Soil governance: Who is governing who? A North American Indigenous perspective on Mother Earth

Abstract

This article is presented as a single person's view of approaching the earth, soil, its complexities and simplicities, and its gifts. I am blessed to often be at the knee of many people who know that we need to live with her, we have responsibilities to her and that we are completely dependent on her. Period. Full stop. She is not dependent on us. Governing with soil from a traditional law perspective means creating a system of laws for humans to live by that understands this dependancy as a foundation for those laws. To maintain that lifeforce between the earth and humans we must see that all beings are connected, all related all interdependent. Here I offer a few things I know from my time with teachers in Indigenous communities to plant a few seeds to encourage you to find your teachers, human or otherwise.

Keywords

• Mother earth- a title given to the earth by many indigenous nations as a place we draw life
• Traditional knowledge- customary practices
• Knowledeges and ceremony
• Traditional law- three levels of law from an indigenous perspective
• Spiritual law
• Natural law