Reclaiming Our Connection to Nature
I was part of the Sustaining All Life/United to End Racism delegation to the Global Climate Action Summit [see previous three articles].
It was a contradiction [to distress] to see Indigenous people leading visibly throughout the week. In one RC forum an Alaskan Gwich’in Indigenous leader spoke movingly about how her people had survived for forty thousand years by following the porcupine caribou. She said that the animals are suffering and her people’s way of life is threatened.
She was clear about her connection to the land and animals—a connection that is part of what it means to be human. For many of us, oppression, colonization, and capitalism have interfered with this inherent connection. We get to discharge toward reclaiming it.
As a Hindu I was taught that divinity resides as much in the rocks, soil, trees, and non-human creatures as it does in humans. Thus putting my attention on climate change means putting it on my heritage and my people. It also means discharging on violence, assimilation, early defeats, and isolation. And it means deciding to keep reaching out to other people.
Washington, D.C., USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC
Community members involved in eliminating racism