Brainstorm Week 9 - Clarissa Lunday

In Professor Dian Million's article "Indigenous Matters", she writes about Indigenous knowledge, which we have previously learn about this quarter. However, she writes, "Indigenous knowledge is politically potent because it is place-based knowledge and now deeply intertwined with the people's experience with colonization" (p. 96). I think it is important that we understand that Indigenous knowledge is part of the learning for buen vivir or "living well". Million writes, "Indigenous societies are adaptive and creative cultures that live and change in the present day" (p. 102). This connects with buen vivir by showing how Indigenous societies use Mother Earth for their wellbeing but also make sure that the wellbeing of Mother Earth is maintained. This, in my opinion, is living well.

Priscilla Ybarra writes about Goodlife writing and notes that the four values for this writing are: simplicity, sustenance, dignity, and respect. As we saw in Million's article it is imperative to respect Mother Earth. Ybarra writes, "Mexican American knowledge about climate and healthy land practices in the Southwest was largely lost in the latter half of the nineteenth century discarded for the sake of dispossessing this community if new America" (p. 5). What we have learned, however, is that, as a process of decolonization, Indigenous peoples, Mexican Americans, and Chicanas/os are moving back into learning that knowledge that was stolen by white supremacy. Even Black Americans are relearning what their ancestors once knew. This process of relearning and following the four values for the Goodlife are the principles of buen vivir.