The most disastrous blunder of the age was its refusal to acknowledge what most subalternised cultures and people took for granted: nature does not belong to us; we belong to nature. The reckless destruction of nature ended up threatening the survival of the human species, in the form of recurrent pandemics, extreme weather events, massive numbers of environment refugees, the disappearance of small island states, and environment-related chronic diseases. I argue in this chapter that all the main mechanisms of exclusion and discrimination at work in modern societies – whether class, race or gender – are traceable to the root dualisms between humanity and nature, and between mind/soul and body. The ways in which modern society deals with inferiority are modelled on the ways it deals with nature. If abyssal exclusion means domination by appropriation/violence, nature – including land, rivers and forests as well as people and ways of being and living whose humanity was negated precisely for being part of nature – has been the favoured target of this domination in Western modernity since the sixteenth century. I start by examining old and new contestations of Cartesian dualism, then I illustrate how this contestation has entered the field of law, what it entails and the prospects for the future. The rights of nature are a promising real legal utopia.

This chapter looks at guardianship of nature in three traditions of the Global South: from Latin American Buen Vivir (Good Living) derived from Native American traditions to Asian Buddhism in gross national happiness (GNH), and African ubuntu (collective) thought. Buen Vivir and Mother Earth as chief principle of the law, in the Ecuadorian constitution and policies, lead to rights of nature and a modest biocentric jurisprudence. Buddhist Happiness functions as chief principle of the law in the Bhutanese Constitution, with as yet no jurisprudence. This includes guardianship of nature as constitutional duty, whereby citizens can seek redress in court if the state neglects this duty. The rights of future generations in the South African Constitution, are part of the ‘people’ concept in Ubuntu, in which ‘mutual aid’ (in the community of life) functions as chief principle of the law. GNH and ubuntu are in between bio and anthropocentric with the potential of giving rights to nature.

Anishinabe and Mohawk traditional knowledge keepers share their testimony on the crises we are facing today and the choices we need to make for our relationship with Mother Earth. They shed light on traditional principles and prophecies, and on the path towards reconciliation, balance and peace. Grandmother Marie-Josée Tardif, a leader in Anishinabe cultural and spiritual revitalisation talks about restoring the balance with the feminine and our being human. She highlights the role of spiritual traditions and religions in addressing current global challenges. Grandfather T8aminik Rankin, Anishinabe Hereditary Chief and medicine man, who survived the residential schools and led the way towards reconciliation, talks about healing our relationships and walking on the path of reconciliation with ourselves, with other beings and with Mother Earth. Grandfather Ka’nasohon Kevin Deer, a Mohawk faith keeper, leader in Iroquoian cultural and spiritual revitalisation, talks about the necessary change in consciousness to see, to hear and to speak differently, and about the path of the peacemaker.

Indigenous peoples in Canada score far worse on indicators of well-being than the general public due to historical and ongoing processes of colonisation. It is also well recognised that Indigenous peoples are the most impacted and vulnerable populations affected by climate change. Currently proposed climate change ‘solutions’ are derived from the same Western colonial mindset which caused the crisis in the first place, so it is logical that we look for alternative approaches. Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) have allowed Indigenous peoples to survive centuries of environmental degradation brought about by European colonisation, as well as thrive for millennia. International declarations have specifically recognised the potential of IKS to help alleviate climate and other environmental crises. Indigenous peoples must therefore be enabled to undergo decolonisation processes, so that we may all benefit from the revitalisation of Indigenous ways of relating to the Earth in mutually beneficial ways.

The Foreword by John Borrows, the famous Indigenous legal scholar, presents a perspicuous representation of the guiding spirit of the volume from his Anishinaabe perspective. Mutually sustainable and ecosocially just democracies should be grounded in relationships of self and other co-determination with each other and with all our more-than human-relatives.