As a young white boy growing up in suburban New Jersey in the 1960s, my media-influenced view of possible futures was informed mostly by the Jetsons and Star Trek. These proposed futures were led by white men who saw high tech engineering as the path to the promised land.
When I was 20, I spent five months as a student teacher at Taos Pueblo Day School. Standing beneath sacred Taos Mountain at recess I found my mentors in two Taosena teachers, Tonita Lujan and Crucita Archuleta. From that vantage point beneath Pueblo Peak the future looked much like the past, steady state community life informed by ancient enduring traditions fixed squarely on sacred land.
Fifty years later popular media representations of the future haven’t changed that much with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos seeking to colonize space and fossil fuel giant BP changing its name to Beyond Petroleum. Like George Jetson and Captain Kirk we once again see white men selling techno-futures only now with a green label. But Taos Pueblo represents a sustainable future by keeping faith with the past on land they’ve fought to protect ever since the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
For the past 20 years I’ve worked as the main curriculum writer for Project Look Sharp, an educational program based at Ithaca College that promotes media and digital literacy. In 2011, I began researching media documents for a series of sustainability curriculum collections we were creating. I became frustrated by the lack of mainstream attention to the traditions of peoples whose very survival in the face of the assaults of nation states should be recognized as proof that sustainable culture is possible.
As I looked for examples of such “proven sustainable” cultures, I realized there are Indigenous peoples across the globe who have held their ground much as the people of Taos Pueblo have, for a very long time. I also found myself drawn to the experiences of the Maroons, freedom fighters of African descent in the Americas, who steadfastly demonstrate sustained freedom in place across the centuries of resistance to enslavement and white supremacy.
These indomitable Indigenous and Maroon freedom fighters represent dynamic and resilient cultures that, in the words of Seneca activist and scholar John Mohawk, understand “humankind’s relationship to nature (through a) pre-colonial, pre-patriarchal, pre-modern story.”
My independent study advisor Jim Koplin read my early writings about my desire to teach and named a key truth that I needed to acknowledge and work with in a disciplined manner:
“You see things in a really culture-bound way. It’s probably true that most people on this globe live in circumstances where all of the things that you (and I) worry about could not possibly make any difference.”
I was humbled and awakened. Jim became a friend and mentor throughout the rest of his life. He introduced me to Dr. Gloria Joseph, through whose class I managed to arrange my student teaching on Taos Pueblo. Gloria also became a lifelong friend and (her word) “womentor.” 40 years later she sent me from her bedside in St Croix to pick a stone from Maroon Ridge for her healing altar.
Gloria was the first person with whom I discussed my seed thoughts for Proven Sustainable. I told her I wanted to learn with and to support peoples who have demonstrated genuine sustainability beliefs and practices across the planet for many hundreds of years. She said,
“We know that sustainability relies not on technology but on relationships – to one another, all creatures and the living earth. Your understanding of ‘the sacred’ is critical.”
She pointed to her portrait of Chief Joseph with the quote “The earth and myself are of one mind.” She went on,
“The phrase ‘Nothing is sacred’ means that the truly sacred has been damaged by the forces of empire, along with the very meaning of the word ‘sacred.’ Your goal is to point back to that which was rendered invisible without using the language of the systems that damaged sacredness.”
Through my relationship with Gloria I realized that the only way “to honor the sacred” was to offer the words of people who have lived the very beliefs and practices which can help us to remember what it means to be a human being existing in relationship to a living earth. I knew that I needed to be expansive in my offering of voices. I selected Proven Enduring peoples who have lived in place for 500 years or longer, stewarding and defending their land while making no efforts to colonize distant peoples. For the Proven Free assemblies I identified Peoples of African descent who have lived in place for 150 years or longer in the Caribbean and the Americas, stewarding their African roots and defending their land against white supremacy.
The Proven Sustainable website hosts over 200 dialogue codes and inquiry-driven prompts to encourage educational conversations in diverse settings. There are also a few lesson plans that use the Project Look Sharp model.
Going beyond the curation of 200+ primary sources, we decided to start a Conversations Series with Indigenous and Maroon people and their supporters to further realize and challenge our collective conscious and unconscious colonized thinking and behaviors for better informed actions amidst challenging situations we face worldwide. Each conversation explores individual and cultural beliefs and practices for living sustainably and resiliently amidst drastic environment changes and ongoing historical efforts of erasure.
This newsletter aims to deepen our community building and dialogue by sharing the conversations we’re engaging in and highlighting Indigenous and Maroon peoples’ sustainability projects. We strive to be the thread that amplifies each voice and initiative through intentional connection.
Relationship-building is at the core of standing in solidarity with and for the indomitable survivors who are honored through our work. We hope you’ll join us in this endeavor and over time, find fulfillment, inspiration, and support through our virtual exchanges.
This is an excerpt from a more extensive article that’s included in the publication Holistic Education Review, edited by Four Arrows. Click the linked text below to access the full issue.
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2023): Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Authors Going Deeper with Holistic Education | PUBLISHED: 2023-05-05
The Proven Sustainable™ Conversation Series is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.
thank you, thank you for sharing the motivations that led you to embrace sustainable cultures and the ways this has impacted your life and the other people your work has touched.
This is so interesting. Cannot wait to see where this blogs takes us.