CIBA Gathering 2009

The maintenance and strengthening of cultural tradition was in force at this past weekend's gathering of the California Indian Basketweavers Association. It is in places like these where you see the most profound connections between ourselves and the earth.


Basketweaving is core to the culture of many tribes between the Sierras and the Pacific Ocean, and helps provide a sense of identity and pride connection to the earth. What we need to remember is the value of basketweaving as a skill that helped people survive through centuries -- taking reeds, roots, branches, and inner bark to create any manner of containers (even water-tight!), fish traps, ceremonial hats, and more.


It's not too late to learn! See you in 2010?

Individual Myth and Reconnection to Place

We see that many people come to the United States to make a new way of life. The power of this country is that it allows the individual to take initiative, and the belief is that you succeed or fail based on personal merit. Countless individuals have come to this country and excelled in an array of personal, financial, social, and environmental spheres.

However, this concept of individual initiative ignores the social, economic, political, technical, and ecological support systems around those individuals which make their success or failure possible. It is a myth that has taken us away from our roots and the place to where we need to return.

Our indigenous worldview(s) (cosmovision) stand in marked contrast to the myth of the individual. This understanding respects the vital need for collaboration and cooperation in order to survive. This understanding knows the need for balance and the paramount importance of the web of life. This worldview comes from many centuries of observation of how our natural world works, and in figuring out how to survive in a place.

“. . . we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things."
-- Thanksgiving Address, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)

"Honor and respect water as a sacred and life-giving gift from the Creator of Life. Water, the first living spirit on Earth . . . When water is threatened, all living things are threatened."
-- Statement, Hopi Hisot Navoti Gathering



It’s not that we in modern times are somehow ignorant of the crucial value of healthy air, water, and food. But we don’t have an economy and politics that on a day-to-day basis respects our interconnectedness, and promotes our living in place. For example, the prices we pay at the supermarket don't reflect hidden and true costs of food, so we often don't make the right decisions. We know groups working on Food and Justice policies and wish them well in fixing these issues

In being truly “place-based”, it is not possible to act in a way that systematically compromises the interconnected nature of the universe. Else, you deplete the vitality of your water, your sources of shelter, and your food (fish, animals, berries, plants), and leading to two possible options: 1) move off the depleted ancestral lands due to lack of food and into potential conflict with other tribes, or 2) go extinct. Since in indigenous times people largely maintained balance, it meant that vast forests, healthy soils, clean water, and mineral deposits were readily available to fuel modern society. We must return to respect, understand that these things cannot be liquidated, and use the appropriate building, energy, and water technology to support ourselves.

Local Resources News Round-Up: June 2009

The greenroofs in Portland are encouraging, even including one on the Native American Student Center at Portand State. In Milwaukee, they're even looking at greenhouses in the cemetery.

Baltimore community gardens are hoping to sell to Whole Foods. Laramie County, WY is stealing people away from the SF Bay Area to help them learn about wind energy.

As for our biodiversity, the continued mystery and decline of bats due to a white fungus is a concern. Their insect control and even pollination services are badly needed, and we need to figure this out soon. At least the UN recommends investing in ecosystems rather than carbon control technology, admitting that nature can manage nature better than we can.

Food for Thought and Action: Food Sovereignty

We haven't yet done a full review of the Food Sovereignty Curriculum, but it sounds promising. It includes a set of modules to work through, including one for Small Farmers and as well as factsheets.

http://www.grassrootsonline.org/publications/educational-resources/download-food-thought-action-a-food-sovereignty-curriculum

Its Six Sovereignty Principles bring us back to where we started with agriculture/agroecology thousands of years ago -- focusing on people, localizing food systems, building skills and knowledge, and working with nature.

The Sun Shines in the Hoopa Valley (Part 1 of 2)

The Trinity River valley. It is said that the Hoopa (Hupa) people came into being here. This past weekend marked yet another step back toward Hoopa community self-sufficiency with the launching of small organic farm.

Working together made for quick work -- and the passage of 24 hours saw soil preparation, raised bed creation, stick planting, vegetable starts and watering all take place on a two acre plot. This builds on our rainwater catchment workshop last year, and the solid work done by the Klamath-Trinity Resource Conservation District to highlight techniques and tools for everything from canning to irrigation to Holistic Management and more.

