Page 214 - Tributaries Catalogue
P. 214
tied to ancestral belief systems. indigenous knowledge systems
Rain indicates that ancestors are under colonialism and secondly due
happy with people’s conduct and if to urbanisation. As Nomtha admits
you take care of land, you are “In urban areas water is only
blessed with water. But if actions understood as for consumption and
cause imbalance in the world, such for washing. Having moved there, I
as drought, “we must find ways of didn’t have that deeper
healing the environment, our understanding of the spirituality of
relations and ourselves.” Related water … I realised that I may have
rituals are a huge part of a cultural been one of the people who have
identity that insists on lost their identities, because I knew
“sustainability and balanced, nothing about this.” Additional
harmonious living, grounded in a threats are imposed due to
spiritual relationship to the land.” contemporary conditions of water
This kind of knowledge, she adds, is scarcity and commodification. It is
a crucial component of sustainable therefore important to understand
living for humans, and “it is our the implications of water scarcity
responsibility to know, understand and commodification for the
and respect the healing power of wellbeing of people for whom water
performed knowledges.” However, is not just for consumption but is
this kind of knowing is under threat, implicated in a sacred way of life.
firstly due to the devaluation of (Photo: Mbokazi Ngayeka)
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