Blog Posts

Climate Disaster & Massive Change

3/31/2017

"VISBY MASSACRE 2" by Jeremy Herndl

PEGI EYERS

The worldview that drives our civilization is one of endless growth, which is impossible on a planet with limited resources. Already we have pushed the natural world to the extreme limit of what sustains all life, with the pollution of water and air, the destruction of ecosystems, and the surface temperature of the globe itself being altered beyond natural law. And what is the main driver for climate change, the most destructive force of all? It is our high-carbon economy, our addiction to a massive fossil-fueled industrial transportation network, a nature-crushing grid of highways, “anthropocene” changes to the land with agricultural mega-business, and the manufacture of millions of objects, technologies, plastics, consumables, gadgets, luxuries and amenities that we take for granted. Throw in an out-of-control population bomb and the human infrastructure required to support this explosion, and the chaos we face is grave indeed. The looming disaster is human-induced, and increased greenhouse gases are leading to extreme weather events and massive global warming.

In terms of solutions, we are far past the point where individual actions like “recycling” will make a difference, and the only way forward is to dismantle our civilization by mobilizing the citizenry as in times of war. Yet do we see this happening? Are we collectively turning away from the worldviews and technologies that are killing the planet? Are we finally coming to understand that our humancentric worldview will destroy us in the end? Are we not just one interconnected part of Earth Community? Yet human beings are experts at cognitive dissonance, and it seems likely that we will remain in denial until the four seasons turn into one, the drought intensifies, water shortages increase, and the landscape re-arranges itself into strange corroded places we have never seen before. We cannot be absolutely sure what the future will hold, but the data projections on rising global temperature do not lie.

"THE BURNT FOREST" by Vasily Polenov, 1881

So what do we do in the face of the massive change that is coming? The environmental movement that created so much awareness at the beginning is essentially a failure. For the sake of the bottom line, governments and corporations continue to cling to extraction capitalism and toxic technologies, and the population is obsessed with consumerism, escapism and entertainment. Yet for all the tragic news, movements everywhere are seeking to “shift the paradigm” before it’s too late, to reduce emissions, install renewable energy, resist the lure of civilization with degrowth and voluntary simplicity, and seek out bioregionalism and the support that local community can offer. Alternative currencies, solidarity networks, localvore, rewilding, the ancestral arts, and reviving our bond with the natural world are all activities we can be pursuing right now, in our own place and in our own time. And as we experience Empire collapsing right before our eyes, there is a guideline we can all share.

“Uncolonize now, voluntarily, intentionally, with full awareness and the selective use of resources, OR, uncolonize later under duress and hardship, as a dramatic response to traumatic conditions when the current economic paradigm reaches the limits of its sustainability. But uncolonize you must, or fade away with the memories of a lost civilization.”

Presentation by Pegi Eyers for the 10th Annual Community Movements Conference at Trent University, February 4, 2017. From Climate to Culture: The Complexity of Change

Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for uncolonization, social justice, ethnocultural identity, building land-emergent community & resilience in times of massive change.
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon.com
www.stonecirclepress.com

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We Are the Ancestors of the Future

3/30/2017

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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 these 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 uncolonizing 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. 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

We Are the Ancestors of the Future was also published in response to the question "What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be?" posed by the Center for Humans and Nature: Expanding Our Natural and Civic Imagination. In the face of challenge and struggle, how can we draw on our Ancestors for knowledge, resilience, and hope? As we look to the future, what will we offer to our descendants to draw upon in their own challenging times? What are the stories we will tell today, and how will we enact those stories?

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, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.

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Earth Mother Magic

2/23/2017

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Pegi Eyers

Venus of Laussel

You rise in my dreams,
like the power of stone,
breaking the glass door
between wind and the body.
You are the measurer:
blood of my moons,
lines of my years.
A thread of breath
connects me to time,
wind in my blood,
a thread to your womb,
Thirteen short lines -

You rise, then are gone

>Patricia Monaghan<

Magic happens in amazing ways. We cannot predict the time or the place, or the shape of the mystery or deity that enters our world. As a practicing Animist, I have often experienced deeply personal messages and affinities out on the land, such as the appearance and timing of phenomena like a rainbow, the cawing of a raven, the patterns etched in sand, or the visitation of a snake. For me, having a deep companionship with wild nature is the very essence of animist knowing, and I continue to see, feel, sense, observe and communicate with other presences in Earth Community - creatures, beings, elements, plant allies and the archetypal animal spirits. I have also communed with inexplicable events and earth spirits in the landscape that are firmly connected to local indigenous cosmologies. But until one beautiful warm summer day in 2011, awe-inspiring visitations from my Ancient European Ancestors were few and far between.

After a long hike through wild lands up from Stony Lake, Ontario, winding between dense forest, overgrown fields and outcroppings of rocky Canadian Shield, I was indulging in “earthing,” which is the practice of resting on the ground for the regenerative benefits to one's body, mind and soul. As I casually looked up to the sky from my wilderness meadow at the clouds billowing overhead, they coalesced into the exact shape and archetypal configuration of the "Venus of Willendorf," the well-known carved-stone figurine from an ancient matriarchal culture in Old Europe. With stunned disbelief I watched as every detail became clearer and clearer, and SHE, this magnificent inexplicable feminine presence, hung in the sky for many minutes before hazily drifting off into other shapes and forms, as clouds always do.

Digital re-creation of the Venus of Willendorf floating in the clouds

Humbled and shaken by this great visitation, to this day I am still learning to accept, and acquiesce to, the powerful consciousnesses that work through the natural world. Writing about this Great and Ancient Mother now, one of the primordial “Old Shes,” I still can’t discern the how or why of the Great Mystery, but hold this moment in my soul forever. I can see how human beings need to interpret and make associations with events that are unfathomable, to give our experiences individual purpose and meaning. What was my iconic “Venus” telling me? That every important cultural keystone connected to the land is stored forever in the body of the earth and the sky? That the spirits and ancestors will show themselves at the right time? That nature is a feminine force – ever loving and nurturing? That I am personally associated with cultures that honor the feminine? That the world right now has an urgent longing for the feminine? That I needed to recover the long-lost lifeways of my Ancestors, and find the trail that leads back to Her?

Found outside the Austrian village of Willendorf, this figurine is part of a wider neolithic tradition, and has been carbon-dated to 24,000 BCE. As modernists we can't know for certain if the culture included large rounded women, or if the artifact was sacred or just an everyday object, or if it was exclusive to either woman's or men's spirituality, or if it was portable, or part of a more extensive altar. Yet we can say with certainty that the neolithic ancestors of Old Europe held the procreative force of the feminine as sacred. The “Venus of Willendorf,” if not an actual representation of a living woman, is an expression of fertility and all the cyclic earth-emergent chthonic powers of fecundity and feminine nurture. We can only speculate on the particulars of a culture that held these grounded values, but what a wonderful collective that must have been! Rooted in the truth of life, and the patterns of nature reflected in the human form, this beautiful hand-held object far transcended the female “beauty ideal" that was later promoted in the western world.

Red ochre had been applied to the carving, the ancient igneous pigment used worldwide to express the sanctity of feminine moonblood and the source of all life. To the ancient ones it was obvious that women, with their regenerative cycles, performed the same functions as the earth, which was the source of all nourishment, protection and procreative power.

Once established, a connection to Earth Mother Magic can never be broken, and the deeper meaning in my own personal mythology continues to unfold. Around a year after this visitation, I was blessed to receive my DNA profile from Oxford Ancestors, which placed my motherline 32,000 years ago among the ancient cave-painting cultures in the valleys of France. I discovered that I am a member of the largest and most resilient Celtic group, the mtDNA-based Helena Clan, one of the world clans descended from “Mitochondrial Eve” as traced by Bryan Sykes in The Seven Daughters of Eve. Without a doubt, at some point in ancient history my neolithic clanmothers either created the small "Divine Feminine" figurines that were found all over Europe, or were honored for their fecundity, fertility and wisdom in this way by the tribe. To explore this amazing connection through space and time to my life today, is an extremely thrilling ongoing project.

