Pledge

To all the Indigenous peoples I have had the privilege of working for or with, and to those Indigenous peoples I hope to partner with in the future, I pledge to:

• Acknowledge the folly of nontolerant worldviews rooted in the idea that people are separate from, and dominant over, nature.
• Celebrate Indigenous wisdom that has nourished people and their relationship with the natural world for millennia, and the fundamental role of the wisdom keepers, both men and women, who have maintained it since time immemorial.
• Continue to learn from Indigenous knowledge holders and to affirm their knowledge, rights and relationships wherever and whenever possible.
• Advance approaches that value multiple ways of knowing in decision-making, in particular based on traditional knowledge, for the benefit of all living beings.
• Acknowledge that human beings are an integral part of an indivisible, self-regulating, living community of inextricably linked and interdependent beings—our Earth Community, or Gaia, or Mother Earth, as she is known to many Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
• Honor Mother Earth and act responsibly to ensure that the pursuit of personal and humankind’s goals contributes to, and not subtracts from, the well-being of the future generations of all beings in living, nonliving and spirit realms, that form our Earth Community.
• While accepting change as an essential and natural part of life—representing not only loss but also an opportunity for growth, reorganization, and positive transformation— remember that our intentions and actions affect the trajectory of that change.
• Practice fundamental principles of resilience—restraint, respect, reciprocity, and reverence—when facing challenges and other beings whom we might, or might not, fully understand.
• Avoid perpetuating past injustices and commit to building respectful, beneficial, long-term relationships that support genuine partnerships and collaborations with Indigenous peoples around the globe.