An
exhibition of photographs about the daily lives, experiences, culture and plight
of indigenous people throughout the world was held at the Royal Botanic Garden,
Edinburgh earlier this year.
For
me it was a moving and humbling exhibition and my attention was arrested by its
introductory text which was mounted on a board at the entrance. I asked at the
Botanic Garden’s reception desk if there were copies of the text. Alas there
were none so I borrowed pen and paper and with the help of my wife copied the
text (as we saw a number of other visitors do). I have posted it below.
I
believe the author of the text is Wade Davis, a Canadian anthropologist and writer, who curated the exhibition.
The
words leave me with questions about how different human communities relate to
each other. I think they offer possible directions for thought about how we
exercise our respect for others and how we may help our children respect and
care for people from communities different from their own. I believe many of my
generation have singularly failed, and
continue to fail, to do this.
Here
is the text.
No
strangers : ancient wisdom in a modern world
Over the last decade
science has revealed how closely people around the world are connected. We are
all brothers and sisters. We are all descendants of common ancestors who walked out of Africa some 60,000 years ago.
Their epic journey continued over 2500 generations, carrying the human spirit
to every habitable corner of the world.
If all of humanity
emerged from the same fountain of life, all cultures share the same raw genius, how this intellectual potential is expressed is simply a matter of choice and
circumstance.
Traditional societies
are not failed attempts to be modern, let alone failed attempts to be like us.
Every culture is a unique expression of human imagination and heart. When asked
what it means to be human and alive, the peoples of the world respond in 7000
different voices, 7000 languages that together express the full wisdom and
knowledge of our species, insights that no doubt will prove invaluable to
future generations, even as we continue this never ending journey.
To
discover more about Wade Davis visit
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