Reclaiming Indigenous Wisdom Within You
/🌎 It is Indigenous Peoples Week 🌎
No matter where you live on this abundant planet, if you're a yogi or Earth Wisdom advocate - this is a significant week for you.
Indigenous cultures that live(d) close to the Earth’s cycles understand that everything is alive - this way of knowing is called animism, a way of being that dominates human history and was the way of your ancestors- no matter where they are from on the globe.
This way of being stands in stark contrast to the very recent idea that Earth is inert matter without a spiritual dimension, known as materialism. This rise of this way of thinking happened to coincide with the rise of capitalism about 250 years ago - not even a blink of the eye in the human history.
Yoga is an animist practiced, designed as a means of embodying and honoring the elemental forces of the Earth. When India was colonized by the British Empire, a materialist culture, the animist practice of yoga was criminalized, punishable by death.
Similarly, Indigenous cultures and languages in the US are animist. The US, also a materialist culture, criminalized the animist practice of indigenous culture and languages.
My ancient European Ancestors also had a rich animist culture and language that revolved around tribe and harmony with the Earth. Rome, where the roots of materialism were sown, colonized my ancestral lands around 100 B.C., making the practice of these ways and languages illegal. To this day, these ways have survived only in small subcultural pockets, of which I am proud to be part.
Rome ultimately transformed into the British Empire and it is persuasively argued that the US today, born from the British Empire, is a continuation of that original colonial energy of Rome.
All of our attempts to heal through the wisdom ways of yoga and Earth honoring is colored by these relationships.
Why is an animist relationship to the Earth
so powerful for deactivating violent, patriarchal systems?
How do we to unwind this legacy of violence towards the Earth and her peoples?
This question can feel so big that I can feel my body immediately become immobilized, cowering with fear at the prospect of all the change that needs to happen and wondering if its too late or if there is really anything a small human like me can do…
When I catch myself spinning out I remember that the foundation of any movement for social change must come from internal shifts first.
We can hustle, sign petitions and activate as much as we want but if our relationship to the indigenous values of all of our ancestors is colonized, we can’t avoid but unconsciously perpetuate further violence and racism.
The most effective way to change the world is to change how we see the world.
Native people are the first and worst affected by climate change yet they continue to be the most powerful teachers and advocates for protecting the world's water, lands and history.
The unifying wisdom of indigenous ways advocate for a remembrance of our interrelation with the earth - with the ocean, the sun, the air we breath and the soil in which our food is grown. Indigenous ceremonies, languages and cultural practices around the world are a variation on this theme.
Why? Because this was how humans survive on the land in a way that doesn’t rob it from their grandchildren.
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations”
We are all Indigenous to this Earth
We can all return to the harmonizing logic of our ancestral ways and reweave ourselves back into this ancient story, by coming back into relationship with the land both inside and outside of ourselves. By getting outside and listening, touching, feeling the sun on our skin. By knowing where our food comes from and honoring those who grow it by buying local and at farmers markets.
Getting to the root is the only way to shift and heal colonial violence for our grandchildren. Reclaiming an animist way of being means entering back into direct relationship with the plants, animals, moon, earth and waters.
Though it can be a challenge in our fast paced, consumer - centric culture, when we slow down and interact with nature we receive a direct transmission. We feel and know that everything is interconnected in a never-ending web of pulsating consciousness.
Remembering this way of being is the most essential part of the global awakening occurring en masse on Planet Earth.
Animism or Materialism - Which story do you choose?…
One way to enter back into relationship with the waters is to explore them in hot spring and through your yoga practice.
Join us on retreat in Tahoe, CA this October for
The Wisdom of Water Yoga + Hotsprings Retreat
- 2 spots left!
Here is a list of some of my fav resources to explore these topics during Indigenous Peoples Week this year:
“Reclaiming Our Indigenous Roots” TED talk by Tara Houska
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Book by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Reclaiming our indigenous European Roots by Lyla June
An excellent episode of Medicine Stories Podcast featuring Lyla June discussing healing colonial trauma through the practice of love.
Susanna Barataki’s Instagram and Blog “Decolonize Yoga”
Avoid Spiritual Bypassing by Melissa Shaw at Anti- Racism Daily
“Decolonize Your Mind Decolonize Your Yoga” by Kimberlee Morrison
What has been your experience of cultivating a direct relationship with the Earth? What are you favorite resources to explore indigenous ways of being? Let us know below. 💙🌎