In the meantime, and as an affirmation of this exciting work, a dear friend arrived home from Europe last year with a gift in tow. From her extended holiday in France, she made a point of going on a day trip to Lascaux, to tour the beautiful natural landscape there and visit the replica cave and cultural centre. As I viewed her photos and listened to her thoughts on this sacred site so important to my own mythology, much to my astonishment she placed a Venus of Willendorf pendant in my hand, brought to me with care from my ancient neolithic homeland!

And to deepen the magic even further, my dear friend lives within a crow's flight from the exact same wilderness meadow near the shores of Stony Lake, where the Venus of Willendorf had appeared to me in 2011. Earth Mother Magic indeed! Honoring the life force in creation and knowing that all beings are sacred is the core belief of matriarchal, indigenous and animist cultures, and it is our collective responsibility to support this interexistence with all life, with the highest respect and generosity of spirit.

REFERENCES

Her Words: An Anthology of Poetry About the Great Goddess edited by Burleigh Muten   >link<
Venus of Willendorf by Dr. Bryan Zygmont Khan Academy >link<
Icons of the Matrix by Max Dashu >link<
Radical Doll Making from Willendorf to Today: The Relevance of an Ancient Tradition by Jude Lally >link<
The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science that Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry by Bryan Sykes   >link<
Lascaux: Movement, Space and Time by Norbert Aujoulat    >link<
Cave of Forgotten Dreams A Film by Werner Herzog   >link<

Excerpts originally published in Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community (Stone Circle Press, 2016)

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ASR Book Signing at Chapters Peterborough

1/19/2017

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“As Canada’s convoluted relationship with First Nations continues to take center stage, social justice for Indigenous peoples has become the overwhelming need of our time.” Ancient Spirit Rising

“Learning from First Nations in Canada brings great responsibility,” says local author Pegi Eyers. With her new book Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community she delves into developing good intercultural competency skills, charting the route to reconciliation, and the many pathways to earth spirituality for all people. From three years of research Ancient Spirit Rising digs deep, and provides clear and concise guidelines to important questions. What can we do to right the wrongs of history? What is our responsibility in the nation-to-nation relationship that built this country? What can we do to effectively make change?

Meet author Pegi Eyers, a leader in the Ancestral Arts movement at a book signing at Chapters Peterborough this Saturday, November 19 from 1 – 4 pm. On her quest to discover the truth about the Settler/First Nations divide, Pegi’s strong bonds to the Kawartha landscape provided the anchor for her thinking and writing process. She sees herself as part of a new generation of Canadians who are “awake and aware,” and finding ways to take on the activist role. Since the era preceding Idle No More her own work in social justice has steadily increased, and one of her many projects maintaining the Allies in Solidarity with First Nations (Canada) group on Facebook has been very rewarding.

In response to recent directives from First Nations Elders “to return to our own Indigenous Knowledge,” Pegi points out that our own ethnocultural recovery and spiritual practice can go hand-in-hand with social justice work and earth remediation. For those who hear the “call of the wild” or are yearning for a more intimate relationship with nature, today’s exciting movements in animism, rewilding, voluntary simplicity, slow food, eco-living and sustainable community are all outlined in Ancient Spirit Rising.

An all-inclusive blend of cultural studies, social commentary, ecospirituality and practices for recovering the Old Ways, Ancient Spirit Rising is a compendium for change! Join the author Pegi Eyers for this exciting book launch and signing at Chapters Peterborough this Saturday from 1 – 4.

Pegi Eyers is the author of "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Amazon.com
Stone Circle Press

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True Reconciliation Requires Restitution

11/30/2016

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Pegi Eyers at the Serpent Mounds, Hiawatha First Nation, Ontario, Canada, 2013

PEGI EYERS

Partnering with the original Earthkeepers of Turtle Island in our shared love of the land, for common causes and issues of environmental protection, will do much to heal the First Nation/Settler divide. Yet peaceful cohabitation on Turtle Island will not occur automatically, until our process of “unsettling the settler” has acknowledged the original treaties that set out terms for our peaceful co-existence. As agreements set up between sovereign nations, treaties guide the rights, actions and obligations of both First Nations and Settlers, and the phrase “We Are All Treaty People” is not just a metaphor. On lands that are governed by treaties, our white identity needs to be reframed by our responsibility to First Nations and to the land itself. We also need to acknowledge that the basic premise of the treaties was flawed, as the Settler understanding of the treaty process was based on money and land acquisition, whereas the understanding of First Nations was based on a shared responsibility to the land, and the other-than-human world.

Intrinsic rights to land-imbedded culture were negotiated in the original treaties, to empower all people to live peacefully on the land, and the directives for mutual First Nations/Settler co-existence are still in place today. Against all odds, First Nations continue to remind us of our shared responsibility as treaty people, and continue to welcome us into a future that could manifest the original visions of mutuality and respectful relationship their Ancestors held. What better model to follow than the treaties, as the paradigm shifts to localized peak-oil communities, and we challenge the imperialist worldview, both for First Nations and ourselves? Placing our trust in First Nations community instead of Empire, and giving them our support to restore the treaties in our shared territories, would seem the most logical thing to do.

With honesty, humility and respect, we can share the ethics of the journey right now, as we move back and forth between the processes of allyship, activism, reconciliation and finally, retribution. It is also our responsibility to educate the overculture on these issues, for “as long as Canadians see a wilderness extending beyond their cities and towns, they do not belong to the land and will continue to view aboriginal peoples ambivalently, with envy and sometimes disgust. Before Canadians can feel comfortable with themselves and their territory, and cast away their obsessions with identity and goodness, Canada needs a rite of passage, a cathartic experience, through which non-aboriginal Canadians earn aboriginal peoples’ respect. I am not referring to ‘truth and reconciliation’ – reconciliation is more than a confession or apology, it must include some form of restitution. Beneficiaries of injustice must be willing to share their wealth and privileges with the victims; they must believe that by sharing, they too gain something - trust and a shared country.”
(Russel Lawrence Barsh)

Russel Lawrence Barsh, “Aboriginal Peoples and Canada’s Conscience,” Hidden in Plain Sight: Contributions of Aboriginal Peoples to Canadian Identity and Culture, edited by David R. Newhouse, Cora J. Voyageur and Dan Beavon, University of Toronto Press, 2005.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada ~ 94 Calls to Action

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada lists events, projects, resources and other ways to get involved. “The truth of our common experiences will help set our spirits free and pave the way to reconciliation.” www.trc.ca

"Peaceful Co-existence"
Chapter 29 excerpt ~
Ancient Spirit Rising:
Reclaiming Your Roots
& Restoring Earth Community
by Pegi Eyers
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon.com
www.stonecirclepress.com

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Are White People Indigenous?

10/7/2016

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PEGI EYERS

The colonial history of the places we call home, and current political realities shape how we use the language of “nativization” and “re-indigenization" to describe our process of re-bonding with the land. This blog addresses the current (and unresolved) controversy on the use of these terms, and describes the boundaries that are in place to ensure that as Settler-Allies we continue to support the First Nations of Turtle Island in their ongoing cultural and spiritual recoveries.

To talk about the ambiguities we encounter in our re-indigenization process as white folks, let’s start off by asking - who is Indigenous? And how do we define indigeneity?

It has been said that we are all indigenous to place, but to guide us in these deliberations there is an established definition accepted today by First Nations, academics, social justice activists and many others. According to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues the term “indigenous” has been developed by extensive criteria including the following:

1. Self-identification as Indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their member.
2. Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies.
3. Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources.
4. Distinct social, economic or political systems.
5. Distinct language, culture and beliefs.
6. Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities.

