Reindigenising humanity: a pan-global project of great importance and massive difficulty

Abstract

Two years into the latest financial crisis and the current economic model can still be interpreted in two contradictory ways. On the one hand it has been exposed as a flimsy, even flaky, paradigm of economic and societal governance. On the other, it has proven its resilience yet again, with many market indicators returning to ‘positive’. But fundamental threats remain. For many, the current crisis is merely an extension of wider societal and ecological instability. Indigenous communities, having suffered so egregiously throughout the lead up to these crises, look set to suffer further. Alternative models do exist, and some of the most resilient models are manifested in the most marginalised communities, namely Indigenous communities, who have long been critics of the ‘self-healing powers’ of laissez-faire capitalism. Yet despite Indigenous insights into what does help heal individuals, communities and ecosystems, we have failed to assert these insights against severe political-economic oppression. Further, and related to this oppression, we have struggled to accrue and disseminate supporting research in the face of an almost constant epistemological disdain. We seek nothing less than to re-indigenise humanity. We see this as a long-term strategy in which seemingly intransient, unsustainable, paradigms are critiqued while new, radical and even revolutionary paradigms are built, tested and revisited. It is our intent to contribute to a critical mass of researchers who support ongoing collaboration in drawing together their separate disciplines and our separate lands. While disseminating our publications to different audiences we also undertake to replicate our academic obligations with the responsibility to meet with communities and their representatives in a manner determined by the communities. We freely acknowledge how difficult this will be! But we start regardless, and with the hope and expectation that if we get some things partway right, others will carry on the work.