Build Your Own Boat

Jef Bourgeau

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Indigenous people view both themselves and nature as part of an extended ecological family that shares ancestry and origins. It is an awareness that life in any awareness that life in any environment is viable only when humans view the life surrounding them as kin. The Ken, or relatives, include all the elements of the ecosystem. Indigenous people are affected by and, in turn, affect the life around them. The interactions that result from this ‘kincentric ecology’ enhance and preserve the ecosystem.

This kincentric — or life-centric — view on life is far more aligned with reality than our traditional anthropocentric view. It’s informed by ecology, experience, and common sense.

It’s also crucial for our survival. We need to transform the systems of our civilization to align with ecological realities, and a kincentric view will help us do that.

~ Enrique Salmón

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It’s permitted

to receive solace for whatever you did

or didn’t do, pitiful, beautiful

human…

So you’ll need a boat. You could rent or buy,

but, for the sake of repairing the world,

build your own…