1. Watch The Story of Stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-RnnEFWUM4 (Links to an external site.)

2. Spend some time on Cultural Survival and Survival International websites https://www.culturalsurvival.org/ https://www.survivalinternational.org/

3. Answer these two questions in brief. Give specific examples including the name of the group and where they live.

• What is the effect of our lifestyle on indigenous/tribal resources, lives, cultures, languages as seen on these websites?
• The resources of indigenous people are being exploited by national governments and corporations. Where and to which groups is this happening. Who are they being exploited by?
• How is this exploitation being resisted?

Reply and comment 2 student

According to the video: The story of stuff with Annie Leonard, the people who live in areas where resources are gathered up from the land of those indigenous people. In the eye of the government and corporations they do not own those resources even if they’ve lived there for generations they don’t own the means of production and they’re not buying a lot. Therefore in their point of view “they don’t have value because they are not part of the system”. These natural resources are mixed with toxic chemicals which then affect our environment and the human body when we breathe in air. With that being in the beginning of all these processes of the toxic substance being passed through factories, in homes and stores, to our home and to becoming waste. The beginning of all this leads back with the resources of indigenous people whose homes are taken away vigorously. The government and corporations are focusing on the economy and the “good” for the people, “Consumption is our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals”. As Annie the solution to this problem would not only be recycling but to also work together and unite to fix the government and fix a system that doesn’t waste resources or people. “Sustainability, inequity green, chemistry zero waste closed-loop production, renewable energy” is key to solving this issue as well.

Overall, Indigenous communities are being affected by our lifestyle. Much of our day to day life includes resources that are taken away from their homes. From our food, clothes, technology and other things. We don’t pay attention that the indigenous people are being treated with disrespected and their homes are being invaded for far too long. They are being forced to assimilate the dominant culture which is a wrong thing to do because their culture, lifestyle, language is what makes one human. Losing their environment is like losing their language and culture. They are being forced to take part of themselves away. Everyone must inform and educate others of this issue through media, protesting, creating donations, or other ways that can be helpful.

2, Cindy

As address by the video, one-third of the planet’s natural resource has been consumed, specifically in the US, creates 30% of the world’s waste. The US has less than 4% of its original forests left, 40% of its waterways are undrinkable. Many of the consumption of natural resources is vastly due to consumerism. Here is where our lifestyle begins to affect indigenous/tribal resources, lives, culture, and languages. Since the US needs an enormous amount of resources to keep on producing, they go into other countries and seize their ergo destroying their environment and ecosystems as well. The video has stated, the people whose resources were acquired can not claim the resources even if they have been there for generations, causing many tribal lands to disappear. When products are being created in factories, natural resources are mixed in with toxic chemicals; Some of these chemicals are dumped into waterways that can heavily affect the people who depend on them for their crops or drinking. When they become contaminated, the people who live on the land die off, taking along their culture and language with them. In the process of corporations building factories in other countries and regions, it displaces many of these indigenous groups out of their land in efforts to gain their resources. It causes many who relied on their land’s resources to become homeless or look for jobs thus becoming a factor in their loss of culture. As a result, big corporations begin to exploit people. Since it’s cheaper for corporations to hire people from third-world countries such as in Asia, Africa, and Latin America they build factories there and pay the people as low as a dollar a day. Seeing as people in third world countries lack economic stability, it allows corporations to take advantage of people forcing them to have no other options but to work in gruesome conditions causing their health to decline. However, there have been few laws that stop the exploitation of people, and some indigenous groups have protested factories being built on their land or dumping chemicals into their water.