Welcome to my blog!
I am Divina, a year one environmental studies student in NUS. My interests lie in the great outdoors and in learning about wilderness/primitive survival skills.
“Everything is backwards now, like out there is the real world and in here is the dream” –Jake Sully (Avatar 2009)
I have always been a daydreamer. I would dream about running; running far away from towering, dull buildings, into a thick foliage of green. When I was not busy dreaming, I would climb trees and pretend that we could speak to one another. No matter how much I love dreaming, I truly hope that there would never come a day whereby one would have to close their eyes to “see” the magnificence of the natural world that we are so evidently destroying.
About my blog
In this blog, I will be writing about indigenous people and the environmental crisis. I will be trying to understand indigenous people from varied viewpoints such as those who are
- disproportionately threatened by the environmental crisis
- victims of environmental racism
- contributors to environmental degradation alongside us
- equipped with traditional knowledge and who we can look up to in terms of protecting the environment
It is important that the rights of indigenous people and the environmental crisis to not be treated as disparate issues. In my opinion, it is pivotal to view the crisis through the eyes of the many indigenous communities who have managed to maintain an unsullied and resilient bond with the Earth which has stood the test of time. Having said that, as my one of my Professors has pointed out to me, there are also indigenous groups that do not pay much regard to the environment and I will be writing about them in my future posts as well.
To be very honest, I still have a lot to learn about the diverse groups of Indigenous communities and the various issues that they are facing today and I am eager to share what I will be learning, whilst embarking on this journey of blogging, with all of you! I hope that by reading my posts, you too will gain a better insight into their lives and the climate emergency!
Please stay tuned for the next post in which I will be writing about the important roles that certain indigenous communities play in environmental conservation!
Cheers,
Divina
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Hi Divina,
Great post !
Actually, what I was trying to say was that the nearly universal perception that all indigenous people live in harmony with Nature may need rethinking.
It’s not necessarily that certain groups do or don’t, but that indigenous people, like all people, vary in terms of how they relate to the natural world. Some groups, like the Kayapo in Brazil, for instance, may have a much closer relationship than others. Meanwhile, some groups, even going back thousands of years, may have already been altering the environment in profound ways.
Here’s an article you and your peers might find interesting.
https://theconversation.com/how-aboriginal-burning-changed-australias-climate-4454
Or, we could even challenge ourselves to reexamine the definition of indigenous. In week 2, we saw how the first human inhabitants of many continents were implicated in the LQE. Weren’t they indigenous peoples ? After all, their descendants include the very same people we commonly call indigenous today.
I guess I’m just saying there’s this prevailing dogma out there… And while I certainly understand and appreciate that many indigenous communities may know more about and take better care of Nature than most of us do (and agree that they often bear an undue burden of environmental degradation), the issue may be more complex than the dogma suggests.
Just wait till week 8 when you learn about how one group of indigenous people more recently contributed to species extinctions.
Looking fwd to some interesting exchanges !
jc
Thank you so much for your feedback, Dr Coleman. It really means a lot to me. I am extremely sorry for the late reply. I am still trying to get use to this site. I did check this post frequently to see if there were any comments but I didn’t manage to view any… I just realised that I would have to click on the icon on the bar above this post to view the comments as they would not appear in the “comments section” unless I approve them first. How silly of me!
I truly appreciate that you pointed out to me that we shouldn’t talk about indigenous people as though they all are the same and by doing so, disregard the fact that they all have fascinatingly unique believes and traditions which would then also mean they would have varying attitudes towards the environment.
I reflected on my views and realised that I didn’t really analyse the information I stumbled upon, resulting in me merely accepting the dogma and having a rather narrow and shallow perspective towards the issue. I see how this could have been dangerous, as it would have resulted in not only a culturally insensitive blog, but one that wouldn’t accurately portray the complexities that exist in the real world.
Thank you for the article! It was a really interesting read. I look forward to learning more about this topic in week 8 of Env1101!
Thank you once again for your advice and insights!
Oh, my intent wasn’t to point out your “inadequacies”. Just the fact that you’re blogging about this also causes me to think more deeply about this issue. It only occurred to me recently that the first peoples who overhunted the megafauna might themselves be considered indigenous. I bet we could have an interesting conversation.
Incidentally, a recent development is the discovery of a huge graveyard of mammoth skeletons at the site of an airport under construction in Mexico City. There’s some suggestion that humans trapped the animals there and killed them.
Check this out, for example. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sixty-mammoths-discovered-mexico-180974993/
And no need to apologise for delayed responses to me. Focus on peers’ comments first. I’m good.
Hi Dr Coleman!
Thank you for the article on the mammoth remains found in Mexico. If the hypothesis that our ancestors had dug up those pits to capture mammoths is true, then would that mean that the widely critiqued “Blitzkrieg” model that you shared with us in class might actually be legitimate?
Cheers,
Divina