Every August 9, we celebrate the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. This year, the event takes on a deeper meaning as the whole world is currently battling a pandemic and an overwhelming health crisis. These crises are compounded by the climate change crisis and the crisis of our own biodiversity loss due to our unwise and unjust ways of production and consumption.

We need to repair our broken relationship with nature to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for us and the generations that follow. Nonetheless, to rebuild our social and economic relationships, we need 'teachers' who can guide us in restoring a better and more mutual relationship between nature and humans. Indigenous Peoples can be the guides at this critical time.

We can draw some important lessons from nature's guardians regarding the relationship with nature, traditional knowledge, and solidarity that enabled them to build resilient communities and lives in their territories. We can learn from the cultural heritage and practices of Indigenous Peoples where livelihoods and territorial care are united and reinforced in cultural and spiritual traditions. Indigenous Peoples, men and women have proven a more balanced and healthier relationship with nature. They have shown that alternative and sustainable ways of living are not impossible.

During Covid 19, Indigenous communities in some remote areas have revived traditional practices and cultivation to protect food supplies, including foraging for food and herbal medicines in the forest as nutritional supplements. They rely on cooperation and strong patterns of mutual aid. Traditional food systems have shown resilience as they are rooted in local ecological adaptation, and maintain diversity.

As we learn from indigenous peoples to build resilience and restore the connection with nature that allows us all to live sustainably, we need to ensure that Indigenous Peoples are respected and recognized, as well as empowered to continue managing their customary territories, their ancestral lands.

These are important lessons for us to reflect on this International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, as we celebrate and thank Indigenous Peoples for their guardianship of their territories and what gives and sustains the cycle of life on Earth.