The knowledge I will pass on is common to all indeginous cultures, that land is a gift from god that nourishes, supports and teaches.
Indigenous peoples
vary widely in their customs, culture, and impact on the land,
all consider
the Earth like a parent and revere it accordingly. "Mother
Earth" is
the centre of the universe, the core of their culture, the
origin of
their identity as a people. She connects them with their past
(as the
home of the ancestors), with the present (as provider of their
material
needs), and with the future (as the legacy they hold in trust
for their
children and grandchildren). In this way, indigenousness
carries with
it a sense of belonging to a place.
At the heart of this deep bond is a perception, an awareness,
that
all of life mountains, rivers, skies, animals, plants,
insects, rocks,
people are inseparably interconnected. Material and spiritual
worlds
are woven together in one complex web, all living things
imbued with
a sacred meaning. According
to indigenous law, humankind can never be more than a trustee
of the
land, with a collective responsibility to preserve it.
The predominant Western world view is that nature must be
studied,
dissected, and mastered and progress measured by the ability
to extract
secrets and wealth from the Earth. Indigenous people do not
consider
the land as merely an economic resource. Their ancestral lands
are literally
the source of life, and their distinct ways of life are
developed and
defined in relationship to the environment around them.
Indigenous people
are people of the land. This difference has often lead to
misunderstandings.
Many have assumed that indigenous people have no sense of
territory
because they do not necessarily physically demarcate their
lands. However,
indigenous people know the extent of their lands, and they
know how
the land, water, and other resources need to be shared. They
understand
only too well that to harm the land is to destroy ourselves,
since we
are part of the same organism.
Source:
http://www.ens.gu.edu.au
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