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The Destruction Of Tribal Cultures

from Blood Is On Our Hands by Active Minds

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about

The story of the imperial conquest of distant parts of the world by largely European countries is one of systematic destruction of ancient cultures.
When colonialists reached those shores and encountered the people who already lived there, they gave those native populations only two real choices - assimilation or death. Active resistance was met with ruthless brutality, as those who weren’t prepared to change their lifestyles were driven from the most productive pieces of land and into areas in which their cultural survival would be virtually impossible.
The process of “civilising” the rest of the native population into a European lifestyle was equally heartless and severe. It meant cutting all the ties to their previous cultural practices, which frequently meant removing children from their families in places like Australia. Christianity was the indoctrination of choice, and any relics of past culture and customs were seen as threats to the moral re-programming of the indigenous population. In the minds of even the most supposedly “enlightened” colonialists, these ancient ideas were things that would be useless in the new societies that were being created.
Yet those ancient customs and cultural practices included much accumulated wisdom about how to survive sustainably in an often hostile natural environment. They also generally embodied a mindset which was at odds with the idea that expansionist conquest was the natural order and ambition for all human societies.
As we sit here in the third decade of the 21st Century, our conquest of the natural world has been so all-encompassing that our actions now threaten human society’s continued existence on the planet. This process has been evident now for well over half a century, and has now reached a scale where few would doubt it. Yet what is the likelihood of humankind radically changing it’s ways to genuinely live in harmony with nature rather than at war with it? To do so would require a change of our basic cultural mindset which has been the norm since the industrial revolution. Are we able to learn the new lessons we need to survive? Time is running out.

lyrics

Our culture has waged a war
On those who lived the tribal way,
And all but wiped them from the Earth
As if they had no right to stay.

Those who live within the limits of nature,
And who don’t try to conquer the Earth -
Whose culture has survived many thousands of years -
Must surely know something of worth.

Condemned as uncivilised and backward -
As if their traditional life was a crime.
In doing so we’ve thrown away knowledge
Which has stood the test of time.

Is our modern so-called “civilisation”
Really all that great,
When it’s brought such destruction to the World?
We need new lessons before it’s too late.

credits

from Blood Is On Our Hands, released December 3, 2021

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