Reaction to Indigenous Contribution

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Reaction To Indigenous Contribution
Based on the provided videos, each one had a significant role in presenting its main ideas. According to UNE Center for Global Humanities MIN 11:28, the central concept that Gregory Cajete presented was about the thoughts and knowledge of science and education from the Native American perspective. Conversely, the presentation was an introduction to the indigenous mind rising. The native Americans are the forefront indigenous people who deal with environmental crises, global climate, and human rights as the main consequential issues. He argues that from this rising indigenous mind, how can they create a better relationship with each other, the earth, and God?
Consequently, Dr. Leroy Little Bear compared Blackfoot metaphysics with Western academic metaphysics at the presentation of big thinking. He introduces what he means about metaphysics and refers to how we are programmed to think, which translates to our behavior and relationships (Federation HSS, MIN 18:20). Through his comparison, he says there are no differences between the two groups. Through his presentation, he talks about big thinking and uses various concepts to support his arguments, such as the age of reason and native science.
From the TED Talk (MIN 5:00), Mark Plotkin's view introduce a new concept of western knowledge that makes the title of the presentation more sense; "what the people of the Amazon know that what others do not." he argues that western medicine is the best in the world as it the most efficient in treatment and diagnosis. In supporting his evidence, he says there are three plants that this Northeast amazon medicine man uses to cure things we cannot. The main idea of this presentation is about the isolated and uncontacted people in the rainforest of the amazon. He says they know nature better than we do, and they understand what kind of plants can be used to treat chronic diseases.
Conclusively, the main idea of these all resources is to describe the knowledge and thoughts based on the indigenous people. Indigenous knowledge refers to the philosophical understanding revealed by the local community, which has diverse experiences and long history with the environment. Thus, indigenous knowledge is a valuable option to help the world manage conservative issues such as climate change, environmental crisis, and human rights.
The possible insight I would recognize or appreciate is the indigenous people from the western Amazon, known as the uncontacted people. Most people may call them primitive, but I see them as the most valuable people in the world are they have an in-depth interaction with nature. The most exciting part is that I realized they have decided to live alone, which translates to an isolated tribe. It is a form of resistance as they understand an outside world exists apart from the forest. They have the human right and freedom to live the way they want with no restrictions. Notably, the form of survival is the most incredible idea as they all depend on nature to fulfill all human needs, such as shelter, medicine, and food.
While going through these video presentations, I encountered various difficulties in understanding indigenous knowledge. Before, I understood that each resource communicated the same thing or had the course of teaching the concept of indigenous knowledge and its importance. Secondly, another difficulty I encountered was a language barrier in some video presentations where the presenters spoke in their mother tongues, which was difficult for me to comprehend. Lastly, some of the videos were not loud enough, so hand to depend on the transcription option was more tiresome than listening to the video audio.
A personal experience I encountered with indigenous individuals or communities was in 2020. After the COVID-19 pandemic was at the pic of the moment when everyone was scared since, based on the news, it was a chronic disease with no cure. Every country in the world enacted a lockdown policy to minimize the spread of this deadly disease called coronavirus. Unfortunately, my family and I got locked up in South Africa during the pandemic. However, I had an amazing experience with the people of this country, and they had a different perspective on dealing with these viruses. They believed this kind of virus was like any other disease, and the tribal medicine man got them a cure. The medicine man returned to the sacred forest wi...