Shifting To Indigenous Wisdom
The Shift Within: How We End Oppression and Divisiveness to Create Liberation and Indivisibility for All
I’m blogging a book! Click here to start at page one, view a previous page, or jump right in below.
Image: A concentric circles diagram example of the evolution, interconnectedness, and interdependence of power-with social systems.
Shifting To Indigenous Wisdom
After centuries of conquests, colonization, imperialism, and industrialization in an effort to own and control people, land, and natural resources, the results are in. These efforts to achieve power-over and control have resulted in varying degrees of exploitation and oppression of people from all backgrounds and ethnicities while disproportionately impacting women, LGBTQ+, and the diaspora of Indigenous, African, Asian, and Latinx peoples.
Conquests, colonization, imperialism, and industrialization have also led to cultural erasure, forced labor, economic dependency, land dispossession, environmental degradation, deforestation, pollution, over-extraction of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and climate change that has led to long-lasting and profound negative consequences for individuals, societies, and ecosystems around the world.
More and more people around the world have started to understand these negative consequences and have begun taking action starting with listening to the wisdom of Indigenous people who have never stopped advocating for the protection and sustainable use of natural resources and the environment.
Indigenous peoples generally view themselves as an integral part of the natural world, connected to the land, animals, plants, and other elements, fostering a sense of responsibility for maintaining balance and harmony within their environment. Emphasizing the importance of land stewardship, they engage in sustainable resource use, preservation of ecosystems, and the implementation of traditional ecological practices to maintain environmental health.
Indigenous cultures hold deep respect and reverence for the land, recognizing it as a source of life and sustenance, and expressing this through rituals, ceremonies, and storytelling. They also place a strong emphasis on intergenerational responsibility, focusing on preserving and passing down traditional ecological knowledge to ensure the well-being of both the land and their communities for generations to come.
Indigenous land stewardship approaches often encompass a holistic understanding of the environment, acknowledging the interconnectedness of all elements within an ecosystem, and promoting a more sustainable and harmonious relationship with the land.
Enjoyed this post? Hit the ❤️ to warm my heart and help more people find Sustainable Solutions Media
Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll join me for my next post! Click here to view previous “The Shift Within” posts.
If you gain value from our work and have the means to support us in continuing to have the time to create it, please become a paid subscriber and/or patron today!