Conclusions: What We Can Learn

Abstract

‘Sharing’ is one of the words I have learned to use in new contexts during the course of this research. Working largely within my own native tongue has been unusual for me, as an anthropologist brought up in the tradition of learning through translating from foreign lan­guages, but that training didn’t stop, and I have delighted in ways that I have relearned English among Indigenous peoples. That training has me always looking beyond words, for the implications of those words, and for the value they hold for their users. As outlined in the last chap­ter, Aboriginal peoples in different parts of the world have been shar­ing their experiences, sharing their (mostly) colonial heritage, and they have formulated some shared views, and some shared ideas about how to rebuild their confidence and reclaim their threatened identi­ties. I started out on this venture by trying to trace a new discourse it seemed that they had created, and persuading people to share it with me (Hendry 2003).

Contrary to popular belief, mankind was not made to rule and have dominion over nature and her children. Remember the earth can live without us; that is how unimportant we are.

Cree speaker, Royal Saskatchewan Museum

Indigenous people have the key to planetary survival.

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Sweetgrass conference