Ecocentric Living: A Way Forward Towards Zero Carbon: A Conversation about Indigenous Law and Leadership Based on Custodianship and Praxis

Abstract

This paper reflects on leadership shown in Venda, Southern Africa to protect the lungs of the planet and draws out key themes on the way Indigenous wisdom — underpinned by a sense of the sacred and the profane – expressed in solidarity with nature - are vital for protecting forests. It explores indigenous wisdom on their kinship with organic and inorganic sacred totems (plants, animals and features of the landscape) which are protected through relationships that inform governance. The ongoing community of practice and related projects make a case for standing together to address climate change. The paper was developed as part of a University of South Africa project together with the named authors. Mphatheleni Makaulule has developed an a priori and a posteriori approach to Ecosystemic governance that resonates with the work of Wangari Maathai. Makaulule’s leadership in Venda that is discussed with fellow project members who are exploring how the agendas for COP 26 could be attained by fostering law informed by Bateson’s concept an “ecology of mind – which means an understanding of human beings’ place within living systems and our need for both education and laws to protect ecosystems such as forests (which are the lungs of the world) and the water systems (which are the life blood of all living systems). The governance approach in Venda emphasised the need to think in terms of our relationships with all living systems. The idea of extending a sense of solidarity to others is explored deeply with Makaulule and colleagues by considering similar approaches in other places, such as the Amazon where Makaulule spent time learning from shamanic leaders, Ghana (where Akwasi Achemfuor has undertaken research), Northern Territory and South Australia (where McIntyre was mentored by Peter Turner and Olive Veverbrants). The paper also refers to the work of Widianingsih based on an in-depth discussion on the Kasepuhan Ciptagelar community in West Java that has also been protecting the forests for more than 300 years. The authors explore whether attributing personhood to nature, could be regarded as limiting a notion of mystical and pragmatic recognition of interbeing or even a form of colonising the notion of interbeing? We suggest that a community of practice approach (Wenger, 1999, Wenger et al., 2009) to support learning organisations and communities could support two-way education to enable cross cultural, cross disciplinary and transnational learning to support steps towards wellbeing through sharing our understanding of interbeing in dialogue, it became clear that transcendence through totemism, dreams and shamanistic rituals support a sense of oneness with nature, relationality as well as a sense of awe, solidarity and responsibility for others which is being increasingly recognised in the arts and sciences.

Introduction and Background

Firstly, this paper argues that attempts within Western law to attribute personhood to nature, provides a step away from anthropocentrism towards recognising that nature is a living being with rights. Secondly, it argues that Indigenous ontological perspectives need to be recognised and explored to learn ways to re-gain a sense of balance with nature. This is one of two papers demonstrating that policy on representation and accountability will be enhanced by learning from Indigenous communities that act as forest custodians. This paper discusses a forest community in Venda, South Africa and the other paper discusses a Ciptagelar in West Java. Both case studies demonstrate low or zero carbon living.

The UN Urbanisation report (2014) stresses that by 2050 the majority of the world’s population will be living in urban areas and that the rate of urbanisation in Africa and Asia is rapid and this will impact deforestation, habitat loss and food security. As such the paper responds to the plea by Chief Raoni (Nobel peace prize nominee for 2020) that we need to stand together in the wake of the IPCC warnings (2019, 2022 to protect forests as they are the lungs of the planet.

The use of totems to express kinship and solidarity with the land, plants and animals is widespread amongst indigenous peoples in many parts of the world.

Our aim in this paper is to discuss the Indigenous systemic approach to forest protection and to draw out lessons on representation and accountability to protect the commons. The two papers explore the way they organise and though their relationships with one another and nature how their way of life demonstrates a regenerative approach to agriculture, food security, infrastructure, energy, education and governance .

We explore a priori norms to guide the protection and re-generation of living systems to support social and environmental justice and a posteriori indicators and measures to monitor and govern their implementation to share lessons on how this indigenous community demonstrates living in harmony with nature. The paper based on a metalogue with colleagues (who are part of a wider community of practice on social and environmental justice concerns with indigenous communities) makes the case that a priori norms based on the Indigenous wisdom of custodians need to be buttressed by means of laws. In the form of a metalogue to foster ‘an ecology of mind’ we explores indigenous wisdom from Venda with some reference to academics and indigenous leaders with whom the first author has worked over the years. The metalogue draws on email, face to face and Zoom conversations with the co-authors of this paper as well as a brief reflection on past research mentored by Olive Veverbrants in Australia in the Northern Territory and Peter Turner, with whom the first author meets regularly since his move to Adelaide, South Australia. It builds on program of wider research on the need to ‘Rescue the enlightenment from itself” (McIntyre-Mills and Van Gigh 2006).

Africa and Asia have a history that is intertwined through the land bridges of the middle east. Indigenous learning in Australia is linked with the traders from Indonesia as documented in the rock paintings in the Northern Territory. The authors who contribute to this article and related publications stress that Africa and Australia and Indonesia have much to learn from one another and that given the impact of climate change (IPCC 2021) and the increased levels of risk associated with loss of habitat and high rates of urbanisation (McIntyre-Mills et al. 2019a, b; United Nations, Sendai Risk Platform 2015–2030).

The first author draws on social, cultural and critical systemic approaches to education and policy research.

The second and third, fourth and fifth authors are African scholars with a deep community commitment to public education and the protection of the environment. Mphathe Makaulule is an Indigenous leader whose praxis informs this paper and helps us to explore parallels and overlaps in indigenous ontologies which protect and re-generate places. Patricia (Pat) Lethole and Enid Pitsoane are university managers who are also undertaking research on sacred forests in South Africa. Akwasi Arko Achemfuor is an academic linked with Ghana and based in South Africa who has undertaken research on the sacred forests of Ghana.

The sixth and seventh authors respectively contributed to Zoom conversations. Rudolf Wirawan, the sixth author, CEO of Wirasoft works with the Indonesian diaspora and is also undertaking research on the viability of aspects fo the process mentioned in Table 1, whilst the seventh author (Ida Widianingsih, heads a participatory development institute at Universitas Padjadjaran in West Java) also contributed to the Zoom conversations that informed this paper. Widianingsih focuses on participatory action research on education and development and has worked for several years with the first author and members of a community of practice that now support projects in Africa and Indonesia. Our focus is on working with Indigenous leaders. The Africa Indonesia Conference in Bandung stressed the need for decolonising development and the resonance of resistance to the Dutch colonisers is underlined by the popularity of Reggae music and Rastafarian beliefs about the Lion of Judah. In Africa, the ontologies are shaped by Indigenous philosophy, Zionist and Apostolic versions of Christianity, The Lion of Judah as well as Islamic ideas and Judaism, to name just a few of the rainbow sources of inspiration, but as Abdi (2020: 212–213) stresses, at the heart are Indigenous notions.

Table 1 Ostrom’s 8 principles for managing the commons and processes for addressing each principle

The point is made that documenting the stories of indigenous multispecies relational approaches is important so that Afrocentric and other indigenous approaches can be recognised as demonstrating a way forward globally as nation states grapple with the task of achieving a rapid transformation in the wake of the dire warnings detailed by IPPC (2020) and COP 26 (2021).

In West Java the Kasepuhan Ciptagelar community have protected the forest for 600 years and have documented the regenerative process (see Pablo 2018; Widianingsih et al. 2022¹).

In Indonesia landlessness and deforestation is a cause of poverty and places food security at risk. The Ciptagelar Village provides a case study of Indigenous wisdom that exemplifies systemic praxis by protecting forests and biodiversity. We discuss the notion of ecocentric approaches and draw parallels with Bien Vivier and the plea made by Chilisa (2017a) for learning from indigenous knowledge systems and avoiding the presumption that modernisation approaches will enhance life chances. Poverty, climate change and pandemics suggest that learning from indigenous communities that have sustained their life styles for generations is now overdue (McIntyre-Mills et al. 2021a, b, c, d, e).

In 2020 the Indigenous peoples of Amazon together made a plea to protect the lungs of the planet. Defending ourselves and nature (Chief Raoni 2020) requires protecting the forests. In a video of his meeting to develop a manifesto he makes the urgent plea for humanity to defend a way of life by ‘standing together.’ In his address he emphasised that deforestation and mining is accelerating. As the Avaaz (2021)² summary stresses a great deal of organising occurred outside and within the formal meetings to try to raise the issue of deforestation and the importance of finding alternatives to a carbon based, fossil fuel economy.

The compromise deal at COP 26 recognised the need to reduce reliance on coal but it does not go far enough to achieve the 1.5 degrees target. It requires a transformation in values and learning from First Nations as to how habitat ought to be protected from commodification – or treating nature as a thing, rather than as a living being. In the spirit of this plea “to stand together” and the campaign at COP 26 (which summarises “Ten awesome things we did together” Avaaz 2021) the paper interviews leaders and academics on protecting sacred forests in order to explore indigenous notions of multispecies relationships, mystical and practical approaches to protecting the environment, in order to make the case that although these cannot be equated to western laws to prevent ecocide – they provide leadership and a way forward in the next decade –during which the fate of living systems will be determined by the way we mitigate and adapt to climate change. The aim is to re-centre indigenous world views to educate the world on ways to re-generate the environment and to protect the commons; in the words of Abdi (2020:201) with reference to the African context:

“To achieve psycho-cultural and educational colonization in the African context, the first steps were to disparage and decommission African educational and social development systems and to locate the continent as ahistorical, uneducated, and underdeveloped (Nyerere 1968; Rodney 1982; Achebe 2000). In straightforward terms, these organized steps represented the main power of the colonial project, i.e., mental colonization through colonial education (Kane 1963; wa Thiong’o 1986) which is enduring so much longer than any physical or related resources …. The discrediting of Africa on the historical, educational, and developmental fronts also carried the denial of its philosophical and educational philosophy achievements…”

Similarly in Australia and Indonesia the contributors consider the views of how Indigenous world views can educate and help to transform western ontologies on the environment and environmental law.

