Landscape Matters Issue 4 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 14
4.
COP26 - Spirituality in the Landscape
Edward Hutchison
MINGA IS AN eco-feminist movement of indigenous women.
It was formed to vocalise the defence of indigenous territories
- in Brazil and elsewhere - against the unbridled forces of
capitalism and climate change. Tackling formidable obstacles
such as male prejudice, press sanctions, Covid 19 travel
restrictions and huge expense, forty of the original hundred
women came to COP26 in Glasgow to articulate what is
happening to their lands, their livelihoods and their sense of
belonging.
During a five-hour event, several panels of indigenous leaders
took to the stage of Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Art
to speak about the effect of the climate crisis on their cultures
and habitats. Many described how their ancestors have lived
in harmony with the earth and forest for millenia; but since the
advent of European colonisation, their non-Occidental values,
economic models and languages have seen these frameworks
of knowledge marginalised.
As the tragic effects of climate change become indisputable,
each panel proposed that our collective survival depends on
populations in the Global North learning to flip this model: to
learn humility, to listen to these ancient forms of knowledge,
and to revise our understanding of land ownership and
economic wealth.
These reflections are of immediate relevance to life on our
own shores: as much of our land in England comes under
enormous pressure from large developers, now is the time to
consider an assessment of land following the long-term values
that indigenous people hold.
