Book Review of "Point of Departure: Returning to a More Authentic Worldview for Education and Survival" by Four Arrows (aka Don Trent Jacobs)

Authors

Barbara Bickel, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Abstract

Four Arrows’ new book, according to his Wikipedia page, is his 22^nd book. Prolific in his life work as a professor, Indigenous educator, writer, musician and activist, he describes this book as his most honest and most radical. It is radical in how it reveals the damage inflicted by what he labels the Dominant (Western) Worldview. He urges us to return to the primal healing ways of the contrasting ancient Indigenous Worldview in order to limit the largely anthropogenic 6^th mass extinction on planet earth. The good news that Four Arrows highlights at the opening of the book is that whether we have lost connection to our Indigenous roots or not we all possess them. To assist this critical reconnection he traces a path back to the time of departure from the Indigenous Worldview that functioned in harmony with ecological wisdoms. Although not a book on arts education per se, its rootedness in the Indigenous Worldview, based in the language of art, songs, drumming, and words through ceremony and visioning to create new realities, is the foundational recommendation for the arts and education.

Recommended Citation

Bickel, Barbara (2017) "Book Review of "Point of Departure: Returning to a More Authentic Worldview for Education and Survival" by Four Arrows (aka Don Trent Jacobs)," Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 9.
Available at: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/atj/vol2/iss2/9