With this past week's aboriginal education symposium and my latest read of Wade Davis' The Wayfinders, more than ever it is time to discuss the importance of diverse cultures in the modern world.
Earth is roughly 4.3-4.5 billion years old and homo sapiens (literally translating to wise man) have been around for about 200,000 years.
Around 55,000 years ago modern man walked out of Africa and migrated across the world.
This period of time was during a slight warming of the climate in comparison to the average temperatures of that glacial period.
In the following years up to 13,000 years ago the majority of human migrations had finished.
During these years of migrations, the many climates and ecosystems helped develop (depending on your definition of culture) roughly 10,000 different cultures.
Since the dawn of the European conquests of the world and start of the industrial age, the number of cultures in existence had begun, and continues at an alarming rate, to disappear.
As we no doubt understand the importance of biodiversity in the natural world, the understanding of the importance of cultural diversity is only just now being discussed.
As man is no exception to the laws of nature, diversity of an ecosystem or a species' survival strategy creates a more stable environment.
As an organic mixed crop vegetable farmer, I fully understand the importance of not using the conventional mono-crop system, for if I were to use this system I am at a large risk to a failure of the entire crop.
Like the importance of not using a mono-crop system, retaining the diversity in human culture is important.
Each culture has been born of a specific environment that dictated a compliance of sustainable practices less the culture would be forced by nature's laws to cease to exist.
The "progress" of our current industrious western culture is showing us through our environmental issues today, that we may be on the wrong path.
Each culture in its environment had developed a method of survival and a corresponding language that must be preserved less we lose out on a knowledge and years of experience to the faade of the industrial prowess over the environment and its laws.
Like the Quebecois have retained their cultural identity in the face of the English domination so should immigrants and First Nations for each culture is unique, beautiful and, more importantly, a survival strategy that has worked and may become of grave importance as we move forward as a species.
Remember, Earth is 4.5 billion years old and our species existence in that time period is merely a blink of an eye. It's best to have a big bag of strategies and diversity for we are in uncharted territory.
