The Story is in Our Bones

The author is founder and executive director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), and in this eloquent and radical study she fundamentally calls into question the dominant cultural worldview based on extraction and exploitation practices that can only end in collapse. The book weaves together ecological, mythical, political and cultural understandings and stories with her own experience of land and place, as well as her work with global climate activists, indigenous leaders and systems thinkers. She shows how colonialism, imperialism, racism, patriarchy, ecocide and capitalism have created an interlocking systemic crisis underpinned by the western worldview that must be totally transformed if we are to create thriving Earth communities for all.

The book is divided into five parts: entering the terrain of worldviews and climate justice; dismantling patriarchy, racism and the myth of whiteness – ancient mother and women rising; reciprocity as an act of responsibility and love; living in balance with the natural laws of the earth; and the land is speaking - language, memory and a storied living landscape. The symbol of the world tree as axis mundi is pivotal as a cosmic representation and a reminder of how human systems have catastrophically disrupted the interconnected living ecology embodied by the forest.

Our situation demands ‘a metamorphic shift in worldview: literally, how we understand the world and our relationship and responsibility to the web of life and each other.’ (p. xi) This means restoring and generating flourishing and equitable relationships with people and the web of life, from which humans are not separate. Worldviews are a portal to new understandings, perceptions and relationships. We can no longer afford a system based on greed, political power, arrogance, exploitation and hubris. The author defines a worldview as ‘a composition of principles, narratives, codes of conduct, and foundational assumptions about reality, which inform our scientific discourse, cultural norms, political and social ideologies, and all aspects of our lived experiences.’ (p. 8)

The clash of worldviews is to be found where commercial interests come up against indigenous people defending their way of life, rights and social justice. The author gives examples of women who have been assassinated like Berta Caceres from the Lenca indigenous community in Honduras. She led campaigns against illegal logging, unjust landowners, hydroelectric dam projects and the US military. She was shot and killed in March 2016, and only under intense pressure did the government instigate a full investigation, leading to the arrest of eight people and the condemnation of the former president of DESA for engineering her assassination. He had paid members of the military to keep tabs on her for years before finally having her executed.

The overall point here is that without passionate advocacy, indigenous rights – especially in relation to women - are simply trampled upon and no fundamental systemic transformation will come about. It is also worth noting that over 80% of the world biodiversity is in fact under the care of indigenous people. It is women ‘who are at the forefront of movements to defend and protect the health of our water, land, air, and communities’, putting their bodies on the line to resist the capitalist worldview of domination and exploitation that is at the root of the degradation of our Earth’s natural systems. (pp. 82-3) Interestingly, this extractive attitude can be traced right back to the Epic of Gilgamesh as a mythological template for the effects of declining respect for the Goddess, the Feminine, and the Earth.

We need to restore and enact indigenous values of reciprocity, gifts and exchange, care, kinship, and balance, which will in turn lead to the kind of natural abundance encountered by colonial settlers when they first came to the Americas. Their attitude was underpinned by the commodification and exploitation of Nature and indigenous peoples, putting a price tag on what came to be known as ‘resources’ within market-based mechanisms. Martin Prechtel tells an interesting personal story in describing a community built on mutual indebtedness. He himself was supported when he faced hardship, and the people were angry when he tried to repay them. He sought the advice of a mentor, who explained to him the idea of kas-limaal as mutual indebtedness, mutual insparkedness. He understood that repaying that debt was in fact an act of separation when he should have found ways of further direct service to the community. The author writes (p. 232) that ‘the life force of nature cannot be conquered by humans, nor can humans manipulate the laws of nature. Now is the time for us to liberate ourselves from de-animate, soul-crushing, ecology-shattering systems as we re-establish a reciprocal, mutually enhancing, mutually indebted relationship with all our magnificent Relatives, and once again become beneficial force in the thousandfold beauty and brilliance of our living Earth.’

In the final part, the author considers language and place in relation to worldviews. Indigenous languages put less emphasis on the word to be and on possession. One example (p. 280) is the sentence ‘The soil carries my people; we belong to this land.’ She points out that most indigenous languages recognise non-human beings with agency as persons, expressing these relationships as sentient kin. Indo-European languages objectify the land and natural systems as non-animate beings without agency whereby the other-than-human world is ‘separate from and lower than humans, existing only for their benefit.’ Thomas Berry expressed an indigenous view when he characterised nature as a communion of subjects, rather than a collection of objects. There is a fascinating account of the animate meaning of the months in Czech and Japanese, and according to the Plain Indians. Maps can create artificial boundaries and obliterate the living sense of place, where Dream Time is always happening. Such stories and different ways of knowing have the potential to offer a different future as the Earth speaks to us of time, memory, reciprocity, equity, and a storied landscape. As for us, we need to listen deeply and act with humility and courage, as this inspiring book evokes. In the spirit, we have established a worldview working group within the Galileo Commission.