My Awkward Attempt at Splaining Indigenous Silviculture
Recently I awkwardly interrupted a table conversation that I felt was rapidly deteriorating. Yeah, it was really awkward. After my “lesson” no one said anything, stared at me for a moment and then everyone changed the subject to other things all at once.
I’m sure no-one expected a pastor to talk about indigenous history and care of the land. Nor did they expect a call out on racism. It was really awkward. I’m probably not all that good at “splaining” silviculture as it was historically or is currently practiced by indigenous people or anyone else for that matter!
I shared a little of what I had been learning in regards to regenerative agriculture and specifically of indigenous silviculture practice on the West Coast. Knowledge has been suppressed by our disrespect and violence. There is long history of planting and pruning along a lengthy system of paths, maintaining forests along fields, and caring for the forest around homes. And then there’s localized firelighting, another aspect of silviculture and the relationship we can have in stewarding God’s Creation and living mutually with the land. The romantic vision held by some of a wild outdoors pristine and untouched by persons is really mythical. We all live with the land; we just have different postures toward it, some helpful and some destructive.
Early this morning I was delighted to read this fascinating article about the people living in California who are seeking to reintroduce local indigenous silviculture practices. Some believe it’s essential to turning local environments around in California. “When you have colonization removing native people, disrupting that social structure around fire use, outlawing fire, and then actively using every construct in a militaristic way to suppress and exclude fires, then we have the conditions that we have now,” said the research ecologist Frank Lake.
Read more.
