Interconnectedness and Sustainability.
Interconnectedness:
These photos show the first nations wheels that are based on the concepts of interconnectedness.
What is Interconnectedness?
Interconnectedness is a very important way of knowing to the first nations people. It reflects upon the concepts that everything in the universe has a purpose, and that it requires care, and respect. The first nations people believe that they’re fully connected to their, family, community, land, and the life around them. Their mindset of caring and respect everything around them, causes great strength and boosts in sustainability and knowledge. This is because of their great understanding of the land that they live on, and because they believe in caring for each other, which has lead to stronger communities, and more resources.
The First Nation people believe in a concept known as the Sacred Circle of Life. The ancestors teach their children to respect everything in this circle. This is what the First Nations look at for the guidance to ultimately love and feel deep connectedness to mother nature and the great spirit.
This photo shows a first nations gathering where people give back to one another and connect with their community.
How does it connect to our lessons :
Interconnectedness relates to our lessons in a couple ways, but most notably with the cycles of matter. The concept of interconnectedness means that everything in life is connected, and we can see this clearly with the cycles of matter and life. Very cycle of matter, whether it is carbon, water, or phosphorus, are all a circle in which everything within the cycle is connected and repeated.
It can also be seen with the food web. Because no matter, in what way energy is passed on from species to species, it all starts with one form of matter that spreads into many. So because of this energy cycle within food, everyone and everything is connected in some way or another.
Sustainability:
^This is a video showing how the first nations lived sustainably
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability is a concept seen in everyday life from the beginning of civilisations. It is a way in which people or a civilisation can be maintained at a certain level. Many important aspects of living are included in sustainable living such as resources, knowledge, economy, and many more. The first nations had extremely efficient sustainability for the resources they had, and managed to maintain communities and trading at a good rate.
The first nations were very good at using much more natural resources for their community, mostly because they did not have the same technology, but they still managed to get by the same as we can now. For example, instead of using machines that require gas and oil, such as cars, they would use horses. They would also use strength and natural work to expand their community and gather resources such as, building, cutting trees, and cooking.
How does it connect to our lessons :
First nations had very efficient sustainability because of many reasons, but mainly because of their mindset to only use what is necessary and don’t abuse the consumption, and use of energy. They would use what they needed to, and leave the rest for future generations. This connects to our lesson on energy flow, because we saw that many things such as greenhouse gasses and CO2 are constantly being pumped into our atmosphere, much more than it should, or needs to be. It is shown that we also tend to also not think about the future generations of people as we start to use all of our resources and energy. The first nations, were much more efficient about using their energy and resources.
Another way it connects to our work is because of the absences of chemicals for farming such as pesticides, and GMO’s. Because aside from trade routes, the first nations communities only had to feed each other and some other communities for gatherings, the farming was done all by hand without any advanced chemicals to speed up farming like there are nowadays. For example, with the project we doing, we are testing to see how plants would grow in different environments, it shows that plants can grow fine in many environements and conditions, and didn’t need chemicals to do things such as survive in other conditions, or speed up the process of growth. Because they did not use chemicals in farming, this allowed for no runoff to flow into creeks and rivers, which mean’t they could farm healthier fish and water.