Congress of Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous People’s Day + Nonextractive Wisdom

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As we celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, we have an opportunity to recognize the immense sacrifice that has been made by Indigenous Peoples around the world to retain their identity, sacred places, languages, knowledge and wisdom.  Here we will focus for a moment on the wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, and its immense importance at this time.

True knowledge and wisdom can not be bought, nor can it be sold.  It can not be owned or patented, it is a gift of the creator that comes to us, lives within us, passes through us.  But it can be respected an honored.  To do this, we can honor the source of this wisdom, and the lives it has traveled through to reach us.  We must care for it, take responsibility to do the best we can with it, to make the lives of those around us better by fulfilling our purpose in this life.  With this, we can not look to extract knowledge and wisdom from a people the same way we have extracted land, resources and lives from them.  We can not take the gifts we have received and look to sell them for profit, as it will turn this gift of wisdom into dust.

Today, let us remember the sacred knowledge, the wisdom that has been bestowed upon us, and be grateful for what we have received.  Let us honor the path this knowledge has taken, and those that have sacrificed to keep the lineages alive.  Let us remember that not long ago, we all lived as Indigenous people in all parts of the world, and by supporting the Indigenous people of today’s world to remain vital in their lands, with their languages, cultures, knowledge, and wisdom we help to keep alive hope for our collective future.

Please take a moment to read this excellent piece by Naomi Klein interviewing Leanne Simpson in YES! Magazine:
Dancing the World into Being: A Conversation with Idle No More’s Leanne Simpson

Adam Rubel

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