Mia Weinberg

"Mother Nature" and Other Indigenous Environmental Perspectives By Mia Weinberg

ou mayY have heard the following statistic: 80 percent of the world’ s remaining biodiversity is on Indigenous land. These areas of thriving biodiversity are massively contrasted by deforested and depleted centers of industrial development in which we reside. There has been Baliga, M. (2020). Pexels. photograph. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-inwhite-and-red-dress-standing-on-rocky-shore-5105802/. growing recognition of the connection between protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples and environmental conservation. While non-Indigenous people may have a loose idea of why indigenous cultures value protection of natural resources, many lack a deeper understanding as these perspectives are not typically taught to us. What makes indigenous knowledge of the natural world imperative to understanding how to protect it? The key to appreciating these linkages lies in recognizing the millennia that indigenous people had lived in a particular region before it was settled by outsiders. For example, some regions in the United States are thought to have been inhabited by the same indigenous groups for 20,000 years before Europeans arrived. Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for anywhere between 50,000 and 120,000 year. These time frames are difficult to fathom, especially when compared to the mere 246 years that the United States has existed. They comprise hundreds of generations and the accumulation and transfer of knowledge. The sheer fact that people have subsisted on the same land for so long attests to their intelligent and sustainable use of resources. This endurance is a result of their deep respect and

patience for the Earth. Today, the knowledge that has been passed down for thousands of years is known as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and intertwines culture, nature, and spirituality. Though it varies greatly across groups of people, the overarching belief seems to be that the Earth, a living being herself, is made up of spirits and has needs just as humans do. Humans ’ extraction of natural resources must be balanced with Earth’ s needs because the Earth provides for us. Often, TEK embodies the idea that all living and nonliving things have spirits and are worthy of respect, which contrasts with the western view that nature exists separately from us. Here are a few examples of Indigenous knowledge of nature near home and abroad. The people indigenous to New Jersey before European arrival were primarily the Lenape. Their views of nature are expressed through ceremonies in which the powers of nature are personified, representing things like the sun, thunder, and animals. The Earth is called “”Our Mother, ” because it carries and nurtures the people having been assigned that duty by the Creator ” (Harrington, 1921, p. 28). The Lenape also recognize spirits that protect the Earth without embodying it. For example, Mesingw is the Mask Spirit of the Lenape, and protects the balance of nature. For most of their history, all of this knowledge has been passed down solely through oral communication. If we remove ourselves from New Jersey and travel northeast to Nova Scotia, Canada, we will find the home of the Mi'Kmaq people. The late Mi’Kmaq woman named Muin ’iskw left writings detailing Mi’Kmaq views of the world. She wrote “the most sacred life form is the Earth herself. Earth is alive, and she is a spirit…She is our sacred Earth Mother, the one who nurtures us, provides for us, and protects us. We should treat her with respect, compassion and gentleness…Respect is the highest principle ” (Muin ’iskw, 1998). To exploit the Earth’ s bounty, she says, goes against their spiritual beliefs. Only in recent years have non-Indigenous people recognized the importance of TEK in environmental protection on a large scale. It has been discussed on the international stage including at UN conventions. If we all continue living our current lifestyles, people embodying this intuitive respect for the Earth will remain in the minority, and the consequences will be catastrophic. Muin ’iskw once wrote, “TEK is just a basic form of knowledge which anyone can acquire through observing and experiencing their environment over time ” (Muin ’iskw, 1998). The more we listen to those who have subsisted off of local land for millenia, the more we come to appreciate all that the land needs of us.