Presentation short abstract

Based on ten months of fieldwork in Scotland and New Zealand, this presentation engages Gaelic and Māori as place-based Indigenous knowledges to rethink humans’ place in the natural world. I invite reflections on how to live by an ethics of care for those of us not embedded in these ontologies.

Presentation long abstract

At the intersection of the ecological, social, economic, and political crises, I argue, lies the profound disconnection between humans and nature, which is essential to the functioning of capitalism. The dominant Western worldview, which negates nature's agency and views humans as superior beings, legitimises human domination and exploitation of nature for profit-making endeavours. Therefore, aligning with the panel’s intention to explore what it means to resist capitalist extraction and disposability through developing an ethics of care with the more-than-human, I mobilise Indigenous relational ethics. My presentation is based on ten months of fieldwork for my PhD, conducted between September and June 2026 in Alba/Scotland and in Aotearoa/New Zealand. I suggest that engaging with and carving out space for Indigenous knowledges is essential in times of poly crisis. Both Gaelic and Māori are place-based Indigenous knowledges which entertain a relational view of humans’ place in the natural world, not as superior but as interconnected. Engaging with Gaelic and Māori offers different experiences and conceptualisations of care and reciprocity with the more-than-human across diverse geographies, which can motivate behaviours that resist capitalist models of alienation, exploitation and extraction. Embracing the panel’s patchwork style, I seek to combine theoretical reflections with narrative accounts of stories, tales, and experiences gathered during fieldwork in my presentation. I wish to open a space for those of us, not embedded in these place-based relational ontologies, to think about how to live by an ethics of care with more-than-human while resisting Western neo-colonial appropriation of Indigenous cultures.