There is a great deal for us to learn from Indigenous People!

Indigenous people thrive sustainably as they have adapted to Nature's boundaries unlike Modern Man of Industrial Societies who ty to tame Mother Nature to one's requirements ... in the process decimating Nature's bounties. 

 

Agrometeorological limits are the centrepiece of indigenes' lifestyle. 

Another example of Nature friendly lifestyle of the Indigenes.

This picture shows how their traditional lifestyle helps them browbeat natural disasters. 

The indigenous peoples' traditional wisdom of  medicinal use of forest produce has, in the day and age of industrial pharmaceuticals - highlighted the use of Nature's remedies. Amla or gooseberry has immense medicinal properties that help reverse drug resistance - effectively mitigating onset of multiple organ failure that diabetes triggers.  

Tribal woman on the southern shore of the River Cauvery deposits collection of Minor Forest Produce -Blue berry (Syjisium cuminii) aso referred to as Jambos in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary on the Karnataka Tamilnadu border. 

Blue berry (Syzisium cuminii) aso referred to as Jambos is nutrient rich and its medicinal properties are proven effective in reversal of diabetes induced organ failure - like neuoropathy. 

Mint Tea for instance helps fight insomnia and is far safer than sleeping pills. 

Hunting and gathering is considered far  more sustainable than industrial scale production of food grains and agri output. However human wildlife conflict will not be mitigated by "hunting". 

Potions and lotins are always be\st addressed by traditional wisdom 

Harvesting Minor Forest Produce has been a sustainable and visionary Nehruvian and equitable  ideology of egality... 

But, ... such egalitarian worldview of the indigenous people themselves leave them very vulnerable to forces of Nature...

It does indeed become the responsibility of the writer / photographer / media personnel / and Fourth Estate to protect the indigenous people and their vulnerabilities as well as traditional wisdom. 

Alcoholism has become the bane of many a tribe... world wide. 

Tribal lands and forests are fast encroached thanks to developmental polemics and this decimation only leaves the tribes more vulnerable to hydrometeorological disasters in the day and age of Climate Change. 

All kinds of green leafy vegetables sustain the food security of indigenous people. 

Drug addiction and alcoholism have wound their way to tribal habitation... pitiably so. 

Traditional tenets in agriculture needs to be documented for the sake of posterity. 

That, the indigenous people connect emotionally to the wildlife they share habitat with is both an advantge and a disadvantage, these days. 

Advantage because they can feel flor the wildlife and live sustainably

But when they are  exploited by urban poaching mafia they are taken advantage of, t the detriment of wildlife conservation. 

Former UNSG Mr. Ban-ki-Moon seen here with a clan head in Micronesia in the aftermath of the Asian Tsunami... the visit led to a recognition of traditional wisdom in disaster mitigation... 

A Nepali woman delegate at the UN World Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration on 9th August 2009. 

A traditional deference to their agrometerological conditions manifests in their headgears... 

Costume, 

Livelihood, Cuisine 

And Culture!

Look how their hunting and gathering skills manifest as costume and culture!

Their traditions easily transform into kinship and pastoral practices. 

Kinship cnnecting through Land and resources! Natural Resource Management...

they do make a photogenic lot, exciting shutterbugs no end. 

Simplicity thy name is tribal virtue.

Pastoral pracices, rooted in agro meteorology defines their cultures and living...

Micronesians, Polynesians, confront natural calamities almost regularly, given the geographical landscape their live in. Embedded into their culture, thus, is agrometeorological wisdom like mat making... simple sustainable lifestyles. 

Micronesians, Polynesians, confront natural calamities almost regularly, given the geographical landscape their live in. Embedded into their culture, thus, is agrometeorological wisdom like mat making... simple sustainable lifestyles. 

If hunting and gathering is indeed their mainstay then pastoral livestock breeding should be legally intrinsic... 

Bear hunting is for instance intrinsic to the Siberian people... Balancing their needs against conservation status of wildlife needs a legal evolution!

Traditional wisdom needs to be institutionalised and protected from commercial interests. 

Communal breast feeding amongst the Great Andamanese tribes for instance inculcates kinship ties so strongly that in the event of maternal mortality kinship ties take over: A traditional tenet for disaster mitigation in geologically volatile Andaman Nicobar Islands. 

Pictures from Pixabay, UN Photo Library, Digital Discourse Foundation, NDRF, Malini Shankar 

Curated by: Malini Shankar