We’re inviting Expressions of Interest on the theme of “Territories of Life: Sources of Biocultural Diversity, Resilience, and Self-Determination” for Langscape Magazine, to be published in 2024. [UPDATE: The Call for Stories is Now Closed]

“Territories of life” includes — but is not limited to — Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). This concept embodies the core tenet of the idea and practices of biocultural diversity: that there is an inextricable, mutual link between people and the natural world. Territories of life sustain people’s lives; in turn, people sustain the territories from which they draw their relationships, knowledge systems, and livelihoods.

Recognition of that interdependence stems from holistic worldviews that see humans as a part of, not apart from, nature. These worldviews have been and continue to be characteristic of Indigenous Peoples and other communities that have maintained intimate, long-standing connections with their lands and territories and that have cared for and defended them for generations, guided by their own values, beliefs, and governance systems

The now dominant worldview — which has arisen from Western rationalism, colonial encroachments, and the political and economic ideologies that rationalism has spawned — sees humans as separate from nature and dominant over it. That disconnected worldview has relentlessly sought to displace, if not even obliterate, all others.

Indigenous Peoples and other custodians, or stewards, of their lands and territories have long fought to retain or regain their self-determination: their right to exert their ancestral responsibilities toward one another and toward nature. Territories of life, in all of their diversity, have been at the center of these struggles, as the sources of people’s identities, languages, cultures, and ways of knowing and acting in the world.

We’re eager to hear from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous custodians and stewards, as well as their allies, who wish to share ideas, reflections, and on-the-ground experiences on this theme. We welcome written stories as well as photo and video essays. And we also wish to explore other, more symbolic or metaphorical, ways of addressing the theme, such as poetry, artwork, songs, music, and more.

Submit your Expression of Interest at this link by September 29, 2023.