Environmentalism in the construction of indigeneity

Harvey, Graham (2003). Environmentalism in the construction of indigeneity. Ecotheology: Journal of Religion, Nature and the Environment, 8(2) pp. 206–223.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1558/ecotheology.v8i2.206

Abstract

Environmentalism has been a major aspect of the construction of indigenous identities. Understood broadly, this might always have been true in the sense that indigenous elders have attempted to inculcate respectful engagement with 'all our relations' and demonstrated methods for tending the lands in which people have lived. It is also true of the European construction of indigenous 'others' as either 'noble savages' or 'ignoble savages' dwelling in 'paradise' or 'wilderness'. Recently this debate has focused on whether indigenous people before European 'contact' were ecologically sensitive or damaging. This article is interested in indigenous uses of environmentalism as one part of attempts to gain healthier life and livelihood. It engages with indigenous novels, activism and cosmovisions as an introduction to some of the ways in which better ways of being human alongside 'all our relations' might be possible in the future

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