Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice, 14 April 2009

Researchers have been looking at attempts by indigenous peoples to reconnect with their traditional cultures and local environments.

Researchers at the University of Essex have been studying attempts by indigenous peoples from nine countries around the world to reconnect with their traditional cultures and local environments.

“Disconnection from nature and the local environment is causing harm to indigenous peoples already marginalised by limited wealth, power and status,” says Dr Sarah Pilgrim, of the Centre for Environment and Society, one of the researchers involved in the project.

“The consequences of such disconnection include mental and physical health problems, social pathologies and cultural collapse,” she says. “As they have come to appreciate the repercussions of disconnection, many groups are now taking action to protect and support their communities and cultures through what we term as ‘Revitalisation Projects’.”

Together with her colleagues, Professor Jules Pretty, of the Department of Biological Sciences, and Dr Colin Samson, of the Department of Sociology, Pilgrim reviewed 41 projects from Canada, Japan, Russia, USA, Greenland, Finland, South Africa, China and Norway.

They identified six categories of revitalisation project: i) Traditional Foods; ii) Ecotourism; iii) Education; iv) Language; v) Cultural; vi) Rights.

Some projects targeted the community as a whole, while others focused on a specific group within a community (eg the young). A paper produced by the team aims to develop an understanding of these projects, and their function and impact within communities.

According to the researchers, efforts to deal with the range of ill-health and social pathologies arising from disconnection and loss of cultural continuity were western in their approach until recently such as equipping communities with modern health clinics and teams of mental health counsellors.

“However,” the researchers note in their paper, ‘Rebuilding Lost Connections: How Revitalisation Projects Contribute to Cultural Continuity and Improve the Environment’, “these approaches have been limited in their success because they fail to deal with the root cause of the problem.”

Because such approaches remain external to the local culture and, therefore, the community, they can contribute further to a community’s sense of dislocation and loss of identity.

The researchers give as a prominent example medical and psychological approaches that emphasize individual sickness, thereby removing the problem from the historical and contemporary experiences of people with cultural dispossession.

“Revitalisation projects offer an alternative to these extrinsic and externally-imposed projects,” the researchers say in their paper. Often established by or with communities, revitalisation projects do not target the symptoms of the illness. Instead, they target the cause by attempting to revive community cultures and reconnect people with their lands.

“Many factors are likely to affect the success of these projects, such as longevity, available resources, policy frameworks and organisational capacity,” the researchers add.

They note that, as many revitalisation projects are either recent or not widely reported, there is no formal evaluation or assessment of their ability to promote cultural continuity and alleviate local health problems.

However, there are localised reports of success stories. For instance, students from Russian Mission school in Alaska, although unable to fluently speak Yuuyaraq, still share traditional Yup’ik belief systems and values with their elders. An Inullariit Society informal education project in Igloolik, Canada, had similar success.

“When interviewed,” the researchers say, “young participants expressed the same value of ‘being on the land’ as their elders. Participants’ also based their identity on the land and held an intrinsic respect for their home environments, although they admit that they would struggle to live off the land for long periods.

“Thus revitalisation projects have the potential to positively impact individuals and communities in a variety of ways, in terms of health, economic security and knowledge regeneration.”

The researchers informally assessed the impacts of the six categories of projects based on the typology of revitalisation projects devised, and using published and unpublished accounts of different projects.

“By understanding the most significant factors affecting a community (e.g. mental or physical health ailments, lack of cultural identity or low average income) and the impacts of different revitalisation projects, communities can establish individual/combined projects that target their needs as a group,” the researchers add.

For communities afflicted by health problems, Traditional Foods Revitalisation Projects and Rights Revitalisation Projects are likely to yield the greatest benefits in terms of mental and physical health.

On the other hand, if a community is suffering low household income levels or employment rates, then Ecotourism Projects are likely to offer the greatest benefits by providing opportunities for livelihood diversification within households as well as a new stream of income for the community as a whole.

Most project categories target young people, although some strengthen community bonds by opening communication channels between older and younger generations (e.g. Language and Cultural Revitalisation Projects).

All categories of revitalisation projects have the potential to teach new/replenish old knowledge or skills, many teach both.

“For the array of benefits they offer, all projects have the potential to make a significant local impact, some even nationally, for instance Greenland’s Home Rule Government and the establishment of Nunavut in Canada,” say the researchers. “The potential impacts of ecotourism schemes extend into the international arena, offering holiday opportunities to wealthy travellers looking for a unique cultural experience.”

Pilgrim, Samson and Pretty say that livelihood diversification is an effective tool for increasing livelihood security and household income.

Although many non-industrial communities pursued a diverse array of livelihood activities in the past, the researchers say, modern lifestyles are driving the convergence of livelihoods into just one activity.

“This creates instability by forcing dependence on an individual market rather than a combination of markets, thus depleting household and community resilience,” they say. “This realisation has led NGOs and development groups globally to actively promote livelihood diversification amongst financially insecure households and communities.

“Revitalisation projects are an effective means of creating a shift towards divergent livelihood models based on local cultures and ecosystems, reversing the trend of convergence that has led to so much instability.”

Although exclusive to non-industrial countries to date, revitalisation projects established by indigenous and marginalised groups offer insight into elements that may be used to reconnect industrialised communities harbouring long-term disconnections from nature.

“For instance, green exercise and green care initiatives are an emerging trend, particularly in the UK and across Europe,” the researchers say.

Revitalisation projects offer health benefits to participants, have the capacity to create and strengthen social relationships, and are open to all community cohorts. Bushcraft and foraging courses have also increased in popularity, teaching participants new skills and practices, strengthening bonds and benefiting human health. Therefore, many of the principles that revitalisation projects centre around can be applied to efforts to reconnect modern industrialised communities with the local environment, for instance new business creation, a need to incentivise reconnection, the establishment of support networks and local knowledge transfer.

Although highly diverse, revitalisation projects are currently being developed independently of one another in communities around the world. Their emergence is in response to shared concerns about disconnection and motivations to revive traditional ways of living, with a view to reconnecting with the land ensuring cultural continuity into the future. Some projects target the community as a whole, whereas others focus on a specific group of people within a community, for instance young people.

Small-scale revitalisation projects are even being trialled as remediation treatments for alcohol and drug abusers. The People Wakening Project in Alaska is an example of one such project that is community-based and culturally-anchored. It uses the revival of story-telling traditions to promote sobriety amongst native Alaskans.

“We suggest that policy-makers dealing with disconnected communities should look towards revitalisation projects as part of long-term solutions to social, health and environmental problems that have occurred in parallel with indigenous disconnection from land,” says Pilgrim. “By being community-driven, these projects are more likely to encourage long-term support and participation.

“As well as reviving activities and belief systems, revitalisation projects have the capacity to empower indigenous and non-industrial communities and to enable them to regain a sense of identity and pride, thus reinvigorating communities, cultures and connections with the land.”

To read the research paper, ‘Rebuilding Lost Connections: How Revitalisation Projects Contribute to Cultural Continuity and Improve the Environment’ go to:

http://www.essex.ac.uk/ces/esu/occasionalpapers/CES%20OP%2009-1%20Pilgrim%20et%20al%20-%20Revitalisation%20projects.pdf