The Colonized Mind

By Ashish Arora

Today, I’m sharing a post I wrote two months ago, just that I couldn’t gather courage to share it back then. Many of you may find this post overwhelming, unsettling, or even objectionable, yet this is where I am in my journey of understanding indigenous cultures and their worldviews. Please note, this post doesn’t represent the views of Greaterthan as a collective; some of my colleagues at GT may disagree with me, and all such disagreement is welcome :)

These days I am studying and reflecting quite deeply on indigenous people and cultures. The more I try to put myself into their shoes—attempting to think, feel, or be as they do—the more insights I gain about myself, especially about the colonized mind I inhabit.

How fascinating it is that the urge to exploit, extract or rob the resources comes from a colonized mind, and the tendency to honor the cultures, spaces and ways of living of the indigenous is the also need of the colonized.

The indigenous do not ask for either. They simply continue being the way they have been all along.

The impulse to appropriate, and the ethical dilemma around appropriation are both in the domain of the colonized.

The need to extract resources to fuel the engines of the modern economy, and the saviorship of nudging the ancient cultures to bring their crafts to the markets are both parts of the same plan. The indigenous do not ask for either.

The imposition of modernity as an “advanced” way of living, and the intention to bring in the indigenous worldview to our regenerative research domain both serve the needs of the colonized.?

The indigenous just wish to be, and live the way they know how to, provided their lands, rivers and forests are not snatched away from them. Their worldview doesn’t push them into so much doing or growing, so much craving or savioring, so much objectifying or empathizing, so much achieving or giving, and so on!

I still don’t feel that I’m anywhere close to understanding their view of life, which is, again, a need of my colonized mind. The question I hold is, “Is that even possible?”

What would it take for my colonized mind to actually tune into the state of being of the indigenous? What would I need to unlearn, undo, or unpack within myself to become open to this process?

The irony is that even in this process I am asking questions about doing something. It feels like even this process of “becoming eligible” is a project of the colonized mind. The indigenous live beyond decolonization.

Why can’t I simply be, to let them be?

Much love,

Ashish, Susan and Greaterthan

Coming up @ Greaterthan:

• Liberating Macrostructure Studio - Participatory practices to energize decisions, agreements, strategy and innovation: First cohort starting in two days, on November 12, 2024.
• Liberating Structures Studio - Powerful practices to include and unleash everyone! Starting January 2025, early bird registrations open.
• Thriving Networks - How to grow networks where value, money and resources are in flow: Starting: February 6th, 2025, flexible pricing.
• The Money Game Experience - Explore your habits and unconscious beliefs around money: December 5th (English).