Q11 - Due in 3 hours asap

Running Head: CULTURAL INDEGENOUSITY 1

CULTURAL INDEGENOUSITY 6

Indigenous Cultures of the World

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Indigenous Cultures of the World

To be able to create a standard platform in every cultural belief of different origins, it is best to have a complete study of the immediate environment. It is the environment that determines the livelihood, the source of wealth and the distribution of key standard features that form a distinction of one culture from another. Every culture needs an identity; usually the most common identity is language and the environment. They are the source of connectivity among members of the same community and of the same culture. They also help in defining the core origin of ancestral background that acts as a unifying factor. Understanding the activities that every culture is fond of is brought by understanding the immediate environment by a policy maker (Anaya, et al, 2017).

“I am My Homelands”

The video “I am my Homelands” by Rosalie Kunoth talks about the Aboriginal people of Australia. The Aboriginal people have established homeland communities so as to enable them connect with their traditions and their ancestral land. The video highlights the role these homeland communities are playing in the conservation of the environment, which is significantly relevant to the current knowledge and clamour of environmental conservation all over the world. The video shows that conservation of the environment and every living thing (From the Video; 0:56 sec) that depends on it can be effectively achieved when communities decide to care for their traditional and ancestral lands. The video also points out the role that the government should play in this endeavour, for instance by providing services such as healthcare services, educational facilities and water services (from the video; 3:27). Rosalie adds in her explanation that every community has a homeland and that the community members have the duty to take care of their homeland which is a natural cause to environmental management. She says this with an argument that every community member of distinct culture has a complete understanding of their homeland environment. This means that there is an important sense of understanding of the importance of all land features causing the effect of conservation.

The video also address the challenge of rural-urban migration, which is one of the current problems bewildering the world, and the current knowledge is trying to address. When the government withdrew essential services from the homelands, the people decided to migrate into the larger cities. With maintenance of essential services in the homelands, people are able to take care of their ancestral land, hence caring for the environment, and the government shall have also solved the problem of rural-urban migration.

This traditional knowledge may be very essential in changing the world today, especially in addressing the two major problems highlighted in the video; the concern on environmental conservation and the concern on the rural-urban migration. This is only possible when the government recognizes the traditional set ups, such the homeland communities of the Aboriginal people of the Australia.

The traditional video also addresses the issue of the responsibility of the citizens. The major take home point in connection to this aspect is that; through the maintenance of the traditional setups the members of community feels the strong connection to their country, hence arousing and maintaining the feeling of custodianship (From the Video; 3:25); through which patriotism is build. Patriotism is one of the major concerns of the current jurisdictions, therefore the traditional knowledge, as anchored in the video, connects with the current knowledge when governments are working to instil the sense of patriotism into the citizens

According to Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, there is a deep consideration of the importance of land to cultural community members. She emphasizes how land can define a person. It develops a reason for someone to claim to live in the world today. She claims that one has to be linked to a past to generate confidence of identity – it is what forms a person. Understanding the variability that might exist between different cultures is caused by the distinctiveness in location. A land further away from the other will have distinctive physical features that will command cultural diversity that fits into that location (Bauer & Kellett, 2010). Therefore, land is a footprint to cultural diversity and it helps in developing important analogies that help in finding new ways of living.

“The Land Owns Us”

Another video that brings into perspective the traditional knowledge is the film, “The Land Owns Us” by Bob Randall. This video originates from the Yankunytjatjara community of the Muthjulu area (from the video; 0:28 sec) of Australia. The video majorly shows that caring for the environment, and every living thing within, can only be achieved when there is a sense of connectedness of the things within a space (from the video; 2:16). The only way of ensuring that is through indoctrination of everyone from a young age (from the video; 2:26). At a younger age, the child was taught on the significance of sharing life with everything around him or her. This video brings into perspective the issue of environmental conservation; which is one of the issues the current knowledge is crumpling to address. Through the video, the world can learn that environmental conservation can only be achieved when human beings share their life with all other things living around them. The teaching of sharing life should begin at a tender age for it to be successful. The idea of sharing life with other living things within our residing spaces is an idea that is conspicuously missing from the current knowledge on environmental conservation.

Another important aspect concerning this video as it relates to current knowledge is the land ownership. In the traditional communities land was considered as owning the people (from the video; 2:45); in the current society the people owns the land. The aspect of land owning people, in the traditional communities, was very crucial in championing the environmental conservation through the idea of sharing life with everything in the space. The shift in the idea of land ownership, from the ‘land owning us’ to the ‘us owning the land’, as it is in the current knowledge has changed the manner in which human beings relate with the environment and other things in the spaces. Incorporating the idea of land owning us in the current knowledge may be very useful in the environmental conservation endeavours. Through the idea of land owning us, the communities are able to pass the responsibility of caring from generation to generation (from the video; 3:43). This shows that environmental conservation is a continuous process which cannot be achieved by one generation. Through caring for the environment a person also cares for his or her country, which brings into perspective the idea of the responsibility of citizens, in managing the affairs of the nation, which is being championed by the current knowledge.

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References

Anaya, R., Lomelí, F. A., & Lamadrid, E. R. (Eds.) (2017): Aztlan: Essays on the Chicano homeland; University of New Mexico Press.

Bauer, B. S., & Kellett, L. C. (2010): Cultural transformations of the Chanka homeland (Andahuaylas, Peru) during the late intermediate period (AD 1000–1400). Latin American Antiquity, 21(1), 87-111.

You tube Video: ‘I am my Homeland’ (2017): Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqhJcimn9XM

You tube video: ‘The Land Owns Us’, 2009: Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0sWIVR1hXw