The UNPFOII criteria make it clear that indigeneity is based on more than just simple land occupancy, but is also defined as a specific community or culture that is informed by the land over a long period of time.

So as members of the colonizer society, do we actually fulfill any of these criteria? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Looking at the six points there is not a lot that applies to us. Unlike Indigenous people, we belong to a culture that thrives on constant change, rejects the value of ancestor veneration, and does not view the land itself as a key component in our spiritual/cultural practice. And instead of carrying our traditions from generation to generation in an unbroken line the way Indigenous people do, our Settler Society heedlessly ignores and discards the past, and what has gone before.

However, let's go on to consider what Encarta has to say on the term “indigenous.” The actual dictionary definition is “originating in and naturally living in a region or country, belonging to place.” Unfortunately in our rush to colonize the Americas, those of us in the European diaspora gave up our bonds to our places of origin, and our indigeneity as connected to those lands. However this does not change the fact that all land is sacred land, and the potential is always there to re-connect to the Earth, bypass the dominance of modernity, and go directly to the source of our eco-being. Despite the raging debate on extending the definition of the term “indigenous” to those of European descent, re-landing ourselves is of incredible importance in our mutual care for the Earth, and nativization in a bioregional context must be part of our essential uncolonization process. I would even go so far as to say that as members of Earth Community, it is the birthright of the entire human family to be indigenous to the Earth, and to appreciate and love the natural world. We must all face directly our innate need to be at one with wild nature, and to enjoy the blessings of Mother Earth and all her creatures as we go forward in this time of massive change.

A quotation from the Buddhist philosopher Derek Rasmussen addresses our dilemma. “What makes a people indigenous? Indigenous people believe they belong to the land, and non-indigenous people believe the land belongs to them. Can we commit to the land and each other? Let's hope so, because our current civilization is a one-time-only experiment. Once it has failed, we are going to have to re-braid ourselves back into the web of ‘all our relations’ - plant, animal and human. If there are future civilizations, they will be indigenous.” [1]

In my book Ancient Spirit Rising, I explore a set of place-based criteria that align with our embeddedness in nature. However separated by the human-built world, we are gifted at birth with the elements of air, water, earth and fire that are specific to the landscape around us. Inseparable from the archetypal patterns and intricacies of nature, we are imprinted with ions of air, fire in the form of energy from the sun, and especially the life-giving waters of a particular ecosystem. The molecules of the watersheds of our region are virtually found within our bodies, as these life-giving waters make up 60% of our physical being.

As children we are drawn to the natural world, and often our earliest memories are of time spent in green spaces with flowers, plants and trees. The same building blocks of organic matter such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen that form the Earth and all Her creatures, also sculpt the human form. Unique to each individual, human beings also have an innate sensitivity to electrical and electromagnetic fields, and we are equipped with a multitude of sensory processes by which to interact with the other-than-human world. The biome is part of us, our bodies resonate with the energies of the earth, and it can be said that we are indigenous to place from the moment we are born.

Indigeneity has also been described as “belonging to ancestral land,” which means that many generations have come and gone, to mark their collective psychic and physical presence on the land. So by virtue of our buried ancestors and the spirits of our Beloved Dead that inhabit our psychogeography, how many generations does it take to establish deep connections? Two generations? Five generations? Ten? According to renowned author Leslie Marmon Silko, indigeneity is quantified by having at least a thousand-year presence in a specific place. However long we have been here on Turtle Island, our bonds to the landscape into which we have been born and/or are currently living, will always be preceded by the much deeper attachments of the original First Nations.

Based on our collective lack of care for the natural world, it is a Settler Sidestep to suggest a debate on the occupancy issue with Turtle Island First Nations. For example, my motherline in Ontario goes back to 1832, which is seven generations of interlopers being born on Turtle Island. If we define “indigeneity” by an extensive number of generations being born and reclaimed by the land, seven generations barely qualifies. Perhaps the "indigeneity debate" would be better served after Settlers have successfully healed our disconnect from nature and have become caring Earthkeepers and stewards of the land. Or at the very least, (as it is for all human groups worldwide) dedicating the bones of our Ancestors to the soil of our homeland(s) would make us responsible to that land.

The tomb of my ancestors in Orillia ~ 7 generations of interlopers on Turtle Island

This passage from Sirona Knight comments on on how our cultural and spiritual heritage becomes imbedded in the land. “Within the Celtic Spiritual traditions, the physical spirit and body of one’s Ancestors are given back to the land at the time of their death. In this way, the Ancestral energy, the sacred spirit of each person literally lives within the land, waiting to be called upon in ritual and ceremony.” [2]

We cannot deny that in a few generations, the spirits of our ancestors now inhabit Turtle Island. Yet the official meaning of “indigenous” (and rightly so) will continue with the baseline of the UNPFOII definition. Faced with paradoxes such as Indigenous peoples in privileged societies who have not been colonized, yet still have a long-standing ecological knowledge of their landbase, UNPFOII highlights the importance of self-identification, and that it is Indigenous peoples themselves who ultimately define their own identity as “Indigenous.” Right now, using the UNPFOII definition is integral to the legal cases on human rights and land claims being challenged in the courts by First Nations, which is the key reason why other groups (like white folks) should NOT be using it.

So we see that using the term “indigenous” to self-identify for us as Settlers is erroneous, and even more so when we consider the trend for non-native spiritual seekers to call themselves “indigenous” while continuing to incorporate the theft of Turtle Island Indigenous Knowledge and tools into their New Age, rewilding, transformational, Neo-Pagan or "shamanic" practices. Even more alarming are the white supremacists, both in Europe and the Americas, who are co-opting the terms “indigenous” or "nativism" to connect them to a place of origin, in order to perpetuate their metapolitical practices of racism, superiority, and white dominance over people of colour.

In my book Ancient Spirit Rising I respond to the genocidal effect of cultural appropriation by advocating for Settlers to recover their own ancestral-sourced knowledge, to reclaim an authentic ethnicity, and to use identity markers other than “indigenous.” Overall I use the terms “indigenous” and “re-indigenization” very sparingly, and uneasily I might add, in favor of the terms "pre-colonial," “ancestral knowledge” “heritage,” "ancestral arts" and “ancestral roots."

The continuing antithetical use of the term “indigenous” by white people in identity theft and cultural genocide has forced organizations such as CAORANN Council (Celts Against Oppression, Racism and Neo-Nazism) to label any white person who uses the word “indigenous” as an identity marker to be racist. An excerpt from the hard-hitting CAORANN Statement "On Indigenous Knowledge and Indigenous Identity" is reproduced here, as it carries much relevance to the controversy.

“Recently there is a movement on the part of some non-Natives - Americans, Canadians and Europeans - to identify as 'Indigenous European.' The first people to use this phrase were white supremacist groups, who are appropriating the term 'Indigenous' to make it seem like white people are somehow an oppressed minority. Others are appropriating it because they have racist stereotypes of Native people as all "mystical" and therefore white folks who call themselves 'Indigenous' are somehow more mystical too. We have seen non-Natives using this cloak of 'Indigenous European' in an attempt to colonize councils of actual Indigenous people, and to even lead and pretend to speak for real Indigenous People. We feel this is an act of racism and attempted cultural genocide. We are shocked and appalled at these attempts by non-Natives to displace and disappear Native Peoples, and we strongly advise non-Native people to shun the use of 'Indigenous' or 'Indigenous European' for ourselves or our spiritual traditions. We already have terminology, in our own languages, for our ancestral, earth-honoring ways; we don't need to steal terms and identities from brown people. From this point forward, if you are a colonist or a descendant of colonists who insists on calling yourself 'Indigenous' or 'Indigenous European' (or the ridiculous oxymoron, 'Neo-Indigenous') we will assume you are an appropriator and a racist.”

