Indigenous societies have developed sustainable ways of life over thousands of years, living in harmony with natural cycles rather than in opposition. They understand the concept of considering the impact of decisions on the next seven generations, something our quarterly profit-oriented system completely fails to grasp.
This irony is heart-wrenching. Those who have found sustainable ways of living on Earth are systematically destroyed by a civilization now facing collapse due to unsustainable practices. This is not accidental, but a deliberate genocide to clear obstacles on the path of resource extraction and unlimited growth.
Even more heart-wrenching is that many indigenous communities have tried to warn us. For centuries, they have been saying that this path leads to destruction. But because their knowledge did not fit into our frameworks of "progress" and "development," it was dismissed as primitive.
No modern institution would allow a return to such ways of life. Our current power structures are too dependent on endless consumption, resource extraction, and the fictional notion of human independence from and superiority over nature.
Embracing indigenous wisdom means acknowledging that our entire concept of civilization is flawed.
Even if we wanted to return to those practices, we have destroyed too much of the natural world and indigenous knowledge, and it may no longer be possible to rebuild. We burned the instruction manual while the house was on fire.