INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

I’m an indigenous person.  No I’m not a First Nation indigenous person although I suspect some of my ancestors were. It disturbs me that the word indigenous has come to mean only those whose ancestors came from the continent on which their remote progeny now live. The best way, in my mind, for honoring indigenous people is to recognize that you are one.

OK, some people believe their origins are on other planets.  Actually so do many indigenous people.  The Plieides and Serius are among the most common star roots.  But in reality our ancestors have moved around on this earth for hundreds of thousands of years.  Geneticists and archaeologists believe that Africa is the ancestral homeland of all of us.  But we have cultural connections and spiritual connections with certain places on the earth and usually there is a creation story that spiritually honors that connection.  It’s a kind of sacred cultural marriage to the place you have come to love and depend upon for life.

Indigenous peoples have emerged into public consciousness in recent years.  The whole concept of indigenous people has brought awareness to the fact that the dominant cultures of this period in history disown their origins.  In fact in many ways they are not a culture, just a kind of cancer that grows independent of its hosts ability to integrate it and threatens death to its own source of life.  When the host dies so does the cancer. But when things become too massive and impersonal individuals experience their personal impact as so insignificant that instead of experiencing themselves as beings who have the power to make a difference in their society and the planet that hosts it they feel they are like a raindrop in the ocean. It is tempting to focus on bettering one’s personal life and immediate environment and forget about the bigger picture.

So much attention has been directed to the date 2012, the end of a Mayan great year.  Some look toward it as the end of the world in a catastrophic sense and some expect salvation and renewal.  Either way it seems that people are hoping for and yet dreading the inevitable collapse of the world as we now experience it.  But actually nothing changes completely.  On the tree of life there are always roots back into the previous condition and branches up to a new situation.  We each will have to be responsible for what comes after the end/beginning.  The main thing is that a new paradigm is inevitable but shouldn’t be mistaken for paradise. Einstein said, “it is impossible to solve a problem within the system of the problem.” This is one of my favorite quotes because it is an obvious truth that is usually unrecognized. 

The big world of spin, greed, unlimited growth and busy-ness is running out of fuel, literally and figuratively.  Some want to carry on by finding another planet to wear out and a few others want to rise beyond the system that is wearing out this one, and yet others want to cling to a previous time.  But if you acknowledge your membership as a child of this planet and a grandchild of the universe you allow the story of creation to unfold and recognize that everything you do is cosmic and part of a development beyond anything you could possibly imagine. Creation is always happening and you are an indigenous person.