There is no mistaking the position of CAORANN, yet their claims on "Indigenous European" need to be challenged. Any description of "Indigenous Europeans" as members of the colonizer class in the Americas has to be separated out from those in Europe. There are genuine groups in many European countries who still live in the same homelands their ancestors have occupied for centuries, and are most definitely Indigenous to place (and fit the UNPFOII definition). Offshoots of functioning European cultures in the Americas such as the Gaeltacht Bhaile na hÉireann (the North American Gaeltacht), a designated Irish-speaking area in Tamworth, Ontario, have their own terms for self-identification, and would probably have no need to engage with the "indigeneity debate."

To make the polarization of the "indigeneity debate" even more difficult, there are many well-respected First Nations thought leaders and visionaries engaged in decolonization work right now that apply the terms “indigenous” and “re-indigenization” to all people currently living on Turtle Island. Statements from Melissa Nelson, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, John Trudell and Diane Longboat among others are widely available, and have been compiled here. Yet these declarations are in no way representative of all First Nations. First Nations are NOT homogenous or a monolith – there is a huge diversity of opinion and methodology within Indian Country. Yet language is constantly shifting and changing, and the fluidity of certain words defy ownership. There may always be multiple meanings attached to highly-charged words such as “indigenous.”

In any case, considering the outrage that is caused by the white use of the term “indigenous” it comes down to a question of personal ethics, and having a well-defined moral compass. Do we really want to add an extra layer of harm to First Nations by co-opting language that is not our own? There is no easy answer to this controversy, yet we can conclude that using “indigenous” as a term for self-identity is not the way to go. Instead of questionable practices, our re-landing should be synonymous with social justice, allyship, solidarity, and developing intercultural competency skills with First Nations, the original inhabitants of Turtle Island. Meanwhile, the genocide, oppression, human rights abuses and assimilation of First Nations continue to happen every single day in the Americas. It certainly makes our public debate on the term “indigenous” seem rather absurd, doesn’t it?

Posted by ᐋᐧᐱ ᒪᐢᑯᓯᐢ on social media October 26, 2022

Defining "Indigenous" - Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta

This blog originally appeared as a talk for The Canadian Ecopsychology Network (CEN), June 16, 2016. "Pegi Eyers - Fine Points of Re-landing (Reindigenization)" >video<

NOTES
[1] Derek Rasmussen, “Non-Indigenous Culture: Implications of a Historical Anomaly,” YES! Magazine, July 11, 2013. (www.yesmagazine.org)
[2] Sirona Knight, Empowering Your Life with Wicca, Alpha Books, 2003

Read more on social justice, ethnocultural recovery, Settler re-landing, rewilding, ancestral connection, sacred land and animism in Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community by Pegi Eyers.
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon.com
www.stonecirclepress.com

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Full Disclosure/My Positionality on New Age!

2/19/2016

4 Comments

PEGI EYERS

In the process of researching my award-winning book Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community I came across many studies, books and dialogues that contributed to my unpacking of New Age Spirituality. A major part of my research was to examine the widespread practice of “shamanic” identity theft and the appropriation of cultural and spiritual property from Turtle Island First Nations, which stems directly from the New Age World. Under the guise of self-development modalities and “transformational” or “enlightenment” themes, I began to see that a myriad of other questionable beliefs and practices have also transpired in the past 40 years, including:

Delusional thinking,
magical thinking,
cult mentalities,
conspiracy theories,
reliance on urban myth,
a misguided belief in a fin-de-siècle “ascension” or “golden age” myths,
a misguided belief that somehow spiritual forces created our aspiritual materialistic society,
living in a fantasy world,
narcissism,
self-aggrandisement,
spiritual bypassing,
solipsism, and
perspectivism (assuming others share your worldview).

Also present in alarming proportions are:

Guru adoration,
co-dependency,
preying on the gullible, the innocent and the mentally ill,
deceiving and dissempowering gullible people by doling out readily-available information to keep them “on the hook” and center the New Ager as the Guru or spiritual authority,
presenting dreams, visions, delusions and UPG (unverified personal gnosis) as fact,
a prevailing attitude of spiritual materialism i.e. grazing at the “spiritual buffett” or shopping at the capitalist-driven “spiritual supermarket,”
mistaking the acquisition of “spiritual tools” and “flavour of the moment” workshops for the spiritual path itself,
racism,
a belief in white supremacy,
the arrogance of cultural appropriation,
ignorance of one’s own positionality from having white privilege and entitlement,
ignorance of other ethnocultural groups (including those being appropriated from),
the stereotyping and fetishizing of Indigenous people as the “exotic other,”
a “holier than thou” complex that precludes any engagement with the political process or social justice,
wacky theories,
and wrong-headed universalist themes such as “we are all one.”

These are just a few of the many dysfunctions that continue to plague the modern New Age “spiritual seeker” experience!

With my own proximity to New Age over the years in Goddess Studies and womancentric art-making I was baffled by these behaviors, and the serious lack of critical thinking within the New Age Community. The problems were so severe I started a New Agers Anonymous recovery group for folks who had similar epiphanies, and wished to move on from their Nuage brainwashing. From my recent research I was able to validate my feelings about New Age practices, and articulate the most troubling elements. Being publicly called a “lightworker” when I had NEVER made any claims to this kind of self-identify was just one of the more disturbing experiences that I had in New Age community.

Based on my unpacking, I have had to completely disassociate myself from New Age thought and practice. But to disassociate myself from those who still hold these beliefs and practices does not necessarily follow. At the same time that I intend to actively critique New Age Capitalism, I feel that my “new and improved” stance can be respected just as much as I can respect those who still practice these modalities. We continue to share common ground in uncolonizing, shifting the paradigm to ecological civilization, healing ourselves and the land, and protecting Earth Community. As adults, we can “agree to disagree” and have a dialogue about our mutual development as human beings, instead of severing our connections as friends, colleagues or associates. As an example of this mature behavior, Dixon Wragg in Resources for Independent Thinking wrote a scathing critique on New Age practice, yet he continues being great friends with the New Agers in his community, who still welcome him into their spaces even with his adversarial and alternate views.

If we can achieve this same kind of relationship I would be pleased – let’s continue the dialogue, because there’s lots to talk about!

4 Comments

Allyship and Solidarity with First Nations

1/24/2016

1 Comment

BY PEGI EYERS

"Collision of Worldviews" Tolowa Woman (Edward Curtis) and Victorian Woman

In today's world of self-help and other transformational movements, Sacred Activism has meant to take care of our own recovery (and by magical extension the healing of others) from this dysfunctional society we live in. And as a natural expansion of this theme, Sacred Activism embraces altruism and the spiritual path of service, and places other people and members of Earth Community ahead of ourselves. Especially in times of massive change, combining social and environmental justice with our own spiritual trajectory is gaining ground, and in many progressive circles, social justice has become the spiritual path itself.

To use the much-appropriated phrase "we are the ones we have been waiting for," today as members of the colonial project in the Americas we are waking up to the fact that we need to take responsibility for the toxic legacy of our own Ancestors. We did not personally perform the work of racism, white supremacy, slavery and genocide that built the nation-states of Canada and the USA, but we have the opportunity right now to do the work of Sacred Activism and right these wrongs. For if not our generation - who and when?

Here in Canada, Allyship and Solidarity are not superficial practices when we consider the most marginalized among us, the First Nations and original peoples of this beautiful land. Beyond the conventional definitions of “special interest group” or “multicultural mosaic” a wide diversity of First Nations have original bonds to the Earth that pre-date the arrival of our European ancestors by thousands of years. First Nations worldviews that revere and protect the Earth are still in place today, and by assisting them in their struggles for sovereignty, we are ensuring that precious watersheds, lands and ecosystems are protected for our entire Earth Community.

