Diversity and the Great Retelling

Yuki Koji

The life of current indigenous peoples is getting more and more complicated. Strong willpower and philosophies based on the land on which we live are needed.

One thing I can say, however, is that the traditions that are passed down in indigenous communities offer us an actual contact point with other forms of life and sustain our ability to send out messages to other human societies.

Within prayers to the universe during our rituals, within sacred stories about gods, story-tellers and listeners, within the world of myth that storytellers entice you to enter, there is a place to create and cultivate caring and love towards nature. The key to coexistence with other living things lies hidden there.

Yuki Koji is a woodblock printer, co-founder of the Ainu Art Project, vice-rep of World Indigenous Peoples Network Ainu (WIN Ainu), and secretary-general of the 2008 Indigenous Peoples Summit in Ainu Mosir. He will host the next summit in Aichi, just before COP10.

return to Biodiversity contents