More than ever before, it is grossly obvious that the western industrialized extractivist mindset is the root cause of the multiple crises besieging the planet today. In attempting to discern what to do, I have found it all too easy to slip into overwhelm, confusion, and despair. This is largely due to the fact that, for those of us born into the aforementioned culture, who are not Indigenous, need a total reset in our perspective, perceptions, and understanding. In short, a new epistemology.
I couldn’t think of a better person to speak with about this than Dr. Anne Poelina in Australia.
Anne:
What we must do is come together, and stop discounting the ancient wisdom of indigenous people, first people or First Nations people across the globe, because we have lived with the Anthropocene in the past, particularly in my country. And we have shaped that. So we were living always in a symbiotic relationship. So what we’re saying is that Western thinking Western thought, top down leadership and governance which has become toxic, must have a pause, must listen to this ancient wisdom, because this is the ancient wisdom that can teach us how to see and be in the world a different way.
Anne is the professor and chair of Indigenous Knowledge at Notre Dame University there, as well as the chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. Anne sees the river as a living ancestral being that works with and guides us, and the Martuwarra River is the being that gives her people their wisdom and identity. One of the co-authors of several of her peer-reviewed scientific papers is the Martuwarra River. From Anne’s perspective, our ancient systems of living and caring and sharing with one another have become dominated by a global system built to generate financial wealth, and our task now is to remember that we must learn to live with other species, not dominate them; to feel the consciousness of the place on the planet where we live, and that we have a responsibility to love and care and protect the part of the planet where we live, to hear and speak to and feel the vibrations of the Earth.
Our conversation ranged from these topics, to dreaming as a research methodology that includes hearing and feeling ancient landscapes, to understanding that we live in a pluriverse, and not a universe, and that now is the time we must collectively begin dreaming for the future we need.
I trust you will find this conversation as engaging and mind and heart opening as I did.
About Anne
Dr. Anne Poelina is the professor and chair of Indigenous Knowledge at Notre Dame University there, as well as the chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. Anne sees the river as a living ancestral being that works with and guides us, and the Martuwarra River is the being that gives her people their wisdom and identity. One of the co-authors of several of her peer-reviewed scientific papers is the Martuwarra River.
