By
Ginikachi Obah, 1st year MDP student
As
my field placement at Blue Quills First Nations College draws to an end, I would love to say that it has been an
amazing learning experience that has inspired and added a lot to my thought
process. I would love to share this poem that centres on issues such as climate
change, environmental sustainability and Indigenous knowledge.
Environmental
Stewards
The sea
rises as my mind is flooded with thought
The polar
ice dissolves in human desires
The
atmosphere is caught on the verge by human technology
The earth is
entangled in the threshold of environmental degradation
Development and prosperity leaves me at the
mercy of climate change
I feel swept
away by the tide of human development as tar sands and mercury cast shadows in
my palace
I am
gradually withering away in the oven of green house emission
I am ripped
apart and I need compassion
I miss the
nation of the buffalo because they built their consciousness round my interest
I am a
seeker of life and spirituality but now must battle for survival in the hands of
globalisation
I settle
like dust in the mouths of human activists but my muscles are weak to human
separatists
Hunters
resort to mental gymnastics as they sing the hymns of ecological variation
The next
generation is denied access to culture as the weather changes like clothes and
keeps us on the edge
The world needs an ethic of continued
sustainability but the minds of men focus on continuous wealth
The
willingness of humanity to tend to the earth is laid bare by the strings of
environmental conquest
I run to the
comforting arms of environmental stewards who nourishes my body and soul with
ceremonies
Contemporary
thoughts have not been able to put asunder where disembodied minds have
continued to plunder
 | ||
| Kachi with members of the Indigenous Knowledge Senate |
No comments:
Post a Comment