Current forms of governance and democracy are inadequate to protect social and environmental justice as they do not protect diversity (Ashby 1956; Christakis and Bausch 2006; Flanagan and Christakis 2010; Flanagan et al. 2012; Flanagan 2013) or biodiversity (Berry 1999; Burdon 2015; McIntyre-Mills et al. 2014; McIntyre-Mills 2014, 2017; McIntyre-Mills and Corcoran Nantes 2021). The paper makes the case for ‘monitory democracy’ (Keane 2009) and that engagement by citizens is vital to hold governments to account; but with the vital caveat that individual freedoms and rights should not be at the expense of others in this generation or the next. Rights need to be balanced by responsibilities to protect the fabric of living systems. National and international systems of education, governance and law need to catch up with indigenous systemic ontologies and epistemologies to prevent the loss of habitat through erosion, degradation and deforestation. The forests, underground water systems, rivers, oceans need to be protected which requires a systemic approach as Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathaai (2004) understood – and whose work was cited at The United Nations (2021) Glasgow Climate Change Conference by a young leader from Kenya, Elizabeth Wathuti³ – who asked for a minute’s silence so that the delegates would think of those who are impacted by climate change, such as three thirsty children sitting next to a river that no longer flows:

“ Our animals and people are dying…please open your hearts…By 2025 half of the world’s population will be facing water scarcity. By the time I am 50, 86 million people will be displaced in Sub Saharan Africa alone….”

Tănăsescu (2020) cautions that eco-centric approaches to understanding our inter reliance with nature cannot be equated with the limited laws providing protection to specific sites through personhood, for instance Macpherson et al. (2021) discuss constitutional protection in New Zealand, Columbia and India for specific rivers:

“We argue that in these three countries riverine rights are constitutional experiments: as small-scale, ad hoc and ultimately incomplete attempts to transcend seemingly ineffective regulatory frameworks for rivers. However, they are also incremental, and influential, steps in a broader project of more fundamental social and environmental reform.”

But localised rights are inadequate in the face of urgent wide spread risks associated with climate change. The need to stand together despite differences was stressed by Nobel-peace prize nominee for 2020. The context for this paper is the general request by Chief Raoni who stressed the need to stand together to protect forests. Ecology of mind (a key concept underpinning the work of Bateson 1972, 2021a, b) is applied to participatory action research with colleagues in Venda (McIntyre-Mills et al. 2021d). It seems to us that the mission of indigenous leaders such as Wangari Maathai, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize in (See Maathai, 2004, 2010) provides an example of multispecies praxis to protect biodiverse habitats, water and soil security as she understood that forests provide protection for ground water as well as creating a microclimate and preventing degradation of the soil, according to the press release,⁴ Wangari Maathai:

“founded the Green Belt Movement where, for nearly thirty years, she has mobilized poor women to plant 30 million trees… We are all witness to how deforestation and forest loss have led to desertification in Africa and threatened many other regions of the world … Protecting forests against desertification is a vital factor in the struggle to strengthen the living environment of our common Earth….”

Unfortunately more than a decade later her message has not been heeded (see also Meadows and Randers, 1992) and the recent Nobel Peace Prize Nominee (2020) Raoni has made a plea that all the nations of the world stand together to protect forests. Similarly Vandana Shiva who won the Sydney Peace Prize (2010) made a plea for the protection of seeds and water security.

In this paper we explore how the agendas for COP 26 could be attained by fostering law informed by an “ecology of mind” (Bateson 1972), which means an understanding of human beings’ place within living systems. We also explore our need for an education to protect the forests (which are the lungs of the world) and the water systems (which are the life blood of all living systems). An ecology of mind emphasises the need to think in terms of the cycle of life and our relationships with organic and inorganic systems on which human beings depend.

Area of Concern

The commons is a key concept studied by Elinor Ostrom⁵ leading to a Nobel prize in economics in 2009. She focused on how indigenous communities around the world manage water sources, fisheries, forests, grazing meadows and developed 8 principles that will be explored in this paper, but like Shiva and Higgins et al. (2013) we argue the need for a global law to protect the commons and all the inhabitants of a region and to prevent its destruction by individuals and companies. We need local management to address the following issues explored by Ostrom⁶:

“Who has right to access the commons ? What are their user rights ? How are the commons monitored? Who decides the rules? How much can people withdraw? What are the sanctions for those who break the rules? How is conflict resolved?”

Ostrom stresses a) the need to think of implications for the whole and create positive externalities and not pass on the problems for future generations. b) the need to work together and to stop the barriers to interdisciplinary work at universities and c) the importance of local participation and bottom up approaches,⁷ and her empirical research demonstrates that Hardin’s (1968) argument that shared or common areas will inevitably be managed badly is not inevitable and most importantly, the argument is unsubstantiated.⁸ Ostrom also stresses that the original work by Lloyd (1833) on which Hardin draws was only based on an hypothesis, not substantiated research and that it has been used as a justification for privatisation which has not protected the commons! This point is also made by Shiva (2002) who also makes the point that despite the need to promote local management practices, these need to be buttressed by forms of international law that can protect the commons, because no matter how hard and well people work at the local level, the commons are under threat unless they are secured through global laws.

Hence the argument in this paper for local communities to be supported through local laws plus international laws such as the proposed ecocide law (Higgins et al. 2013, Ecocide Project 2021, McIntyre-Mills 2017, McIntyre-Mills 2021a, b).

In the interviews shared by Mphatheleni Makaulule it is clear that totemic relationships underline this sense of kinship as detailed in this joint article as a reminder (also see Kelly 2016) of their links with organic and inorganic life. Education and economics require transformation based on a sense of our relationality or interbeing as explained by Coll below:

“Schumacher (1973) provides a brilliant treatise in his widely acclaimed Small is Beautiful on the need to design an eco-friendly economy that he named Buddhist economics. This was a first attempt to acknowledge and apply the nature-wise Buddhist principles into economic science. More recently, Oxford economist Raworth (2017a, b) developed Doughnut Economics as a visual sustainable development framework to guide a regenerative economy built upon the concepts of planetary and social boundaries” (Coll 2022:20)

“Experiencing oneness implies a spiritual awareness that is grounded in a process of enquiry driven by eco-centric values. This process is conducive to perceiving the reality in the context of the whole. It is triggered by the fundamental values of compassion and loving-kindness, two intimately related values central to Buddhist thought and practice. Compassion springs from feeling the profound desire of happiness and well-being that one has for other human and sentient beings, including oneself. This is also the same as wishing oneself and other beings to be free from suffering or life dissatisfaction.” (Coll 2022:36)

Colonisation by the Dutch and British in Southern Africa officially ended when the ANC led by Mandela, ended apartheid in 1991⁹ and a new constitution was finalised in 1994. Colonisation by the Dutch and Portuguese in Ghana ended officially in 1957¹⁰ and in Indonesia, independence day is celebrated as colonial rule by Dutch and Japan ended in 1945.¹¹

In Australia the indigenous first nations were recognised as citizens in 1961 but do not have the same level of recognition as Maori. In Australia, unlike in New Zealand first nations do not have a treaty. According to Tănăsescu (2020) despite the limitations of the Treaty of Waitangi (6 February 1840¹²) it has enabled the protection of specific rivers and places. Maori did not intend to cede sovereignty as the Maori leaders did not all sign the treaty and the meaning of the treaty was not understood as handing over land. This is because Maori have a different philosophy of rights and responsibilities. Tănăsescu (2020: 442) underlines the importance of treaty as follows:

“The grant of legal personality to diverse landscapes in New Zealand should therefore be understood in the post-1985 context of treaty settlements. It is this historical period which elevates the Treaty of Waitangi to the most significant document in Māori–Crown relations. Before 1985 the Treaty had no particular legal status or force.⁸⁸ As Belgrave notes, ‘until the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal, no court or commission of inquiry had needed to define what was actually agreed to at Waitangi.”

In Australia Indigenous nations are still striving for recognition of rights as stressed in the Uluru Statement of the Heart (2017), nevertheless at state level and local government level, Aboriginal Australians are stressing rights as custodians. The Uluru statement of the heart suggests that as a nation we need to respect our dependency on the land and that Aboriginal voices have not yet been heard as the land and waters have not been placed at the heart of policy decisions:

“We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart: Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago. This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one-day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.”¹³

Pelizzon et al. (2021) have stressed that Australian water security is at risk and that it is time to recognise rivers have legal rights as ‘living beings’, they explain that:

“Since the release of the Constitution of Ecuador in 2008, the rights of Nature movement across the world has gained exponential momentum, and a great number of jurisdictions worldwide today recognise some form of legal subjectivity vested upon Nature. Over the last decade, and in particular since 2017, river personhood has become one of the most recognisable forms of this subjectivity. When we say river personhood, this means the law regards a river as a legal person – an entity capable of bearing rights and duties.”

They then explain that in March 2011 plaintiffs in Ecuador successfully sued district government for: “damage, erosion and flooding of the Vilcabamba River…”.

In a media briefing titled¹⁴ “Australia’s rivers are ancestral beings” the joint work of Pelizzon et al. (2021) is cited:¹⁵

“In Australia, the concept of a river as a living entity in its own right made its first appearance in Victoria in 2017, when the Victorian Parliament enacted the Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017. For the Wurundjeri people, the Birrarung is “a river of mists and shadows” and the Act’s preamble, as translated from Woi Wurrung language, emphasises their connection with the Birrarung as a living entity:

“We the Woi-wurrung, the First People, and the Birrarung, belong to this Country. This Country and the Birrarung are a part of us. The Birrarung is alive, has a heart, a spirit, and is part of our Dreaming. We have lived with and known the Birrarung since the beginning.”

Similarly, The River Murray custodians (2020) emphasise that:

“The First Nations peoples of the Murray–Daring Basin …. have always taken an active role in environmental management, shaping and caring for the land that sustains them. This relationship is both practical and spiritual, born of a unique world view.”¹⁶

Rivers are now recognised as beings with rights, following the legal entity /personality strategy, but without a Bill of Rights and a Treaty this does not go far enough to enable the protection of specific sites.

