Thoughts from Chile

Jaime H. March Fernández, representing Ecochile Network and CASA, reflects on bringing together the ancient wisdom of the land, the cultures, and the new movements for sustainability.

Permaculture and the idea of ecovillages are sometimes far away from our reality in the Americas. Here the original wisdom is strong and latent. The permaculture idea or ecovillages are inherent to our ancestors and flow in our blood and in the rivers of our territories. Rescuing those wisdoms of good living in harmony with all realities is the base of our work. It is not only about phsysical or human connection, but also spiritual connection with all the beings of Nature.
The original nations knew how to “reciprocate” and maintain the spiritual and earthly world in harmony, how to maintain health: not only individual and human, but also the environmental health of all beings in the territory.
The big challenge that all the initiatives for sustainable living in this region face is to collect and use this knowledge, and at the same time get awareness of the original wisdom of our territories; keeping stories, dreams, and contemplation of the territory. Those who can read the signals of Nature feel, before they happen, all manifestations of a natural disaster. The Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, the currents of El Niño and La Niña, storms, tornadoes, tsunamis, etc. are expressions of the Earth body´s health. They are like reflections of mini reactions of a person´s body such as sweating, crying, etc.
In times when mining and transnational enterprises are exerting more influence on the national constitutions, bypassing moral and ethic laws, destroying our ancestral and natural heritage, these reactions increase.
The international agreements and laws, that help to conserve and give power to the original nations to protect themselves and make sure that they can ask to be consulted before any project in their lands proceeds, are a powerful tool that we must keep.
If we want to be sustainable in future generations we have the challenge to become one with the original nation, that guides us and help people today to remember and be able to protect our home together.
In Chile, we have a lot of examples of safeguards (guardians): Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Huitoto, Mapuches, etc. Every nation that is getting their own safeguard is guiding their little brothers and sisters in recovering their memory and life law of being in the territories. Sometimes the little brothers and sisters give new energy, power and knowledge to protect their worldview, but in a modern way. Everything comes from and supports the safeguarding of the land, cultural, family, personal wisdom, eternal wisdom, etc.
This connection will not only protect us from transnational projects, but also expand our wisdom of surrounding Nature. We will come to know the real true preventive medicine of spiritual exchange, sacred places, natural rhythms, healthy settlements, proper dressing, and more. All living mechanisms and dynamic ways of life and real economy are indicators of harmony and serve individual and territorial health.
The eco-caravan movement, as well as the original nomad nations, will remember their messenger function and strengthen intercommunication and interconnection between all nations. So, we will reconnect the different parts of this beautiful body as one organism, from one Mother.
This could sound utopian, illusory or distant, but these nations have woven invisible territorial structures. That is how we as humans have always lived. These are the dreams of our elders on this continent. They give us their dreams in our own dreams, in chants, songs, ceremonies, medicines, and stories of this exactlmoment and tee next steps of how we will live.
So, from Chile to CASA, we say to the world, welcome to this original new age.