It may not register that the genocide and oppression directed at First Nations in the process of Empire-building has anything to do with us, but the exact same agenda is still happening today with land theft, resource extraction and assimilation. To their ultimate credit, First Nations have been resisting the juggernaut of Euro-colonization in both ideology and action for centuries now, and have engaged with the full restoration of their Indigenous Knowledge, heritage and cultural practices. Their new-found strength, solidarity and contemporary self- determination has given rise to community cohesion and grassroots activism, and through the Allyship Model, white people can now contribute our time and dedication to that struggle as well.

To understand our own colonial history and transform our relationships with First Nations, we need to face the inconvenient truth of our paradoxical past and shake off the complacency that comes with white privilege and power. As John Milloy says, “there are actually two Canada’s - aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canada.” Our struggle, as the descendants of the original Settler Society, is to shift from unconsciousness, racism, denial and guilt about our colonial legacy to the righteous anger of critical thinking and social justice action.

As we come to an authentic recognition of our shared history with First Nations and explore the myths and misconceptions we have had about each other, we become empowered to use our new-found awareness in building solidarity, and as a catalyst for change. There is much that we can do to eliminate institutional racism, and contribute as Allies to the anti-oppression, human rights and land claims struggles of our First Nations neighbours.

"How To Be an Ally to Indigenous Peoples" by Syracuse Cultural Workers

Here are are some suggested initiatives for giving back to Turtle Island First Nations.

Allyship and Solidarity in general starts with self-education on racism, white privilege, allyship and First Nations issues, mobilizing (which is showing up for rallies and actions), followed by long-term organizing in the community that can lead to successful coalitions.
Join your local activist community. Protests, marches, rallies, demonstrations, disruptions, civil disobedience, and all types of creative rebellion have the potential to create social change. Get to know the history and current challenges of the Indigenous community closest to you, and take direction from that community as to what you can do as an Ally.
Select your battle(s). To affect political reform and social change we must have an active participation in politics. Work with the political process to change the archaic legislation affecting Indigenous peoples, such as land claims, treaty denial, resource theft, or the gender discrimination inherent in the Indian Act. Initiate petitions, call, write and pressure your MP, cabinet members or the Prime Minister; write letters to the editors of major newspapers; and lobby and form outreach groups to mobilize at the local, regional or national level. Make inroads in your own community to fulfill all 94 Recommendations of the Truth & Reconciliation Summary. Align with social protests and movements and practice an engaged civic activism – speak up and act! Don’t be complicit with the status quo by your silence or inactivity. Forms of social media offer spontaneity in actions and patterns of political activism.
When a First Nations person in your community asks for assistance in person, through an organization or on social media, respond! Debating the issues, agreeing “in theory,” or indulging in some kind of casual exchange with those who have experienced oppression all their lives highlights your privilege, and is demeaning to the First Nations person. When dialogue is happening, the last thing you want to do is assume that “everyone is on the same page.” Learn humility, listen, and be willing to get “hands-on” with the real needs of the First Nations person or group.
Offer your skills as a volunteer for any number of pressing issues, projects, organizations or grassroots movements. Assist non-native or native-led wellness, social justice, or environmental NPO/NGO organizations that benefit Indigenous communities with your time, resources and/or money.
Do practical things in your community to assist marginalized First Nations who are homeless and require care and protection. For the needs of the shelter, contribute funds, volunteer, raise money for food and other necessities of life, donate clothing, recruit local businesses for sponsorship, stand up for the civil rights of the homeless, and help create ways and means for their empowerment and new direction in life.
If you are a teacher in the mainstream school system, don’t teach the master narrative or the dominant view of history; teach history from the point of view of the oppressed. Educating children and youth is the first step toward transforming our society to one that is free of the intersectional oppressions and based on principles of equity. Lobbying to make anti-racist training and white privilege studies mandatory in the education system would be an excellent use of your time.
Educate others! Talk to other white people about racism, white privilege, historical truth and the third world conditions that exist in Canada. Northern First Nations live in disgraceful ghetto-like (de facto apartheid) conditions because of racism perpetuated by white Canadians, and it is white Canadians who need to reverse this hegemony.
Come to the defense of First Nations - speak out and act (!) whenever you see appropriation, stereotypes, offensive fashion accessories, dehumanizing mascots, stupid jokes or racist statements that are directed toward native people. Do this independently, and on principle. It is not necessary to inform a First Nations person every time you speak out on their behalf, but it is necessary to take responsibility for the battle.

First Nations in Canada remind us that this country was founded on a treaty relationship between two (or more) sovereign nations for the benefit of all, and the original meaning of the first declarations of the Canadian nation-state confirm that “We are all Treaty People.” Yet, “Indigenous people in Canada are literally some of the most legislated people in the world.” We need to confront the Canadian authorities en masse to express our outrage at the disgraceful treatment of First Nations, and to protest the government refusal to honor treaty rights. And all those who are working to convert Ottawa-centric decision-making into a true working partnership should have our full support.

Our solidarity as allies has the potential to build bridges and renew relationships between native and non-native people, communities and nations. Whether we are approaching anti-racism as a new direction or have been working as a change agent for years, there is no shortage of tools for the Sacred Activist to make amends, and actively serve the needs of indigenous community. Entrenched racism and archaic laws benefiting imperialism, corporations and industry are blocking change, and First Nations need our help now more than ever.

>_________________________________________<

Quotations in Order of Appearance:
1. Erroneously attributed to “Hopi Elders” by New Agers, "we are the ones we have been waiting for," is originally from a 1978 poem by civil rights activist June Jordan, which was recently popularized by Alice Walker in her book We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness, The New Press, 2006.
2. John Milloy, Historian & Professor, Department of Indigenous Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, National Day of Prayer, Honour the Apology, Peterborough, July 25, 2013
3. Cheyanne Turions, “Reflecting on Couchiching: Some Thoughts on what it Means to Navigate,” Cheyanne Turions, (blog)
(http://cheyanneturions.wordpress.com)

>_____________________________________________________<

This article originally appeared in the monthly webzine One Thousand Trees, February 2015, having the theme "Sacred Activism." What could be more "sacred" than taking responsibility for healing the fractured relationship between the Settler Society and Turtle Island First Nations?

Read more on social justice, ethnocultural recovery, Settler re-landing, rewilding, ancestral connections, sacred land and animism in Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community by Pegi Eyers.
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon.com
www.stonecirclepress.com

1 Comment

First Nations on Ancestral Connection

12/11/2015

0 Comments

Everyone needs to get back to their
own Indigenous Knowledge (IK).

Onaubinisay (Walks Above the Ground) / James Dumont
Anishnaabe Elder & Traditional Teacher
5th Degree - Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge

Onaubinisay (Walks Above the Ground) / James Dumont

PEGI EYERS

Every journey has a starting point, and for my book Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community it was the mandate I kept hearing from Indigenous activists, scholars and visionaries all over Turtle Island, that all people need to return to their authentic ancestral knowledge. Highly-esteemed Anishnaabe Elder and traditional teacher James Dumont has been telling us that “everyone needs to get back to their own IK,” and Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe (Lakota) has proclaimed that “the effort to protect Mother Earth is all of humanity's responsibility, not just aboriginal people. Every human being has Ancestors in their lineage that understood their umbilical cord to the Earth, and to always protect and thank Her. Therefore, all humanity has to re-connect to the Indigenous Roots of their own lineage - to heal their connection and responsibility to Mother Earth.”

Simon Brascoupe (Algonquin/Mohawk) vividly reinforces our thriving cultural recovery movement when he says that “the world will have to change its basic value system to save the planet. This is not to say that westerners should become like aboriginal people. But Western society needs to learn from indigenous people about respecting and living harmoniously with Mother Earth, and return to their own religious and spiritual teachings, their own ancient systems of knowledge, and their customs and practices that respect Mother Earth.”

