Paraphrasing Albert Einstein, Nelson states, "we cannot solve our global crisis with the same process that created it." In the Mesoamerican tradition, the four main cardinal directions of the Earth are honored. However, there is a 5th direction, the person next to you. By looking at each other, we recognize how we are mirrors of each other. This allows us to value each other. By looking at the 5th direction, we will be one step closer to the thought process that is needed to solve our global crisis.
I thought it was interesting how important it is for someone to stay connected with their indigenous language. By learning an indigenous knowledge, you learn the skills necessary to decolonize the mind. This is a good step towards re-indigenization.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Original Instructions Part Six
"Indigenous Peoples represent 86 percent of the world's cultural diversity." The struggles of indigenous peoples is our struggle because indigenous peoples make up the majority of the world's diversity. This is a reason why it is important that we address indigenous peoples in a just way. Today, profit is often put before life. Because of this, the concerns of indigenous peoples are often pushed to the side. Indigenous communities are coming together to stand up for their rights. But we should also remember that they are not only speaking for their own rights, but for the voiceless, the young. It is important that indigenous struggles are heard instead of continuing to put profit before life.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Original Instructions Part Five
"You are what you eat" is the saying we've all heard before. What you eat literally becomes your flesh. But we are also where we eat because after we die, that flesh returns to the ground. Most of us take this cycle for granted. This is how Nelson introduces the section "Re-Indigenizing Our Bodies and Minds through Native Foods." The majority of the food we eat today comes from big corporations. Nelson argues that we need to take responsibility for our food source. I agree with her because until we stand up against these food sources, we will continue eating this factory farmed food. If we could return to native foods, instead of the domesticated plants that we rely on so heavily today, this would allow us to "re-indigenize our bodies and minds." By being more intimately connected with our food and where it comes from, we would have a better mindset in understanding the nature of agriculture and how we could tread lighter on this planet.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Original Instructions Part Four
"The Great Mother is beautiful, no matter what… She's not nice. She's no pretty; she's beautiful. And I'm telling you something about the feminine, what the feminine means. She is one scary bitch… We try to control her. You can't control a madwoman who's a sorceress." Paula Gunn Allen
People often refer to nature and the environment as "Mother Earth". Whenever I think of Mother Earth, I think about the wind gently blowing the leaves and the rain flowing into the river. I don't think of "one scary bitch". But this quote is a more accurate way of looking at Mother Nature because weather and natural disasters are not predictable or under our control. Allen says that humans often try to control "The Great Mother" but they need not try to control the world because "the world can save itself quite well. It's doing it." I thought this was an interesting way to look at Mother Earth because we often try finding ways of "saving the planet." We can't fix anything. The only thing we can do is "live and learn and have gratitude and love." If everyone focused on living and learning as opposed to fixing and solving, some of our world's problems might solve themselves.
Bogaletch Gebre, an Ethiopian Women, has supported feminine power by standing up against the traditional practice of female genital excision (FGE). Gebre says, "Until we restore the health of our women, we'll never restore the health of our communities. Until we stop the maiming of women, we cannot turn the tide against the historic maiming of our culture and the modern maiming of our countryside. Until we empower women, we'll never activate the paradigm needed to heal our environment. Until we educate women, we'll never end the cycle of famine and build a sustainable economy." As Chief Oren Lyons pointed out in part 2: "You can't have justice without equity." We cannot solve today's problems, or at least live and learn with gratitude and love, until we have gender equality. Taking this one step further, we cannot have gender equality until we have awareness of gender inequality. Today in Spanish class, we were discussing in groups about if we thought certain issues were going to exist in the future. After saying how I thought gender inequality would end in the future, a guy in my group said that he didn't think gender inequality exists today. After giving him a few examples of how I've seen gender inequality in my own life, he was convinced that it is still an issue. This guy was not a sexist or ok with women being treated unfairly, he just wasn't aware of what gender issues persist today. I was reminded of this when I read about how Gebre was insulted when a friend questioned the Ethiopian practice of FGE. Gebre, as well as many Ethiopian women, were not aware that they were being treated unjustly. It wasn't until Gebre started the movement against FGE that many women acknowledged that they were being treated unfairly and decided to take a stance. Since we cannot solve our environmental problems without equality, our first step should be to promote awareness of gender inequality. This is the only way we will be able to "live and learn and have gratitude and love."
