Week 9 Brainstorm - Olivia Brunner-Gaydos

During week 8 we read and discussed how the importance of celebrating and protecting the earth isn't often considering in the Western world. However, we did read about la panchama or Mother Earth and how it has great importance in many indigenous communities in Central and Southern American. This separation of beliefs was again seen in Dian Million's "Indigenous Matters." Million writes about how many indigenous people didn't have such binary systems in place to section out and separate different people as the Western world does. Million connected this general acceptance that indigenous people have with the word ontology meaning "the nature of being." This is the connection people have with the place they are in and how they are both dynamic and growing. This is similar to the idea we discussed last week about humans have a connection with mother earth and must care about her if we want to continue forward ourselves. 

Priscilla Solis Ybarra relates her article "Goodlife Writing" back to buen vivir and mother earth by connecting this history many people who come from Central and Southern America with a connection and want to care for our earth or la panchama. I found this extremely interesting and inspiring. Knowing that we have so many of these people living in the United States gives me hope.