It is common to think of time as moving in only one direction \u2013 from point A, through point B, to point C. <\/p>\n
However, many Indigenous peoples \u2013 including M\u0101ori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand \u2013 experience time non-linearly. <\/p>\n
Rather than picturing time as a straight line, we imagine it as recurring, spiralling, and recalling itself. <\/p>\n
How we conceptualise time could impact how we respond to ecological crises.<\/p>\n
Indigenous time\/s<\/p>\n
As M\u0101ori, we understand time \u2013 w\u0101 \u2013 non-linearly.<\/p>\n
Researchers Hana Burgess and Te Kahuratai Painting<\/a> contrast M\u0101ori time with colonial time, saying: <\/p>\n With settler colonial ontologies, time is flattened, made one dimensional, reduced to a linear process [\u2026] Along this arrow of time, the \u201cpresent\u201d is placed at the pinnacle of existence, disconnected from both the past and future.<\/p>\n M\u0101ori, however, do not place the present at the centre; as the same researchers put it<\/a>, \u201cthere is no centre\u201d.<\/p>\n We think with and as ancestors, and prophecy informs many of our movements. <\/p>\n For us, non-linear time finds natural expression in a metaphor: the koru, or unfolding fern frond. Researcher Paula Toko King and colleagues<\/a> note this represents<\/p>\n the continuous cycles of life and death and the unfolding of the cosmos, emerging from the realm of potentiality.<\/p>\n Spiralling time should not be confused with circularity.<\/p>\n As writer Makere Stewart-Harawira<\/a> explains:<\/p>\n a circle invariably returns to the point of origin, [however] the spiral never returns exactly to the point of origin but moves progressively forward in a process of constant motion and expansion.<\/p>\n Significantly, as Potawatomi scholar Kyle Powys Whyte<\/a> notes:<\/p>\n Spiraling time is an important topic of discussion when Indigenous persons compare their conceptions of temporality across different cultures.<\/p>\n Non-linear time<\/p>\n For many of us \u2013 Indigenous and non-Indigenous \u2013 non-linear time can be difficult to conceptualise, at first.<\/p>\n Consider memory, dream, imagination, and fantasy, all of which weave past, present, and future in ways that frequently impact how we act. <\/p>\n Think about your favourite season: every time it recurs, it is at once freshly present and reminiscent of past seasons. It may even prompt you to think about future ones.<\/p>\n We do not always realise that our experience of time is non-linear. And yet, for most \u2013 if not all \u2013 of us, it is. To experience time non-linearly is natural.<\/p>\n Importantly, as Kyle Whyte<\/a> explains:<\/p>\n Spiraling time does not foreclose linear, future thinking.<\/p>\n This is true of non-linearity generally, which is closer to linearity than the prefix \u201cnon-\u201d suggests (yet another way in which binaries constrain our thinking).<\/p>\n 3 important insights<\/p>\n Non-linear time could help us to navigate compounding ecological crises, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and mass extinction.<\/p>\n The common refrain, \u201cwe\u2019re minutes to midnight\u201d is often used to prompt a sense of urgency and push us to act quickly without considering all the consequences of doing so. Non-linear time subverts this, offering three important insights.<\/p>\n First, these crises will impact, and are impacting, people and peoples differently. Marginalised communities are closer to \u201cmidnight\u201d than others. For those who are feeling the effects of these crises, it makes more sense to say, \u201cwe\u2019re (already) minutes past midnight\u201d. In recent years, for instance, my iwi (M\u0101ori tribe), K\u0101i Tahu, has had to discuss the possibility of a managed retreat from the coastline<\/a>, as many of our marae (gathering places) are located on the coast.<\/p>\n Second, non-linear time encourages us to think about \u2013 and plan for \u2013 what comes \u201cafterwards\u201d. These crises are unlikely to lead to human extinction, and there will be non-humans who survive with us; so it benefits us all to think about how we might navigate collapse, and steps we could take now to transition to alternative ways of living<\/a>.<\/p>\n Linearity leads us to place too much emphasis on static points, such as thresholds<\/a>, which typically elevate humans over others. We might ask: what comes after \u201cmidnight\u201d?<\/p>\n Third, non-linearity challenges us to imagine beyond anthropocentrism. We conceptualise time in human ways, but it is not only us who are threatened by, and forced to navigate, these crises. Breaking free of linear time helps us to think about the world beyond \u201cthe human\u201d. It leads us to wonder<\/a>.<\/p>\n And what do we learn? That we humans are not the only ones here; that it isn\u2019t only us and \u201cthe environment\u201d; that to reduce non-humans to dimensions of \u201cthe environment\u201d \u2013 as we do when we treat others as exploitable resources \u2013 is, ultimately, oppressive; and that only by broadening our concern will we realise justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true, \u201cmidnight\u201d can be a dangerous time for humans; but by attending to non-humans \u2013 including nocturnal animals like kiwi, w\u0113t\u0101, and the brushtail possums I love \u2013 we will continue to find the dawn, not alone but together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is common to think of time as moving in only one direction \u2013 from point A, through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-469536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}