Brian Burkhart, Dept. of Philosophy and The Native Nations Center, University of Oklahoma — I will argue that focus on individual philosophers who produce texts limits access to a significant portion of global philosophy, both in the present and in the history of philosophy. This limitation is created both by an individualistic rather than collective or communal framework as well as a textual rather than oral medium of expression and exchange.

Further understanding that orality in philosophy is not a function of primitivism clarifies that textuality is not a necessary feature of philosophical progress. Considering this, the philosophical foundation of orality in land-based philosophies, particularly the grounding of being, knowing, and valuing in land as kinship can be explored in philosophical terms.