The Earth system has now entered the Anthropocene, a geological age in which plantation monocultures, pollution, and industrial-scale resource extraction are damaging or destroying vital ecological systems on which the planet and its biological diversity depend. Globally dominant modes of human existence, urban consumption demands and elite profit-seeking activities that reduce flourishing diverse environments to impoverished and damaged ecosystems where nature has difficulty regenerating itself are driving us towards ecological crises and the sixth great extinction event. Due to our ethically untenable relationship to nature, the Earth System is in crisis, yet we have proven incapable of developing a coherent approach to addressing this threat to future liveability. Moreover, large numbers of people whose livelihoods have done nothing to cause this crisis are most exposed to its consequences. Many come from cultural traditions that enrich and perpetuate healthy biodiversity as the means to ensure mutual flourishing. These Indigenous ‘wisdom traditions’ are recognised for their sustainable world views and sophisticated understanding of our interdependence on the Earth System. Such traditions have rarely emerged in the context of capitalist societies…

Artists
Brus Rubio
Santiago Yahuarcani
Rember Yahuarcani
Graciela Arias
Miguel Vilca
Roldan Pinedo Lopez
Lastenia Canayo
Elena Valera