Students comments 4

About the course EAS 3102: Sustainable Communities, a Vision of Andean Indigenous Peoples

"Although this course has elements that very much resemble those of Canadian indigenous thought, a system that I very much identify myself with, I never considered it on a global level before this course. We have come to a point in global history where people are looking to alternative ways of sustaining life as corporations rape the earth of its abundance of elements key to our survival. Our forests, waters, and lands as a whole are constantly pillaged to the point of unbalance, a notion that very much conflicts with the idea of living harmoniously with the earth.

Before this course, I never considered the huge impact that this has on communities around the world, even those close to my own hometown (in) Ontario. I always considered our problems to be very isolated and special cases, never once identifying the multi-million international organizations that play a bigger part in the scheme of destroying the balance of life. As an Indigenous person myself, I feel that this realization should be felt not only by myself, but all members of my community and others, so that we may works together. A consensual understanding of what the real root of our problems can lead to a consensus on what is the best way to handle those problems.

Since taking this course, I am realizing the degree to which sustainable community life is key to the survival of humans of we continue the path of destroying everything for the sake of power, profit and expansion. The earth will not have time to renew itself and the people who need the elements the most will not survive."


D.