Recognizing indigenous knowledge
Let us include in our gratitude practice our ability to learn from the past, to recognize the harm done, and recommit ourselves to not repeating it.
Dear friends: Many folks in the U.S. gathered this past week to celebrate a day devoted to giving thanks. The mythology taught to schoolchildren, of a peaceful feast provided by indigenous tribal people to newly arrived and struggling European people, is just that: myth. The truth of this nation’s history is much more tangled in violence and conflict.
There are many sources telling truer, more fact-based stories of our past. For this weekend, I decided to share some information that comes from the indigenous communities that were on this land, taking care of it, living in its rhythms and patterns, creating sophisticated cultures and social structures, for generations before Europeans arrived. It comes in the form of a talk given by Lyla June, “an Indigenous public speaker, artist, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages from Taos, New Mexico” (https://www.lylajune.com/). The talk focuses on the solutions to climate change that can be found in ancient and effective agricultural and land management practices.
Celebrating the annual harvest, pausing our busy lives to focus on gratitude for what this beautiful planet provides, these are useful, important, essential rituals. Let’s not get lost in the mythology; instead, let us include in our gratitude practice our ability to learn from the past, to recognize the harm done, and recommit ourselves to not repeating it. We can heal the land and our relationships with one another if we are willing to do so, and to learn.
Thank you for your company on this journey.