Brainstorm Week 9: Grace Grotz

In Catherine Walsh’s ”Afro and Indigenous Life-Visions”, buen vivir is described as a way of breaking free from colonialist western thought through reestablishing mankind’s relationship with nature. Dian Million describes this “living well” philosophy through the lens of North American indigenous practices. Million explains how indigenous communities across the globe are often muddled into a single category. However, she describes how indigenous groups continue to practice unique traditions because they “understand themselves to have emerged as coherent groups and cultures in intimate relationship with particular places, especially living and sacred landscapes” (97). Through connection to the land and environment, indigenous peoples can continue ancient traditions, attempting to “live well” as their cultures are often threatened. 

Priscilla Solis Ybarra, in Writing the Goodlife, presents this idea of thriving through nature as the “goodlife”, which she describes as embracing, “the values of simplicity, sustenance, dignity, and respect” (4). These four principles are accomplished when desires for material possessions are replaced with the fulfillment of community. Ybarra describes how studies reveal that many hispanics are concerned for the environment. She notes how, through colonization, indigenious people of Central and South America watched as their land was taken away from them for farming and oil production. Ybarra believes this experience gave the community a greater respect for the land, something that was treated as a possession, but in reality is alive. When Mother Nature is recognized as a person rather than an object, then buen vivir can be achieved.