In Ecuador and Bolivia, however, even a constitution that recognises the rights of Pachamana (Mother Earth) is not enough to protect people and places from market interests and corrupt relationships with the state and international developers.¹⁷

Another ‘inconvenient truth’ is that in South Africa, Indonesia and Australia the indigenous first nations continue to feel that the respective constitutions do not adequately recognise Indigenous peoples and their right to land. This was expressed at a meeting of Khoisan leaders held in 2018 on the Fish Hoek Beach at which the identity of the Khoisan was celebrated (McIntyre-Mills 2021c:591):

“The Fish Hoek Galley hosted a rally for the Khoi San of Fish Hoek. A series of speeches were given by men and women who represented the first nation of the Cape. They stressed that their families had walked the beaches and that the colonists had pushed them into the Kalahari. On the Cape flats local people compete with those from the Eastern Cape who are seen as interlopers as they compete for housing and employment. The Democratic Alliance and the African National Council are seen to be equally remiss in ignoring the needs of this group. … This is an issue shared by many other indigenous first nations. (UNDRIP 2008) as the idea is considered regressive if it is linked with secessionist politics rather that an attempt to protect habitat and the commons.”

Praxis and Concepts

The critical systemic approach to a systemic metalogue demonstrates collegiality, draws on so-called warm data (Bateson 2021a, b) and emphasises relationality in the sense used by African scholars such as Chilisa (2017a, b) with a focus on placing indigenous world views centre stage (Odora Hoppers 2013) as a way to decolonise mindsets (Shiva 1989, 2012a, b) and to focus on indigenous notions of interbeing:

“… Demarus Sandlin, who studied the relation between indigenous knowledge and Western science, affirms, “indigenous sustainability is more than sustaining resource use for human benefit, it is about creating abundance in nature for the health of ourselves and our animal and plant relatives.” (Coll 2022:161)

At this point it is important to define the terms Indigenous, habitat and commons. For the purpose of the paper Indigenous will mean people who have resided in a place and can show continuity with place through oral histories and artefacts linking them to a specific habitat to which they are linked through totems, taboos and customs to protect it.

The notion of commons for the purpose of this paper draws on Bollier and Helfrich’s (2012) notion that the commons is not only a place or a resource, it is a process of what he calls “communing” based on relationship building.

Chilisa (2017a, b) stresses that relationality means understanding that people exist through others and through nature:

“Human relationships in Southern Africa are captured in the concept of botho or Ubuntu (humanness). Ubuntu requires respect and the recognition of all things living and non-living. Reality is all our connections and all our marginalised efforts to protect and preserve those that are essential to the continued existence of all relations. Relatedness is at the core and permeates all research activities. The relationships are neither oppositional, nor binary, but are inclusive’, uniting and creating harmony and balance with all knowledge systems and all living and non-living Things (Goduka 2000).”

Regenerative living which respect and strive to connect with “all that exists” (as named by Chilisa and Mertens 2021), namely, the “living and the nonliving, the land, the earth, the animals, and others beings” (p. 24) is vital (see McIntyre-Mills et al. 2021d). The Indigenous mystical sense of relationality and spirituality resonates with concepts such as enfolded expressed by David Bohm’s notion of relational physics which emerges from discussions with the Dalai Lama. This is not to deny the importance of Indigenous wisdom, it makes a point that areas of overlap need to be found through dialogue to enable diverse nations and peoples to stand together¹⁸ .

Respectful dialogue is vital for achieving transformation as it builds relationships of trust and provides the basis for finding areas of salience or relevance at this time of urgent need. Chilisa and Mertens (2021) stress that Indigenous axiology, ontology and epistemology whilst distinct have some continuity and overlap with other approaches.

Tănăsescu (2020) stresses that indigenous concepts of ecocentrism should not be reduced to legal forms of person hood for living systems as they involve a systemic way of life in which anthropocentrism has no place. So the point that indigenous leaders and scholars such as Tănăsescu is making is that conflating or reducing the cosmologies to a few legal precepts would do indigenous philosophy a disservice, but the ecocentric vision can indeed inform a way forward to revise western laws that are based on notions of rights linked to treating the environment and people as commodities that can be owned and that the right to own property is linked with citizenship flowing from some of the Roman Law precepts based on the hierarchical, patriarchal notion of the ‘pater familias’ having the right to own slaves and women as a Roman citizen.

According to Eversberg (2021: 320):

“Just as free male Athenians acquired personhood as citizens through the exclusion and exploitation of women and slaves, as well as the collective capacity to appropriate the agricultural products of foreign lands, the same basic mechanisms of expansionist appropriation (Brand and Wissen 2018) and the hierarchical separation of public and private realms (Biesecker and Hofmeister 2010) have formed the bedrock of both capitalism and democracy in those countries in which they emerged in modernity. In other words, modern relations of exchange are a transformation of hierarchy in much the same way as wage labour, according to Graeber (2006), is a transformation of slavery: Unlike slaves, who were excluded from personhood because they did not own their bodies (Turner 1986: 4), wage labourers are full members of society by virtue of ‘owning’ at least themselves, but find themselves periodically forced to sell that property and surrender their citizenship rights in order to sustain themselves….”(emphasis added)

The right to own land, plants and animals was extended from the earliest days of capitalism, but ownership is not the preserve of capitalism. The notion of hierarchical power provides a basis for controlling and defining what can be regarded as held in common and what is off limits, sacred or taboo. According to Eversberg (2021:320):

“the logic of tapu in Fiji or among the Maori, which essentially declares certain things or species off-limits due to their ‘belonging to’ a certain powerful individual or group. Tapu—much like ‘private’ in capitalist societies—refers to what cannot legitimately be challenged. This is how hierarchies generally operate: things and deeds are withdrawn from common access, ‘fenced off’.

The notion of sacred and profane is defined in details by Mary Douglas who stressed that concepts of what is deemed acceptable are Indigenous scholars (Chilsa 2017; Harris and Wasilewski 2004; Lethole et al. 2022 forthcoming) stress the need to regain a sense that nature is sacred and although we may need to draw on the commons for food, clothing, housing, we can only use it in ways that do not deplete the resources.

Thus the policies and laws that support protecting and re-generating the commons are vital for preventing ecocide as detailed by Higgins et al. (2013) when making a plea to extend and scale up the Ecocide Law so that it is post national in its reach with legal measures to ensure that the inhabitants of a specific region are protected. The phrasing of the law by an expert panel implies all the species within a region (2021)¹⁹ and requires an amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“The expert panel defines ecocide as: “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.²⁰

Burke and Celermajer (2021) stress that so-called human progress has been at the expense of other species and underline that that the current system is dysfunctional, because what is required is a fundamental shift in our relationships with others and nature. They make the point that to prevent:

“An international crime of ecocide …. should recognise that all forms of life, and the ecological systems that support them, have value for their own sake. This perspective is known as multispecies justice. It holds that human well-being is bound to flourishing ecosystems, which have an intrinsic value outside the human use for them.”²¹

They make the point that excuses such as building infrastructure for housing or roads should not be used as an excuse for environmental destruction. We add that species rights entail the right to exist or co-exist and the indigenous world views that support a sense of that which is held sacred within the boundaries of normative beliefs that dictate behaviour and profane beliefs (Douglas 1978) and actions that are outside the boundaries will be explored in the discussion on taboos, danger and pollution and the implications of who, where, how and when conceptul and spatial boundaries are drawn(Midgley 2000, 2014a, b; Midgley et al. 2007).

The a priori normative Indigenous approach in Vhavenda stresses the sacred nature of the land to which people are linked through totemic kinship and taboos which are accompanied by rituals and ceremonies. The oral tradition of storytelling is accompanied by song and dance as well as a calendar on which the cyclical flow of nature is mapped. Together these provide a means to educate and pass on customs from the elders to the next generation. The focus of the senior women is to share their knowledge and help to support governance. The paper addresses the notion of ecology of mind, natural inclusion (Rayner 2010, 2017a, b, c) and ecocentrism as antidotes for categorical mindsets that commodify others and nature – based on a dualistic anthropocentric vision of the world. These concepts provide the context for exploring notions of the sacred and profane with reference to totems, customs and rituals and will be discussed also see O’Donnell et al. (2021) so that the terms of reference are understood.

Governance needs to incorporate an understanding that the environment is a living being. Environmental law researcher O’Donnell et al. (2021) in a podcast explains that personhood applied to nature:

“ has been trying to articulate the different kinds of rights that it would make sense for natural objects to have, and they are different to human rights. We’re not envisaging a scenario where a tree could sue an insect for eating its leaves, whereas obviously humans have those kinds of inter-human rights. We’re more about saying, how can we empower this natural object to protect itself within the law?”²²

O'Donnell et al. (2020) stress:

“Based on early observations, we discern an emerging trend of increased efficacy, longevity, and transformative potential being linked to a strongly pluralist approach of law making and environmental management. A truly transformative and pluralist ecological jurisprudence can be achieved only by enabling, and empowering, Indigenous leadership.”

Shahvisi (2021) observes that:

“Decolonising a burning world requires us to confront the fact that Western conceptions of nature are very often, to use its own slurs, ‘uncivilised’, ‘backward’, ‘barbaric’.”

