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Lessons from the Margin: Indigenous Peace Ecology
Ecological Crisis
Deforestation
Desertification
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Social and Humanitarian Crisis Widening Inequality
Alienation
Marginalisation
Racism & Discrimination
Social Injustice
Displacement: Refugees
Increasing Violence
Sustainable Development Ecological Regeneration
Neoliberal Economics Solidarity Economics
Alternative Paradigms, Philosophies, Practices: ‘Epistemologies of the South’, Indigenous Lessons, Peace Ecology
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Green Sustainable Degeneration Restorative Regeneration Development Development
Degeneration: anthropocentric, ecologically imperialistic, 98% old-growth forests destroyed, 94% large ocean fish depleted, 80% rivers can’t support life anymore.
Green Development: green washing, focus on economic development, oxymoron, development=growth, lip-service to green values.
Brundtland Commission--Our Common Future (1987): ‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Sustainable: root word—sustain which means strengthen or support. Can we strengthen or support the current system?
Criticisms of Sustainable Development:
Conceptual: Inherently contradictory, ‘oxymoron’ . Too optimistic, too ambitious & too far-reaching. Various interpretations, empty signifier, meaningless concept.
Implementation: Agenda not a blueprint for action. What level is SD aimed at: local, national, global? What is it that is to be sustained? Production or consumption? We can not solve our Political/Ideological: Disguise for the maintenance of problems with the the status quo. Hegemonic Discourse: ideological same level of thinking (western) domination, diverts attention from other that created them. more effective ecological solutions. Charles Eisenstein
After three decades of sustainable development, we now have more pollution, greater biodiversity loss, and climate change which suggests that it has failed.
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https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs
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To sustain is to strengthen or support. But ecosystems are not static; they are dynamic. So what are we sustaining?
We need to regenerate! Not just keep things as they are.
Regenerate (verb):
Grow after loss or damage (as in the case of body tissue)
Bring new and more vigorous life to an area, revive, revitalise, renew, rejuvenate, resuscitate.
Implicitly, to improve not just restore.
Semai of Malaysia Orang Asli (‘Original People’)
45,000 people, Austroasiatic speakers, mostly animists
Forest dependent swiddeners to simple commodity producers
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Shifting Cultivation, Slash & Burn Agriculture, Swiddening, Agroforestry
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Farming Degenerative Regenerative Intensive Organic & Ecological
Extensive use of toxic chemicals Rejuvenate the soil, grasslands, forests. Replenish water.
Monoculture Bio-diverse
Based on industrial agriculture Promote food sovereignty, restore systems that destabilise the public health & prosperity, absorb climate, degrade soil, water, excess carbon from the atmosphere & biodiversity, health & local storing it in the soil economies
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Neoliberal Economics The Four G Syndrome
GROWTH GLUT
Accumulation GRIEVANCE GREED Competition
Exploitation Inequality Alienation
Neoliberal Economics Solidarity Economics
Linear Cyclical
Economic Growth Ecological Regeneration
More, Quantity Better, Quality
Excessive Production Redistribution
Competitive Collaborative
Individualistic Communitarian
Greed Generosity
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Kate Raworth: décroissance Doughnut Economics
World Social Forum
Semai Social Ecology
Egalitarian Ethos.
‘Deliberative Democracy’: socially inclusive, Consensual Decision-making, Individual Autonomy.
Solidarity Economics: redistribution, sharing, generalised reciprocity, equal access, communal & eco-centric ‘ownership’, collaborative
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Peace ecology considers peace, nonviolence, social justice, protection of communities, ecological regeneration of degraded environments, recognition of human rights and the rights of species and nature as interconnected concerns and aspirational goals.
Four Focal Areas For Transformative Action:
Localisation. “The social unit that will have the greatest stability and resilience into the future is the local community” (Suzuki 1999, 213).
Basics: Needs versus Wants
Energy: Suzuki (1999, 215): “work to get your home as ecologically benign as possible (and) make 'disposable’ an obscene word”. Education: formal and informal.
