenous frameworks can address and balance out the potential harms of western research methods. This methodology article describes the experiences of an Indigenous research team in Western Australia (WA) and the developed…
Donna LM Kurtz, Julianne Barry, Peter Hutchinson, Karlyn Olsen, Diana Moar, Rosanna McGregor, Edna Terbasket, Carol Camille, Arlene Vrtar-Huot, Mary Cutts, Kelsey Darnay, Haley Cundy, Mariko Kage, Nikki McCrimmon, Cal Albright, Charlotte Jones
2024 | Canada
Indigenous methodology is a living methodology of doing research in a good way that honours respectful relationships with Indigenous Peoples and communities in which knowledge is co-created and ownership is shared. Guided by Indigenous methodologies, the Urban Indigenous Collective Governance Circle was co-developed for urban Indigenous health research. The Collective…
Adrian Teare, Anne Mease, Claudia Madampage, Alexandra King, Malcolm King
2024 | Canada
Historically, research partnerships between Indigenous communities and academic institutions were often harmful for communities; wise ways of achieving more balanced and just relationships are emerging. This project focuses on the research partnership between Grandmother’s Bay and the University of Saskatchewan with the objectives of providing knowledge on initiating Indigenous community-based…
Featured Resources
Melissa L. Palma, Donna Lynne Demanarig, Kristine Cecile Alarcon, Maria Acedo Kronenburg, Meredith Anne Capuli, Jamille Nagtalon-Ramos, Melanie Sabado-Liwag, and Joyce Javier
2025 | United States
Kuwentuhan is an indigenous Filipino oral storytelling method used to preserve history and values and demonstrates how cultural values and knowledge are passed down through generations. Kuwentuhan incorporates collaborative experiences as individuals share their personal stories and perspectives. Indigenous Filipinos use the practice of kuwentuhan to build kapwa (shared identity)…
Robyn Williams (Noongar), Francine Eades (Noongar), Justine Whitby (Noongar Yamatji), Katiska Davis (Noongar), Christopher McKay (Wiradjuri), Lina Gubhaju, Sandra Eades (Noongar)
2024 | Australia
Indigenous research frameworks are key to enhancing cultural safety for participants, while facilitating capacity building for Indigenous researchers. Indigenous frameworks can address and balance out the potential harms of western research methods. This methodology article describes the experiences of an Indigenous research team in Western Australia (WA) and the developed…
Donna LM Kurtz, Julianne Barry, Peter Hutchinson, Karlyn Olsen, Diana Moar, Rosanna McGregor, Edna Terbasket, Carol Camille, Arlene Vrtar-Huot, Mary Cutts, Kelsey Darnay, Haley Cundy, Mariko Kage, Nikki McCrimmon, Cal Albright, Charlotte Jones
2024 | Canada
Indigenous methodology is a living methodology of doing research in a good way that honours respectful relationships with Indigenous Peoples and communities in which knowledge is co-created and ownership is shared. Guided by Indigenous methodologies, the Urban Indigenous Collective Governance Circle was co-developed for urban Indigenous health research. The Collective…
Adrian Teare, Anne Mease, Claudia Madampage, Alexandra King, Malcolm King
2024 | Canada
Historically, research partnerships between Indigenous communities and academic institutions were often harmful for communities; wise ways of achieving more balanced and just relationships are emerging. This project focuses on the research partnership between Grandmother’s Bay and the University of Saskatchewan with the objectives of providing knowledge on initiating Indigenous community-based…
