Future Primitive

Author and filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of ISEC. A pioneer of the ‘new economy’ movement, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than thirty years. She is a widely respected analyst of the impact of the global economy on identity, community and local economies, and is a leading proponent of ‘localization,’ or decentralization, as a means of countering those impacts.

Since 1975, she has worked with the people of Ladakh, or “Little Tibet,” to find ways of enabling their culture to meet the modern world without sacrificing social and ecological values. Trained as a linguist, she was the first Westerner in recent times to master the Ladakhi language, and co-produced the first Ladakhi-English dictionary. Her book, “Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh” has been described as “an inspirational classic,” and sold almost half a million copies. She is on the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture, and is a co-founder of both the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Eco-village Network.

www.localfutures.org

Helena speaks with Joanna about the pressure of globalization on traditional cultures, … the relationship between beautiful, healthy and sustainable, … local communities and economies as a sustainable alternative to global consumer culture, … the connection path of community and nature, … and her latest film as co-director: “The Economics of Happiness”…

Music: “Part 8” (from Salzau. Music on the Water) by Danielsson/Dell/Landgren

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Speaker at Bioneers By The Bay Connecting For Change (2011)

Destined from birth to teach the ancient wisdom, ritual and practices of her ancestors to those in the West, Sobonfu, whose name means “keeper of the rituals” travels the world on a healing mission sharing the rich spiritual life and culture of her native land Burkina Faso, which ranks as one of the world’s poorest countries yet one of the richest in spiritual life and custom.

It is this reliance on spirit, community and ritual that has allowed Sobonfu’s personal and professional path to become one. Since the beginning of her journey in the West Sobonfu has traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe, conducting workshops on spirituality, ritual, the sacred and intimacy.

Sobonfu has written two books, The Spirit of Intimacy, and Welcoming Spirit Home, her newest offering which draws on rituals and practices involving community, birth miscarriage and children.

www.sobonfu.com

www.marioninstitute.org/connecting-for-change

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Osprey Orielle Lake, MA is an artist, writer, and lifelong advocate of social and environmental justice issues. She is the Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus and on the governing Board of Praxis Peace Institute. She is the Founder/Artist of the International Cheemah Monument Project, creating 18 foot bronze sculpture monuments for locations around the world, where people can ponder a better future for the earth and humanity. Her themes concern new cultural narratives and the way public imagery and stories either enhance or distance our relationship with the Earth. Osprey studied Ancient History and Biology at Reed College in Portland, Oregon where her focus was on an Ecological Impact Study of the Oregon river system. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz where her reports on the use of phenoxy herbicides and alternative methods for pest management played a central role in Santa Cruz County’s re-evaluation of herbicide use. She received her MA in Culture and Environmental Studies from Holy Names University in Oakland, California. Her recent book, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature (2010), delves into a new kinship with nature while acknowledging the treasures of urban life and the unique stake each person has in resolving critical and timely challenges.

www.ospreyoriellelake.com

Orielle speaks with Joanna about reconnecting with Nature in urban life, the balance between high technology and hand-made things, women leadership and climate situation, indigenous wisdom and partnership model, Nature as teacher, open to the beauty and awe of the “big conversation”, Frau Holle and other female archetypes of Nature, art and environmental awareness, honoring the rights of the Earth…

Music:”Sanza” (from Echoes Of The Forest – Music of the Central African Pygmies)

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Martin Prechtel is a thinker, writer and teacher whose work, both written and oral, hopes to promote the subtlety, irony and pre-modern vitality hidden in any living language. As a half blood Native American with a Pueblo Indian upbringing, his life took him from New Mexico to the village of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala where he became a full village member of the Tzutujil Mayan population, and eventually served as a principal, responsible for instructing the young people in the meanings of their ancient stories through the rituals of adult rights of passage. Once again residing in his native New Mexico, Martín teaches at his international school Bolad’s Kitchen.

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From a lineage of 15 generations of learned practitioners of the Krishna Yajur Veda, Shri Vivek is the main teacher and principal of Sri Krsna-Yajurveda Pathasala, a school in Satara, India, which specializes in the revitalization of the Oral Tradition of the Vedas. Shri Vivek is an accomplished Vedic astrologer and is widely known for his evocative Vedic chanting and his love of performing yajna (Vedic fire ritual). In addition, he is recognized for his accessible and fascinating explanations of Vedic philosophy, ritual and culture.

www.vedikaglobal.org/vedika_gurukula/faculty/SriGodbole.html

www.ancientwisdomrising.com

Shri Vivek speaks with Joanna about the Vedic tradition, the fire ritual, retrieving our relationship with Mother Earth…

Music: “We are the Ones“, live music from the conference

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Tata Erick González, also known by his Tolteca-Azteca name OmeAkaEhekatl and his Haida tribal name Gaada (supernatural light). Tata Erick is a lineage-holder and Daykeeper of the Cakchikel Maya of Guatemala. He trained in the ceremonial way for 32 years with indigenous healers and medicine people from North, Central, and South America and was ceremonially initiated as a Mayan Aj Qij (staff of light) in 1994. He is founder of Earth Peoples United that is creating two models of spiritual land stewardship: one in Guatemala on the shores of Lake Atitlan, and one north of Mt. Shasta in Northern California.

www.ancientwisdomrising.com

Erick speaks Joanna about essential aspects of the Mayan culture, the Mayan understanding of 2012 – the ending of the Fifth Sun…and the beginning of a new era.

