16. Loving the Earth: A New Traditional Value

Nature :: Spirit — Kinship in a living world

Three Indigenous voices remind listeners that cultural values are a choice. Xiye Bastida, of the Otomi-Toltec nation of Mexico, a leader in the youth climate movement, talks about being invited to love the Earth from the moment she was born. Nemonte Nenquimo, of the Waorani people of the Amazon rainforest, in her letter in the Guardian this week addresses the respect for the Earth that every child in her culture learns but that is absent in Western cultures. Finally, Simon Pokagon of the Potawatomi, in an 1893 birch-bark booklet, wrote of the “love of power to kill alone” that led white people to decimate the birds and beings of North America during his lifetime. Love for the Earth; respect for the Earth; humility in the face of what we do not understand of the Earth’s intricate processes—these are not traditional values in white Western society, but they could be. We can choose different values.

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