Simon Brascoupe

Chief Arvol Looking Horse

Turtle Island First Nations continue to speak out on on the need for all peoples to become grounded in heritage and place. As members of Earth Community, it is the birthright of the entire human family to be indigenous to the Earth, to appreciate and love the natural world, and to find our “indigenous place within.” (Planet IndigenUS) By returning to our earth-rooted belief systems, and “reintegrating ourselves with our indigenous selves, we simultaneously reintegrate ourselves with the rest of humanity.” (Ward Churchill) In addition to localization, re-landing and reinhabitation of place, the re-centering of First Nations values is a movement that needs to happen in every society worldwide, as it is “about re-indigenizing the peoples of the planet to the planet.” (John Mohawk - Seneca)

John Mohawk

Ward Churchill

Robert Lovelace

Melissa K. Nelson

The ancient and new idea of fusing our ethnoautobiography with the natural places we call home to define our nativization is addressed by Melissa K. Nelson (Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian). “We come from our DNA, our ancestors and our descendants – the strands of spiralling heritage that give us our roots and the threads to the future. Revitalizing indigenity means reclaiming the personal and ecological watersheds we come from, as part of our eco-cultural identity.” With a passion for the Earth as our common ground anything is possible, and as Robert Lovelace (Tslagi/Algonquin) suggests, being indigenous to place is achieved “when the human and ecosystem activity support and enhance one another.”

Many highly-regarded First Nations thought leaders and visionaries engaged in decolonization work apply the term “re-indigenization” to all those currently living on Turtle Island, but non-natives must avoid “indigenous” as an identity marker, reaching instead to our own ancestral traditions for authentic terms to self-identify such as Scots Gaelic, Ásatrú, Hellenismos or Romuva (for example). The term "Indigenous" is highly political, is clearly defined in UNDRIPS/UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and belongs to the original First Nations of Turtle Island. As a clarification, it is helpful to think of "indigenous" as a verb, not a noun!

Recovering our specific ethnic or culturally-based indigenity is key, as suggested by Zainab Amadahy. “If the aim of decolonization is to rid ourselves of colonial mindsets why not centralize our own wisdom traditions when they enable us to think and act in ways that support our communities, including Mother Earth, Our Relations and the Great Spirit?”

"Everyone is Indigenous. All descend from the sacred waters, the land, and the cosmos. Everyone has been subjected to the same forces of separation, abstraction, and division. Spirit separated from mind, heart from intellect, being separated from relationship with food sources, from relations with the waters, the star nations, and from covenants with the sacred sites. All anyone has to do is go back far enough, and there is a time when you were connected to the sacred." Chase Iron Eyes (Oglala Sioux)

Chase Iron Eyes

Michael Alcazar

Additional declarations by First Nations leaders and their allies on the mandate to recover authentic ancestral traditions for all people.

“Ordinary people have to have their sense of moral injustice ignited. They have to come to understand that they are being called upon to care about what happens to the peoples and living things of this world. That’s a huge job, but that’s the spiritual call of the re-indigenization of the world.”
John Mohawk (Seneca)

“As we move from an egocentric, colonialist ideology back toward Indigenous ancestral knowledge that is ecocentric, and move through that transition, we all recognize and forgive our part in the equation, and actively work toward embracing our humanity, reaching out to each other and recognizing that we are all part of the same tribe - humankind.” Michael Alcazar
(Indigenous permaculturalist, veteran, artist, designer, builder, outdoor experiential facilitator, movement fundamental specialist and educator)

“Compared to indigenous ways of knowing, western knowledge systems contain zero knowledge, as they have completely lost their way in the past 500 years, and do not see the abundance in either people or the natural world. All of us are indigenous members of Earth Community equally - there is no higher placement of a master over another - and it is high time for all of us to become Indigenous again.” Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva

John Trudell

“Because we are made up of the earth - our common ground, so to speak - we are all the descendants of tribes. We have genetic memories. Inside of our genetic memories, the power connection exists to our ancestral past. Each and every one of us is a descendant of a tribe.” John Trudell (Santee Dakota)

“We all sat before the sacred fire of life. We all came from the same blood. We are all members of one human family, and therefore, we are all indigenous to our beloved Mother Earth.” Chief Phil Lane, Jr. (Dakota/Chickasaw)

“Underneath our skin we are all indigenous people, but how much we choose to rediscover and revitalize this knowledge in our work and everyday life is a decision that has tremendous bearing on the future of us all. The knowledge of the Americas will begin to rise again, not only through the earth, but through the people of the earth. It will feel as if we are waking from a dream.”
Apela Colorado (Oneida)

Apela Colorado

Chief Phil Lane, Jr.

“The task for Settlers is to realize they have Settler mind and not replicate Settler-Colonialism. Settlers need to heal from what happened to their culture. With the fallacy of the melting pot, they were made to feel ashamed of their own culture(s), and were forced to become “American” or “Canadian.” However, Settlers are now required to stand in their full spirit.”
Faith Spotted Eagle (Yankton Sioux)

“Reconciliation with one's own Ancestors can lead to a very clear knowledge of what to do in order to bring about the sacrealization of one's own environment, so that the environment can become nurturing to the self.” Malidoma Somé

"The world is changing, and it's time to pay attention - for humankind to find value in our lives as intrinsically related to the other-than-human. Like our Ancestors before us, we may learn something about ourselves, and find insights in our oldest Indigenous traditions. If we demonstrate respectful attentiveness to the world we live in today, it is likely that we will find new techniques, songs, practices, and even ceremonies for our life enhancement."
Daniel R. Wildcat (Muscogee)

"Everything you can possibly need is found within. Don’t dig into another’s wisdom traditions - practice your own roots and belief systems - and commit your life to the Earth." Kim Wheatley (Anishnaabe)

Faith Spotted Eagle

Daniel R. Wildcat

Malidoma Somé

Kim Wheatley

“Mother Earth is indigenizing all of us – everything we need to know about the future will come from the land - how to live and how to correct our behavior. The land is going to shift our governance and economy, mental and physical health – it is the land that will indigenize us.”
Diane Longboat/Kahontakwas (Mohawk)

“A great many native people have a long-standing relationship with the natural world. But that relationship is equally available to non-natives, should they choose to embrace it.” Thomas King (Cherokee)

“Beyond race, ethnicity or political definitions, Indigeneity can become a social ethic. In this way, the re-indigenized person or community is a perfectly integrated part of nature rather than separate from it. Life practices intent on TEK, and knowledge of the land’s local realities and regenerative capacity, become the guiding force for human occupation.”
Jeannette Armstrong (Syilx Okanagan)

Diane Longboat

Jeannette Armstrong

"All humans have the right to return home, and become indigenous to this earth, to become real human beings living their full potential as caretakers of life, to become people with big hearts living in cooperation with each other and with other forms of life." Arkan Lashwala (Peru, Arawaka Ceremonial Center)

"Stepping outside our own cultural and educational framework is exceedingly difficult—difficult, but worthwhile. As we seek to redefine our evolving relationship with nature, the knowledge systems of Indigenous people can provide useful models. But the goal is not to appropriate the values of Indigenous peoples. As an immigrant culture, Americans must start to engage in their own process of becoming indigenous to this place and regain their roles as members of the ecological community."
Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi)

"We all have indigenous roots, and can reclaim an indigenous awareness by re-learning gratitude for our ancestors, our homelands, and our presence on the land. The colonized self is only a fragment of our full beauty, freedom and well-being, and by slowing down we are able to learn new lessons, and grow relationships with local ecosystems and all beings in Earth Community. 'Indigenous' is not a self-identifier, but a renewed awareness in our genealogy, our bonds to the land, and the larger story of our self. Dreams, mythic stories, and cultivating community are all ways to heal the disconnect from our own ancestral roots, and the natural world."
Leny Stobel (Kapampangan / Filipino American)

"All of our ancestors, throughout time, have been in a deep relationship with Mother Earth." Carolynne Crawley (Mi'kmaw)

"You white people need to find your own traditions. They're out there. You don't need ours." Vine Deloria Jr. (Lakota)

Arkan Lashwala

Leny Strobel

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Carolynne Crawley

"Any people who are sincerely trying to reconnect to the old traditions and awareness of their land, and are deeply aware that communication with the land is a two-way
process, can call themselves Indigenous."
Core message offered to those with Irish heritage
in Ireland and the Metis diaspora, from Cree Elders
Lewis Cardinal and Jerry and Jo-Ann Saddleback.
November 2022 >link<

As we ponder the ethical questions of re-landing to place, there are also affirmations being offered by important leaders in the non-native social justice, transformational healing and ancestral arts communities. Here is a sampling of those voices.