Burning forests to clear the way for pasture to fatten cattle for the overseas beef industry is the legacy of Brazilian President Bolsenaro. The indigenous leaders of the Amazon have declared the Piaraçu Manifesto to denounce actions that destroy the forests through logging, mining and introduction of beef pastures which add to methane emissions (Forsetto 2020) and Shahvisi (2021) stresses that:

“Indigenous communities “recognise other threads of the biosphere as relatives deserving of moral consideration….” Unlike Western cultures which have justified the “ the objectification of people and the environment.” In the same reference Shahvisi highlights the way in which personage has been attributed to nature and cites examples in New Zealand, Quebec and every river in Bangladesh.²³

In New Zealand Hollingsworth (2020) explains that:

“To Māori, the river was a single and indivisible entity and not something that could be owned. Although the river's resources could be used, only people who contributed to the community had the right to benefit. The local Māori even had a proverb they used to sum it up: "I am the river, and the river is me."²⁴

Shahvisi makes the point that polluting rivers is indicative that Western culture is based on faulty assumptions that have created ‘misdirected systems’ (Ackoff and Pourdehnad 2001) based on anthropocentrism. Instead of merely re-connecting with nature we need to understand that human beings are a strand in a multispecies living system that is reliant on both organic and inorganic life. Human beings are not outside or above nature they are part of a cycle of life which is embodied in the cyclic calendar which can be explained by Mphatheleni Makaulule as a means to communicate cyclical time:

“such as the movement of the moon, stars, and planets, the weather, cycles in Nature and biodiversity, and processes in agriculture and in culture (rituals, songs and dances) which are influenced by the cycles of time… …. This ecosystem flows if one looks on the land or soil….” ( Mphatheleni cited in McIntyre-Mills et al. 2021d)

Solon (2018) defines the notion of Ben Vivien or Vivir Bien (Also see Pablo, 2018) as “to learn to live together in this complex interplay of being”. Solon continues in the same reference by explaining:

“The concept of Vivir Bien (or Buen Vivir) gained international attention in the late twentieth century as people searched for alternatives to the rampage of neoliberalism. Imperfect translations of the Andean concepts of suma qamaña and sumaq kawsay, Vivir Bien and Buen Vivir reflect an indigenous cosmovision that emphasizes living in harmony with nature and one another. As these ideas’ popularity has grown, however, their meaning has been compromised. Governments in Bolivia and Ecuador incorporated Vivir Bien and Buen Vivir, respectively, into their constitutions and governing agendas on paper, but not in spirit. Rather than radical alternatives to the dominant paradigm of development and progress, these concepts have become new branding for (un)sustainable development. The lessons are clear: to avoid state co-optation, truly revolutionary change must be based on emancipation and self-determination from below.”

Similarly, Eversberg (2021) highlights that democracy has enabled some to gain at the expense of others and in an increasingly capitalist world some nations have gained at the expense of others. Solidarity is extended on the basis of class and nationality The externalisation of problems to those who are other – those who sell labour within a nation state or who are willing to work as migrant workers to do the work others will not or to take on the work that is ‘off shored’ as wages are lower has enabled neoliberalism to reach a stage where people are commodified along with the environments in which they live. The western legal system stresses property rights and Western democracies also give rights to responsible citizens of voting age. The notion of giving rights to nature is now being raised as a result of several cases led by Indigenous leaders.

Mixed Methods Approach

The authors explore whether attributing personhood to nature, could be regarded as limiting a notion of mystical and pragmatic recognition of interbeing or even a form of colonising the notion of interbeing? We suggest that a community of practice approach (Wenger 1999; Wenger et al. 2009) to support learning organisations and communities could support two-way education to enable cross cultural, cross disciplinary and transnational learning to support steps towards ‘living virtuously and well.’²⁵ Through sharing our understanding of interbeing in dialogue, it became clear that transcendence through totemism, dreams and shamanistic rituals support a sense of oneness with nature as well as a sense of awe, solidarity and responsibility for others which is being increasingly recognised through integrated studies that draw on Jungian psychology, social anthropology, art, spirituality and religion (Hunt 2020).

The axiological approach which we share is that anthropocentrism is obsolete, it is a failed approach and that ontologically Western capitalism and neoliberalism need to be revised through engaging respectfully and learning ways to re-generate our understanding of our relationship with nature and with others. We try to avoid the epistemic violence of using a Western lens and (Chilisa and Mertens 2021) to be guided by Indigenous scholars and community members in terms of our methodology to support two-way learning and transformation. (Mertens, 2017, 2019)

Instead of allowing surveillance capitalism (Zuboff 2019; Zuboff and Schwandt 2019) from above to shape the market and the state, engagement from below is vital to enable transformation through enabling monitory democracy (Keane 2009) from below to ensure social and environmental justice buttressed by laws to prevent ecocide. In Table 1 below Ostrom’s 8 principles are discussed in relation to 8 processes using a range of methods to support indicators of planetary wellbeing.

The role of Indigenous peoples, NGOs, young people at COP 26 (Avaaz 2021) the need for new forms of democracy and governance. The work of Global Agoras (Christakis and Kakoulakis 2021; Flanagan and Christakis 2010; Flanagan and Bausch 2010) provide lessons for the way a posteriori means of governance could be transformed through creating shared norms through dialogue on shared areas of concern supported by a community of practice and systemic intervention (Midgley 2000, 2014a, b, 2017). 

Together we engaged²⁶ by Zoom and email whilst contributors engaged in local conversations face- to- face and through phoning members of the community to explore key concepts underpinning multispecies perspectives. Each of these will be discussed in more depth through asking questions and inviting participants to contribute to story pathways by detailing sacred totems, notions of the meaning of the profane or taboo as well as customs and rituals to protect organic and inorganic nature.

Participatory action research in this project involves an ethically approved project with colleagues conducted at the height of the Covid Pandemic (see McIntyre-Mills, 2020 and McIntyre-Mills et al. 2021) by setting up a face to face and virtual community of practice (Wenger 1999; Wenger et al. 2009) spanning the University of South Africa and University of Adelaide in line with the UNISA ethics protocols²⁷ and supported in part by UNISA community engagement team.²⁸ The focus of the community of practice is on earning, learning and growing a future to develop a viable social enterprise around local products, sustaining the ecosystem and creating ways to market organic products. The project team draw (in part) on Gunther Pauli’s (2010) approach to developing a production, distribution and consumption cycle that supports regenerative social enterprise and reduces the risks of unemployment whilst supporting wellbeing stocks (Stiglitz et al. 2010, 2011). In terms of praxis (thinking and practice) the research is shaped by an ongoing collegial community of practice. The reason why this community in Venda has started to use bamboo as an alternative fuel and building material is to help protect the forest whilst supporting a regenerative source of income. The paper is linked with a project titled: A systemic action learning approach using a community of practice to support the green circular economy to support earning, learning and growing a future. This social enterprise project in South Africa (set up as a community engagement project in 2021), is supported by a team of academics at the University of South Africa (Unisa) linking with an organisation called Dzomo La Mupo in Venda (an organisation founded by Mphatheleni Makaulule), The entire project is linked with a wider community of practice (COP). The COP includes colleagues in Indonesia (from the Universitas Padjadjaran) and the University of Adelaide and that connects with local community. This learning approach supports social inclusion and green, re-generative entrepreneurship. The Tshidzivhe Project and Bamboo co-operative (Venda) has been set up as part of an action research project and supported by training on an ecological calendar. Our engagement came about as a community of practice with indigenous participants who aim to build on indigenous knowledge systems to support re-generative living .The group focused on shared concerns, namely poverty, climate change, destruction of biodiversity and habitat. For this paper we have used a combination of WhatsApp, email zoom meetings and face to face fieldwork conducted by Patricia (Pat) Lethole and Mphatheleni (Mphathe) Makaulule²⁹ to help one another and the community, defined as “all the inhabitants within a region” (Higgins et al. 2013) in order to protect people, plants, animals and their shared habitat. A recognition of our hybridity and interconnectedness provided the starting point for the collaboration (McIntyre-Mills 2017; Romm and Lethole 2021). This aspect of the research focuses on a priori norms and a posteriori governance to support living systems (Wadsworth 2010) through recognition of a sense of the sacred to prevent the profane (Douglas 1978) acts of destroying the environment which will result in existential risk (Bostrom 2011) for all species.

We are particularly interested in the idea that totems link people to living systems as a whole and to features in the landscape. This respect for organic and inorganic life is also shown by Arrernte in Alice Springs who explain the importance of landscape where their history is recorded and they refer to the landscape in stories and myths of origin. For instance in Alice Springs features in the landscape such McDonald Ranges, known as Caterpillar dreaming records myths of origin and opposite the gap in the McDonald Ranges the sacred site of ghost gums s one of the places where the caterpillar makes cocoons from which yeperenye, the butterfly emerges. (McIntyre-Mills 2003 for details of the dreaming story).

The first author’s role is to lead a metalogue that ‘unfolds’ values and ‘sweeps in’ (West Churchman, 1971) a systemic exploration of social, cultural, historical, political and economic dimensions drawing on her experience of working with, rather than within the boundaries (Midgley et al. 2007; Midgley 2014a, b) of a culture, discipline or single method (See Bateson 1972, Bateson 2021a, b). The story telling and listening process (Atkinson 2002) underpins this approach to action learning and participatory action research to support transformative education (see McIntyre-Mills and Corcoran-Nantes, 2022 and McIntyre-Mills and Christakis, 2021).

Together we work as facilitators or facilitator of facilitators and we believe that a strong sense of place and identity is vital as many first nations relied on landmarks and then artefacts to remind them (or store) knowledge. Thus the landscape was the first library and human beings ‘wrote’ or stored/linked our memory codes within the landscape. Losing close links with people and places in urban contexts without close bonds leads to a particular kind of loss which Peter Berger and Gregory Bateson discussed (albeit from different starting points) which they called “homeless mind” and the need for “an ecology of mind”, respectively.

A Metalogue with Colleagues

A metalogue is a systemic conversation aimed at exploring an area of concern. Gregory Bateson (1972) applied this form of iterative conversation in Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Features in the landscape are referred to in stories and custodians pass these stories from one generation to the next. It seems that this feeling of oneness with nature is reminded by means of identifying with totems such as birds, plants, insects or animals.

Janet: I can share with you some stories from my mentors who helped me understand the notion of totem in Alice Springs. But these are just for background, so that we can try to understand if the ideas resonate. A sense of the sacred is developed through sharing a close link with the land. Olive Veverbrants, an Arrernte mentor in Alice Springs explained that a totem is given to a baby when the foetus moves and the first thing that is seen can be named as a totem. It could be a perentie ( a type of lizard) or a feature in the landscape. Apparently women can choose quite strategically in order to benefit their child and connect the child with helpful characteristics and also link the child with others who share that totem. My other friend and mentor is Peter Turner, a member of the stolen generation whom I met in Alice Springs and who now lives in Adelaide for health reasons. He stresses that his totem is Eagle which was given to him by his adopted mother and he has taken a keen interest in many social and environmental justice issues and the need to protect the balance of nature. He has an eagle eye and is brave in the face of adversity as the totem gives him courage and a sense of perspective.

