Our Future is Ancient

Indigenous wisdom can heal the planet. Valuing Indigenous wisdom is one of the central themes to this mission of fulfilling the ancient prophecies. As we face a pandemic, a climate crisis and a mental health epidemic, we can no longer ignore the centuries-old stewardship and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples.

“Deep inside you resides an ancient memory your unique truth. Connected to the field of consciousness. A limitless state full of possibility.” – Pia Sewelies

We forget so that we can remember which is why our future is ancient. Our consciousness is evolving during this sacred moment of time. In order to do that, we require ancestral wisdom to inform our activities and decisions in consultation with guidance from our First Nations friends, in the spirit of honoring and education.

“We need to remind everyone to live with Mother Earth, not from Mother Earth, to live in peace, harmony and dignity. We need to remember that we are the little ones; we are her children and we need to behave.”

Mindahi Bastida, Director of the Original Caretakers program at the Center for Earth Ethics and General Coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico

For thousands of years, Indigenous communities have referred to Earth as our ‘mother’ because the Earth nurtures life. They have based their stewardship of, and heartfelt connection to, the natural world on the idea that if you take care of the Earth, the Earth will take care of you.

We learn of Hózhó, the concept of the Beauty Way- a way of living in balance with the beauty, harmony and well-being of all life from our Navajo friends, and of Mitakuye Oasin (we are all related) from our Lakota Friends.

Indigenous wisdom from all corners of the earth teaches us that water is life, the power of the circle, that respecting and learning from ones elders is a sacred duty and that we must tend to the land today so that those who will live on it in seven generations will have a beautiful and thriving Unci Maca (Grandmother Earth).

For example, the Kogi tribe from the Sierra Nevada region in Colombia refers to humankind as “the younger brothers,” and they say that “the younger brothers are abusing Mother.” What was previously a reciprocal relationship advanced by all Indigenous Peoples has turned one-sided, leading to the rapid deterioration of our natural world. Today, there is no better evidence of this disastrous shift than the pandemic we’re currently facing.

Recently published research from the Harvard School T.H. Chan School of Public Health shows that when we destroy biodiverse ecosystems, they are no longer able to regulate the dispersion of pathogens, and we contribute to the climate crisis because natural carbon sinks are no longer available. Additionally, if the destruction of those ecosystems is due to fires, then the release of carbon into the atmosphere makes the climate crisis even more severe. Scientists predict that the climate crisis itself will increase the likelihood of these pandemics , with zoonotic and vector-borne diseases like malaria rising, for example, as mosquitoes and ticks expand their range. We’ve already been listening to the scientific community, and some of us have been respecting their findings, but not enough of us are acting.

So how can we solve the crisis in nature and save the Earth’s most biodiverse places? Indigenous Peoples have taken care of the planet for thousands of years, and it is time to embed their philosophies into our daily lives, be it in urban or rural settings.

Indigenous Peoples make up less than 5 percent of the global population, yet they inhabit 80 percent of the most biodiverse regions. They have long practiced land management and conservation methods that scientists now say are crucial for tackling the climate crisis and enriching biodiversity. Innovative technologies alone are not enough to address the climate crisis, and we cannot reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set by the Paris Agreement without the inclusion of Indigenous conservation methods, as well as an intergenerational and holistic understanding of the natural world. Nature’s own systems offer the greatest climate solution because they draw down atmospheric greenhouse gases. It is a tried-and-tested method from Mother Nature herself that, when coupled with Indigenous ways of preserving ecosystems like forests, wetlands or savannas, can greatly contribute to solving the climate crisis.

A 2016 study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, the Woods Hole Research Center, and the World Resources Institute (WRI) found that, “Titled Indigenous lands in three Amazon countries had two to three times lower deforestation rates over a period of more than a decade than lands the state hadn’t formally recognized as Indigenous forests.”

But while the tide has been turning toward greater recognition of Indigenous knowledge for a couple of decades, it isn’t happening fast enough — or at the scale we need. By listening to the leadership of these communities and integrating their methods of protecting vital carbon sinks and biodiverse regions, as well as by learning from their experience of managing forests and agro-ecological systems, we can greatly improve our chances of warding off infectious diseases and run-away climate change.

We believe in weaving a web of wisdom by uniting our group mind, for the sole purpose of remembering our interconnectedness with everything that is alive.