For indigenous peoples the power of culture perhaps is best represented in the saying that “I am because of who we are.” When the collective self expressions reflect the power of the people’s will, they form an essential part of a culture. Culture, as philosophy, is lived and celebrated in a society as the unfolding of principles already implied in its originating process that embraces a peoples’ collective wisdom, history, traditions, worldviews, as well as, its capacity to address issues of justice and peace. Vinoth Ramachandra says, “Culture permeates all human feeling, thinking and acting. It crystallizes into social and political formations which generate and succeed each other in an orderly array, thus endowing human life with meaning.”
Culture is central to a people’s history, and is, in fact, the product of a history just as the grain of rice grows from a plant. Since culture is history itself, the denial of a people’s history is the categorical denial of culture. Culture is a product of a peoples’ history embodied with a whole set of values by which they view themselves and their place in time. Therefore, if culture as a human action to transform the world includes the translated aspirations of people, its manifestation is invariably dependent on a peoples’ ability to be self-determining. Culture allows us to bridge where things were (history), where things are now (analysis) and where it is desired to be (vision). It constructs a process where people are empowered as individuals and as communities to proactively engage in becoming the change at personal and collective levels.
Culture can manifest life in all its richness because it asserts freedom. Culture indeed is a way of life and is the essence of communication for knowledge and understanding. Liberating one’s thoughts from its present condition requires the rediscovery of consciousness and locating humanity in the context of the struggle for dignity. Critical consciousness on indigenous issues and solidarity are essential for a successful cultural reconstruction and ensuring freedom. In other words the process is calling upon indigenous peoples to take into account their true history, combined with being willing to accept that there can be a shared future by aiding and empowering each other as participants while making that shared history.
Indigenous peoples want to give something back and not just expose the “dilemmas about truth” and ponder over the “truth about dilemmas” that emerges out of the dialectical interplay of history, geography, politics and religion. Indigenous peoples have powerful examples of human struggle, spiritual leadership and practical idealism, which no structures of domination or State system can provide through their material or military power.
The present world order is an interdependent, interconnected and interrelated circle of life. The problem is that a few people want to dominate the circle, and this goes against indigenous peoples’ aspirations and values. The challenge for indigenous people is in their ability to acknowledge their truth and whether they are persuaded to hear the voice in their hearts that calls out for liberation.