Olive Veverbrants stressed that Chicken Hawk is the totem given to her by her mother, who hoped that like a Chicken Hawk she would be able to see things clearly from a great height and that she would have a strong voice. Her mother explained that a chicken hawk can see very well from above and can swoop down quickly to get her prey. A chicken hawk has a loud voice and can be heard. She hoped her daughter would also have a strong voice and never be in need or hungry. Olive became a strong advocate for her community. She is mentioned in the Aboriginal Women’s Hall of fame, won an award for her work on environmental protection and she worked with researchers to design a sustainable home made out of mud bricks where she trained people how to live sustainably, saving water, growing vegetables, supporting the wild camels by providing water troughs for them and giving lessons on how to recycle and re-use resources. As an academic with an arts degree and practitioner she applied herself to demonstrating how to live sustainably after returning to Alice (see McIntyre-Mills and Veverbrants 2009, McIntyre-Mills 2003) Veverbrants wrote an epic poem as the preface for a monograph on Alice Springs (in McIntyre-Mills 2003) in which she laments:

The sun beats down

Hot bitumen

Catching and swallowing dust and debris

In its melting face.

The entire continent spoiled.

Yet the original inhabitants

kept the equilibrium

for sixty thousand years.

The land was their Mother.

Janet: Mphathe, please explain the significance of education and beliefs. I have been reading your recent paper (Barnwell et al. 2021) in which you say:

“When you do wrong things, then the ancestors and spirit forsake you. They no longer protect you. They no longer give you good things. We believe that good things come from the spirit. With Venda people, through ancestors, we are asking for them. For instance, “I do not have food, I am asking food,” or “I am sick, I am asking for healing.” I mentioned this to the names of the ancestors, and in the end, I say, “you, the spirit of the ancestors, send my prayer to the Creator, God, Nwali.” But they [ancestors] said that if I do wrong and if I allow wrong things to happen, then the ancestors will turn their back [on you] and you will have many bad things happen in life. I have seen this in Ramanangi [a community at Phiphidi waterfall where a Zwifho was destroyed]. They always say that the ancestors have turned their backs on us .”Janet Please tell us about your role as a re-builder of the Venda culture and identity and how this is rooted in customs of totem, taboo, a sense of the sacred. Please tell us how this respect is taught and what are the sanctions for disrespecting the forest within the Tshidzivhe region where you live? If people do not follow customary law, who was the consequences? I have read many interviews³⁰ in which you explain that your father a chief and a healer named you Mphatheleni (which means to re-build) and you explains that Makhadzi is a term for all women who are potential leaders, to draw on your interview³¹:

“…Makhadzi is the one who makes sure that there is order in the family, order in the clan, order in the community. And through her knowledge, which continues to develop within her, and which is brought to her by the ancestors, she becomes a guide. She is the one who is there to be the mediator for the whole clan and the whole community. The Chief cannot rule without the Makhadzi…”

“Now the Makhadzis are more important than ever because our sacred sites, the Phiphidi waterfall and the Thathe forest, are being threatened and destroyed. …We are trying to fight them but it is difficult….I am working with the Makhadzi, Chiefs, and the VhaVenda people who form a community organisation called Dzomo la Mupo.³² This means ‘Voices from the Earth', and the community are just that. They are the voices of Nature, of the land, of the people, of our culture and they are standing up to the bullies who are trying to take this away from them……There are 24 rivers flowing out of the Thathe Holy Forest. If you cut it down, what then? That's the end of the farming system in Venda. Sacred sites are places that make evaporation that makes rain. If you don't protect the pools and waterfalls, where do the people get clean water to drink? Rituals aren't empty things. They're the Earth wisdom of hundreds of generations of wise people, especially Makhadzis. My father would never allow trees or bushes to be cut down near a river. You can call that tradition but it's also good environmental sense. Without their shade the life of a river shrivels and dies. … Culture or traditions, Mupo, this is all life for us. The cultural customs stay within us within our veins….. if we want to save this world – especially people – we need to listen to women, particularly elders. They're the bowls, the containers of life. They are food security. Even a king can't be a king without a Makhadzi. You can't be a strong fowl if you haven't felt the warmth of a mother hen. We appreciate highly the role of men, but we are the cradles of the human world.….”

Pat: I heard that Mphathe’s father loved to protect Mupo. People used to wash clothes in the river called Mudzinga which is near his place of residence. He encouraged people to wash using washing basin (outside the river) to protect the river and all that lives in it. He went to an extent of encouraging people to be taught how to read and write by establishing a school. In other words he was a care taker of living and non -living things.

Mphathe: “My totem is a warthog of sacred mountain Luonde. When my name is called, the call gives much strength to me.”

Janet: “So when you call the echo from the mountains comes back to you? This is a beautiful ceremony.”

Mphathe: “We the Vhakwevho of Luonde mountain, we are the warthogs and when we sit down ….. our parents, elders praise and say:

‘Dzulani zwanu Mukwevho, nguluvhe khulu ya luonde, zwi bwamutada zwi Luvhola. Mukwevho wa ha Nwavhuyani nga mifhululu. (they say, sit down Mukwevho a name of our totem clan) nguluvhe ya Lunde – the big warthog of Luonde mountain, zwibvamutada zwi Luvhola (the small bush pigs are at sacred mountain Luvhola).

Mukwevho wa nwavhuani nga mifhululu-mukwevho (of those who come back through ululations – meaning the ancestors as [are] ululating [this] is also a sound of ancestors spirits as elders tell us.)

They say the ululation goes to forests and caves and rivers and that is where the spirits rest. That [sound] now draws to [connects with] the sacred forests. In my totem they also praise saying:

“muila phinimini, tshivhantutu, the one who does not eat the birds called by those names…

Tshishokoshwe tshi Luonde-the water from your lake is at the peak of Luonde….vheinwi vhakwevho vha nala thethe, vha nayo dzikandah vhuswa vha la vh takala you the vhakwevho who have soft fingers, whose foot prints are also left on food and people eat that food happy even though you leave a footprint of the food.

Finger millet, is called mufhoho in our language.— Luvenda language. We also have a beverage called mpambo , this is the beverage that we use for rituals.

Mpambo is used the same way wine is used for holy communion. However the sacredness of carrying it, drinking it and those in charge is vice versa [reciprocal]. This is explained in the following documentary: https://youtu.be/IszP5Uq-X50

Totem is Mutupo , Mutupo is a name of clan and the animals that identify us. Our clan name is Mukwevho and our animal totem is a warthog however birds are also praised as our totems.”

Janet: “Can features of the landscape also be totems? A forest, lake or rock? “

Mphathe: “Yes, the features of the landscape can be a totem like lakes, waterfalls ,rocks and plants .Totem to Vhavenda culture is the blood identity and ritual connections that determines also health. This is where if one is sick, all doctors all medicine cannot give healing , but only a praise of totem will heal a person....

Totem is also deeper than animal that we see or call by name, totem - Mutupo is deeper, it relates to wellbeing, in the Zwifho (meaning living system) the totems are associated with Zwifho, totems stays in the Zwifho. Totems hold our wellbeing from birth illness and death. When a baby is born a baby should be praised by totem name, when a baby does good , a praise of totem should be done, when the baby is growing up totem praise accompanies each stage of life, all life totem praises are there and even if one did bad or something wrong , the totem is mentioned in a low voice and that becomes a serious warning. About the clan , what you have explained , in my understanding , it is correct as much praises is about how sacredness is [the nature of the sacred expressed through sound and harmony], the way everything connects in spirit and the physical... both are embraced in nature.”

Pat: “I love to be part of this project because I am learning a lot from different perspectives. Ubuntu as a principle is enacted on and it becomes alive….It seems we are saying be a human by getting connected to both the living and non-living, or the benefits of future generation…The trace of totems can be drawn back to the ancient times, before the introduction of industrial age. Most of the countries in African continent do have different totems amongst their society (which consists of non-living and living things like sacred forest, lakes, wild animals, plants, snakes and mountains). The rationale behind that is unknown but the implication might be to build relationships amongst human, living and non-living things. Because African people were spiritual, totems might be influenced by their spiritual beliefs. For instance sacred forests were used as a place to worship their gods and it might be comprised of non-living and living things mentioned above. It is a taboo to fetch water, wood, hunt, pick stones or dig soil from the sacred forest. The sacred forest is served with respect by Makhadzi who are the custodians of the place. The implication might be there is/was understanding that all living and non-living belongs together and there is strong spiritual connection…..: Regarding my own totem, I am an elephant that belongs to Vhutanda sacred forest. My observation is that elephants have attributes like kindness, ability to control anger not [become] irate, earn respect by the way it controls itself, able to bring things closer by using a trunk, absence of fear, promotion of teamwork (when they eat, or during the birth of baby elephant and when experiencing death of another elephant) .

I think these attributes were cultivated in me from birth to now, because my elders in the family will say: ‘the elephant of Vhutanda do not do this,’ if I do something wrong and If I do something right they will [also] say ‘she is an elephant of Vhutanda’. I think by doing that it develops a character in me. For instance, my community say I am very kind and assertive and I am able to control my anger and I am not afraid to take risks, in order to learn (I link this to an elephant bringing things closer using a trunk [to look closer, because] maybe there is a snake on the branch.) However, my spiritual beliefs of Christianity also played a role because there is emphasis of kindness, unconditional love, self-control, patience and gentleness as attributes of the Holy spirit. My understanding is that these attributes are critical for my humanity and it is driven by my inner person. ... The community can interpret me as somebody who is human [who] should not lack mbvumbo (which is the combination elements that constitute a human being like ubuntu/buthu). Bear in mind that it is disturbing to be told that mbvumbo has left a person. It means the person is ruthless… uncaring, unkind, thus, the totem has no meaning or influence in that person’s life.”

