Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Just now the Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is going on in New York. (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html) This time, issues on climate and biodiversity are in focus. Important issues. In the opening session, Bolivias president Morales (belonging to an indigenous people himself, the Amaya) warns against ethanol growing which threatens the land rights of indigenous peoples in South America.
It has been stressed that indigenous peoples should be part in negotiations on climate issues. On the one hand, many indigenous peoples way of life are heavily affected by climate change. We can see already what warmer winters will do to reindeer husbandry in Sápmi and to the Inuit of the Arctis. On the other hand, indigenous peoples have traditional knowledge to offer which can be of great value.
The view of many indigenous peoples on the way we ought to treat the earth, as stewards rather than just taking its resources, shows a way to live in a sustainable way on this earth. Too long, western society has not acknowledged that we are stewards and that our life and all creation are interdependent.

For a Christian this should be clear. Man is put to steward Creation in the Bible, and creation theology should be an important cornerstone in any theological system. Strangely enough, this has not been the case in most of western theology. The church has joined the rest of society in exploiting rather than stewarding the earth. Only very recently, climate issues and creation theology has become more important in the west. We should however not think that we have to do everything ourselves. Let us listen to what the indigenous peoples traditional values have to learn to us - in society as well as in church.