Accompanying Indigenous Peoples

Reverence for and intimacy with Nature is deeply embedded within Indigenous African cultures. Yet they have been profoundly undermined by the colonial process and all that followed. Earth-centred ways of living have been safeguarded by the few remaining knowledgeable elders; these custodians hold the possibility of a future in which their communities re-learn how to co-exist with the web of life, as their ancestors have done for millennia.

Practitioners return to their roots and accompany local communities in these efforts. They encourage participatory and joyful ways to bring complex cultures back from the brink, stimulating memory, confidence and enthusiasm. Storytelling, elder-centred dialogues, and ecocultural mapping are among some of the simple yet effective methodologies. Being open to emergence, listening and not imposing, are critical.

Storytelling inspires an understanding of Indigenous ways of seeing and being. These stories are like a spring: the source of possibility.

Elder-centred dialogues bring communities together to learn from wisdom-holders. Memories come back, practices are revived and confidence is restored. Communal priorities emerge and a riverbed is formed: the foundation for the flow of the work of revival.

Eco-cultural maps and calendars are created by communities to document the original ancestral order of their territories, the current disorder and their future vision. In time, communities develop life plans that chart the streams of work necessary to realise their map of the future.

No matter where each community’s journey begins, the course it follows, or the speed at which it flows, these holistic processes ultimately enable communities to reweave resilient systems.

Communities who frequently come together for elder-centred dialogues emerge with self-determination, to build resilience by going back to their roots.

Christian Jitar Taku, Earth Jurisprudence Practitioner, Cameroon

When we use methodologies such as ecocultural mapping, communities teach us. Their work on the ground directs us. As Practitioners, we can't tell what is going to happen: the work always takes its own course, we move together, and the process is alive.

Method Gundidza, Earth Jurisprudence Practitioner, Zimbabwe/South Africa

Tracking our Way Home

Catch up on Practitioner Samuel Nnah Ndobe’s journey, accompanying the indigenous Baka Forest Peoples of Congo, published in Dark Mountain Journal