Pat also explored aspects of this theme on WhatsApp explaining the importance of protecting the natural habitat and implications for the sustainability of insects:

“The termites are called madzhulu. I understand they are full of nutrients…..They are special delicacy for Venda people. At the moment they are also selling them. The introduction of mining or destruction of our forests will disturb all this. … termites are a delicacy ….when the termites dampen the holes, it is a great sign that the rain is about to fall, and it is also a sign of new spring....”

Janet: “Thank you Pat for all these explanations. So by destroying habitat many creatures are lost and this causes losses for multiple species, including the people. Arko , drawing on your research, please explain the notion of taboo in Ghana.”

Arko: “Thanks Janet and colleagues, yes taboos and totems are used among the different ethnic groups, tribes and clans in Ghana to protect forests and areas they regard as sacred. Some communities dedicate specific forests as the dwelling place of deities and prohibit people from cutting plants, farming there, and making noise among other prohibitions. Some can be small patches of forests to large tracks of land demarcated as such as sacred and protected forests. Some forests and groves are used as burial grounds for royal families. Some animals are protected because they are the totems of some clans and communities. The Akan (the dominant ethnic group in Ghana) for example has 7 out of the 8 clans with wild animals as their totems. The other has the dog as its totem. The clans thus protect areas and forests where such animals live. There are some days and time periods people are not allowed to go to or engage in farming activities in the sacred forests. You will recall Janet about my book chapter (Akwasi-Achemfuour 2021) on the monkeys’ sanctuary where both the monkeys and the forest (habitat of the monkeys) are protected by the communities. There are many more examples across Ghana of such forest conservation measures that various communities use to protect forests. Some of the undertones for such practices that ensure environmental sustainability are religious, sociocultural and historical but at the end of the day they serve important environmental protection objectives.”

Janet: “Thank you Arko, so now we understand that totem names invoke the spirit of life – organic and inorganic and connect us to nature through rituals and customs comprising song, symbols, dance and narratives Enid please explain your totem too and the place to which it is linked.”

Enid: “Good afternoon Janet, some plant and tree species, animals and insects are conserved due to their significance to the community as totems. They are treated with reverence and protected. According to Mandillah and Ekosse (2018:214) totemic animals and plants are protected by preventing killing and eating the totemic animal and by preventing the destruction of plants and their habitats, thus protecting biodiversity .”

Janet: “Thank you for sharing this paper which explains that by identifying with plants animals or features in the landscape people identify with the spirit of the totem and protect it as the totem is sacred and its destruction will result in harm to the offender. I am interested to hear more about your own totem.”

Enid: “My totem is Kudu which symbolizes strength, wisdom, and fame. As Kudu we are not linked to Venda. We are Tswana speaking people which is one language in South Africa mainly spoken by people in North Western province. My Village name is called Ga-Seabe which is situated to the North of Pretoria. The horns of Kudu are kept in the royal families and their horns are believed to be a dwelling place of spirits. The horns of a Kudu are kept by the chief and are blown when there is celebration of weddings only of royal families. The horn is also blown during the funeral of a chief and the blowing during funerals symbolises that the chief is now joined spiritually with his ancestors. When a person dies and a herd of Kudu are seen, the family of the deceased find solace that the person is welcomed by the ancestors and that gives closure to the family. The horn that is kept by the chief is thrown away in a running river before he is buried since it was used to strengthen the family and if it is kept in the family, it will bring bad luck. When blown during the wedding it symbolises the connection of the two families spiritually and we sing totem praises together. This happens in every family who belong to the same totem, it is sung when there is a wedding, funeral or unveiling of tombstones. It is a sign of pride in who you are, and it gives one a sense of belonging. A Kudu totem is highly spiritual and offers guidance whenever we are feeling low or when a block in spiritually is around us. We are not allowed to eat the meat of Kudu since we are identified with it. We believe one cannot eat her/his own meat. If you can eat the meat of the Kudu you will suffer from continuous diarrhoea or can even go blind.”

Janet: “So we now understand that taboos are attached to totems and that people are encouraged to protect their totems by understanding that they are sacred. Totems help to create harmony within the community and a sense of solidarity with specific totems. It seems this is a form of self-governance to support harmony and the common good.”

Discussion on Governance Based on a Sense of the Sacred and Associated Taboos

Janet: “What external sanctions can be applied for not protecting a totem? It seems three elements are required to protect nature and the commons, namely:

• education,

• a priori normative beliefs that nature is a living being and that it has rights and governance underpinned by

• a posteriori indictors to prevent commodification of nature for the profit of a few at the expense of the majority of living systems.

Please let us discuss each of these in turn and please add further points to consider. I am interested to discuss the notion of ‘ecology of mind’ (Bateson 1972) meaning that understanding requires thinking like ecological systems and ‘natural inclusion’ (Rayner 2010, 2017a, b, c, 2021)³³ which echoes some of the notions of Mupo as a living being. It also seems close to the notion of interbeing (Abram and Kaza 2020) explained as the breath or perhaps as the echo that Mphathe mentions.

Janet: ” It seems that this concept perhaps resonates with you? What skills did you learn from your mother and your father with regard to your role as a Makhadzi, healer, educator and as a re-builder of the Venda culture and how this is rooted in Venda customs of totem, taboo, a sense of the sacred. Please explain the significance of education and beliefs. In 2013, Mphathe you were awarded a Bill Clinton Fellowship for two months , some of the time was spent at Harvard and later a Global Leadership Award by the International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI) as well as the Gaia Award for your work with women and communities in Venda, South Africa. Your focus is on finding a way to protect the environment through circular green enterprises and resisting developments that are linked with deforestation. To draw on one of your recorded interviews:

‘By 2009 Mphathe, with other traditional women leaders called 'Makhadzis', formed a group known as Dzomo la Mupo to protect a network of sacred sites in the Venda region which are threatened by development..... “You explain that ‘Mupo means bowl of life, all of creation. It is a name, a principle and a practice…’”

Mphate: “This week I am also on Bamboo projects, circular green economy and organic farming (see Photos 1, 2, 3, and 4) after long schedules of Dzomo la Mupo the past weeks. The speech by Elizabeth Watithuu moves us. Dzomo la Mupo is going to have feedback on Glasgow Cop26 – We will discuss the meaning of Cop26, what happened , how does this matter to us as Dzomo la Mupo. This is also so we can take responses from that day [as a basis] for reflections of what can be done.”

Photo 1

Supplied by Pat Lethole shows Mphathe Makaulule demonstrating a building to the Tshidzivhe Bamboo Project team. The aim is to build another for training and as a demonstration site for their products

Photo 2

Supplied by Pat Lethole shows the products grown and made by the members of their team

Photo 3

Supplied by Pat Lethole shows the harvesting of clumping bamboo which will be used to build the demonstration centre

Photo 4

Shows members of the team responsible for growing seeds of indigenous trees to enable the re-generation of forest areas

Janet: “The video made by the Climate Change activist from Kenya, Elizabeth Wathuti³⁴ is going to help you to inspire the young people in the community to follow the legacy of Wangari Maathaai, whose work you seem to be extending successfully in Venda and that this is how your role as healer of people and nature is being applied. By creating sustainable alternatives such as bamboo for fuel, construction and fences you are helping to support social and environmental justice through proving alternative sources of fuel and protection for crops as well as fencing off areas of the forest, whilst at the same time creating jobs.

Please tell us a bit more about how governance takes place. Ida Widianingsih, for example works with the Chitagala who have a 300 year old culture in West Java stresses that society is governed by hierarchical laws that also protect the environment (Widianingsih, Pers. Comm, 2021³⁵ ) and that the King is consulted on personal and public matters, whilst the forest is worshipped as a living being with whom the king communicates through ritual ceremonies. An agricultural calendar governs the process of growing rice , for example is regarded as a goddess who cannot be sold , only offered as nourishment. The notion of treating nature as a commodity is completely alien to them.

Mphate, please would you tell us about some of the rituals and ceremonies to protect agriculture in Venda? How is the forest protected through members of the community holding different totems? Did your nme ‘Mphatheleni’ , meaning “one who re-builds” , help to shape your role and your life? Please explain what it means to hold the totem of a warthog? Pat explained that her totem is elephant and that the name is inherited and it also means that one connects with or taps into the characteristics of the totem.”

Mphathe: “My totem warthog. is seen to be strong and determined, it keeps going. ….Education as I see it should be a holistic approach of the management of life wherein communities should be given spaces of teaching and learning about life systems as ecosystems: we should bow to Mother Earth’s rights…if it is here in Venda education should be approached through the Mupo principle and this is how community needs can be addressed holistically. The education curriculum which we have, it teaches children and youth the Western agenda. In my understanding this can confuse younger generations— and the current generations of parents (who are products of this education). The Western agenda can contradict our understanding of the cultural/traditional/ indigenous knowledge values. …it also disconnects people from the role of the Makhadzi. The missionaries Christian beliefs also did not respect African spiritual paths which were called unchristian and they were told to abandon their totems , sacred sites, rituals such as u phasa, thevhula, this continues even today here in Venda as it is still regarded as evil and labelled Midzimu i sili- meaning ancestors spirit is midzimu I sili. (foreign gods).

