#9 LISTENING TO THE LAND: Information Literacy Beyond Academia

This is the third lecture for the 2024 Fall session of ENGLISH 1110 for The Ohio State University, taught by PhD Candidate Peyton Del Toro. By looking to nature for models of design, as in the practice of biomimicry, Kimmerer argues that Western science is beginning to catch up to the wisdom Indigenous peoples have long held—wisdom that has been marginalized or dismissed by academic institutions for centuries. This brings us to an important aspect of information literacy: questioning whose knowledge is valued and whose is ignored. Historically, Western academia has privileged certain voices, particularly those aligned with Eurocentric, scientific, and colonial worldviews, while excluding Indigenous thought, language, and ways of knowing. Native science, for example, was often dismissed as "unscientific" or irrelevant to modern knowledge systems. However, as Kimmerer points out, Indigenous knowledge offers invaluable insights into sustainability, ecology, and the interconnectedness of life—insights that are increasingly being recognized as essential to addressing today’s environmental challenges.This history of exclusion teaches us to be critical of the structures and systems that determine which information is deemed credible and which is not. Information literacy, then, is not just about finding reliable sources—it’s also about interrogating the power dynamics that shape our understanding of what constitutes "reliable" information in the first place. For a deeper dive on the “Skywoman Falling” section of the book, check out my very first episode titled “SCI-FI AS RE-STORY-ATION.”