credit: Cristina Mittermeier
We’re hearing so much about
Indigenous knowledge lately
Knowledge about the natural world
We want to know that knowledge
To understand what we’ve done wrong
To make things better
But knowledge alone won’t do that for us
Stories we hear
From indigenous mouths
Are not stories of
Knowledge of place alone
They are stories of
Sense of place
Not what to know about
A place you live in
But how to live in
A place you know
Not just
Humans in nature but
Nature in humans
Stories not of
Knowledge alone
But of wisdom which is
Lessons we draw from knowledge
Information alone is nothing if
There’s no lesson to draw
Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity Darrell Posey (ed.) Intermediate Technologies/Leiden University/UNEP, 1999