The Bible and school was used to criticise our ancestors, rituals and custodians responsibilities for sacred sites. Here my response on education is motivated by my experiences, I am taking my description of education from my Amazon notes. My learning from shamans in Amazon when they described education touched me and it deepened my learning. This is what I have learnt, and it is relevant to what I understand education should be. This learning is also the same learning I learnt from Venda elders. This is because from 16 years when I was separated from staying with my a father and being connected with my clan of Vhakwevho where I was always praised by my totem by my father and my Makhadzi, and moreover when I was at University in 1990s the education that I got was irrelevant to daily life and needs… For me that experience cut my sense of being as my concern is for the forests, rivers, culture/traditions of my clan, healing and cultivation of food and gathering food from forests and cultivated land. For me sitting in the evening listening to stories and resting in the moonlight and various traditional games was that what I seek…..That is where I struggle for my culture. And now that is the education I trust. It should frame our curriculum; it can be regarded as tradition but it works. As the Venda proverbs state: mutukana ha endi hu enda mukalaha. (a boy has no experiences, experience is with an elder) Matanda maswa a tikwa nga Malala (new branches on a tree are leaning on old branches). Apart from Venda experiences here are my notes from Amazon (Elder shamans, Maloca, in June 2008) (See Photo 5 for the way we are working in Venda):

The shaman of Makuna, Barasano and Akaipi and Tatuyo clans in Columbia Amazon explained that they sat down and ask themselves the question: What is education? Is education a tool of management of life and how to live well. They said that they considered the nature of education for many months while they sat in many dialogue with shamans, healers, women and elders. Then the answer which they found was that education is management of life and to learn how to live well. On the basis of their dialogues they developed a community proposal …They said it was fine to accommodate foreign laws for administration and also for the structure of the school,but that the curriculum must come from the community.· Their committee was as follows: The executive committee were the shamans, the support protectors were parents, the facilitators were teachers, the trainers of teachers were local experts on local knowledge and tools/implementers were women and men (knowledge holders-elders). These members were without professions, but they have lot of knowledge; shamans are more knowledgeable. They agreed to work with the organisation, Gaia and university professionals and government Based on this advice they took 7 years to build their own educational curriculum. They said colonisation is the same everywhere and they resisted interference with their customs. To cite my notes, the Amazonian leaders said: ‘We redefine ourselves by defining our ecological map of our territories. This is how we analyse education and life. We realise that foreign education brings other gods whom we do not know. Our culture was broken, our culture is rich with knowledge, so we have many meetings with shamans, parents …the Catholic school children were not allowed to speak their indigenous language and they were forced to speak Spanish. For us we started to map the ecological calendar.’

Photo 5

Supplied by Mphathe Makaulule shows members of the community creating their ecological calandar in Venda based on what Mphathe learned from indigenous leaders in the Amazon whilst on a Gaia scholarship program

Drawing on her notes, Mphathe shares what she learned from the indigenous leadership in the Amazon. She has adapted and applied this knowledge as detailed in McIntyre-Mills et al. 2022:

Mphathe sums up the calendar (drawing on the Amazon leaders) as follows:

“The ecological calendar is the circles of knowledge…. There is knowledge of forests, human activities, harvesting and constellations. The calendar has seasons and ritual times. This is knowledge about forest, rivers, maloca (a homestead), chagra (cultivated land) …. The calendar defines lots of spaces and the calendar forms the research material to develop the books for kids. Our education curriculum …we take it through assistance from Gaia Amazonas to help us to comply with system of the school by government as long as our curriculum is from community. We set time for academics and time for children with their parents, such as times for rituals , times for harvesting, children should be with their parents….We also make sure that our curriculum is for children until they reach 7 years they are with parents and we establish the maloca school at our homes were in those years children learn about in an indigenous language. Kids should get knowledge of rituals, local seasons, building maloca, local language, this gives them to have respect of their indigenous knowledge and in indigenous language. Education according to the AKAIPI clan, after they have made their proposal, they sent the proposal to the state. The presentation of the proposal of how the want their curriculum and how they can produce the education plans – stressed that the purpose of education is to strengthen their identity, guarantee autonomy, strengthen local languages, guarantee the wellbeing of the community not the wellbeing of Western systems…. If one knows the ecological calendar, this is an education as one will know how to act … This is an education that gives well being and there will be health, peace, food….The calendar is for education that guides [people] to understand processes, e.g. food, health, laws of Nature, and thus how one will know what to do in certain seasons and what is not allowed to be done according to seasons.

This education helps to understand the circles of life. This is an education that assists us to know the cycles of Nature. This knowledge is an education that brings wellbeing. Wellbeing is matter of knowing not having. Ernesto (an Amazonian leader) explained further: We have asked ourselves three questions to define education. How did we live before? How are we living now? How do we want to live?... State education stops children from learning from elders, they learn from new teachers. For us a teacher should be the one who know Nature.”

Janet: “Thankyou for these very profound words Mphathe. So you have drawn on the Amazonian Indigenous leaders , because their ideas resonate with your own experience of Apartheid education in South Africa. Also you are making the point that curricula need to be local and rooted in the earth. Humility for policy makers and educators is important – the root for humility is humus – we do indeed need to be linked with the earth. This leads into our discussion on totems which connect people with the specific places and other species by reminding us that our lives are interdependent.”

Mphathe: “Our research is a way to train the teacher. For us a teacher does research so that he or she learns and has knowledge. Teachers do research so that they know the needs of the communities. Our system of education does not refuse science, teachers should first learn through community research so that they use [apply] the tools from ecological calendar as tools to map the knowledge. .. When you are a teacher, you should sometimes stop teaching and go back to learn from elders. If you want to learn, stop teaching and go back to learn. These are mistakes of state education. The State does not send teachers to learn from elders. Elders should always teach teachers. Teachers should stop teaching; teachers should always learn. Teachers should make time to learn and stop teaching... .”

Janet: “Please explain how governance protects the forests and lakes in Venda. Are there sanctions for those who break the law? Or do you believe that wrong doers are punished by nature? Unfortunately, individuals, organisations and nation states have damaged the Commons on such a wide scale that all living systems have been impacted.”

Mphathe: “I can share with you many stories. We cannot live without trees and the future generation cannot live without trees. We need to protect these trees and teach children ……”

The discussion stressed that if science respects indigenous wisdom then some two way learning could occur and this is being demonstrated in the current collaboration. The big issue is that the local forests are being replaced with pine forests by outside companies and paradoxically although the community would like improved roads, the more access outsiders have to the forests the more vulnerable forests can become without laws supported by the Provincial and National government. An analysis of community transcript shows the deep systemic understanding of the way trees create a microclimate that supports the cycle of life and that applied, experiential indigenous wisdom has played a vital role in sustaining and re-generating forests:

Janet: “What is the form of governance that you use in your village ? For example, who may use trees and other resources in this village?

Elinor Ostrom³⁶ suggests that 8 principles support protecting the commons starting with a strong sense of community, each of which would be helpful to consider in terms of your own experiences. Each of Ostrom’s principles (see 1–8 listed as bold headings in italics³⁷:

• Principle 1. Commons need to have clearly defined boundaries. In particular, who is entitled to access to what? Unless there’s a specified community of benefit, it becomes a free for all, and that’s not how commons work. ‘”

So to what extent is there a defined boundary in the community?

Mphathe: “…the entire community act to protect the forest …If we give up many people will get sick, if we do not protect trees. We must protect trees as they help us breathe”

By studying the transcripts shared by Mphathe the opinions of informants differed. Some said outsiders were mostly responsible and that they worked hard to re-generate the forests by re-planting seeds in nurseries. One of the informants stressed that she was worried because despite their efforts .

“…..Local people they are allowed to use the forest to get what they need in the forest, but in a careful way. …Like people who go to find the wild fruits in the forest, they know that there is a way to pick the fruits, …. because you are wanting many fruits from that tree and they are far, the branches far, then you chop down the whole branch so that it falls down [and so] that you pick all the fruit. It is not allowed to do like that. …. There are laws which guide people and everybody knows, because tomorrow you will go back to that tree wanting it.”

“….. all the trees are important. There is no tree which is more important than other….”

“Trees give us oxygen and the carbon which comes from us; it helps the trees. And our carbon cleans the trees. That's why we worry when they destroy trees….it's very important to future generations because if we can lose the trees and forest, where [will] the rain come from? Because when the trees are there, they make shade on the ground and from the soil the moisture will go to the leaves, and from the leaves we will see the mist, and the mist will go up and the big clouds will appear. Then the rain will come. But if we lose the trees, it means we are going to lose water and how will the future generation going to live without water?....

Locally we are custodians and we need to educate the nation …we are the guardians …

…Indigenous knowledge… a way of life. Like, people were respecting forest because they learnt from indigenous ways. Like indigenous school, or initiation school. ….They happen at the chief’s palace, and mostly in the forest, where the peoples spend more time in the forest, and after that training, they respect the forest and they don’t chop the trees, because they know this is their forest. Also the forest is their home for their trainings, and when they come back they respect the local trees. As we said, forest is a healing place. ….. We must educate the children (boys and girls) and the initiation schools should be in the forest and there they should learn respect .The implication is that they need to respect customs and laws. There is only one mountain where no one may go there. You do not point to the mountain and the other forests people can only collect dead wood. The traditional healers have to ask permission from the chief. If they do not they are stealing. The community keeps an eye on the people.”

“Another law is that “you just dig the tap root or a big root there, the trees will die, and people know that they don’t go there to destroy. They just take whatever they want in an environmental way or careful way. If you wanted a branch of tree, you don’t chop the whole tree, you know how to chop a small branch and leave the tree surviving, like if you want to make a fence.”

Janet: “Now that you have formed the Bamboo Co-op you could also concentrate on building bamboo fences so that the trees are not used for wood….”

Mphathe agreed.

• Principal 2. Rules should fit local circumstances. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to common resource management. Rules should be dictated by local people and local ecological needs.

Mphathe stressed that local rules are meaningful and external rules can be problematic, but that various government departments support their work such as the “people from Department for the Environment”. Mphathe continued by saying:

“When paying attention on this, here in Venda , the indigenous people have been disconnected from their sacred sites. New imposed thinking and governance did not pay attention to the needs of indigenous people. If we focus on the custodians of sacred sites around Venda, they have a common understanding about sacred sites. … The rules that govern sacred sites are the common laws in Venda. I am here attaching the Venda laws of origin of sacred sites. Apart from the document, I am attaching here, the common rules or order of rituals for gathering the finger millet gas the clan and other community members also appreciate the rituals ceremonies.”

Mphathe continued to explain the importance of protecting seeds, the sacred sites that help to protect the ecosystem as the basis of life. The sacred sites are places where the springs and rivers originate and which energise other living systems. She explained the nature of participatory governance as protecting the ‘acupuncture points” or lungs of a living system for which the entire community is responsible. The analogy can be drawn, because the sacred sites are perceived as reservoirs of energy for the whole ecosystem and can be likened to dantian energy³⁸ sites of the human body for which the whole community is responsible, from her perspective:

“Acupuncture points… Yes sacred sites are like acupuncture points ……. Ecosystems protect and stimulate…”

Janet: “So everyone is responsible and the ceremonies help to create this sense of connection….”

