The Importance of Cultural Preservation

Curare is an arrow poison used by South American natives and was formerly applied as a muscle relaxant in surgery. Unfortunately, like the curare, many other indigenous traditional knowledge are being lost at an alarming rate. Indigenous knowledge tends to be viewed by some as being archaic, compared to the western scientific knowledge. This has led to the loss of traditional practices as people try to embrace modern western cultures. According to Cultural Survival (2014) there are approximately 370 million Indigenous people in the world, belonging to 5,000 different cultural groups, in 90 countries worldwide. These cultures are seriously under threat (Minority Rights Group 2016). Culture may be defined as the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society while the act of keeping or protecting one's culture is known as cultural preservation. Cultural preservation is necessary since it helps to protect the language, traditional lands and also religion of Indigenous people. 

It is estimated that there are between 6,000 to 7,000 oral languages in the world today, but one dies every two weeks (UNESCO 2016). Lenni Montiel, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development Department of the United Nations reiterated that “Maintaining and revitalizing indigenous languages is essential to keep our shared cultural heritage." With the disappearance of unwritten and undocumented indigenous languages, humanity would lose not only an irreplaceable cultural heritage but also valuable ancestral knowledge. 

​On the other hand, the dispossession of indigenous tangible culture such as their traditional lands and sacred sites is a growing concern  internationally. Although article 10 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (DRIPS) asserts that Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories, these rights are still being violated. Aboriginals need their lands for numerous reasons, these include subsistence farming, building settlements and carrying out religious activities that is why legal protection is needed. 

Moreover, Indigenous religions around the world face persecution in the form of political marginalization, discrimination and eviction. Indigenous religions, if grouped collectively, would make up the world’s sixth largest religion, and they are by far the oldest religious traditions on earth (Indigenous Peoples 2013). Spirituality plays an equally important role in Indigenous communities; unfortunately, their unique spirituality is often misunderstood by outsiders and this further contributes to their cultural persecution.

Each time an Indigenous culture is lost, the world loses an irreplaceable and exquisite way of being. Fortunately, cultural preservation emphasizes the need to protect and restore the language, traditional lands and also religion of  Indigenous people. Ways in which these endangered cultures can be preserved include displaying artifacts in museums, teaching native songs to the younger generation and developing policies and laws related to the promotion and strengthening of Indigenous cultures.

January 16, 2019