Arkan Lushwala is a Peruvian ceremonial leader, healer, author, and elder known for sharing Indigenous wisdom and sacred leadership. In his book The Spirit of the Glacier Speaks: Ancestral Teachings of the Andean World for the Time of Natural Disorder, he asks: What if technology is not what saves us—but instead a radical transformation of our culture?

He invites us to consider that the wisdom needed to reinvent our culture has been here all along—in the traditions of Indigenous Andean people who live in deep relationship with Mother Earth to this day.

In this excerpt, called “The End of Human Supremacy,” Lushwala critiques the modern reliance on technology alone to repair environmental damage. He argues this mindset repeats the same human supremacy that caused the harm. True healing, he says, must come through cooperation with all beings of Earth, recognizing that the Earth itself carries the wisdom to heal.

He draws a parallel between white supremacy—now more widely named and challenged—and the broader, deeply ingrained supremacy of humans over nature, spread through colonialism, education, and economics. This ideology dismisses Indigenous science and ways of living in respectful relationship with the land.

Instead, Lushwala calls for humility: that humans “move to the margins” and let sacred, non-human intelligence guide us. Healing, he suggests, begins when we become vulnerable, listen to the spirit world, and allow ourselves to be guided rather than to dominate.

When all else fails?

BOOK EXCERPT: The End of Human Supremacy