The Wisdom Of Ages
How the wisdom of indigenous people can help the fight against climate change
Despite all the green technology and science that is potentially at our fingertips, we cannot rely on this technology alone to solve the present climate and ecological crisis.
Many of the problems we are now facing are not just due to redundant fossil fuel industries, but also the mentality of greed, ruthless competition and over-consumption which lies at the roots of these industries.
If we're going to meet the challenges now facing us, we will not only need new technology, but also a new way of looking at the world and a different way of working with it and cooperating. And here is where the sisdom of indigenous peoples can be of great assistance to all of us.
The core principle of all indigenous philosophy can be summed up in three points:
- The Earth is our Mother and the sustainer and nurturer of all life on the planet. As such, no matter our race, creed, religion or nationality, we are all the Earth's children and as such, we are all brothers and sisters. This not only goes for all forms of human life, but also the animals, plants and aquatics: in fact the rivers, hills, the sky and the stones.
All of them are the Earth's children, in fact, they all make up her body and she is inseparable from them. Realizing that all life is sacred and that everything that lives is an inseparable part of the body of Mother Earth, will lead to a complete turnaround in our present way of thinking and being in the world.
2. The earth is not our property or possession. As the indigenous people keep telling us, we do not own the earth, the Earth owns us. For a society like ours which is based on individual ownership and private property, this is another very radical way of understanding and being in the world. Interestingly, this belief in sharing what is common is the basis of all religious practices, such as we find in monastic orders.
It is therefore familiar to us and was part of a revival of communal thinking with the counterculture of the 60s. Indeed, when people realize how necessary this way of living is for the planet's survival, they will adopt it again and by doing so, will transform our world.
3. According to indigenous beliefs and practices, human beings have been given the sacred duty to act as custodians and caretakers of the planet, administrating it along with the guidance of the ancestor spirits and the spirits of the land itself: the spirits of the earth, the trees, the waters, the stones.
As joint custodians of the planet, human beings have a sacred duty and responsibility to all other forms of life, and for the protection of the body of Mother Earth herself. Such wisdom and understanding when put into practice in our lives, and in the greater life of the community, again will transform us and everything in the world around us.
As the younger children of Mother Earth (ourselves) have neglected and forgotten our role as caretakers of the planet, if our civilization is going to survive, we will have to seek advice, counsel and guidance from our older brothers and sisters, the firstborn of Gaia, the indigenous people, who still retain their unbroken contact with the earth, in a way that we lost many, many generations ago.
These things, as you can see from what I have written briefly about above, will come as something very new, and yet very familiar to us.
If our world is to survive the ravages of the present climate and ecological crisis, we must imbibe this ancient Wisdom and live it out in our own lives and the lives of those close to us.
