A Phool Mali youth connects with the gardening and agricultural traditions of her ancestors. Geeta Vishnu Ingle . What is common to honeybees and Phool Mali people? Flower gardens and collective knowledge! I am Geeta Vishnu Ingle, a twenty-six-year-old native of Pimpri Mali village, Mehkar Taluka, Buldhana district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. I

After two decades in the city, a young Dayak woman reconnects with the land and the traditional farming practices of her ancestors. WORDS AND IMAGES Sumarni Laman . At the heart of the Dayak Ngaju community of Borneo lies a farming tradition deeply intertwined with nature — a practice so harmonious that it forms a

In the mountains of Taiwan, Tayal community members reaffirm their ancestral knowledge and cultural identity to protect their territory of life. WORDS Manju Maharjan and Yih-Ren Lin | IMAGES Manju Maharjan   . Taiwan has many Indigenous groups, of which sixteen are officially recognized today. In 2005, the national government promulgated the Indigenous Peoples’ Basic

A Black urban girl in Upstate New York reclaims ancestral gardening. WORDS Rehani Tapp | IMAGES Ronke L. Tapp . If something was stolen from you, you would want it back, right? Well, I am a Black urban teen who gardens with her family, and one thing that I’ve realized is that when Africans were

Water patterns and an ancient human–elephant social contract hold important lessons for eco-justice. WORDS AND IMAGES Elizabeth Oriel     A brief walk by three water bodies in rural southern Sri Lanka is a tour through history and through different ways of relating to landscapes and to other beings. Amid teak and jackfruit trees sits

Every being on Earth has both inherent rights and the responsibility to participate in the web of life. WORDS Mashudu Takalani and Gertrude Pswarayi-Jabson | IMAGES Tim Hawkins The Gaia Foundation is an international organization with nearly forty years of experience accompanying allies to revive biocultural diversity. Having graduated from Gaia’s three-year, UN-recognized “Trainings for

In Hawaiʻi, the concept of rights is more accurately understood to mean responsibilities. Kawika Winter . Highly advanced societies have existed at various points throughout antiquity, before the modern era of globalization. Some have been classified as “civilizations,” and they have been taken as models for how we humans should live on this planet. The

A woman finds hope and connection on the farm that gave her grandma life and love. Dea Sofie Kudsk     My grandmother is the heroine in this story. It’s all about her hands, her head with the blue and white scarf, her red braids hanging down her back while she is out there in

Reviving traditional crops and food culture is vital to repairing people’s relationship with the land. Kana Koa Weaver Okada   Nna-ma-matsu Tani-nu-du-yo The seed that we sow now Ju-gatsu-matsu Awa-nu-do-yo The awa seed we sow in the tenth month (chant) Yo-ya-te-ba Yu-ya-na-u-re If they grow well, we will have a good harvest Sa sa Hou-nen

Against the odds, a tribal farmer in southern India strives to conserve and share dozens of indigenous rice varieties. WORDS AND VIDEO  G. S. Unnikrishnan Nair | IMAGES  Anvar     It is widely known that rice is the staple food for half the people on earth. In Asia, it lies at the very heart of the