The power of people-connected-to-land cannot be overstated. It makes for a firm commitment to place and improvement of the community, which we too often lack in more transient (usually urban) settings. And commitment creates real possibilities for long-term self-sufficiency -- "clothing security" with sheep ranches producing local wool, "building security" through sustainable forestry, strawbale building and earth plaster skills, and "energy security" in passive energies, investing in solar hot water and careful design.

Watch the movie of highlights!

Biodiversity and the Quest for Balance (II)

The trends we see at the first post in:
- amphibians
- bats
- songbirds
- general ecosystems

are a clear call for greater understanding and action

However, ultimately, these issues are not simply an issue of forging better environmental policies or implementing better practices. At their core, the issues we are dealing with are issues of values, mindset, and spirit, requiring a fundamental shift in how we relate to, and act in, the world. Perhaps the key defining moral failure of our times is the failure to recognize the right of other species and ecosystems to exist.


In not recognizing the rights and value of biodiversity, we create the many bizarre situations in which we currently find ourselves. For instance, rather than ban toxic substances outright in the shared recognition of the paramount importance of the protection of life, we instead permit them to be legal, and subsequently spend tremendous time, resources, and energy toward using as little of them as possible. How much easier would it be to simply ban them outright? How many toxic products do we really need? Even more importantly, how often do we really need the short-term beneficial results these toxic products produce?

Yet, countless efforts are put forth to show how we can't shift away from toxic substance use, or cut our energy use in half, and the excuses are endless. Doing what's right isn't feasible. It's too expensive. We can't get by with less resource use. We can't survive into the indefinite future in a sustainable way, never mind the fact that we as a species have been doing so for millennia.

Our mindset is _so_ key. In nations where basic needs are already met, the mindset that humans have the right to do as we please, and take as much as we want, is at the core of many of our most basic problems -- habitat destruction, loss of species, obesity, energy wars, and water shortages. The bottom line in these five issues is . . . hunger . . . and with this mindset, hunger is never satiated. It ignores responsibility. It drives an incessant collection of things, and keeps us so attached to those things that we spend significant resources on property insurance, storage, and security systems for their protection. It exacerbates the very real global hunger of those who cannot meet their basic needs, by artificially inflating our demands on the earth. And, the mindset maintains the fiction that we cannot afford to live sustainably (i.e. live with less resource consumption and maintain the same quality of life).

With a simple shift in mindset, suddenly "never enough" becomes "more than enough". The food that we have is enough, the property we own is enough, and the energy to which we have local access is enough. It’s simply a common sense approach to life. If certain things are non-negotiable, then you organize your life to get those things done. If the kids need to get picked up at 4 PM, then you figure out some way to make that happen. So too is a goal like 80% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction by 2050 -- it's a pragmatic goal to manage against the impacts and risks of climate change. Thus, we need to make it a reality.

We need a worldview that respects the need for balance, shares resources with our fellow beings, and acts to maintain the web of life that supports us all. We in the developed world who have the basics of food, clothing, shelter, and water need to recognize that we always have enough. And we need to allow other peoples and species to have their share.

Local Food: Gathering Strength

Climate change concerns call us all to seriously analyze our way of life, and look for ways to improve business as usual.  It has helped also bring a wave of interest in eating locally -- purchasing foods grown and processed within a one hundred fifty miles of where we live.  It's no wonder why.

According to the WorldWatch Institute, food transportation is among the biggest and fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.  A basic diet of imported ingredients can easily require four times the energy and emissions of a domestically-based source.   Though, note that one of the leading researchers on this topic, A. Carlsson-Kanyama, found that the actual greenhouse gas benefits of local production is limited for commodities where the amount of resources required for local production dwarf the shipping impacts.   And one of the better ways to reduce the carbon impact of your diet is by shifting away from meat to a vegetable, seed, and legume-based diet.     However, the fact still remains that the eating seasonally and shifting toward higher percentages of local foods appropriate to your region will support your community and the planet.

You can all join the effort, enjoy local, organic meals to the greatest extent you can, celebrate your local farmers, and grow your own food.  Support local food efforts through many resources, including: 

Indigenous Permaculture -- provides Certificate Trainings to enable participants to sustainably grow their own food, and  delivers community food security resources and tools to low-income and indigenous grassroots groups. (www.indigenous-permaculture.com)

Community Alliance for Family Farmers --  provides policy analysis and advocacy for sustaining family-scale agriculture (www.caff.org)

Community Food Security Coalition --  provides networking, technical assistance, and program evaluation to support grassroots groups (www.foodsecurity.org)

Local Harvest -- links to local food sources of all types throughout the U.S. (www.localharvest.org)