Why We Can’t Bring Spiritual Values in the Academic Discussion?

Modern science in the contest of global climate change is always murky. Some environmental scientists claim that due to the development of solar and wind energy it has been successful to curb the global carbon emission. However, the problem is the earth’s temperature keeps rising beyond the acceptable limit. Indigenous knowledge from both eastern and western countries can give ample ideas, tools, and techniques to curb the climate problem. The next generation should work on how to bring the indigenous or spiritual ideas into the modern academic discussion. That way it will add a value in the current climate action. Most importantly Indigenous communities throughout the world will be in a better situation knowing that their knowledge is valued and became instrumental to protect earth’s environment.

I spotted an article on Civil Eats “A New Indigenous-led Student Movement Is Protecting Sacred Waters” The Hoppa Valley high schools students are mobilizing youths in bringing cultural knowledge in environmental education. They have been able to bring the “Advocacy and Water Protection in Native California High School Curriculum, released in March through Save California Salmon (SCS), a water advocacy group in Northern California”.

Native Americans have immense spiritual knowledge on land, water, forest, and the wildlife. I was one of the participants in the White Earth Native Reservation’s field experiential course. Indigenous stories are highly valuable in saving the earth. The priest who was talking to the class was telling his ancestral story on how they were living happily merging with nature and natural resources in their past generation. Their biggest worry is due to the global climate change all those stories are nearly vanished and the environment is being highly degraded. There is an acute fear in the indigenous community that the modern economic development is still ruining the earth ecosystem. This video “Sacred Water” is the One Word Sawalmem Trailer advocating the indigenous wisdom of river water.

I have my story which I delivered in a talk program. The ancient Asian indigenous wisdom is “if you balance your food, water and digestive system then you will achieve the perfect health”. That health may enable you to live at least 100 years with intact health. However, such knowledge never came into an open academic discussion in the form of course curriculum. Intelligently people are bringing that by their own way and maybe the idea can be indirectly injected in different forms of story telling and training modules. For example, I gave a talk in August 2014 “Nature, Ways of Knowing and Moral Commitment Workshop: A Conversation on Religion, Science, and the Anthropocene ” organized by the University of Minnesota, Department of Religious Studies. The purpose of that conference was to bring religious discussion on the issue of climate change. I told the story of dialogue between father and son on how to find God. After several attempts the son came up with the idea that feeling happy in a state of bliss is experiencing God within. And that situation arrives only when we secure the perfect natural ecosystem. However, the University of Minnesota was never instrumental in bringing such stories in an actionable research to a) find out in what extent such knowledge contributes to change the human behavior and b) how can the educational institute put effort into viewing the world from the perspective of diversity indigenous knowledge.

The modern education system must bring such wisdoms or stories into the academic course curriculum which will contribute greatly to the future global climate justice movement.