Matthew Dedes week 9 - THE ECO-SOUL
Whilst reflecting, I couldn’t help but ask myself one simple question. What can I do to help? After reading the literature throughout this course and delving deep within the literature of old Indigenous tribes, I couldn’t help but render different ideals surrounding both extinction and Holocene states.
What do we fear most?
I think that what humanity fears most is the implications and harsh realities to which we are continually placing upon our natural landscape and our natural world. Eco-systems encapsulate the very essence of human life, through the theory of evolution, to the understanding of everything that is, our natural world. Eco-systems often create a level of sustainability for the majority of our natural world however the ongoing shift toward a quickened Holocene state is something which needs to be addressed. Literature has invoked new practices such as eco-efficiency and other modes of heightening awareness for the environment. Humanity’s suffrage may not be of late however the ongoing neglect for education on micro-landscapes and understanding that humanity is one with nature not only encourages harmony, but it breathes life back into the land which once had a soul. Every living organism from plants to animals to insects to humans lived at the centre of a shared eco-system which worked and slowed down the destruction we have predicted over the past few decades.
What is the Eco-soul?
Incorporating old indigenous ways of life along with understanding the progressions which inevitably will continue to be made, I have begun to uphold the notion of the eco-soul. The eco-soul is derived and thought upon through the avid eye of my grandparents, who I feel are the closest it comes to old indigenous communities. My grandparents live harmoniously within the suburbs of Sydney city, having nothing but their garden of fresh produce and animals which has created the perfect eco-system. Not only is this eco-system fantastic for the environment but it teaches us self-sufficiency and self-reliance, with an intimate dialectic relationship within the natural world and environment within our own inner subjectivity. The concept is derived through farming and placing an emphasis on fresh produce and fresh olive oil to meet the requirements for everyday life. Fresh produce within this landscape provides and eco-system for insects and animals who can live harmoniously and with a soul, within the parameters of the garden. The garden itself is a larger representation of a natural world as it considers all necessary components within its microclimates. Micro-climates or a micro eco-system may be a necessary formulation toward the beginning of cutting down processed foods and the continued killing of our wider eco-system. The eco-soul lives within the confines of what is deemed necessary, almost exactly like how my grandparents used to live within their villages overseas. Living off the land and killing animals, only when you are using all of their remains and then leaving the rest behind for nature to consume is little ways in which the eco-soul works. The eco-soul also refines the very basis of eating and pillaging for food as the eco-system in which exists is determined by the user. Considering that city life is now confined to the general places of home living, instead of running to the supermarket which in essence is a climate and environment killer, all you have to do is look after your little eco-system out the back of your house. In today’s current climate and with Covid-19, the environment has slowly begun to “get better”, however with combined efforts maybe we can reduce it even further.