Re-Indiginization of Our Better Nature and Higher Potentials*:
“re-indigenization” = “a return to the past.” “Re-indigenization” = “a return to the past,”(OI, 100?) not to get rid of all changes since, but to remember our original and arguably, better selves and the higher purposes of those who lived and still live by the golden rule we would all do well to remember.
What Cajete calls “sacred ecology or sacred science.” (OI, Nelson, 12) others call “Traditional Ecological Knowledge,” (OI, Nelson, xxi) or TEK. “This ‘TEK’ or native science holds the memories, observations, stories, understandings, insights, and practices for how to follow the natural laws of a particular place.” (OI, Nelson, 12) And it is “knowledge that modern science knows [and] borrows from.” (OI, Settee, 43) –“To my knowledge, no one ever found a plant that had a medicinal use that the Indigenous Peoples who lived there (and lived with that plant) didn’t know about. Anywhere.” (OI, Mohawk, 171) And yet we scarcely recognize “Indigenous contributions to the food and medicine of the world and other essential areas of life.” (OI, Settee, 43)
“While Aboriginal People did not refer to their knowledge as ‘science,’ they knew the requirement for existence with scientific precision.”(OI, Settee, 44) “This knowledge of natural surroundings and biodiversity has been developed over millennia and through a careful process of observation, listening, experimentation, and adaptation.”(OI, Settee, 44) “They did all that experimental work for us, and we inherited the end result of that experimentation, that native science. And that is Indigenous Knowledge.” (OI, Mohawk, 172)
And the truth is, “we need both” – “western science and Indigenous worldview” (OI, *) “By combining Indigenous Knowledge…with Western Ecological Science, we can create better land care.” (OI, Martinez, et.al., 94) “It’s going [to] take more than just the traditional ecological knowledge base of Indigenous Peoples. It’s going to take more than the hard science of the Western world.” (OI, Thomas-Muller, 245) It’s going to take dialogue between these…including all the voices of all the ancestors we can access… (me) “traditional science and Western science” are two of many paths that ought to meet at their common center.(OI, Ross, 201) “By working the two systems of knowledge together, even though we can’t translate cosmologies across the board. I think we can create better ecological science.” (OI, Martinez, et.al., 94)
“The wise person prefers to live in harmony with the law of nature.”(I Ching, p.121) “the law of balance between decreasing and increasing, giving and receiving. What is excessive should be decreased. Likewise, what is insufficient should be increased. This is the way of the universe.”(I Ching, p. 337)
But “TEK is first and foremost practical knowledge for survival, not some mystical training for transcendence.” They are “skills for survival and adaptation.”(OI, Nelson, 13) And “This knowledge is also a living thing…because, of course, the people and the land also change.” (OI, Martinez, et.al., 101)
Modern people have much to learn from those who have spent many thousands of years of adapting to continually changing climate. “those cultures had a lot of very practical knowledge about how to adjust and survive in the face of major climate change…”(OI, Mohawk, 218) As Melissa K. Nelson put it in her Introduction, Native Americans have demonstrated powers of survival and adaptation we are going to need. (OI, Nelson, 3) But so far, “we’re not listening.” (OI, Mohawk, 218)
-“ordinary, everyday people have to have their sense of moral injustice ignited…that’s the…spiritual call of the re-indigenization of the world.” (OI, Rivera, 260)
“The process of re-indigenization means we have to decolonize our minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits and revitalize healthy cultural traditions.” (OI, Mohawk, 14) “re-indigenizing the peoples of the planet to the planet” (OI, Rivera, 259) “we all came from those who were Indigenous not long ago, and re-indigenization would be good for us all. (OI, Adamson, 35) “Therefore, all Humanity has to re-connect to their own Indigenous Roots of their lineage -- to heal their connection and responsibility with Mother Earth and become a united voice... All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer.”(2012 Jacob Devaney, Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement, Huffington Post, January 3, 2013)
To this end, Indigenous Peoples advocate for a return to natural democratic ways.
“What makes a council a true council is its system of democracy and collectiveness…the people must participate…in the decision making process.” (OI, Forest, 232) This includes “very basic things like keeping everybody in the loop of communication, making sure that everybody is at the same level, important leveling mechanisms reinforced in every way through folklore, through songs…making sure that everybody in the whole society has a voice, mutuality.” (OI, Biesele et.al.,75) “Good Governments listen to everyone…”(OI, Forest, 233)
“the minority voice is the most important voice.” (OI, Armstrong, 69) “The minority voice expresses the things that are going wrong, the…things that we’re not being responsible toward, the things that we’re being aggressive about or trying to overlook and sweep under the carpet or shove out the door. One of the things our leaders said is that if you ignore this minority voice it will create conflict in your community and this conflict is going to create a breakdown that’s going to endanger everyone. This conflict will endanger how we cooperate, how we use community as a process, how we think of ourselves as a cooperative unit, a harmonious unit, a unit that knows how to work together and enjoys working together and enjoys being together and loves one another.” (OI, Armstrong, 70)
We advocate a return to council ways - “a council, being a circle, is unbreakable. There is nothing more powerful than a circle.” (OI, Forest, 232) “The important thing passed down to us from the old ones… that the Original Instructions are for human beings is to live in a circle.”(OI, p.25) “Always cooperating, as the survival of the individual depended on the survival of the group. That was the instruction they all understood…”(OI, p.20)
“As human beings with minds, with the creativity that we have, we should be able to take into consideration how we can meet the needs of the minority…find every possible way that we can to bring that minority group into balance with the majority. The process that we call en’owkinwiwx asks us to do that and tells us that if one can’t do that…then our humanity…and our intelligence is at stake. We can’t call ourselves Okanagan if we can’t provide for the week and the sick and the hungry and the old and the people who do not have skills.” (OI, Armstrong, 71)
“re-indigenization” = “a return to the past.” “Re-indigenization” = “a return to the past,”(OI, 100?) not to get rid of all changes since, but to remember our original and arguably, better selves and the higher purposes of those who lived and still live by the golden rule we would all do well to remember.
