#CuraDaTerra (Cure of the Earth)

Dear Reader

August 9th commemorates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, celebrated around the world. This year’s theme is ‘COVID-19 and indigenous peoples’ resilience’, and honors the innovative ways indigenous peoples continue demonstrating resilience and strength in the face of the pandemic while confronting grave threats to their survival. There is a parallel between COVID attacking the lungs of human beings and industrial capitalism ravaging the Amazon and Congo – the lungs of our planetary home.

That’s why Kosmos is pleased to share about the movement, #CuraDaTerra (Cure of the Earth). The goal is to elevate the voices and perspectives of our Indigenous elders and build on the great work of Amazon Watch and other civil society organizations to create a global movement of allies focused on a clear demand: an immediate moratorium on logging, mining, ranching, industrial farming and all other forms of extraction.

80% of the planet’s biodiversity is in Indigenous Peoples territories, it’s more important than ever to support their struggle as one of the key strategies for addressing both climate change and social justice. – #CuraDaTerra

We are living in a moment ripe with potential. If Indigenous ways of living are forgotten, all Life is imperiled. Please share the following stories by Kosmos friends on social media and be so kind to use the hashtag #CuraDaTerra.

What Indigenous Wisdom Can Teach Us About Economics

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By Helena Norberg-Hodge

“…Reaching out across the left-right divide is critical. The people who vote for Bolsonaro and Trump do so largely because of the cultural and economic marginalisation imposed by economic globalisation – a process that has reduced many once-cohesive communities into isolated backwaters plagued by depression, addiction and unemployment.

Now is the time to offer new political narratives– inspired by Indigenous ways of knowing, living and being -that speak to a flourishing of ecologically rooted communities and genuine prosperity. Now is the time for economic localisation. It is the way human beings can become part of the Cure of the Earth, the Cura da Terra, as Indigenous peoples have been since time immemorial.“

READ MORE AT KOSMOS

Indigenous Languages As Cures of the Earth

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By Tiokasin Ghosthorse

“…The Amazon is a sacred place. Human Beings do not make sacred places, they acknowledge them, recognize them, and sustain them without developing them. We honor them with languages taught to us by the Earth herself. The Original Nations of the Western Hemisphere understand sacred places where Earth has directed their sensitivities to pure energy being in place. These multi-dimensional Earth languages of the Original Peoples are also a part of the sacred places. They are part of the Cura Da Terra, “Cure of the Earth”, to borrow a phrase from the First Peoples of the Amazon.”

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Waiter, there’s a problem with my paradigm! Or what a bowl of soup can teach us about saving the Amazon

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By Larry Kopald and Tom Newmark

“…What would happen if we eradicated the destructive, extractive, and exploitative mindset that is ravaging the Amazon and replaced it with one based on regenerative agriculture, a template for ecologically rational food production that, as we wrote earlier, was co-created in the Amazon?  Imagine all of Amazonia  – all of its now diverse population – devoted to soil and overall ecosystem health. Imagine the Amazon becoming a model of planetary renewal and regeneration and how that could inspire a planetary revival.”

READ MORE AT KOSMOS

PODCAST | Charles Eisenstein and Alnoor Ladha: Oppression, Interconnection, Healing

“This rich dialog treats the evolution of activism beyond us-versus-them thinking, with special reference to current events around race, the indigenous, and the Amazon rainforest.

(image) Alnoor Ladha’s work focuses on the intersection of political organizing, systems thinking and narrative work. Currently, he is active with Cura Da Terra (#CuraDaTerra), a campaign of and for the indigenous of the Amazon in their role as healers of the earth. Alnoor comes from a Sufi lineage and explores/writes about the intersection between politics and spirituality in times of crisis.”