Randall Amster (2015, 203) provides a list of viable alternatives: • community gardening • organic farming • collaborative water management • reinvigorating the commons • demonetizing our relationships • decommodifying the stuff of nature • preserving nature for its own sake and as a potential pathway to peacebuilding • navigating crises through mutual aid • forestalling crises through sustainable practices • resisting militarism on all levels • practicing compassionate and radical generosity • moving toward green energy sources • relocalizing the foundation of our lives • respecting diversity both socio-politically and ecologically, and • working across borders of all types
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Lessons from Peaceful Societies (https://cas.uab.edu/peacefulsocieties/) Defining Characteristics of Peaceful Societies Egalitarian ethos, foster equity Foster sharing, kindness, generosity, cooperation, interdependence Empathy: ability to grasp and respect the other’s viewpoint. Mutual respect Abhor violence and aggressive behaviour Devalue competition, self-focus, aggrandising behaviour Workable strategies for resolving and averting violence. Resolve and transform conflict before it escalates into violence. Strategies for raising children to adopt and continue non-violent ways. Socialisation: Inculcation of peaceability or peace culture. Indigenous Peace Ecology: Live in harmony with nature: eco-centric living
Catherine Walsh (2010: 18): “buen vivir denotes, organizes, and constructs a system of knowledge and living based on the communion of humans and nature and on the spatial-temporal-harmonious totality of existence. That is, on the necessary interrelation of beings, knowledges, logics, and rationalities of thought, action, existence, and living.”
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Indigenous Peace Ecology:
Lived and embodied modes of expression
Acquisition and transmission through lived experience
Traditional: transmitted from generation to generation
Not static, dynamic, adaptive to change
Indigenous knowledge: directly related to the natural world
(1) Indigenous Sacred Ecology: Spiritual Connection with Nature
Sky-focused vs Earth-based
In Antiquity every tree, every spring, every stream, every hill had its own genius loci, its guardian spirit. These spirits were accessible to men, but were very unlike men; centaurs, fauns, and mermaids show their ambivalence. Before one cut a tree, mined a mountain, or dammed a brook, it was important to placate the spirit in charge of that particular situation, and to keep in placated. (White 1967: 1205)
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Indigenous ‘Lord of the land’
Tauli-Corpus (2001: 285), an Igorot researcher and activist observed:
‘We do not consider ourselves the owners of the ancestral territory and resources found therein. We are but the stewards, trustees, or custodians. The beings in the spirit- world and deities are the real owners of the land. Thus, it is imperative to consult these spirits and deities when land is used, converted, or transferred and when resources are harvested, planted, or hunted. The forms of consultation range from a simple petition, prayer, or chant to elaborate rituals in which every village member participates.’
‘The beings in the spirit world are responsible for protecting the natural world from human greed’ (Tauli-Corpus 2001: 287)
Remove absolute rights to land from the individual and places these rights in some supernatural force which serves to sanction ‘proper’ treatment of land and nature.
(2) Respect for nature Forest-human relations metaphorized as an ‘adult-child caring’ with the forest as a parent and humans as its child.
Stark contrast from traditional western or modern view: As Bird-David (1993: 121) argues: “…nature and humankind have been ‘seen’ as detached and in opposition. Furthermore, they have been viewed within a ‘subject-object’ frame: nature ‘seen’ as a resource to be utilized, controlled, possessed, dominated, managed and (more recently) looked after by humankind.”
Greek mythology: Pan, the Lord of the Woods. Feared inhabitant of the forest. Malevolent
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(3) Spatialised Consciousness of History
‘Stories usually are a series of relatively autonomous episodes that are united, like beads on a string, by winding thread of continuous movement through space, rather than by a rising plot line that points towards its own resolution in a climax. At their most elemental, Illongot stories may simply list a lifetime of place names where people have gardened or erected their houseposts. More elaborate stories, often about oratory, fishing, hunting, and headhunting, begin at home, move in gradual step-by- step fashion toward their destinations, and conclude with a quick return to the place of origin.’ (Rosaldo 1980: 15–6)
Temporal consciousness to spatialised consciousness of history
Land: Historical significance Sacred---connections with the ancestors and ecology Historicising ecology, Ecologising History
www.globaldeepnetwork.org
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