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Description
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
I have in mind a "wildpolitics, "a vision which I hope could be sustained for at least the next 40,000 years. This idea comes from a talk originally given in Australia by Lilla Watson in 1984 on "Alboriginal Women and Feminism." Watson commented that to Aboriginal people in Australia, the future extends as far forward as the past. In that case, she said, we have a 40,000-year plan.
In a similar vein, the Kari-Oca Declaration and the Indigenous Peoples' Earth Charter begins with the following statement in its preamble: "We, the Indigenous Peoples, walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors" (in Posey and Dutfield 1996: 189). (1) Wild politics is the view that diversity is central to the existence of life, to the sustenance of the planet, and to the health of human society.
I attempt to outline some principles which will assist humanity to continue to live with biodiversity. Some cultures around the world already live by these principles; some individuals are fighting to make people more aware of the possibilities; and some groups are beginning to move in the direction of wild politics (Bennholdt-Thomsen, et.al. 2001). Where we are now is at the other end of the continuum, dominated by techno-global corporatisation.
Central to this book is the concept and practice of biodiversity. Marimba Ani (2000) in her discussion of western culture says its inspiration comes from domination. I extend her analysis to name profit as the inspiration for globalisation. My proposal is to signal a culture whose inspiration is biodiversity.
I choose biodiversity over diversity because "diversity" can easily be appropriated. It has already been appropriated by global companies as part of advertising programmes appealing addressed to young people. Biodiversity as inspiration, however, is not easily appropriated. (2) It "just is."
When I say that biodiversity "just is," what I mean is that an appreciation of biodiversity is integral in its philosophy; it does not exist (unlike shopping malls) for anyone's profit. Biodiversity is art of the existence of life on Earth. It is people as much as anything else. We live in the midst of biodiversity, and if it goes, so will we. Certainly, under the current transnational profit regime, biodiversity is being appropriated through corporate biopiracy.
An appeal to biodiversity implies activity and participation as opposed to disconnected domination. I am thinking here of something like the difference between the "wild" in the sense of wild type on the one hand, and on the other of "wild" as in National Park wilderness separated out from the real world because it might prove useful at a later time, or because it is nice to have a place to go to relax for those with the time and the means to get there. The wild type cannot be genetically modified, because when this happens it is no longer a wild type. Resistance to appropriation is important in developing... |
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