Indigenous Caucus Update
Indigenous Skylodge As in 2019, we will dedicate our biggest skylodge as the Indigenous Skylodge so they have a headquarters for workshops, caucusing and hangout. It will be right outside the main hall and can be a center for their ceremonies. We have lined up a large firepit bowl.
INDIGENOUS CAUCUS: There will be one period of each day (or more if they want it) for the Indigenous Caucus to meet. Indigenous people in the center of the skylodge and only they have the right to speak unless they open it up. Around them is an outer circle where anyone else can listen in and learn, but not speak. This is so the Indigenous people can talk over what their message is for the world.
“LAND BACK”: One of the things developing is a Land Back training. Participating will be Wenatchi elder Randy Lewis who was one of the people who occupied Fort Lawton in Seattle in 1970. Two years later they were granted 20 acres there for the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. It looks like two of his friends from Eastern Washington will give the training., but since this is not 100% confirmed yet, I am not including their names.
In addition to Indigenous participants already listed on our website, here are the latest additions.
"Tracker" Ginamarie Rangel Quinones, Chiricahua Apache, Ute Aztec and Pasquale Yaqui. Co-chair Leonard PELTIER. Committee. Creator of the Indigenous Unity Flag, Indigenous Unity Foundation. Tracker will be bringing many of her Indigenous Unity Flags and help provide leadership.
Freddie Lane, Lummi First Nation, He organizes the annual Gathering of the Eagles canoe journey through the San Juan Islands each May. A speaker, activist, and event organizer, Freddie is also part of the totem pole journeys undertaken by House of Tears carvers. Freddie is advising us and will be helping moderate and assisting communication.
Brenda Salgado is a Mayan Toltec Curandera specializing in Toltec Energy Healing and Personal/Ancestral Healing. She is Program Director of the Racial Healing Initiative, and the Healer's Council, Decolonizing Wealth Project. She is working on a land-based restoration project and center in southern California. https://www.nepantlaconsulting.com/about
Margo Robbins comes from the traditional Yurok village of Morek, and is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe. She gathers and prepares traditional food and medicine, is a basket weaver and regalia maker. She is the Executive Director of the Cultural Fire Management Council. She attended the 2019 Global Earth Repair Conference and presented on Indigenous fire management and at the time was a co-lead and advisor for the Indigenous People’s Burn Network. In a recent letter she states “I have to say that when we went to the conference in 2019 it was a life changing event, such amazing folks sharing their insights.” We are glad to welcome Margo back.
Dan Nanamkin, from the Chief Joseph Band Of Wallowa, Nez Perce, and Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington State, has been an advocate/teacher for indigenous culture, community unity, youth empowerment, racial equality, and peace for several decades; a man who lives a life of prayer, ceremony and helping the people. He was a front-line warrior at Standing Rock. Dan attended the 2019 Global Earth Repair Conference and we are glad to welcome him back along with several friends.
George Pletnikoff is a Unangan elder and close friend of Ilarion. George speaks for the sea and the sea-beings.
Many more are in the works.
Tracker recently made the point that there are many ways that people contribute their energy to an event. Some are speakers, and others contribute their songs, drumming, dancing, perform, make displays, help with the cooking and many other ways.
Online Indigenous Caucus. We have asked Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn (Māori, New Zealand) to be one of the online moderators. Founding member of the Pacific Indigenous Women's Network. Principle author of the 12th World Wilderness Conference’s RESOLUTION 11: Metaphysical Activism. https://wild.org/wild12/resolutions/metaphysical-activism/
Indigenous knowledge has an important message we want to convey to the world. The Indigenous way is not to dominate the environment, it is to (in the words of my Saanich friend Chiyokten) “Co-create paradise and live unseparated with all beings. Learn how to work together”.
Long before European colonists arrived on the scene, the Indigenous people of what we now call North and South America had co-created productive and sustainable socio-ecosystems throughout both continents. We are just barely beginning to understand this today. Much of the Amazon was productive agroforestry systems of native fruits and nuts, medicines, and useful plants maintained by a large population. The chestnut, hickory, walnut and fruit forests of the eastern Turtle Island were another example. Oak forests in California, Camas prairie gardens in the Northwest, Buffalo country, etc. As my friend Dennis Martinez liked to say, there was no wilderness in North America before the settlers arrived. Re-learning how to co-create with ecosystems is one of the themes we will explore at the Conference. Re-indigenizing the landscape. Here in the Salish Sea, the local tribes have been working with the lands and seas since the glaciers retreated. They were here during the last ice age and worked with the land as it emerged from under the ice and they traveled across the glaciers. Their ancestors came down the coastal “kelp highway” during the ice ages. The length of time that people have been in the Americas keeps getting pushed father back.
18,000 Year Old Oregon Discovery Shocks Archaeologists — America’s First Humans Arrived MUCH Earlier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmLWuVNMaUo
Here is a great quote from Robin Youngblood from her email signature.
I acknowledge that I am on the territories of the S'Klallam, Strong Peoples, tribes. I am aware of the ongoing process of settler colonialism. I accept my responsibility to actively contribute to the support of Indigenous sovereignty and to foster a relationship of respect and understanding with the land that I now call home. I embrace the belief that Indigenous knowledge and practices are crucial in guiding us towards creating a sustainable and equitable society. I offer my gratitude and respect to the Peoples of these lands, past, present, and future.
Following is a letter we have been using for inviting Indigenous participants.
Hello Indigenous voices, - voices for your people, voices for Nature
We are honored to invite your presence and voice at the Global Earth Repair Convergence this next May 7-11 in Port Townsend, Washington on the northeast tip of the great Olympic Peninsula. We are bringing together Indigenous people to help lead and inform the Earth regeneration movement. Ilarion Merculieff of the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways is coordinating our Indigenous program.
The Convergence is international in scope with many guests coming from afar. We anticipate about 600 people joining us in-person and 1,000+ online. The focus of the event is how can humans help heal the planet and restore sovereignty to all peoples. We support the rights of Indigenous people around the world. There will be workshops and panels on Land Back, Rights of Nature, and reindigenizing ecosystems.
There was a strong Indigenous component at our first Global Earth Repair Conference in 2019 and we expect this to increase and deepen in 2026. There will be a mix of First Nations people from the Salish Sea region along with many from far-off tribes. Ilarion Merculieff will be bringing other Indigenous elders. Tracker Gina Marie is collaborating with us and will be bringing many of her Indigenous Unity Flags. Freddie Lane, of Lummi Nation, is advising us and will be helping moderate and assisting communication. There will be an Indigenous caucus to discuss Indigenous messages to the world concerning Earth Repair. There will be an online Indigenous program as well.
We are bringing together an extraordinary group of people working for Mother Earth and all her creatures and for a better humanity.
If you would like to add your Indigenous perspectives, please let’s talk. This can include presenting workshops, being on panels, Indigenous caucus, speaking at the opening ceremony and other plenary times, honoring the land, stories, songs, drumming and prayers.
Happy to send more details.
Towards a greener, non-colonial world,
Contact: Michael “Skeeter” Pilarski,
friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com 360-643-9178
PS. The 12th World Wilderness Conference was held August 25–31, 2024, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Ilarion Merculieff was one of the coordinators of the Indigenous contingent (100 people). They drafted 12 resolutions which are great examples of Indigenous thought/knowledge in today’s world. Here is a link to the resolutions. We will see what comes out of the Indigenous Caucus at the Convergence.
