Pope Francis says "We should listen more to indigenous peoples and learn from their way of life in order to properly understand that we cannot continue to greedily..." FULL TEXT
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SPEECH OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE 6TH GLOBAL MEETING OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FORUM
Hall of the Consistory
Friday, February 10, 2023
________________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters:
I am grateful for this visit, in the midst of the work of the Forum of Indigenous Peoples, which is being carried out these days at the headquarters of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). This year's theme – “Indigenous Peoples' Leadership on Climate Issues: Community-Based Solutions to Enhance Resilience and Biodiversity” – is an opportunity to recognize the critical role indigenous peoples play in protecting the environment. environment and highlight their wisdom to find global solutions to the immense challenges that climate change poses to humanity on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, we are witnessing an unprecedented social and environmental crisis. If we really want to take care of our common home and improve the planet we live on, profound changes in lifestyles are essential, production and consumption models are essential. We should listen more to indigenous peoples and learn from their way of life in order to properly understand that we cannot continue to greedily devour natural resources, because “the land has been entrusted to us so that it can be for us mother, mother earth, capable of giving what each one needs to live” (cf. Video message to the Conference of 500 national and international representatives: “The Ideas of Expo 2015 – Towards the Milan Charter”, February 7, 2015). Therefore, the contribution of indigenous peoples is essential in the fight against climate change. And this is scientifically proven.
Today more than ever there are many who demand a process of reconversion of the consolidated power structures that govern society, in Western culture and, at the same time, transform the historical relations marked by colonialism, exclusion and discrimination, giving rise to a renewed dialogue on the way in which we are building our future on the planet. We urgently need joint actions, the result of loyal and constant collaboration, because the environmental challenge we are experiencing and its human roots have an impact on each of us. An impact not only physical, but psychological and cultural.
For this reason, I ask the governments to recognize the indigenous peoples of the whole world, with their cultures, languages, traditions, spiritualities, and to respect their dignity and rights, with the awareness that the wealth of our great human family consists precisely in its diversity. I will return to this later.
Ignoring the original communities in the safeguarding of the land is a serious mistake, it is extractivist functionalism, right?, not to say a great injustice. On the other hand, valuing their cultural heritage and their ancestral techniques will help to embark on paths for better environmental management. In this sense, IFAD's work to assist indigenous communities in a process of autonomous development is commendable, thanks above all to the Fund for the Support of Indigenous Peoples, although these efforts must be multiplied still and accompanied with more decisive and farsighted decision making, in a just transition.
I want to dwell on two words that are key to this: Good living —or living well— and harmony.
Living well is not the "sweet doing nothing", the "sweet life" of the distilled bourgeoisie. No no. It is living in harmony with nature, knowing how to seek, not so much balance, but rather harmony, which is superior to balance. The balance can be functional; harmony is never functional, it is sovereign in itself.
Knowing how to move in harmony, that is what gives us the wisdom that we call living well: the harmony between a person and their community; the harmony between a person and the environment; the harmony between a person and all creation.
The wounds against this harmony are the ones that we are obviously seeing that destroy the towns. Extractivism, in the case of the Amazon, for example; deforestation or, in other places, mining extractivism.
So, always look for harmony. When peoples do not respect the good of the soil, the good of the environment, the good of the weather, the good of the vegetation or the good of the fauna, that general good, when they do not respect this, they fall into non-human positions, because they lose that contact with —I'm going to say the word— mother earth. Not in a superstitious sense, but in a sense that culture gives us and gives us that harmony.
Aboriginal cultures are not to be converted to a modern culture; They are to be respected. [There are] two things to consider: walking on their path of development and, second, listening to the messages of wisdom they give us. Because it is non-encyclopedic wisdom. It is the wisdom of seeing, listening and touching in everyday life.
Keep fighting to proclaim this harmony. That this functionalist policy, this policy of extractivism is destroying it. And that we can all learn from living well in this harmonious sense of indigenous peoples.
I accompany you with my closeness, I accompany you with my prayer. May God bless you, bless your families, bless your communities, and enlighten you in the work you are doing, in favor of all creation. And I ask you not to forget to pray for me. And if someone doesn't pray, send me good vibes, we need it here. Thank you so much.
