"Mother Nature" and Other Indigenous Environmental Perspectives By Mia Weinberg
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ou may 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 Baliga, M. (2020). Pexels. photograph. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-inwe reside. There has been white-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
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The Trail