There are very inspiring and exciting
things happening at the Pine Ridge
Reservation, which is home to the Oglala
Sioux in South Dakota. This video is going
to introduce you to what they are doing
to restore resilience, economic
independence, self-sufficiency and
cultural revival among the Lakota people.
Being in alliance is about being in
service to each other, and when you are in
service, it's about, attitude, being an
ally also means that because I am
committed I am going to explore further,
dig deeper, and see where the growth
opportunities are for me, and if I can
actually add value.
Everybody loves the cultural native,
everybody loves the ceremonies we share.
But when it comes to talking about the
hardships and injustices and the reality
of what native people deal with on a day
to day basis, that native is not so
popular. So being willing to stand next
to that outspoken native who is not always
talking about the most popular topics, I
think that is what makes a good ally.
I think showing up as an ally star starts
with contextual understanding of not only
what has happened, but also what is
happening. I think it is important to
remember that this is not past tense, and
these injustices are happening everday,
and we are actually seeing them unfold for
people. We are seeing this healing
happen for people within a camp, to this
very day.
People don't have clean water, they don't
have running water, they don't have good
food, they don't have housing, so they are
just in this mode where they can't think
about intergenerational trauma and
epigenetics, and it is really hard to
heal something when you get a wound
and it scabs up and someone keeps coming,
ripping it off. It is ongoing, It has not
stopped yet, it has been going on for like
500 years. Since then we have been in
survival mode, trying to just survive, and
it is hard to really focus on anything
else, like building happy communities and
having healthy relationships with your
children.
It's just the willingness to help,
the willingness to ask questions when it
is appropriate, showing respect for the
culture, for the land, for the
spirituality, for the people. If you treat
the earth in a good way, the earth will
treat you in a good way. It is just a
mutual respect, is what it is, really.
[Flute playing]
Right now, we have got the second annual
IWPS Convergence. We had one last year.
The convergence is really our event to
bring together folks who are working on
these different projects, who have these
skills in natural building, gardening, and
to just come together in community to
really show the power of community and
what the interrelationships can create.
We have people from all over the world.
All nations converge on Pine Ridge, and
then we have community-based projects
that they help to implement on Pine Ridge.
I would say that this year, we are really
deepening our relationships, and we are
also spreading to support these food
distribution networks across the
reservations, so this is not just one site
anymore. This has now become the toolhub
for the reservation, and we also have other
places where they are creating gardens to
heal emotional trauma.
There are a lot of residents who come over,
folks from other residences, and we make it
very accessible. We will cover fuel costs,
whatever it takes, it is free for all
native folk, to really showcase what is
happening, to use this energy to activate
and mobilize our projects moving forward
as well.
We work on low cost, alternative, replicable
models that any family can implement
with a little bit of help across
reservations. We build with tyres, and
a lot of industrial cast off. Junk,
basically. People will approach us and
say, "We have a piece of land and we want
to do this for a family", and then we go
and take a look and if it is within our
ability to help them to do their project,
then we partner up on it and figure out a
way to get the funds necessary to get
things together. This is our experiential
farm or place to build experiments and see
if they are replicable, if they are
economic enough to be used here on
Pine Ridge, and we are all food producers.
The hope being that we can put a dent in
our food desert here.
When I heard the term "permaculture",
and that was many years ago, I said,
"What the hell, it is nothing but white
people, and they are going around the
world and they are taking the best
practices of all the indigenous nations,
and they are putting it in packages and
say, "Oh, look what we have invented,
permaculture, look at this". But as my
brothers here mentioned, it is something
that the indigenous people have been doing
for thousands of years!
All this permaculture knowledge that we
have, we are just trying to reiterate all
of it, because like most of you know our
ancestors have been doing it for thousands
of years.
My family, we used to cultivate, and we
used to plant, and it was communal. It was
huge! Practically the whole community came
to plant these enormous fields. We
practiced crop rotating, everything.
We had more than four corn fields, and
we would plant these fields in three days.
Then of course during harvest that was
distributed to everyone. When we plant
corn, we plant seven seeds. One is for us,
one is for family, one is for the animals,
one is for the birds, one is for everyone,
one is for the earth. That is how we plant.
As we move from this egocentric,
colonialist ideology back towards this
indigenous ancestral knowledge that is
ecocentric, as we move through that
transition, we all recognize and forgive
our part in the equation and then we
actively work towards embracing our
humanity, reaching out to each other and
recognizing that we are all part of the
same tribe humankind.
I did not want anything to do with it
until I came here and I saw how lovingly
this permaculture crew touches the ground.
But you know, the important thing among
our people is to show up, and to show that
you mean what you are saying, and that you
are going to walk your talk.
(Native American music playing)
I am so thoroughly impressed and inspired
by the incredible work of everyone at the
Pine Ridge reservation, and I hope you are
as well. I would love to see you support
them in their mission. There are links in
the description to learn more, to get
involved and support them, so make sure
that you do that. If you want people to
see this and be inspired by it, make sure
to like, comment and share this video, and
if you have not already, make sure to
subscribe to this channel, where there
will be many more videos to come.
I love you all very much, and I hope that
you will go out there and make positive
change and be a part of this movement
for a better world.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community