Izaac van Oosten, The Garden of Eden
(Written BY Basheera Ritchie, a member of the dominant culture, FOR other members of the dominant culture.)
Our founders arrived in this land four hundred years ago with a mission which many in the Eastern Hemisphere hailed as historically and culturally groundbreaking. Imagine! All men created EQUAL (though their imagination did not stretch far enough to include women or other male members who were not of their culture).
They left their homelands because they did not feel welcome there. Their ideas had advanced beyond the rigid confines of the era, causing ripples in the church and state and threats of punitive action. As a result, they were willing to take incredible risks to leave their home country and go to an unknown world on the other side of the globe. They knew, from tales of explorers and conquerors, that the land they dreamed about was inhabited. But these men, who we celebrate as exceptional because of the inventiveness of their minds, were unable to conceive of a culture which could be more deserving than the one in their imagination. So the vast majority of them had no qualms about vanquishing the regionally indigenousculture wherever it got in their way, which as it turned out, was everywhere.
http://ecologyofappalachia.blogspot.com/2017/04/virgin-forests-in-smokies.html
The culture they destroyed or scattered had been in place for millennia. It included not only the humans but all forms of life. The land they lived upon was abundant and the people were robust (tall)and healthy. This balance with human and other forms of life had been kept since time immemorial. Two-leggeds made sure not to take more than they needed and to leave enough behind so that regeneration could occur. They did not consider themselves to have dominion over the land. Instead, in living cooperatively with the land, they brought about a world that worked for all living things. The natural world spoke to them and they learned the languages. For instance, when someone became ill, they knew the plant language and were able to heal them. Because the Europeans were not able to see past the Christian standards into which they had been indoctrinated, they saw no value in this way of life. They cut down the forests to build houses, towns and cities, extracting anything and everything from the land and water which could be sold, without regard for regeneration. Making as much money as possible was for them, as it still is for us today, paramount, though they implausibly claimed their actions were based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.
https://www.yukon-news.com/life/black-spruce-losing-boreal-ground-due-to-climate-change/
So gradually, over the centuries, an imbalance with the natural world began to grow and worsen until we have reached the point where we are today. The forests are dying and burning. The planet is so warm that wildlife habitats are no longer capable of sustaining life. It is becoming increasingly difficult for people to survive the extreme weather events which challenge the planet on a regular basis. The air is polluted with chemicals created by the manufacture of consumer products. Many of these products are not essential to health and happiness but the people have been brain-washed into believing them necessary for demonstrating their success, assuaging something missing inside, or for no better reason than their convenience.
The London Economic
The people are growing sick but in their race to riches, the Healthcare industry demands money in quantities that many people cannot pay and so they are allowed to sicken and die. Over time the poor have become poorer still. The rich have become even richer and like to think of the poverty around them as something created by the poor themselves by their “bad decisions.” It doesn’t occur to most of them that the conditions of poverty have largely been designed by those of similar privilege. As circumstances grow worse, trust and social contracts are breaking down and a huge divide is opening between those who would make compassionate changes in order for all lives to fare better and those who are afraid of what they would lose if that should happen.
People are beginning to dream again of a “better” world, just like they did 400 years ago, most of them not realizing that their ancestors had already arrived in that better land and, in their hubris, participated in its ruination. Today their idea of a better land is a place with gadgets they can afford, cars that are more fun, clothes with designer’s names, and vacations on exotic beaches where those indigenous to the land are no longer welcome. Killing the forests and polluting the air and water are small prices to pay for these luxuries.
Only the wise know that the real treasure is the people’s relationship to the land. Giving up our luxuries, our creature comforts, and our conveniences for healthy forests and clean, pure air and water would be a small price to pay and is the only way to sustain our existence on this planet. We owe our predecessors on this land a contrite apology for the way we have treated it. And we should follow their leadership in saving what we can. What they successfully stewarded for millennia we arrogantly destroyed in 400 years.
A PRACTICE
- Write a letter of apology to an imaginary or real indigenous person that you know. Be fulsome in your apology. Use your imagination and your heart.
- Without troubling an indigenous person with questions, research what you can do–physically or financially–toward reparations
- Make those reparations faithfully.
