The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

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Epilogue
In order to accomplish this vision, which assumes a transforming process of awareness,
I believe that there is a primary need to accept the existence of different ways of
knowing, seeing and feeling reality, which is a social world composed of an enormous
cultural diversity. In the end, I return to the initially quoted excerpt from Q'eqchi' stories
(Queiros et al. 2000) that remind us to realise that »the way only becomes the way when
you walk it. The way begins in each of our hearts and we all need to enclose it in our consciousness
and our ideals. We cannot keep on living apart from our sister Nature. We must learn not to hold on
to material things, just as to be able to do everything for others. [...] Nothing of what happens is accidental,
everything that succeeds has significance and a deep educational dimension, but this may just
be understood by those open hearts, who are willing to change.« This ideal assumes different
ways of teaching and transferring the essence of who we are to the generations to
come. The task then may be to rethink education in a perspective that places indigenous
knowledge at the very basis of cultural affirmation. For this, an ancient concept
of indigenous education may offer an inspiring outset. Gregory Cajete (2001) has described
this concept in an attempt to present a window into indigenous reality while at
the same time offering a mirror through which environmental scholars may reflect
upon their insights on the interwoven character of indigenous traditions and ecology.
The Pre-Columbian Aztecs had a beautiful metaphor which describes the essential qualities and spirit
of indigenous education. They said that a ›complete‹ education had to address four interrelated processes
within concentric rings of greater contexts of relationship. First, they believed that education
should help individuals ›find their face‹. That is simply to say that each individual should be transformed
through the process of education and find the special ›place‹ where resides one's unique qualities
of self. For the Aztec, a key purpose of education was to help them find one's character, to help find
one's identity, to help find one's true relationship with oneself, with one's community, and with the natural
world. It is this process of searching for innate and important relationships that helps us define
our ›authentic‹ face. A second goal of a complete education was to help students ›find their hearts‹,
that is, to help individuals find that particular place within themselves where desire and motivation reside.
Simply said, it is about searching for the passion that allows us to energize those things we feel
are important. For the Aztec, ›heart‹ reflected the essence of the soul. The third goal was to help individuals
to find that kind of work, that kind of foundation, that kind of vocation, that thing that
would enable them to express most fully who they are. It is an education that helps them to express
their individual faces, express their hearts, and express the authentic truthfulness of their being. All
this was aimed at achieving a fourth goal of becoming ›complete‹ as a man or a woman. In earlier times
this goal was embodied in the indigenous man and woman. It is not only a complete man which
makes the world, but a complete woman, and it is the interaction and the harmony of these two ways
of being human which gives human life its song. So the relative state of completeness may be said to be
an ultimate purpose of indigenous education. (Cajete 2001: 621f.)