One of the themes that has revealed itself on this podcast is that the problems besetting the planet today all stem from our disconnection from the Earth. Industrialized humans began to treat the planet as a commodity, and religion chimed in to lead people to believe they could have dominion over the very Earth itself, and here we are.
Celine Lim, an Indigenous Kayan leader from Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, knows this all too well.
Celine:
And the most important thing right now, which is the climate crisis – Indigenous communities are such a valuable voice in all our mitigation efforts, or our adaptation efforts. So all this time, always sidelining them in the past, it doesn’t work anymore. Because we are now in a crisis where, if you would have included them to begin with, I could guarantee you we wouldn’t have this crisis, because their deep connection to the Earth, their deep connection to the environment would have fed into our system, would have fed into a scheme, and it would have – we would have come up with a more robust way of managing our resources, managing our environment.
Celine speaks about what she refers to as the gap between living in her Indigenous world of connectivity, quiet, and rest, and the so-called modern, fast-paced world of city life where her office is based.
We talk about her grief that stems from that gap, of all that is lost when she experiences disconnection from her Indigenous roots. She discusses kinship, and why her activism has taken her to the streets of London, where she confronts the practice of buying wood that was extracted from Malaysian forests, and asks what that is truly costing the Earth.
About Celine
Celine Lim, an Indigenous Kayan leader from Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. Celine is the manager of Save Rivers, a grassroots organization that highlights the impacts of destructive logging in Borneo’s forests and Indigenous territories. She is well-versed with the struggles of her community, especially regarding land rights and cultural identity.