“So what makes a people indigenous? Indigenous people believe they belong to the land, and non-indigenous people believe the land belongs to them. Can we commit to the land and each other? Let's hope so, because our current civilization is a one-time-only experiment. Once it has failed, we are going to have to re-braid ourselves back into the web of ‘all our relations’ - plant, animal and human. If there are future civilizations, they will be indigenous.”
Derek Rasmussen

“Each of us has the ability to act powerfully for change. Together we can regain that ancient and sustaining harmony, in which human needs and the needs of our companions on the planet are held in balance with the sacred, self-renewing processes of Earth.” David Suzuki

"The world is in an ecological and spiritual crisis and those of us who are close to our roots are best equipped to effect change and facilitate the healing of Indigenous cultures, the land, the planet, and the heart of humanity."
Griogair Labhruidh

With or without modernity “we are hard-wired to experience everything our ‘deep time’ Ancestors experienced, and our own wildness.” Frances Weller

"The primary reason that white people, especially white Americans, appropriate from marginalized traditions is because they have been stripped of their own. And if we want white Americans to stop doing that, the best remedy is to encourage them to respectfully and carefully learn about, and reclaim their own ancestral traditions." Alley Valkyrie

"After many years I have been able to conclude only one thing about humankind. We are tribal animals. All of our ancestors, no matter what their ethnicity or where they lived, were tribal. Furthermore, I believe that this was no accident. It wasn't a thought-out choice - as I see it, human beings are biologically, psychologically, and sociologically tribal. It's when human beings begin to live outside of the tribal mode of existence that they begin to deteriorate." Kurt Kaltreider, PhD

How did those of us descended from the Settler Society lose our ancestral connections? In our rush to colonize the Americas, we gave up our bonds to our places of ethnic origin, and our indigenity as connected to those lands. Consciously or not, with the founding of the Americas the sacrifice of our spiritual ecology and ancestral knowledge, and the lack of white ethnic or cultural identity has affected our empowerment and psychological well-being. Not totally secure in our sense of belonging to the “new world,” we accepted the imperialist paradigm and expressions of false nationalism that were imposed upon us. The building of Empire has forced us to become caricatures of ourselves, and we endlessly sift through myriad identities and cultural surrogates while ignoring the treasures and truths in our own authentic ancestral traditions.

The call to reclaim our own Indigenous Knowledge can be reframed by the many exciting new movements in neopaganism, rewilding, primitivism and ethnocultural reconstruction that are happening today, and our cultural recovery is well underway. Yet our process of reindigenization must also mean rejecting Empire and the dictatorship of the western paradigm, with its unsustainable economic system, religious dominance, white supremacy, intersectional oppressions, harmful technology and all the philosophies that are killing the planet. By declaring ourselves as earth-connected peoples again we are reaffirming a return to ourselves, to a respect for all life, to earth-connected culture, to peaceful co-existence and to honoring the Earth in all we think, say and do. What could be more important?

Until we realize that we are one people, we are all connected, and we all depend on each other and the Earth for the survival of humanity, we will continue down the path of separation and disconnect. We must reconnect with our Indigenous roots because no matter where we are from, or who we are, we are ALL Indigenous to somewhere. An awakening is on the rise!
"We Are All Indigenous to Somewhere"
Xiuhtezcal Roske-Martinez

Wisdom from Doug Good Feather, author of "Think Indigenous"

Think Indigenous: Native America Spirituality for a Modern World
Doug Good Feather

"The ability to Think Indigenous helps us reconnect with our ancestral spiritual knowledge, find a sense of balance in our daily lives, live in congruence with the environment, get clarity and understanding of our purpose, enhance our natural intuition and psychic abilities, and attract and allow all that is genuine and sacred. At this time in history, there may be nothing more important to humanity and Mother Earth than restoring essential elements of our indigenous ways back into our modern world and our daily lives.

The fundamental nature of our collective indigenous spirituality is what unites us all as one people, and we can all rest assured that the Creator does not require anyone to be born Native American in order to understand how to Think Indigenous.

Doug Good Feather, author of Think Indigenous is a Native American Lakota, born and raised in the traditional Indigenous ways of his elders on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He is a direct descendant of Chief Sitting Bull, and is the executive director and spiritual leader of the Lakota Way in Colorado and co-founder of Spirit Horse Nation.

Carmen Baraka 1948-2021 (San Carlos Apache) >link<

Read more on social justice, ethnocultural recovery, Settler re-landing, rewilding, ancestral connections, sacred land and animism in Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community.
www.stonecirclepress.com
Available from Amazon >here<

