March A Issue
ROSALIE FISH Silence No More
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SPECIAL Silence No More REPORT NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUE
26 Silence No More: interview with Rosalie Fish
68 88
94
38 Ayahuasca and the Amazon 48 Mitakuye Oyasin: All My Relations 52 Unveiling the Sacred Headwaters of the Amazon 60
Climate Justice Activating Compassion for People, Wildlife and Environment
68 Uýra, The Walking Tree
26
80 The Prophesy of The Eagle and The Condor 88 The Haunting REDressProject
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94 The Protection of Indigenous and Tribal People
80
OMTIMES.COM
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ROSALIE FISH Silent No More Rosalie Fish Interviewed by Liane Buck
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
MARCH A EDITION
OMTIMES MAGAZINE
Rosalie Fish is an 18-year-old member of the Cowlitz Tribe and a competitive runner from the Muckleshoot Reservation in Auburn, Washington. She graduated this year from the Muckleshoot Tribal School, where she represented her school in the Class 1B Washington State Track Meet, earned three gold medals, a silver and a sportsmanship award, and used that platform to raise awareness for missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW). Her passions include running, youth empowerment, indigenous visibility, upholding and practicing native traditions, as well as uplifting and advocating for native communities and native women. She is excited to share her work on MMIW with the TedXYouth @ Seattle community because, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute, Seattle leads the nation in MMIW cases. Recruited for her running ability and proven leadership Rosalie will attend Iowa Central Community College in the fall where she will continue her athletic career and her activism for MMIW.
OMTIMES: Rosalie, you became the face of awareness for Native American women nationwide and a symbol of international struggle. What motivated you to step up and bring awareness to the front stage? ROSALIE FISH: As a Native American, my own existence and the existence of my community are perceived as political. My ancestors and my grandparents are survivors of genocide and boarding school violence. I was born into a family and a community of activists, and therefore I was always aware of the various socio-political challenges Indian Country faced. It was Jordan Marie Daniel who made me realize that I could take my beliefs and my passions further than pipeline protests and conferences- Jordan showed me I could use my platform as an athlete to expose non-Natives to the issues of neglect that Indigenous women face. Jordan showed me that I can demand acknowledgment by putting my feet on the ground and racing.
MARCH A | OMTIMES
Ayahuasca And the Amazon
It is a common belief in the global ayahuasca community that the medicine – “the vine of souls” – is intelligent
The Asháninka are rainforest people, once hunter-gatherers, who number 70,000. They live between the border of Peru and the Brazilian jungle state of Acre, along tributaries of the winding Juruá river. They cluster in modest settlements near water, on small clearings where children play among the chickens and dogs, dotted with stilted houses shaded by palm-thatched roofs. For hundreds of years, semi-nomadic communities intentionally incinerated swaths of forests, leaving behind dense black carpets of ash. In a few years, this charred matter transforms into fertile soil. These people, often indigenous communities, return to this land and temporarily settle, cultivating crops such as bananas, cacao, and peppers. As loggers, miners, and farmers expand into the forest, semi-nomadic Communities lose the expansive territories they require to continue their traditional lifestyle.
Tapirs, monkeys, and deer vanish along with their predators, like a jaguar, as once-pristine habitats are destroyed. In some cases, governments brutally force forest and riverine communities out of their ancestral lands. Other communities are edged out slowly, as new pressures accumulate around them. Formerly nomadic groups are forced to settle on plots of land where they must radically adapt, transitioning to an unfamiliar, sedentary way of life. When groups like the Asháninka find their future uncertain, they do what they’ve done for generations: they consult ayahuasca, seeking spiritual guidance and wisdom. That is what the Piyãko bothers, Moisés and Benki, did when they realized the integrity of their community was threatened.
MARCH A|OMTIMES
BY
Mitakuye Oyasin All My Relations. “Mitakuye Oyasin.” “All My Relations” is a greeting from the Lakota (Sioux) people reflecting their worldview of oneness, interconnectedness, and harmony with all living things: people, animals, plants, even wind, rocks, and rivers. To most people, a "relation" means a family member—a blood relative. It would be a stretch for most of us to extend the concept to include entities other than humans.
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SISTER
JUDY
BISIGNANO
However, if we chose to follow the wisdom of the Achuar in the Amazon jungle, it could transform our outlook on life forever. Loving and honoring "relatives" in this broader sense means caring about everything on Earth and throughout the Universe. For the Achuar, everything that exists has a consciousness—an energy. Everything that exists is "alive" on some level. Dreams, ideas, feelings, thoughts, buildings, organizations, etc. are alive. They hold energy; they have purpose. What a concept! Let's sit a bit with the Achuar and ponder their concept of TRUTH.
