Land and Livelihood: An Indigenous Perspective On Ecological Stewardship

Hawai’i Club and NASAC

Land and livelihood relations1) Past: Relationships of Indigenous People

a) Creation Stories

2) Present: Shift in Relationshipa) Land Ownership

3) Future: Another Shifta) Broadening our Landscape

PAST

Relationship of Indigenous People

THe KumulipoThe Kumulipo is a native Hawaiian cosmogonic and genealogical chant

Cosmogony = a science that deals with the origins of the universe

Genealogy = deals with family history and tracing lineages

Born of the sky and land

Haloa - Our Big Brother

The Mountain Of Our Sustenance

Photo Credit:http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/stories/discovery-of-corn

Pachamama: Mother Earth

SKY WOMAN

Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address: Words Before All Else

The Thanksgiving Address: Words Before All Else● The Thanksgiving Address is a

central document to Haudenosaunee peoples.

● The Address establishes how the Haudenosaunee, as humans, are interconnected with the universe.

● The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address displays thankfulness as a guiding principle, a gift from the Creator; they recite it before every significant gathering.

● In the Thanksgiving address the people, mother earth, waters, fish, plants, food plants, medicine plants, the three sisters, the hanging plants, animals, trees, birds, the four winds, the sun, grandmother moon, the stars, the enlightened teachers, and finally the Creator are all thanked individually.

The Three Sisters

Present

Shift in Relationship

Land and livelihood relations1) Past: Relationships of Indigenous People

a) Creation Stories

2) Present: Shift in Relationshipa) Land Ownership

3) Future: Another Shifta) Broadening our Landscape

PRESENT : The shift in relationshipThree Effects of Land Ownership:

1) Cultural Exploitation (Hawai’i)

2) Privatization (Latin America)

3) Displacement of Traditional Homeland (Cayuga Land Claim)

Hawai’i: Cultural exploitationAncient Land Distribution

● Ahupua’a System

Great Mahele of 1848

● Land Ownership

Vacation Destination

● Cultural Exploitation

Ancient landdistributionLand Divisions:

Mokupuni

Moku

Ahupua’a

‘Ili

Great Mahele of 1848Concept of Land Ownership

Vacation destination

Haudenosaunee Agricultural Practice - Ties to the Land● Traditional foods and agricultural

practices are a huge part of understating connection to place and connections to principles in your community. Food is something that is celebrated in Haudenosaunee communities with get together meals and combined community gardening. Festivals are a great example of how food plays a role in understanding the relationship between Haudenosaunee people and the earth. Such as the Green Corn Festival or the celebration of the first wild strawberries to grow.

● Food is essential to Haudenosaunee culture because of the substance that it provides for continuing on, creating an involved community, and improving the relationship to the earth.

Cornell Land History ● Both Ithaca and Cornell University are located on the traditional homelands of the

Cayuga Nation, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

● The Cayuga people were forcibly relocated as a result of the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign

in 1779. This expedition destroyed a lot of Haudenosaunee villages, crops, and stored

food.

● The state ended up selling these lands for commercial development.

● Lands were resold and some eventually became Cornell land.

● Cornell does not acknowledge the history of the land or the history of the possession

of the land.

The Maya in the Yucatan

Photo Credit: Lizzie Dean

The Maya in The Yucatan Our research goals are to understand:

1) the transformation of the peoples’ natural resource base,

2) the transition of traditional livelihoods away from direct resource dependence toward market-based dependence,

3) The persistence and irreversibility of the changes in those ecological and livelihood systems and

4) The importance of land and its resources for livelihood. Photo Credit: Ted Lawrence

Land and livelihood relations1) Past: Relationships of Indigenous People

a) Creation Stories

2) Present: Shift in Relationshipa) Land Ownership

3) Future: Another Shifta) Broadening our Landscape

FUTURE

Broadening our Landscape

Broadening Our Landscape 1. Acknowledging the DISCONNECT with Nature

2. Deconstructing the Dichotomy

3. Practicing Mindfulness

4. Universal Collaboration