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE 6TH GLOBAL MEETING OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FORUM
Hall of the Consistory
Friday, February 10, 2023
________________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters:
I am grateful for this visit, in the midst of the work of the Forum of Indigenous Peoples, which is being carried out these days at the headquarters of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). This year's theme – “Indigenous Peoples' Leadership on Climate Issues: Community-Based Solutions to Enhance Resilience and Biodiversity” – is an opportunity to recognize the critical role indigenous peoples play in protecting the environment. environment and highlight their wisdom to find global solutions to the immense challenges that climate change poses to humanity on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, we are witnessing an unprecedented social and environmental crisis. If we really want to take care of our common home and improve the planet we live on, profound changes in lifestyles are essential, production and consumption models are essential. We should listen more to indigenous peoples and learn from their way of life in order to properly understand that we cannot continue to greedily devour natural resources, because “the land has been entrusted to us so that it can be for us mother, mother earth, capable of giving what each one needs to live” (cf. Video message to the Conference of 500 national and international representatives: “The Ideas of Expo 2015 – Towards the Milan Charter”, February 7, 2015). Therefore, the contribution of indigenous peoples is essential in the fight against climate change. And this is scientifically proven.
Today more than ever there are many who demand a process of reconversion of the consolidated power structures that govern society, in Western culture and, at the same time, transform the historical relations marked by colonialism, exclusion and discrimination, giving rise to a renewed dialogue on the way in which we are building our future on the planet. We urgently need joint actions, the result of loyal and constant collaboration, because the environmental challenge we are experiencing and its human roots have an impact on each of us. An impact not only physical, but psychological and cultural.
For this reason, I ask the governments to recognize the indigenous peoples of the whole world, with their cultures, languages, traditions, spiritualities, and to respect their dignity and rights, with the awareness that the wealth of our great human family consists precisely in its diversity. I will return to this later.
Ignoring the original communities in the safeguarding of the land is a serious mistake, it is extractivist functionalism, right?, not to say a great injustice. On the other hand, valuing their cultural heritage and their ancestral techniques will help to embark on paths for better environmental management. In this sense, IFAD's work to assist indigenous communities in a process of autonomous development is commendable, thanks above all to the Fund for the Support of Indigenous Peoples, although these efforts must be multiplied still and accompanied with more decisive and farsighted decision making, in a just transition.
I want to dwell on two words that are key to this: Good living —or living well— and harmony.
Living well is not the "sweet doing nothing", the "sweet life" of the distilled bourgeoisie. No no. It is living in harmony with nature, knowing how to seek, not so much balance, but rather harmony, which is superior to balance. The balance can be functional; harmony is never functional, it is sovereign in itself.
Knowing how to move in harmony, that is what gives us the wisdom that we call living well: the harmony between a person and their community; the harmony between a person and the environment; the harmony between a person and all creation.
The wounds against this harmony are the ones that we are obviously seeing that destroy the towns. Extractivism, in the case of the Amazon, for example; deforestation or, in other places, mining extractivism.
So, always look for harmony. When peoples do not respect the good of the soil, the good of the environment, the good of the weather, the good of the vegetation or the good of the fauna, that general good, when they do not respect this, they fall into non-human positions, because they lose that contact with —I'm going to say the word— mother earth. Not in a superstitious sense, but in a sense that culture gives us and gives us that harmony.
Aboriginal cultures are not to be converted to a modern culture; They are to be respected. [There are] two things to consider: walking on their path of development and, second, listening to the messages of wisdom they give us. Because it is non-encyclopedic wisdom. It is the wisdom of seeing, listening and touching in everyday life.
Keep fighting to proclaim this harmony. That this functionalist policy, this policy of extractivism is destroying it. And that we can all learn from living well in this harmonious sense of indigenous peoples.
I accompany you with my closeness, I accompany you with my prayer. May God bless you, bless your families, bless your communities, and enlighten you in the work you are doing, in favor of all creation. And I ask you not to forget to pray for me. And if someone doesn't pray, send me good vibes, we need it here. Thank you so much.
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