Environmental Stewardship Futures
The Law of Finite Resources
The Future of Indigenous Environmental Stewardship cannot be earth-bound.
Humans will always be connected to a sense of place. Whether it's the land from which they were born, the ocean from which they draw life or the space from which their community gathers.
The wars on water have begun. This future is characterised by competition for water resources which drives constant geopolitical conflict as we witness the continual depletion of the earth's fresh water supply. New governance structures around water diplomacy led to the formation of a global water council and the establishment of the Water Commons.
As humans push further beyond the planet's boundaries seeking new resources within outer space; it is the indigenous peoples of the world who continue to teach us that resources are always more than just fuel for progress. Over time, we are able to develop a shared understanding of the role that water . . and land . . and even space play, in helping us locate ourselves both within the world, within our communities and in context to each other. These indigenous knowledge systems enable a collective global force for change.
It is the indigenous populations across the globe who have risen up to form our collective consciousness; not to protest against progress or fight against leadership, but to remind us . . that the fight to be had is not against corporates or space mining companies or even governments. That the greatest battle to be had . . is within ourselves. The state of our waterways is a reflection of the depths of our soul they tell us in their stories; the answer is not in a journey further to seek further fuel for the fire of progress, but to create active knowledge circles of healing and restoration. So that one day we might heal ourselves, and in doing so, the planet.
The Rewilding of Humanity
The Future of Indigenous Environmental Stewardship is African.
Technology has offered us the chance to connect, to learn and to communicate from the depths of our consciousness. Indeed neuralink has meant that each human being has the knowledge of the world at their fingertips. The rise of Africa's young guns for hire, has been the greatest human example of this genius at work. A young remote generation implanted at birth, and powering the world's economy, through a miniscule chip that means they never even have to leave their homeland. African resilience resilience develops further through indigenous African community knowledge circles, as they are faced with increasing food insecurity, water stress and extreme climatic conditions. Africanfuturism resurfaces en masse amongst this younger population, encompassing the lived experience + cultural imaginings of collective African populations as they straddle expanding economic opportunity within a climatically desolate homeland. Africa's criminal justice system is remotely reformed through the curtailing of neuralink disconnection rights and automatic feeds, and this burgeoning region supports the rest of the world's economies with increasing speed.
In a historic first, the UN Sustainable Goals for Development council implements a global policy demanding contribution from all developed nations to fund African socio-ecological rewilding initiatives to help them combat socio-ecological imbalances within their homeland. This young generation of African tech savvy citizens drive fast paced entrepreneurship and cements Africa’s place as the indigenous knowledge capital of the world.
But what has been lost with this progress? The monolithic culture and shared thought streams of the neuralink programs have engendered a sense of collective culture, but they have also reduced us to one intellectual people. Ironically it is through the African Indigenous Knowledge Commons, that we begin to understand, the power of nature's plurality. We see that our our own lands and oceans are fundamental systems of resilience . . and change. They are made up of thousands of localised nature pathways, deep and shallow, wide and narrow, each one is unique yet all lead back to the land and ocean economy. Through restorative indigenous practice, non-African humans learn to rewild nature's energy network of land and ocean cultures, slowly and simply . . body of water by body of water, region by region. And gradually over time, we realise that we are in fact . . rewilding ourselves in the process.
A Brave (+ Generous) New World
The Future of Indigenous Environmental Stewardship is Shared.
Originally smart cities were all bits and bytes. Data-driven systems that surveilled everything from citizens to rainfall. Connected iOTs and smart everything brought visibility and accountability, . . . but like many things of the past, those cities were smart, but not wise. Massive ‘smart infrastructure’ costs meant populations were largely concentrated in dense urban areas, which led to significant increases in natural land regeneration and rewilding in rural areas. In this data driven landscape, smart city sustainability metrics become the cost of entry to global collaboration; so national leaders everywhere sought the help of indigenous elders who were tasked with reimagining the markers of a thriving ecologically balanced city.
With so many citizens living so close together all over the world, it’s no surprise that the peer-to-peer sharing economy moved beyond the digital environment . . thanks in large part to the rapid adoption of peeragogy throughout the global decentralised peer-schooling systems. These structural shifts embedded a deep culture of generosity within socio-ecological systems across the globe. ShareTokens, once the currency of digital natives . . have become the human signal of us, the Symbios people, at the heart of which are indigenous elders from every land. As the sharing culture entered the personal and political realms, indigenous knowledge webs emerged online . . leading to a cultural renaissance of sorts, and more importantly, a global conversation that emerged deep from our humanity, around the idea of a multipolar network of shared access, power and resources . . which culminated in ‘The Manifesto for Shared Global Futures’ that you see today.
But global ‘Smart City’ infrastructure also became a mechanism for division as geopolitical tensions fuelled a huge resistance movement amongst those who chose to maintain their historical beliefs, and ideas about progress. Anthropocenic enclaves surfaced across the globe, continuing to exploit natural resources for economic gain. New Symbio governments brought lawsuits forth to the Anthro People on behalf of regional ecosystems which marginalised Anthro People and sent their trade underground. ‘Anthro Sea-Steading’ movements emerged globally as Anthro People began to trade + connect along secret routes supported by nations who refused to delimit growth. There is a constant tension between Symbios and Anthros now and reconciliation feels hard to reach. We know that there can be true symbiosis unless all humans can manifest value and harmony, in a symbiotic way that makes sense for them.