Opening statement

I believe that we crucially lack the imagination to conceive futures in which humans do not harm but rather act as stewards of the land. Imagery of rising sea levels, wars over natural resources and wild forest fires colonised our minds. Our imagination is captive to these ‘worst-case scenarios’ in which humans only further damage the Earth. I am passionate about creating spaces to learn, reflect, and share insights on sustainable pathways for human cohabitation with the non-human. 

Drawing on my fieldwork experience engaging with Gaelic and Māori as Indigenous knowledges of Alba (Scotland) and Aotearoa (New Zealand), I hope to show that Indigenous worldviews offer promising pathways of co-existence with the non-human. Indigenous worldviews have been and continue to be violently repressed to make space for the hegemonic Western cultural, political, and economic systems. As Westerners, we have almost completely lost such ways of being, but maybe by mobilising Indigenous ways of being, the ones far removed from us and the ones on our doorsteps, we may be prompted to act as stewards of our own land…