Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth

Indigenous Knowing and Responsible Life in the World

 Indigenous Knowing and Responsible Life in the World J O H N G R I M INTRODUCTION The term ‘‘indigenous’’ refers to that which is native, original, and resident to a place. By introducing perspectives on time, however, ‘‘indigenous ’’ becomes somewhat ambiguous. That is, evolutionary history presents a story of change over time among landforms, plants, animals, and peoples. While a consideration of time would seem to introduce simply a scientific agenda, it can lead to problematic political positions. Thus, in India, Malaysia, and Indonesia, for example, there is an objection to the use of ‘‘indigenous’’ and a preference for terms—Adivasi and Orang Asli—that refer to the ‘‘first peoples.’’ This standpoint, it is argued, avoids an overly exclusive emphasis on tribal peoples as indigenous residents. In India, for example, the claim is made that Dravidian and Aryan peoples have been in South Asia for millennia. On the other hand, in South America ‘‘indigenous’’ has been claimed by a wide range of native organizations as an overarching and positive term for referring to diverse native peoples in international conferences and agreements. The ambiguity of ‘‘indigenous’’ also arises from the diversity of peoples indicated by the term. While often thought of as remote minorities, indigenous peoples are a significant global population of over five hundred million peoples in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Australia , the Pacific region, Northern Eurasia, and the Americas.1 No claim is made that such different cultural groups can be described by the word ‘‘indigenous.’’ This term can, however, be used to refer to the family j o hn g r im 兩 197 resemblances among these small-scale societies. Having been utilized in international settings, moreover, ‘‘indigenous’’ has been claimed by these diverse local, tribal, folk, native, and traditional peoples as they struggle for their right to exist. Its appearance in the consultations and documents of international bodies affirms my usage here of ‘‘indigenous.’’ For example, the United Nations declared a ‘‘Decade of Indigenous Peoples’’ from 1994 to 2004. ‘‘The Earth Charter,’’ a United Nations–related document, identifies ecological integrity, socioeconomic justice, democracy, nonviolence, and peace with an appreciation of indigenous knowledge. Furthermore, article 1 of the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169 (1989) regards people ‘‘as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural, and political institutions.’’ The social and political emphases in this definition are important dimensions of any discussion of indigenous communities, but other religious and philosophical features of indigenous lifeways associated with ‘‘ecospirit’’ are also significant. Topics such as homelands, cultures, traditions , histories, languages, institutions, rituals, and sacred symbols can be raised in this comparative context. Indigenous spokespeople have described these themes as not only inseparable from knowledge but interwoven into the fabric of their existence, their cultural totality or ‘‘lifeway,’’ as a people. Indigenous knowing among small-scale societies around the planet is embedded in particular languages, rituals and storycycles , kinship systems, worldview dispositions, and integrated relationships with the land on which they live.2 The interaction of these distinct aspects of indigenous lifeways provide pathways into understanding indigenous ecospirit. Obviously, more is intended by ‘‘indigenous’’ than simply historical time in a locale, or political expediency. While this ‘‘more’’ is difficult to articulate, one way to consider it is in terms of an abiding cultural and spiritual identity established by a people in relation to a particular place. The term ‘‘ecospirit’’ is suggestive of the religious relationships established in diverse indigenous traditions between a people and their homeland . While the word ‘‘spirit’’ carries a strong transcendent orientation, 198 兩 e c os p i ri t the suffix ‘‘eco-’’ grounds this emphasis on spirit as immanent. That is, a strong family resemblance among indigenous peoples is a reverence for nature and local biodiversity. This veneration, of course, does not eliminate the necessity for hunting and horticulture. Rather, indigenous reverence is embedded within subsistence practices that manifest responsible relationships with ecospirit. Diverse forms of ecological responsibility, environmental ethics, and sustainable behavior are also broadly identifiable features of indigenous societies. Yet, the deeper implications of specific indigenous religious and conceptual orientations to nature are...