Everything is related because everything emanates from one Source and everything has one purpose. All belief systems whether indigenous philosophy, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, or Islam are "related." TRUTH can be found in each. One can experience indigenous customs and rituals and find Buddha. One can study Buddhism and find Jesus. We can meet Mother Nature and find ourselves. Understanding indigenous spirituality—how our native relatives perceive themselves as part of Pachamama (Mother Earth)—has allowed me to experience a spiritual bigness I never know existed. After meeting the Achuar, I have a new way— their way—of relating to and communicating with Pachamama. "All My Relations" is spoken at the beginning and end of native ceremonies to thank and invite our ancestors, those who recently passed to those who crossed in ancient times, to join us in celebration—in praise of Pachamama. Let us pray...
Aho Mitakuye Oyasin! We greet “All Our Relations.” Thank you for coming to join us! Pachamama, we honor and thank you for your Circle of Life that surrounds and supports us within your sacred, spinning wheel of Earth and Universe. Thank you for molecules, minerals, and membranes that build our bones and become the framework of all life on the planet. Thank you for plants that breathe healing and wellness into our bodies and spirits. Thank you for animals that sustain us physically and emotionally on our journey through life. Thank you for humans who share a consciousness that allows us to reflect on our common path and purpose. Thank you for Arutum, Spirit, your energy of life itself that lights our path and connects our past to present and future as you guide our journey through space, time and all ages.
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JOURNEYING INTO THE SACRED
Headwaters of The Amazon By Anita L. Sanchez, Ph.D.
OMTIMES
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Every summer, I have the honor of taking a group of journeyers into the depths of the rainforest of Ecuador in South America – what we call the sacred headwaters of the Amazon.
Every summer, I have the honor of taking a group of journeyers into the depths of the rainforest of Ecuador in South America – what we call the sacred headwaters of the Amazon. We go to visit two of the 25 indigenous nations living in their ancestral homes, spread across 75 million acres of rainforest. We step out of the tiny plane onto the dirt airstrip surrounded by dense green jungle, and everyone in the village, young and old, comes out to greet us. The Achuar, an indigenous tribe, are strong warriors and loving people who have lived for thousands of years in harmony with the rainforest. As I look into the Achuar’s calm, clear eyes, I see a people who have never been infected by the illusion of separateness, people who have lived in community, knowing the connection of the people, earth, and spirit.
One of the first things that the journeyers notice and say, “What is that? I feel physically different.” And I get to tell them, “It’s the gift of true abundance, an abundance of clean oxygen. The rainforest, the heart and the lungs of our earth, is cleansing the air, and creating this high level of oxygen that is nourishing us.” In a marvel of earth’s abundance, the mists and clouds that hover over the headwaters contain more life-giving water than is contained within the Amazon river itself, from the Andes to the ocean at the edge of Brazil. These clouds, floating rivers as they are called by scientists, impact the weather around the world.
OMTIMES
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FEATURE
Climate Justice ACTIVATING COMPASSION FOR PEOPLES, WILDLIFE, AND OUR ENVIRONMENT By Sarah C. Beasley In my recent book, Kindness for All Creatures: Buddhist Advice for Compassionate Animal Care (Shambhala 2019), I highlight the special relationship between people and animals. After all, we human beings are animals too. The interdependence of humans, animals, and the habitats we share form a triad of compassion on this beautiful blue-green planet Earth. This is indisputable. Without engaging in acts of compassion that consider each of these three aspects, we risk losing everything. Women, children, and animals are at high risk of violence and socio-environmental injustice. The economically disadvantaged are often literally marginalized—relegated to geographical areas at high risk of floods, fires, famines, and landslides. In other places, their lands are rich in resources and are therefore stolen, plundered, poisoned. For example, in 2016, I helped with logistics for the Standing Rock Sioux Nation's protests against the oil pipeline slated to be built through their lands, endangering their water supply and impinging on their sovereignty.
OMTIMES | MARCH A
OMTIMES/MARCH A
Indigenous peoples represent 5 percent of the global population, yet they protect more than 80 percent of the world's biodiversity. Their voices must be at the forefront of the fight to protect forests, water, air, and our Earth against climate change and pollution. From Standing Rock in the Dakotas to Indonesian lands taken for palm oil production, to Amazonian forests being burned and razed, the few are taking action to protect the many.
