Cultural survival through reclaiming language and land, with author Jay Griffiths

Mongabay Newscast

Today’s guest is Jay Griffiths, award-winning author of several books, including the acclaimed Wild: An Elemental Journey. She speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about the importance of language for preserving communities and their cultures, the impact of colonization and globalization on Indigenous communities, and the innate human connection with the natural world in the land of one's birth.

Roughly 4,000 of the world’s 6,700 languages are spoken by Indigenous communities, but multiple factors (such as the decimation of human rights) continue to threaten their existence along with their speakers’ cultures.

The guest also explores parallels between humans, nature and culture: “There’s great research that suggests that we learned ethics from wolves [by taking] an attitude to the world of both me the individual, and of me the pack member,” in caring for all members of the group, she says.

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Image credit: Kali Biru (Blue River) on Waigeo Island in Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler

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Timecodes

(00:00) Introduction

(01:45) The power of language

(09:03) Colonialism and globalization

(17:40) The trickster in myth to modern governance

(23:24) Reclaiming belonging

(20:27) Championing Indigenous voices

(34:45) Against mechanic modernity

(40:35) West Papua, a brief explainer

(46:22) Land and identity

(51:50) A world of climate refugees