What Cajete calls “sacred ecology or sacred science.” (OI, Nelson, 12) others call “Traditional Ecological Knowledge,” (OI, Nelson, xxi) or TEK. “This ‘TEK’ or native science holds the memories, observations, stories, understandings, insights, and practices for how to follow the natural laws of a particular place.” (OI, Nelson, 12) And it is “knowledge that modern science knows [and] borrows from.” (OI, Settee, 43) –“To my knowledge, no one ever found a plant that had a medicinal use that the Indigenous Peoples who lived there (and lived with that plant) didn’t know about. Anywhere.” (OI, Mohawk, 171) And yet we scarcely recognize “Indigenous contributions to the food and medicine of the world and other essential areas of life.” (OI, Settee, 43)
“While Aboriginal People did not refer to their knowledge as ‘science,’ they knew the requirement for existence with scientific precision.”(OI, Settee, 44) “This knowledge of natural surroundings and biodiversity has been developed over millennia and through a careful process of observation, listening, experimentation, and adaptation.”(OI, Settee, 44) “They did all that experimental work for us, and we inherited the end result of that experimentation, that native science. And that is Indigenous Knowledge.” (OI, Mohawk, 172)
And the truth is, “we need both” – “western science and Indigenous worldview” (OI, *) “By combining Indigenous Knowledge…with Western Ecological Science, we can create better land care.” (OI, Martinez, et.al., 94) “It’s going [to] take more than just the traditional ecological knowledge base of Indigenous Peoples. It’s going to take more than the hard science of the Western world.” (OI, Thomas-Muller, 245) It’s going to take dialogue between these…including all the voices of all the ancestors we can access… (me) “traditional science and Western science” are two of many paths that ought to meet at their common center.(OI, Ross, 201) “By working the two systems of knowledge together, even though we can’t translate cosmologies across the board. I think we can create better ecological science.” (OI, Martinez, et.al., 94)
“The wise person prefers to live in harmony with the law of nature.”(I Ching, p.121) “the law of balance between decreasing and increasing, giving and receiving. What is excessive should be decreased. Likewise, what is insufficient should be increased. This is the way of the universe.”(I Ching, p. 337)
But “TEK is first and foremost practical knowledge for survival, not some mystical training for transcendence.” They are “skills for survival and adaptation.”(OI, Nelson, 13) And “This knowledge is also a living thing…because, of course, the people and the land also change.” (OI, Martinez, et.al., 101)
Modern people have much to learn from those who have spent many thousands of years of adapting to continually changing climate. “those cultures had a lot of very practical knowledge about how to adjust and survive in the face of major climate change…”(OI, Mohawk, 218) As Melissa K. Nelson put it in her Introduction, Native Americans have demonstrated powers of survival and adaptation we are going to need. (OI, Nelson, 3) But so far, “we’re not listening.” (OI, Mohawk, 218)
-“ordinary, everyday people have to have their sense of moral injustice ignited…that’s the…spiritual call of the re-indigenization of the world.” (OI, Rivera, 260)
“The process of re-indigenization means we have to decolonize our minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits and revitalize healthy cultural traditions.” (OI, Mohawk, 14) “re-indigenizing the peoples of the planet to the planet” (OI, Rivera, 259) “we all came from those who were Indigenous not long ago, and re-indigenization would be good for us all. (OI, Adamson, 35) “Therefore, all Humanity has to re-connect to their own Indigenous Roots of their lineage -- to heal their connection and responsibility with Mother Earth and become a united voice... All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer.”(2012 Jacob Devaney, Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement, Huffington Post, January 3, 2013)
To this end, Indigenous Peoples advocate for a return to natural democratic ways.
“What makes a council a true council is its system of democracy and collectiveness…the people must participate…in the decision making process.” (OI, Forest, 232) This includes “very basic things like keeping everybody in the loop of communication, making sure that everybody is at the same level, important leveling mechanisms reinforced in every way through folklore, through songs…making sure that everybody in the whole society has a voice, mutuality.” (OI, Biesele et.al.,75) “Good Governments listen to everyone…”(OI, Forest, 233)
“the minority voice is the most important voice.” (OI, Armstrong, 69) “The minority voice expresses the things that are going wrong, the…things that we’re not being responsible toward, the things that we’re being aggressive about or trying to overlook and sweep under the carpet or shove out the door. One of the things our leaders said is that if you ignore this minority voice it will create conflict in your community and this conflict is going to create a breakdown that’s going to endanger everyone. This conflict will endanger how we cooperate, how we use community as a process, how we think of ourselves as a cooperative unit, a harmonious unit, a unit that knows how to work together and enjoys working together and enjoys being together and loves one another.” (OI, Armstrong, 70)
We advocate a return to council ways - “a council, being a circle, is unbreakable. There is nothing more powerful than a circle.” (OI, Forest, 232) “The important thing passed down to us from the old ones… that the Original Instructions are for human beings is to live in a circle.”(OI, p.25) “Always cooperating, as the survival of the individual depended on the survival of the group. That was the instruction they all understood…”(OI, p.20)
“As human beings with minds, with the creativity that we have, we should be able to take into consideration how we can meet the needs of the minority…find every possible way that we can to bring that minority group into balance with the majority. The process that we call en’owkinwiwx asks us to do that and tells us that if one can’t do that…then our humanity…and our intelligence is at stake. We can’t call ourselves Okanagan if we can’t provide for the week and the sick and the hungry and the old and the people who do not have skills.” (OI, Armstrong, 71)