Sources for Quotes in Order of Appearance ~

James Dumont (Anishnaabe) “Introductory Remarks,” Elders and Traditional Peoples Gathering, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, February 12-14, 2010
Chief Arvol Looking Horse (Lakota) Statement in solidarity with the Idle No More movement, Daily Headlines in Indian Country, December 31, 2012 (http://ndnnews.com)
Simon Brascoupe (Algonquin/Mohawk) “Aboriginal Peoples’ Vision of the Future: Interweaving Traditional Knowledge and New Technologies,” Visions of the Heart: Canadian Aboriginal Issues, David Long and Olive Patricia Dickason (editors), Thomson-Nelson, 1998
Planet IndigenUS: Celebration of Nations, Harbourfront Centre Toronto, August 2012 (www.harbourfrontcentre.com)
Ward Churchill, Indians are Us? Between the Lines, 1984
John Mohawk (Seneca), “Re-Indigenization Defined,” Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future, edited by Melissa K. Nelson, Bear & Company, 2008
Melissa K. Nelson (Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian), “Revitalizing Indigeneity,” Bioneers Conference 2011, January 26, 2015 (www.bioneers.org) (www.youtube.com)
Robert Lovelace (Tslagi/Algonquin), The Architecture of a Decolonized Society: Reindigenizing the Self, Community and Environment, presentation, Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC), Trent University, Peterborough, ON, January 18, 2013
Zainab Amadahy, “Why Indigenous and Racialized Struggles will Always be Appendixed by the Left,” Unsettling Settlers: Where We Talk about Unsettling Our Settler Selves, August 1, 2012. (http://unsettlingsettlers.wordpress.com)
John Mohawk (Seneca) “Re-Indigenization Defined,” Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future, edited by Melissa K. Nelson, Bear & Company, 2008
Michael Alcazar, "Indigenous-led Permaculture Movement Brings Resilience And Food Sovereignty to Pine Ridge Reservation," article by Maia Wikler, video by Syd Woodward, www.cometolife.com
Vandana Shiva, Sacred Seeds, Lecture, KWIC and Trent University, Wenjack Theatre, Peterborough, ON, November 16, 2014.
John Trudell (Santee Dakota), John Trudell Speaks at Judi Bari Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. School, Berkeley CA, April 26, 1997
Chief Phil Lane, Jr. (Dakota/Chickasaw), Global Indigenous Wisdom Summit, The Shift Network, November 18-20, 2014
Apela Colorado (Oneida) “Indigenous Science,” Edges: New Planetary Patterns, Vol. 4 Number 1, June 1991. Apela Colorado, PhD (Oneida) is Founder and Director of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network, Lahaina, HI. (www.wisn.org) (http://ancestors-speak.blogspot.ca)
Faith Spotted Eagle (Yankton Sioux), "Faith Spotted Eagle on the Settler-Colonial Mind-Set," Indian Country Today, January 17, 2017 (https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/faith-spotted-eagle-settler-colonial-mind-set)
Michael Bertrand, Talking with the Ancestors ~ Initiation and the Purpose of Life, an Interview with Malidoma Patrice Somé, Race and History, 2000 (www.raceandhistory.com/Science/malidoma.htm)
Daniel R. Wildcat (Muscogee), Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge, Fulcrum Publishing, 2009
Kim Wheatley (Anishnaabe), forum, The Parliament of the World's Religions Toronto, 2018
Diane Longboat (Kahontakwas (Mohawk), "Indigenous Wisdom and Prophecies Are Helping Humanity Shift to New Paradigms," Global Indigenous Wisdom Summit, The Shift Network, November 18-20, 2014.Thomas King (Cherokee)
Jeannette Armstrong, PhD, (Syilx Okanagan) “Indigenization,” TEDx Okanagan College , October 31, 2011(www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLOfXsFlb18)
Arkan Lashwala, "Voces de Sabiduría Ancestral," Sacred Fire Foundation, February 13, 2018. (http://bit.ly/2n5whYb)
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Milkweed Editions, 2013
Leny Stobel (Kapampangan / Filipino American) Centre for Babaylan Studies Webinar, Fall 2018 ~ "Indigenous Reclamation through Ancestral Research" lenystrobel Center for Babaylan Studies
Carolynne Crawley (Mi'kmaw), Alliance for Ecopsychology & Social Justice, International Panel, June 16, 2021 www.natureandforesttherapy.org/guides/carolyn-crawley
Derek Rasmussen, “Non-Indigenous Culture: Implications of a Historical Anomaly,” YES! Magazine, July 11, 2013. (www.yesmagazine.org)
David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, Greystone Books, 2007
Gaelic rapper Griogair Labhruidh, "The Celtic Questionnaire," Celtic Life Magazine, August 2019 www.celticlife.com
Francis Weller, “Five Gates of Grief,” Robert Bly’s Minnesota Men’s Conference, November 4, 2013. (www.youtube.com)
Alley Valkyrie, "Cultural Appropriation, Nuance, and ‘Day of the Dead,’ " Gods&Radicals, November 17, 2017 (https://godsandradicals.org/2017/11/17/cultural-appropriation-nuance-and-day-of-the-dead)
Kurt Kaltreider, PhD, American Indian Cultural Heroes and Teaching Tales: Evenings with Chasing Deer, Hay House, 2004

Wisdom from Bill Plotkin, founder of Animas Valley Institute and author of Wild Mind

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Pagan Values - "Know Thyself"

6/10/2015

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PEGI EYERS

Let's face it, for all the wondrous diversity in reclaiming an earth-centered path and the magnificent flourishing of Pagan gatherings, groups and scholarship, modern Paganism is a very recent development here on Turtle Island. Considering that many of us were born into the industrial-growth post-war materialistic aspiritual culture of the 1950's (yes - we are that old!), moving into our current era of earthwise ethics and spiritual expression is an incredible achievement, and a paradigm shift indeed.

When the first beatniks, hippies, transformational gurus, New Agers, Wiccans and Pagans got going in the sixties (!), sourcing models for earth-connected community was definitely a challenge. Finding new templates from our original culture and spiritual roots in Old Europe was one direction, and in the enthusiasm of rebellion, looking to the cultural and spiritual property of Turtle Island First Nations was another. Unfortunately at the time (let’s refer to it as the “dark age of colonialism”) First Nations did not have much to say on the matter, but it has become cohesively clear over the years that the practices of cultural appropriation (that still continue today) are an extension of racism, white privilege and the hierarchy of the oppressor/oppressed relationship in the Americas. And as the descendants of the first Settlers (or those more recently emigrated to the Americas), guess which side of that dynamic Pagans are on?

Our values as Pagans in should include a serious examination of how our spiritual traditions have come to be. Without being aware of it, belonging to the dominant society has allowed us to be oblivious to certain facts, and those in the Pagan community who are descended from the original Settler Society do not exist outside of the rubric of Euro-dominance. This entitlement, and the white privilege that we hold, has meant that Turtle Island First Nations have been invisible to us, and has allowed us to appropriate elements of their culture and identity as a normalized and unchallenged practice. Elements of cultural and spiritual property that have been lifted from Turtle Island First Nations are found in Pagan rituals for creating sacred space, four directions petitioning, smudging, talking stick circles, drumming, “featherwork,” vision quests, sweatlodge recreations, sacred fire gatherings, initiation rites, and the aesthetic delights of Indigenous material culture such as headdresses, wardrobe, jewellery and décor.

Not only are these practices carried on without permission from the originating Indigenous peoples, but First Nations have made it abundantly clear that these acts of Euro-imperialism interfere with the very real process of cultural recovery, healing from genocide, sovereignty-seeking and reclaiming of tribal lands that is still going on in Indian Country. Also, from a Pagan perspective, the tokenizing, objectifying and voyeuristic presence of First Nations (the “other”) in our spaces is just as disempowering as exclusion, and these practices should be reprehensible to the values that we hold.

On another note, the vast majority of Turtle Island First Nations are strongly opposed to the use of the term “shaman” by any white person, and anyone self-identifying as a “shaman” is immediately perceived to be lacking in authentic cultural connection. “Shaman” is never used in genuine Turtle Island community to describe wisdom keepers, medicine holders, healers or other Elders, and First Nations view the promotion or marketing of “shamanic healing,” “core shamanism” or “universal shamanism” to be egotistic, a hubristic gesture of elitism and a sign of disrespect to the original knowledge keepers, the Evenki-speaking Tungusian and Samoyedic tribes of eastern Siberia. In my opinion, the contemporary over-use of the term “shaman” (or “shamanic”) to describe a vast array of practices, attitudes and mystical experiences has rendered it almost meaningless (!), and as a highly-charged identity marker, the use of “shaman” is becoming more and more problematic.

Pagans need to understand that in today’s hopeful climate of Turtle Island First Nations resurgence, it is considered an act of racism, aggression and domination when a "pseudo-shaman” refutes or ignores the requests or demands from First Nations to stop with their cultural appropriation. Even if a false “shamanic” identity has been perpetuated for years and the practitioner has an established business, they need to stop aligning with the racist agenda of colonialism. Shifting to the authentic earth-connected wisdom traditions of one’s own ancestors and offering that to one's cultural group is not such a difficult thing, and would be a blessing to all involved! So-called “shamans” have re-created themselves once, and can do it again (!), this time using their true identity and ethnicity, and their followers will love them for it. In fact, with the millions of spiritually-starved and culturally-alienated diasporans in the Americas, it is inconceivable that those focused on spiritual and cultural renewal would not see the value in offering their own European Ancestral Teachings to others.

As Pagans, our exciting journey of revitalization continues, but we can certainly learn from our mistakes, and do so much better. As we travel along our earth-centered paths and refine our values as contemporary Pagan people, mending our fractured relationship with First Nations (who are the original holders of all earth-centered paths here in the Americas), and social justice should be our first priority.

This article was originally submitted to the "Pagan Values Blogject 2015" with the theme, "How our faiths impel us to react to situations of injustice or entrenched classism and racism and sexism."

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Pagan Values - "Know Thyself"

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