There is a healing power in the earth and a strong sense of rootedness and belonging that comes with such practices of kinship. In the West, indigenous reverence for nature has often been derided as “animism” but, as Forbes observes, the spirit of animism would perhaps more properly be represented by the term life-ism. Indigneous peoples across the hemisphere and globe share a deep and profound respect and attachment to the life-sustaining and -enriching properties of nature and in particular the four elements of earth, wind, water, and fire. Life is something to be revered and celebrated at all times. “Life is water,” as elders and young activists steadily remind us. In his differentiation between the egocentric wétiko and the interconnecting ethos of k’é, Jack Forbes provides an invigorating representation of indigenous thought that I highly recommend to any and all colleagues wishing to learn more about those original nations who populated and stewarded these lands for millennia and whose wisdom can help us today.
Martin Garcia at Cabrillo College Federation of Teachers. Book Review: Jack D. Forbes – Columbus and Other Cannibals
Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism
Jack D. Forbes