Mphathe explained:

“it’s not a specific group, everybody is involved …. we are police or we are the guards of our forest. …. if we saw a car, then we will stop the car and say, who are you? What do you want here? …. If they are coming back in the taxi and they see another car coming from here, they stop and question. And if you carry something we will ask where did you get it? Who gave it to you? And we will say: ‘ turn back, we’re going back to the chief palace and he will tell us … Everybody who is local here knows the ways and customs to be followed when you want something in the forest.’

I can explain how our governance system works it is a participatory approach (see Box 4.1):

• Principle 3. “Participatory decision-making is vital. There are all kinds of ways to make it happen, but people will be more likely to follow the rules if they had a hand in writing them. Involve as many people as possible in decision-making.”

Janet: The decision making process in the village is participatory and it is linked with a regional approach in Venda as explained in Box 4.1 above. The entire community plays a role in protecting the ecosystem under the leadership of the chief as well as the Makhadzis (senior women) who protect the sacred sites and the process of protecting, maintaining re-generating the environment through rituals and practices such as planting seeds in their nursery and ensuring that sacred seeds , such as millet ( a staple food) are carefully protected. The process for addressing this principle ( along with all the others) is detailed in Table 1 below.

• Principle 4. “ Commons must be monitored. Once rules have been set, communities need a way of checking that people are keeping them. Commons don’t run on good will, but on accountability.

Janet: The process for monitoring is also explained in Box 4.1 above and in Table 1 below we are propose how we are scaling up engagement to other neighbouring communities supported by digital engagement by members of our community of practice. We are in the early stage of sharing stories and dialogue across multiple contexts to map and monitor steps towards protecting social and environmental wellbeing and justice in terms of social, economic and environmental dimensions of wellbeing (Stiglitz et al. 2010).

• Principle 5. “Sanctions for those who abuse the commons should be graduated. Ostrom observed that the commons that worked best didn’t just ban people who broke the rules. That tended to create resentment. Instead, they had systems of warnings and fines, as well as infor mal reputational consequences in the community.”

Mphathe: Customary rules are applied to protect the environment and “penalties are applied for wrong doing, such as removing trees from sacred areas or removing stones from the river which leads to erosion. The rules are applied strictly for sacred spaces and other areas need to be approved by the chief before cultivation begins.”

Janet: The processes for addressing each principle is detailed in Table 1 below. The rules are linked with norms and customs detailed in Box 4 above and norms are taught as part of the lessons on the ecological calendar so the community is involved at an early age about the need to protect sacred sites and totems.

• Principle 6. “Conflict resolution should be easily accessible. When issues come up, resolving them should be informal, cheap and straightforward. That means that anyone can take their problems for mediation, and nobody is shut out. Problems are solved rather than ignoring them because nobody wants to pay legal fees.”

The local chief and his advisers are responsible for resolving problems, but as Ostrom stresses this requires a broader supportive structure which is needed to help protect the environment. This point is made strongly by Mphathe at Box 4.1.2. and during her campaigns to protect the forests in Venda from development companies.

• Principle 7.” Protecting the commons requires recognition by higher authorities Commons need the right to organise. Your commons rules won’t count for anything if a higher local authority doesn’t recognise them as legitimate.”

Mphatheleni has successfully addressed the ongoing challenge to keep destructive development at bay, such as coal companies and hotels, to cite a report on Faces of Africa:

“The sacred sites she fights so hard for, still hold so much meaning and history to her and her people….Mphatheleni is working hard to rebuild traditional ways and connections between the elders and the youth…She has spent countless hours sitting with the elders, or ‘libraries of knowledge’ as she calls them, learning about social and ecological governance.³⁹”

• Principle 8. “Commons work best when nested within larger networks. Some things can be managed locally, but some might need wider regional cooperation – for example an irrigation network might depend on a river that others also draw on upstream….. The ‘tragedy of the commons’ is real, but it is not inevitable.”

Janet: Ostrom’s 8^th point has never been more relevant. The monitoring is achieved through the face to face nature of the community. To scale up this monitoring we need to be able to replicate the approach at a neighbourhood level in larger communities underpinned by policies and laws to support the UN Sustainable Development goals such as Local Agenda 21 (1992) and the Aarhus Convention(1998). Together this policy and convention provide a governance architecture or means to enable local participation, access to freedom of information and the rights of local residents in the European Union to have a say about environmental concerns and to take the matters up at the local and regional level. If they are not satisfied they can take issues to the European Parliament or Criminal Court. These policies could be usefully adapted and applied in other regional areas to ensure that the SDG are addressed and monitored.

Whilst the origins of the term “tragedy of the commons” can be traced to Lloyd (1833), it is commonly linked with the paper by Hardin (1968), based on assumptions, values and speculation, rather than empirical research.

Constitutional protection, for example by the Bolivian and Ecuadorean constitution and laws of personhood for living systems as suggested by Makaulule (2012) in Box 4.1 need to be buttressed by a proposed Ecocide law (Higgins et al. 2013) that protects all the species within a region at a national, post national and international level. Each of these is discussed briefly:

The potential lies in a range of policies that could be applied together to provide a rapid response (in line with the IPCC report 2021) and the need to reduce emissions as specified at COP 26. These could include adapting and scaling up the Aarhus convention (1998, also see Florini 2003) which allows those who are EU citizens access to information on environmental issues as well as the right to take concerns to the local government. If these are not met, the concerns can be taken to the EU parliament and if necessary the International Criminal Court which could implement the bill for an international Ecocide Law (Higgins et al. 2013) if it is approved to ensure that individuals, organisations and nation states are held to account for the extensive damage or destruction of an ecosystem that “prevents the peaceful life of the inhabitants of a region.”.⁴⁰

The United Nations Local Agenda 21(1992)⁴¹ underpins engaging local people to understand and engage in developing indicators of sustainable living. This has been scaled up as 17 goals for sustainable living (UNDG 2017a, b) and developed as the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals. These goals require an integrated systemic approach to development, but do not go far enough as they do not address the need for re-generation in order to undo some of the extensive damage caused by carbon economies. The Ecuadorian and Bolivian constitutions also strive to protect Pacha Mama (the earth goddess) through providing rights to nature.

The proposed next step is to build on and co-develop processes to address each of the 8 principles which are summarised in the table below:

Discussion of Lessons

This paper aims to give an overview of key lessons on re-generation and sustainability. Briefly the lessons are as follows:

• Indigenous leadership to protect the sacred forest, mountains and lake is based on kinship with nature expressed as totems that can be animals, plants or features of the landscape which they are honour bound to protect.

• Furthermore, every aspect of daily life and agriculture is governed by a calendar which is mapped and shared by telling stories, dancing and singing. In the Tshidzivhe area, the forest is considered a living being. Similarly in Ghana it is a taboo to enter or cut wood from the sacred forests which are home to many rare species of plants and animals (Arko-Achemfuour 2021; Addae and McIntyre-Mills 2022a, b) which create a sanctuary for wildlife and protected by this sense of awe underpinned by sanctions and taboos.

• The most important lesson that these leaders have taught is the importance of not losing land or allowing land to be appropriated for mining or sold for development and last but not least a distrust of educational, religious and governance systems that are used to justify the commodification and destruction of nature, through ignoring the balance of nature and the intricate ways in which natural energy flows through the system.

• At a practical level it results in the displacement of multiple species and results in proletarianization, poverty, malnutrition, destitution and being forced to sell labour or to rely on scarce government grants for welfare, if it is available.

• Traditional taboos and a sense of the profane are underpinned by customary law and a sense of shame, but these approaches need to be buttressed by local, national and international law that prevents the exploitation of nature leading to ecocide.

The last point made by Ostrom⁴² is that:

“The ‘tragedy of the commons’ is real, but it is not inevitable. It is possible to create and operate thriving commons, a third way besides private ownership and government control. In an age where we all depend on global commons such as the atmosphere or the oceans, we should be paying more attention to commons management.”

A way forward can be addressed through mapping and modelling engagement in communities that demonstrate their ability to manage the commons so this process can be scaled up, in terms of mapping and modelling pathways to wellbeing based on Ostrom’s 8 principles.⁴³ Rudolf Wirawan and Janet are in the process of adapting pathways to wellbeing (an engagement platform to address ways to protect the commons, see McIntyre-Mills 2017; McIntyre and Wirawan 2021) in terms of:

• What people have/need (material and non material resources)

• What people are prepared to add /discard

• What people are prepared to change and to follow a contract

• Turning points for the better and worse and

• Barriers that they face when trying to protect the commons.

In this paper we reflect on lessons learned from a dialogue with African academics and leaders to draw out areas of overlap with other indigenous groups who have demonstrated the importance of a priori norms and a posteriori indicators to protect forests which are the lungs of the planet and the water systems that are our common lifeblood.

The case is made that giving specific areas legal personhood within the boundaries of a nation state does not go far enough.

An ecocentric approach sees all life as continuous and co-determined. A global ecocide law would be a step in the right direction along with recognising the pleas to protect habitat of Indigenous peoples (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2008). The need to address planetary boundaries is overdue (McIntyre-Mills 2017; Barbier 2020) but the way forward is feasible by implementing a new architecture of governance that supports solidarity with nature.

Post national laws are needed and a bricolage of existing laws such as the Aarhus Convention (1992) could be scaled up and combined with local monitoring (see Keane 2009) to protect the environment as suggested by Florini (2003). This could help to take the UN Sustainable Development goals further by engaging locals in monitoring local areas to ensure that they are in line with the proposed international Ecocide Law. Nations should stand together to protect oceans rivers, trees and habitats to protect biodiversity from the ravages of anthropocentric development. This paper argues that through exploring areas of convergence and divergence progress can be made towards “standing together” as Chief Raoni has stressed as a way forward for all nations at this critical point in global history.