Khasi Indigenous place-based ontologies and biodiversity conservation
In the Hills of Meghalaya, now part of North East India – a region whose boundaries were shaped by colonial rule – live the Khasi people, an Indigenous community in relationship with land, oral traditions, and reciprocal connections with both human and non-human. In the Khasi Worldview the Earth is Mei Mariang - Mother Nature - our origin, relation, and teacher. Our Mei Mariang is sacred - she nourishes, remembers, and holds us in ways no institution can. Our role as her children is to listen, care, and live in ways that honour this relationship.
Our stories, rituals, and collective being as held by our ancestors emerge not from the abstraction of nature, but from intimacy - a place-based ontology where the Earth is not separate or something to extract and labour for capitalistic gain, but she is a relation. In my journey of decolonisation and re-remembering my roots, to know is to dwell, to remember is to return, and to care is to be in kinship with all that lives.
Khasi land-based practices are inherently conservationist, emerging from generations of careful observation, spiritual relationship, and ecological interdependence. Sacred groves (Law Kyntang) remain untouched not through state legislation but through Indigenous belief systems – protected by rituals and forest deities. These spaces are not to be entered or exploited; they are revered as sacred and alive. Likewise, Reserved forests (Khlaw Adong), are communally managed and governed by ancestral laws for specific purposes such as water conservation and biodiversity protection, with strict restrictions on access and use.
Living root bridges (Jingkieng Jri), formed over generations by guiding the aerial roots of rubber fig trees, are powerful symbols of intergenerational knowledge and relational infrastructure showing harmonious connection between human and nature. They are not merely bridges – they are ecosystems in themselves, home to countless species of plants, insects, and animals. They offer not only passage but shelter, interconnection, and life. Khasi seasonal calendars, forest-based medicines, and clan stewardship systems are all rooted in long-standing relationships with the more-than-human world. These are not remnants of the past – they are living systems of care, conservation, and continuity, held together by a worldview where land is not a resource but a relative.
Yet this knowledge – ecological, oral, embodied; has long been marginalised by colonial and postcolonial systems that treat land as property and knowledge as extractable. Through the violent imposition of colonial education systems and the relentless expansion of capitalist development, younger generations have become increasingly disconnected from ancestral modes of learning rooted in land. This shift is not just cultural; it dismantles systems of care and has devastating consequences for biodiversity. When Indigenous knowledges are lost, cultural memory fades and the bond with land weakens. When that relationship is lost, ecosystems collapse, biodiversity disappears, and the Earth suffers – and when the Earth suffers, so do we.
By drawing on indigenous knowledge, oral stories, ecological practices, and community learning, I aim to centre relationality and care in rethinking institutional learning. Place-based ontologies are not static or romantic. They are adaptive, situated, and often forged in the crucible of loss and resistance. As global conversations around planetary futures continue, we must ask not only what we conserve, but how we conserve.
Conservation must centre not only land, but the relationships that sustain it. To conserve biodiversity without Indigenous guidance is to risk repeating colonial logics of control. To centre place-based ontologies, is to begin from relationship – to remember how to live with care, reciprocity, and respect for all life – for Earth.
Cana Nongkhlaw is the recipient of the 2025 Iain McCalman Honours Research Award.
Header image: Living root bridge by Rachit Yagnik on Unsplash