Dr. Vandana Shiva keynote: Living with Other Sentient Beings

“Vasudhaiva Kutumkam: Living with other sentient beings as One Earth Family”

ASWM 2022 Online Symposium

Sunday, April 10 at 11:45 AM Eastern Time 

Most indigenous cultures including the ecological civilisation in which I was born, see the Earth as living and see humans as members of one Earth Family interconnected through sacred bonds of diversity, mutuality, synergy, living intelligence, care and respect. A few centuries of colonialism, anthropocentrism, capitalist patriarchy and a mechanical paradigm constructed the earth as dead matter, with other beings as objects to be owned, manipulated and exterminated by a few privileged humans.

The ways of knowing our earth relatives non-violently, through care and compassion, that women and indigenous peoples have evolved over millennia, were declared “not knowing,” ignorance, superstition or heresy. 9 million people were killed as “witches” during inquisition, most of whom were women. The Monoculture of the Mechanical Militarised Mind rose to dominance. The voices of our relatives were silenced. Their intelligence and agency was denied. Biodiversity loss and species extinction are symptoms of the denial of the earth and her beings as living and sentient. Regenerating Biodiversity is restoring our humanity as earth beings related to and dependent upon other beings, caring for them with love and compassion, listening to their pain and cries, and learning from their intelligences the power of healing and regeneration.

Besides being a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor and author of numerous books, Dr. Vandana Shiva is a tireless defender of the environment. She is the founder of Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights. She is also the founder and director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. Intellectual property rights, biotechnology, bioethics and genetic engineering are among many fields where she has contributed intellectually and through activist campaigns. She fights for changes in the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food: “I don’t want to live in a world where five giant companies control our health and our food.”

See the Symposium page for more information.

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