Tag Archives: indigenous

Northeastern Indigenous Agroforestry

December 21, 2021

Thanks first peoples for simply living so that others may simply live. Thanks Jono Neiger for sharing this 1984 paper on indigenous agroforestry to the Northeast Permaculture Listserv.

Some Ecological Aspects of
Northeastern American Indian Agroforestry Practices

This paper was written in 1984 while I was a student of Professor Arthur Lieberman at Cornell University. Professor Lieberman was then Director of the Cornell Tree Crops Research Project and taught landscape ecology in the Department of Landscape Architecture. This version was submitted to the international journal Agroforestry Systems in 1988, but never published there due to its length. A somewhat condensed version was later published in the 1994 Annual Report of the Northern Nut Growers Association (Volume 85). For a broader perspective on Native Americans’ land management practices, see this online article by Doug MacCleery.
http://www.daviesand.com/Papers/Tree_Crops/Indian_Agroforestry/

“Figure 2. Reconstruction of Major Dietary Constituents in the Early Seventeenth Century (Indian) Subsistence Cycle (from Thomas [83]).”

Co-op’ing Ways of Thinking

In a conference webinar session about cooperatives (as a business model), we discussed how what we are taught about economics is not cooperative.

The myths of our capitalist culture tell us the commons is tragic, despite the authors of that myth (tragedy of the commons) building their arguments on shaky foundations, and having that myth refuted by a high quality scientist who won a Nobel prize for that refutation and clarification of managed commons.

In this discussion, someone made the great point about one reason we all benefit from passing leadership to indigenous and black leaders:

“I feel that that is one reason we need to lean into Indigenous Values and have BIPOC leaders in building Coops– because they have been holding it down for so long….and they know how to lead from a different reference point of conditioning and community resourcing…”

What will come of this?

January 24, 2021

Year 2222
200 winters away
How many generations will have passed?
What will I&I enjoy in life? What of one's own ways will continue?
What lessons will I&I have learned?
What challenges will I&I face?

What will I&I have of the essential gifts to sustain oneself? Wood, water, air, soil, energy?

#TreesAreTheAnswer #WeAlreadyKnow #Hózhó

A Need for Black and Indigenous People of Color in Leading the Healing of Food Systems

December 1, 2020

As Sylvanaqua Farms has said:
“Racism, environmental decline, animal welfare, and human health are tied in a Gordian Knot around the issue of food. Common sense would suggest untying it be left to people with demonstrated expertise in its varying facets:

– Indigenous land/water protectors (which includes farmers) who protect 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity
– People of color who are most familiar with the intricate nuances of American racism
– Livestock and hunting cultures around the world that regard the sanctity of all life (animal and plant) equally and in ways utterly unfamiliar to Euro/Western minds
– Members of strong, older food cultures that enjoy robust health without an industry devoted to nutrition”

– And as came up in a PASA 2021 conference conversations bout cooperatives: indigenous people and people of color are much closer to a cooperative mindset, compared with European men experiencing generations of learning to be competitive.

Language is our gift and our responsibility

November 30, 2020

“Language is our gift and our responsibility. I’ve come to think of writing as an act of reciprocity with the living land. Words to remember old stories, words to tell new ones, stories that bring science and spirit back together to nurture our becoming people made of corn.”

via Robin Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, page 347.

Mapu e Ixã remixed: Grief and Gratitude on Environmental Empathy And Fundamental Flux (cr0 & Mu)

December 10, 2019

I give thanks
for the source
for the music
for the indigenous people who share it
for the mutualism one can live
showin’ the way

Thanks
For the present

The grief of a flower.
The grace of a bird.

The wisdom of a way.
The finality of a word.

50 million year + mutualism
Resounding generation – we hear’em

—

A grief. I feel it for a brief time now and now again. Takes ya to the deeps, something that comes with ya to ya sleeps.
Environmental, mental, an ever sentimental scent that scarce sense keeps dyin’
What I & I am finding
Renewal keeps tryin’, LVX movement illumine what’s next
Each particle a wave
Each ending a new beginning
A new in-ing, a new unfolding
A new present olding
Each one teach one, love some way to say two become one
Some one to be, the one self you see part “I” part “the” part “we”
A memory out of each moment, a moment of momentum
And on and on and on went
. . .
5 element theory got folks kinda leery
Got me in peace like a circle and a square
And I dare in this bi-polar world to try to be a triangle in the spot
☉ne dot in a circle
That’s sun, that’s light, that’s life, that’s one
The boom of m☽☽n in the room ☽y☽lin’ through forests and tombs
And tunes, as life goes on
And on and on and on went
. . .
New beginnings, for ever
Grief and gratitude, toward Home one better
Shalom
Shalom Shalom
One Love

Thanks to Two Wise Women: Dr. Robin Kimmerer and Lyla June

November 13, 2019

Much thanks Dr. Robin Kimmerer and Lyla June, and all the ones who enable y’all, for sharing wisdom and leadership, teachings and stories.

I share this recognition of Robin and Lyla as both are inspirations, guides, and spiritual company even if from a physical distance. I encourage folks to go receive the gifts offered by these two indigenous women, and reciprocate with the world. Weaving ways of knowing, their work conveys wisdom that can touch the hearts of people from many places and walks of life. As in conscious hip-hop, spiritual science, and animated plants – it’s good medicine.

We are fortunate to work alongside keepers of indigenous and feminine mind alive and glowing at this time when we in the world are separated- rather than connected-to-place, when human systems tend toward masculine and active and controlling rather than feminine and receptive and flowing. “It’s all about the balance”, the reciprocity, the unity. I learn and am inspired and encouraged by these two indigenous women’s bridge-building (as in Robin’s Braiding Sweetgrass weaving together scientific and indigenous ways of knowing, biology and culture) and strength in forgiveness and oneness (as in Lyla’s talks on nonviolence and indigenomics). The stories they share and ways they express are ladders of love, lighthouses of truth, lifeboats of forgiveness – I give thanks.

In the culture I grew in there’s the common saying of “Amen” אמן as an affirmation of truth and faith. Its translation is simple and a fitting prayer in gratitude for these people’s works and gifts: So be it!

A mentor once helped me recognize that, especially for the deepest gratitudes, the only sufficient thanks is embodiment. Here’s to the work.

Truth, faith, compassion. . .peace, peace, peace, One Love

Some of the gifts Robin and Lyla are offering broadly:

Continue reading →

Recognizing Source: Indigenous Wisdom from Lyla June

November 7, 2019

These reflections are inspired by an interview with Lyla June at https://civileats.com/2019/11/07/the-native-musician-and-poet-revitalizing-indigenous-food-sovereignty

In my journey an important lesson is recognizing sources. As I eat, I consider what is the source of this that sustains me? I consider it and give thanks to it, whether it is nearby and wholesome or distant and complicated. The practice inspires spiritual exercise to have a greater capacity to consider that question, as a complete answer is ineffable. Giving thanks to the source does a lot of things, one of which is remind with humility that we too are a source.

Much thanks to Lyla June for the leadership and wisdom she shares. Truth, faith, compassion.

Favorite excerpt from this great discussion: Continue reading →

Bushcraft and whispers of culture

October 26, 2019

I begin giving thanks to the source, to the indigenous people of the land I’m in, and to the indigenous people of the ancestry I’m from.

Lest we forget, forests can provide for all our basic needs as humans. It may not be easy but it is true, and tight knit nutrient cycles remind us of our arboreal foundations.

This guy (Primitive Technology channel on YouTube) and bushcraft have been a huge inspiration for me. Whether that inspiration shapeshifts into homesteading or what, I have it near and dear to my heart.