Tags
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Indigenous Rights, Native American Tom Goldtooth, Our sacred responsibility to Nature, Standing Rock North Dakota Resistance
Protesters demonstrate against the Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation
North Dakota – United States – September 9, 2016
Photo Credit: Andrew Cullen / Reuters
My third quote for the ‘Three Quotes for Three Days’ challenge – an invitation from British author and blogger Frank Parker – comes from Tom Goldtooth, a Native American environmental leader and executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) since 1996. It’s an excerpt from his keynote address, “The Sacredness of Mother Earth,” at the Bioneers National Conference held on October 18-20, 2013.
The European concept of the natural world which has become a dominant concept worldwide – where knowledge and culture are property, with the attitude that commodities are to be exploited freely and bought and sold at will – has resulted in disharmony between beings and the natural world, as well as the current environmental crisis threatening all life. This concept is totally incompatible with the traditional indigenous worldview… Our sacred responsibility is to safeguard and protect this world. Human beings are not separate from the natural world but were created to live in an integral relationship with it. That’s what we have to offer. Continue reading
