The restorative power of Indigenous science and wisdom
THERE IS A CRITICAL YET OFTEN underrecognized role that Indigenous peoples around the world have played—and continue to play—in sustaining biological and cultural diversity. Award-winning National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan’s vivid portraits of Indigenous men and women, youth and elders, hunters and farmers, spiritual leaders and craftsmen seek to call attention to their ways of knowing and taking care of the land. Through documenting concepts and skills that have been taught for generations, Yüyan’s work captures how language, art, and ceremony are important ways to maintain human-environment relations. This rich, in-depth, storytelling initiative recognizes the essential role Indigenous communities play in sustaining diversity, and adapting to and abating climate change. From Palau’s coral reefs to Mongolia’s sacred peaks, and Greenland’s ice fields to Montana’s Blackfeet Reservation, witness profound stewardship in action where ancient wisdom drives cutting-edge conservation.
In the shallow waters off Babeldaob, the main island in the Palau archipelago, Walter Andrew learns how to navigate a traditional outrigger canoe. Andrew and his teacher, Ismail Tewalmai, are Southwest Islanders, a minority group who are linguistically and culturally distinct from other Palauans.
Children from Sonsorol Island, one of the Southwest Islands, play around an outrigger canoe. Life on Sonsorol revolves around the reefs, and the children’s play teaches them many important skills.
Viewed from underwater, a traditional Southwest Islander outrigger canoe cuts through the lagoon off Echang, at the southern tip of Palau’s Babeldaob Island.
Gandulam Tsairai (left) pours milk over a specially selected horse during a shamanic ceremony outside the village of Darvi Sum, in western Mongolia. Her husband, Gansukh Purevdorj (right), holds the horse in place. After the ceremony, the horse becomes a spiritual protector for Gansukh’s family, who will continue to feed the horse but otherwise will allow it to roam freely.
Open-range goats and sheep on Mongolia’s Altai steppe are driven by a mounted herder (not shown).
Tumen-Ulzii Ivshintseren carries the outer covering for a ger—a portable round Mongolian tent insulated with felted wool. Traditionally used by nomadic herders, gers are quickly erected—this one took less than an hour to put up—despite their size and complex frame.
Inughuit hunter Qumangaapik Kvist runs with his qamutit (sled) for the long ride home. Behind him is an injured dog, which Kvist has put on the qamutit to rest. Like many Greenland sled dogs—the special breed that pulls the qamutit—the dog loves running so much that, despite its injury, it repeatedly jumped off the sled to run alongside the other dogs.
Qumangaapik Kvist takes a smoke break on his qamutit after a long, unsuccessful day of sealhunting. If he doesn’t catch a seal, neither he nor his dogs will eat. Traditional subsistence hunting remains common in northern Greenland.
Greenland sled dogs pull a loaded sled at a run across the sea ice of Inglefield Gulf. Greenland dogs, a unique breed, are genetically closer to wolves than other dogs. Considered only partly domesticated, they can be dangerous, but their strength and endurance in this difficult environment are unmatched. To keep the breed pure, no other dogs are allowed in Greenland north of the Arctic Circle.
In his office in Browning, Piikani chairman Timothy “Kink” Davis dangles a ceremonial effigy of a bison, illustrating the importance of these animals to his community.
Smokey Rides at the Door places an iinisskimm (buffalo stone) in sage smoke at his home in Browning. Made of rock embedded with ancient ammonite shell fossils, iinisskimm resemble buffalo and were used by Siksikaitsitapi hunters to call the animals toward them.
Bison graze on land set aside for them on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana. Not far away are several “buffalo jumps,” low cliffs over which Siksikaitsitapi hunters drove bison long ago. There are still buffalo bones embedded in the soil below the jumps, a sign of the long relationship between Siksikaitsitapi and bison.
Smokey Rides At The Door wears the head of a buffalo ceremonial costume at his home near Browning, Montana.
Bring home Guardians of Life today.