ANCIENT FIRES BURNING BRIGHT original art by Pegi Eyers
PEGI EYERS
In times of massive change, we are challenged to recover our bonds to Mother Earth and be at home in wild nature, as an interconnected part of the flourishing of all life. And as we fulfill the directives of balance and right relationship, we realize the highest values for all those on Turtle Island - to participate in the beauty of Earth Community and protect the land for the Seven Generations yet to come. New versions of our timeless and archaic eco-story are needed more than ever, as we reclaim our relationship to the Ancestors and our land-emergent knowledge.
In times of massive change, we are challenged to recover our bonds to Mother Earth and be at home in wild nature, as an interconnected part of the flourishing of all life. And as we fulfill the directives of balance and right relationship, we realize the highest values for all those on Turtle Island - to participate in the beauty of Earth Community and protect the land for the Seven Generations yet to come. New versions of our timeless and archaic eco-story are needed more than ever, as we reclaim our relationship to the Ancestors and our land-emergent knowledge.
We are all Ancestors of the future, and this is how Ancestors live. Learn the Old Ways of your people and find or adopt a piece of land to love with all your heart. Re-embrace your true home and become empowered to hold space for decolonizing community to arise. Carve out a natural lifestyle, listen to what the Earth is telling you, and form bonds of resistance in solidarity with the original Earth Keepers of the land. Live in harmonious and sustainable ways on the land, celebrate and honor the land, and praise the land. Create the ceremonies, rituals, artistic expressions, songs and dances that express your own heritage and convey your interaction with the spirits of the land you love. Practice the sacred activities that dovetail with the cycles and the Great Wheel of the Year on the land. Plant when it is time, harvest when it is time, rest when it is time, and respect the living things – the plants and animals that have given their lives for your existence. Practice reciprocity and honour all beings, write and tell the stories when it is time, and prepare the soil when it is time. Root your heart to the earth where it can stay strong, stay your face to the moon, your skin to the sun, your hands to the soil, your eyes to the beauty of nature, your heart to the creatures, your wonder to the interconnectivity of it all, your gratitude to the Great Heart of Turtle Island, and your soul anchored in the deep dreaming of the land that will hold you in loving embrace throughout your long revolutions of birthing, living, dying and being born to live again.
Excerpt from "Seeking Settler Re-landing" by Pegi Eyers originally published in Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory & Practice, March 30, 2016
 | Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," a new book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, decolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. |
