Easterine Kire’s Son of the Thundercloud: Indigenous Wisdom and Ecological Harmony

Abstract

Easterin Kire’s Son of the Thundercloud is a poignant narrative where the spiritual, mythical, and ecological worlds come together to narrate the journey of Pele across these worlds. Pele is a frame narrator in the novel who relates the physical world to the mystical world. The narrative, rich in Naga history and myths, highlights the man-nature relationship and simultaneously advocates for ecological sustainability. The paper explores how, through her poetic storytelling, Kire blends the themes of man-nature interconnectedness, folklore, and contemporary environmental concerns. Through the canon of indigenous myths and folklores, Kire challenges the anthropocentric view often seen in the Western perspective. The paper analyzes how ancient knowledge and wisdom are still relevant to the modern digitized world, how this wisdom is inherently restorative, and provides solutions for post-traditional problems. Using the theoretical framework of Wild Systems Theory (WST), a cognitive and philosophical theory, the paper delves into how living organisms (in this case, human beings) are self-sustaining systems placed in an energetically charged natural context. Son of the Thundercloud subverts the order of global and indigenous, natural and spiritual, and man-made. He tries to bridge the gaps through a re-imagined connection of environmental and spiritual harmony.