It’s been pervading my mind since I heard this teaching and I thought I’d share;
A week ago or so, Mohawk University came into Sheridan to do a teach-in/awareness lecture after school for Idle No More/Many Voices. I went, there was good food and a brilliant set of hosts and they also showed a documentary you should all check out called, The People of Kattawapistkak River, especially if you’ve never heard of Attawapiskak, etc.
However, that’s not what I wanted to share. An elder began to talk about her own history after basically everyone was given an NDN 101. However, she brought up a point I never really gave thought to. She talked about the moon landing and the subsequent plan to shoot missiles at the Moon to find water under it’s surface. She explained that her community, and others, protested this, and when it happened, and the first man walking on the Moon, too, that life got worse all around the globe.
The idea that we look for water on the Moon, Grandmother, who controls our waters, instead of saving our own water from pollution is preposterous. The idea that looking for “twin” earth-like planets or research how to make the Moon or Mars hospitable for human life is preposterous, too, when we don’t focus enough on healing our own planet. Science is all well and good, but progress for the sake of progress is disastrous and completely out of touch with our relationship to the world around us. That relationship, unfortunately, most of the modern world seems to turn a blind eye to or sneer at.
Just a thought…