People often refer to nature and the environment as "Mother Earth". Whenever I think of Mother Earth, I think about the wind gently blowing the leaves and the rain flowing into the river. I don't think of "one scary bitch". But this quote is a more accurate way of looking at Mother Nature because weather and natural disasters are not predictable or under our control. Allen says that humans often try to control "The Great Mother" but they need not try to control the world because "the world can save itself quite well. It's doing it." I thought this was an interesting way to look at Mother Earth because we often try finding ways of "saving the planet." We can't fix anything. The only thing we can do is "live and learn and have gratitude and love." If everyone focused on living and learning as opposed to fixing and solving, some of our world's problems might solve themselves.
Bogaletch Gebre, an Ethiopian Women, has supported feminine power by standing up against the traditional practice of female genital excision (FGE). Gebre says, "Until we restore the health of our women, we'll never restore the health of our communities. Until we stop the maiming of women, we cannot turn the tide against the historic maiming of our culture and the modern maiming of our countryside. Until we empower women, we'll never activate the paradigm needed to heal our environment. Until we educate women, we'll never end the cycle of famine and build a sustainable economy." As Chief Oren Lyons pointed out in part 2: "You can't have justice without equity." We cannot solve today's problems, or at least live and learn with gratitude and love, until we have gender equality. Taking this one step further, we cannot have gender equality until we have awareness of gender inequality. Today in Spanish class, we were discussing in groups about if we thought certain issues were going to exist in the future. After saying how I thought gender inequality would end in the future, a guy in my group said that he didn't think gender inequality exists today. After giving him a few examples of how I've seen gender inequality in my own life, he was convinced that it is still an issue. This guy was not a sexist or ok with women being treated unfairly, he just wasn't aware of what gender issues persist today. I was reminded of this when I read about how Gebre was insulted when a friend questioned the Ethiopian practice of FGE. Gebre, as well as many Ethiopian women, were not aware that they were being treated unjustly. It wasn't until Gebre started the movement against FGE that many women acknowledged that they were being treated unfairly and decided to take a stance. Since we cannot solve our environmental problems without equality, our first step should be to promote awareness of gender inequality. This is the only way we will be able to "live and learn and have gratitude and love."
Original Instructions Part Three
One thing that this book has mentioned a few times is how indigenous peoples did not all of a sudden decide to be ecologists. Instead, their knowledge was the "result of centuries of observation of what works and of recognizing that we have to be in this place so we better not make a mess of things." Dennis Martinez mentions how Indians in British Columbia managed salmon eggs. This was not their attempt of being ecologists, but rather finding a way to have a sustainable food source. When we look at indigenous knowledge, we should keep the context in mind of how they developed this knowledge. That will allow us to apply this knowledge better to our context.
My Connection with Nature
I think my main connection with nature is my appreciation for its beauty. Especially over the last week or so, I've felt a lot of appreciation for nature as I walked through the forest area behind the Chapel. As the wind blew, the leaves would float down around me. Just in my day to day life, I feel like my connection with nature arises from how pretty the trees or flowers look.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Original Instructions Part Two
It was really interesting when Chief Oren Lyons described his culture as a canoe. In their canoe, they have a hard life, but it's a simple one. But Western culture is a boat full of many people and cultures. The boat and the canoe are linked by 3 chains: peace, friendship, and how long it will last. In the book, an issue is described as being when people have one foot in the canoe and one foot in the boat. Just in the metaphor, I can see how this would be a problem because an individual who is straddling the two boats wouldn't have a sense of stability. But outside of the metaphor, why can't someone be in the boat and the canoe? With the lives we live today, it would be really hard to switch from the boat to the canoe. If we all continue living in the boat, our planet will keep getting destroyed. The best solution I see is for people in the boat to start straddling the canoe. It would be beneficial if we could all take indigenous knowledge and find a way to incorporate it into the decisions we make on how we're going to use our planet.
In this section, Jeannette Armstrong says how in her language, the word for bodies contains the word for land. From reading these two sections, I've thought it was interesting how indigenous languages reveal so much about their beliefs and principles. In Armstrong's language, every time she refers to herself, she is reminded that she's from the land and her body is the land. Chief Oren Lyons says that their greeting "skannoh" is the same word for health and peace. This shows how that in his culture, health cannot exist without peace. Similarly, Chief Oren Lyons says "You can't have justice without equity." I think indigenous languages are a good key into understanding their cultures because their language reflects some of their core principles.
In this section, Jeannette Armstrong says how in her language, the word for bodies contains the word for land. From reading these two sections, I've thought it was interesting how indigenous languages reveal so much about their beliefs and principles. In Armstrong's language, every time she refers to herself, she is reminded that she's from the land and her body is the land. Chief Oren Lyons says that their greeting "skannoh" is the same word for health and peace. This shows how that in his culture, health cannot exist without peace. Similarly, Chief Oren Lyons says "You can't have justice without equity." I think indigenous languages are a good key into understanding their cultures because their language reflects some of their core principles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)