Eco-anxiety is a relatively new term coined in 2011, although I just learned it today. The feelings can be crushing, born from the realities behind the term, and the seeming relentless destruction that "progress" has brought with it. Friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, fellow writers, and environmentalists are among the many people I know who are feeling increasing levels of eco-anxiety, depression, and even panic.
There are many ironies inherent in this. Indigenous peoples have no choice but to defend their lands for the sake of us all. We are at a crisis point for choosing whether to turn away or turn toward bodhisattva action, however big or small. n Biodiversity has been shrinking, and extinction has been on the rise for decades.
The fires raging in the Amazon are one of a multitude of current crises for the environment and the climate. I read today that the acreage burning now is irreplaceable, even if we tried to replant it. As with ice melting in the Arctic, these fires bring irreversible damage to our planet. OMTIMES | MARCH A NOMADIC
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24
DNA
The Eagle The Condor
BY SISTER JUDY BISIGNANO
"The Eagle and The Condor" is an ancient prophecy shared by many indigenous people in South America's Andes and Amazon River Basin that calls all of Earth's people to mend the "Y in the road" that took us in separate and conflicting directions. "The Eagle and The Condor" is more than a prophecy. It is an autobiography of Pachamama—Mother Earth. Her disturbing story continuously repeats itself as it is played out by avaricious participants refusing to work together for their common good. Eagles are predators, hunters, at the top of their game and food chain. Condors are equally large birds, but they do not hunt. They don't need to. They are opportunists—gatherers who salvage life from death as they complete the food web.
People are eagles and condors. Eaglepeople soar high, drive hard, and take all they can regardless of their needs and the wants of others. Condor-people are content with staying close to home, gathering, and using only what they need so others can also have enough. Many Eagle-people live in sprawling cities to the north. They strive to know and understand things outside themselves. They seek Pachamama with their MINDS. They KNOW her and want her to KNOW them. She does. Many Condor-people live in isolated villages to the south. They strive to understand things from within. They seek Pachamama with their HEARTS. They LOVE her and want her to LOVE them. She does.
MARCH A|OMTIMES
THE HAUNTING
REDress PROJECT OMTIMES | MARCH A
OMTIMES
MARCH A EDITION
The Haunting Call of The RED ress PROJECT The violence against Indigenous Women is appalling. The U.S. sexual assault statistics, Indigenous women, Native American, and Alaska Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women in the country. In the rest of the States, one in three women are survivors of sexual abuse and sexual violence. The government tends to think this is a criminal problem, not a social-economical one. The Native communities feel a sense of urgency but at the same of hopeless. Because of such disregard for the Native American Women's rights and vulnerability that the artist Jaime Black created The REDressProject. The REDress Project a public art installation that was created in response to the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) epidemic in Canada and the United States. The REDress Project is an Aesthetic Response To the More Than 1000 Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada. The Art Project began in 2010 and honoring and memorializing the missing and murdered indigenous women from the First Nations, Inuit, MĂŠtis (FNIM), and Native American communities by hanging empty red dresses in a range of settings. The project has also inspired other artists to use red to draw attention to the issue of MMIW and prompted the creation of Red Dress Day.
By Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens
The Protection of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
For many years, indigenous and tribal peoples were the forgotten stepchildren of the intergovernmental organizations dealing with human rights
While both humanization and dehumanization are real alternatives, only the first is man’s vocation. This vocation is constantly negated. It is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressors; it is affirmed by the yearning of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and by their struggle to recover their lost humanity. Paulo Freire The United Nations General Assembly has set 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages with UNESCO as the lead Specialized Agency. There is a renewed emphasis on the rights of indigenous people to develop their own cultural traditions, languages, religious practices, and way of life. Language plays an important role in the selfidentification of a group. There is a need to find the most appropriate balance between the conservation of indigenous languages and knowledge and the use of a common language of the wider community.
However, the term ‘indigenous’ is ambiguous since, at some point, nearly every group came from somewhere else at an earlier time. Thus, when the first UN effort was undertaken in the International Labor Organization in 1957, the ILO Convention (N°107) was called the “Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention.” It is not always possible to say who is ‘indigenous,’ but it is usually easy enough to know if a group has a tribal structure. For many years, indigenous and tribal peoples were the forgotten stepchildren of the intergovernmental organizations dealing with human rights. Yet they needed protection at least as much as those on whom the political limelight had focused.
MARCH A|OMTIMES
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