As I think on regenerative agriculture and all it’s come to represent in the past 15 years or more, I wonder about the origins; we “immigrants”, to this “new world”, were not the first humans here. Some of us can claim at least one far-back ancestor who was what we now know as Native Americans. There were thriving, stable, peoples all over this North America, and the world, who understood the necessity of respect for the planet they depended on for everything.
They were here for thousands of years before us. They knew the land they lived on as a friend; the plant species and what they were valuable for; the way the animals interacted with the land; the interlinking of all life. They were watchers of the stars, weather changes, animals’ responses to changes, and so much more. So, I feel it necessary to acknowledge these people whom we could learn much from.
This week I’m going to try to touch on this subject and I sincerely hope you will take an interest and begin to learn truths that were practiced by wonderful indigenous tribes and individuals long before anyone came from across the ocean to “take dominion”.
I think it’s the nature of people who came to this chunk of land, from another place, to try and be in charge. If “it” won’t submit willingly, then we beat it into submission. As ships came and brought “immigrants” onto this soil, they also brought rigid ideas, staunch opinions, diseases and more, along with ignorance of the land they were coming to.
Our proud ancestors believed that “their way was the ONLY way” and set about to prove their point, starting with wiping out as many Native ideas and cultures as they could. The ways of the land were demonized and forbidden; the practices were banned. Slowly as European diseases set in, much like COVID-19, and travelled from village to village, wiping out entire bloodlines, it also wiped out the wisdoms passed down, generation to generation. Knowledge of the uses of plants vital for food and medicine, was lost.
Cultural practices, beliefs, infrastructure, and families were squeezed and pushed into an ever-narrower window…and many have been lost completely. The good news? Some of the Native American wisdoms, practices, cultures, and land-use was retained in a few survivors, and is being re-birthed today. One of their beliefs about the earth is, it’s not meant to be dominated, owned, managed (in the sense that current farming techniques use). They believe Nature is in charge and we should follow, learn, and emulate. Funny……sounds like what a lot of regenerative agricultural gurus are teaching at their seminars, doesn’t it?
The term permaculture (a form of regenerative agriculture) is a word amalgam of “permanent” and “agriculture”, and was first coined in the 1970s by two Australians of Tasmania, David Holmgren (an environmental design student), and Bill Mollison (a senior lecturer on environment, and is also known as the “father of permaculture”). The foundations of permaculture rest on two concepts: understanding/acceptance of the diversity of whole systems vs. the soil-degrading effects of industrial monoculture; and on slow, yet dynamic, practice of observing the land, and its many complex ecosystems. Both of these principles have also been the core tenets of relating to and working with nature by Indigenous people the world over for millennia.
Why did we do away with this concept so many decades ago? Why did we, as guests in their lands, so to speak, feel we could just take over and re-create Nature in our image? I’m continually amazed, and sometimes embarrassed, of modern, non-native, god-like tendencies of human thought. We “immigrants” have been here less than 400 years…and yet we took it upon ourselves to fast-forward the planet and try to remodel a closed system.
We’ve succeeded to do massive damage in less than 100 years. I’m sure the surviving original peoples of every invaded land, looked on in horror and great sadness as they watched the earth being poisoned and treated as a renewable resource.
Today, we are learning the hard way, that this IS the ONLY planet we have. Truth is a hard pill to swallow, but in this case it’s the only thing – along with a little humility - that will save the earth…. which is what keeps us alive. Are we humble enough to learn from that which we’ve tried to wipe out? Can we admit we were wrong in our approach to the soil and all it represents? Can we open our minds to learn the “old ways”?
By Betsey Sorrell
