For my primary research I interviewed Dr. Michelle Wibbelsman, Associate Professor in Latin American Indigenous Cultures. I gained a lot of insight from the knowledge she had to offer in regards to a background in Indigenous Latin American culture.
Clarifying Misconceptions from the Past
I first came to Dr. Wibbelsman telling her about where I’ve come in so far in my research on Indigenous peoples’, and what I believe the connection might be when it comes to the role they could play with Ohio State Parks. She cleared up some misconceptions that apply to Indigenous people as a whole and how they tend to be identified or perspective from an outsider looking in.
“A common misconception is that these people (Indigenous people) are precolonial or from the past these people are contemporary and have contemporary practices”
Indigenous Relationship with the Land
Something I found interesting but wasn’t leaning into including in parts of my research was the spirituality of Indigenous people that goes into their ethics and how they live. I had this assumption the viewpoint people may have, wouldn’t be receptive to this concept. I told this to Dr. Wibbelsman and she had a few things to say about this.
“The land is not a resource its is a person from latin american their perspective is it has a pachamama (means gender)” There is a Pago offering or payment to the land generosity
“Their relationship with the land is not about how you farm the land or extracting from the land
“It is a reciprocal relationship, people do this (Latin Indigenous Americans in this case) by having different festivals, offerings, and food”
“What they’re doing redefines the relationship with the land opposed to how western perspective is on the land”
“For the west it is we are trying to take from the land”
“From an indigenous perspective we are not the central ones, we are a part of nature. Everything has agency and perspectives in nature”
“Indigenous perspectives redefines humanity to a way we have gotten accustomed to”
The nature of the relationship is what I want to focus on. If we change our collective perspective of how we see our relationship with the land and environment, how does this impact the prospective changes?
Sources: Artwork by Arvcuken Noquisi