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Raina Atareta Ferris is a member of the Māori Ngāti Kahungunu iwi (tribe) of Aotearoa (New Zealand). Tracing her heritage through a lineage of warrior women, Raina lives rurally in the small township of Porangahau.  From an early age, Raina learned the rituals entrusted to her family, caretakers of the local marae (meeting grounds). Today she is helping her people reclaim their ancestral wisdom which had been watered down by several generations of colonization and missionary presence. Her particular emphasis is on the role of Māori women in the spiritual welfare of the marae and the community.

www.ancientwisdomrising.com

Raina speaks with Joanna about her ancestral culture, being a warrior woman, trauma and resilience…

Music: “We are the Ones“, Live Music at the Conference

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Kawan Sangaa Woody Morrison began his training as a History Keeper for the Haida people at the age of three. Heir to the chief of the Whale House, he has sat in ceremony with tribal elders from around the world and has been an active planner and participant in international conferences on environmental, economic and health issues. He is president of the Vancouver Society of Storytelling and on the board of directors of Wisdom of the Elders, a non-profit organization that records and preserves indigeous oral traditions and cultural arts in order to regenerate the greatness of culture among native peoples.

www.wisdomoftheelders.org

www.ancientwisdomrising.com

Woody Morrison speaks with Joanna about the indigenous perception of time, storytelling and humor, the communication with whales and the Earth, the soul and the breath of life, the  cultural discrimination against native culture, sustainable societies…

Music: “We are the Ones“, Live Music at the Conference

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Sobonfu Somé is an author and teacher, one of the foremost voices in African spirituality to come to the West. Destined from birth to teach the ancient wisdom, ritual and practices of her ancestors to those in the West, Sobonfu – whose name means “keeper of the rituals” – travels the world on a healing mission sharing the rich spiritual life and culture of her native land Burkina Faso. She teaches and leads rituals throughout North America, Asia and Europe and has published three books: Spirit of Intimacy, Welcoming Spirit Home and Falling Out of Grace. She is involved in ongoing projects in the Dagara Villages of West Africa.

www.sobonfu.com

www.ancientwisdomrising.com

Sobonfu Somé speaks with Joanna about grief & community, the relationship with the ancestors,  love…

Music: “Dagara Traditional Song“, by Sobonfu Somé

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Eliot Cowan is the author of Plant Spirit Medicine, and a fully initiated Tsaurirrikame (shaman) in the Huichol (Wixárika) Indian tradition.  Eliot is the founder of the the Blue Deer Center and is a member of the Council of Elders for the Temple of Sacred Fire Healing. As a provider at the Blue Deer Center, Eliot Cowan offers Plant Spirit Medicine^SM practitioner training courses, continuing education for PSM practitioners, healing camps based on traditional Huichol shamanic healing, and animal totem courses.

www.bluedeer.org

Eliot speaks with Joanna about the experience of awe, the aliveness of Nature, retrieving our indigenous soul, our relationship with the ancestors and the appropriate conditions in which to engage with the teacher plants…

Music: “Japeru” (from Piercing The Veil) by William Parker & Hamid Drake

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Eligio Stephen Gallegos, Ph.D, is a licensed psychologist with degrees from the University of Wisconsin, New Mexico State University and Florida State University. He taught at Mercer University, Macon, Georgia between 1967- 1981. Steve also worked as a psychotherapist for some years in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He was also a Vision Quest leader for many years. He discovered the Personal Totem Pole Process and at present is primarily engaged in training people, including therapists, artists and teachers in The Personal Totem Pole Process©, and gives workshops in the use of imagery in growth and psychotherapy in various cities of the US and Europe (Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria). Stephen Gallegos has written “The Personal Totem Pole: Animal Imagery, The Chakras and Psychotherapy”, “Little Ed and Golden Bear”, “The Animals of the Four Windows: Integrating Thinking, Sensing, Feeling and Imagery”, “Into Wholeness: The Path of Deep Imagery”.

www.esgallegos.com

www.deepimagery.org

Stephen Gallegos speaks with Joanna about the discovery of the Personal Totem Pole Process, the different “windows” of knowing, healing and growth through deep imagery, the mystery of our aliveness…

Music: “Sipping on the Solid Ground” (from Tuesday Wonderland) by Esbjorn Svensson Trio

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Julieta Casimiro es una sanadora mazateca. Además de su labor como sanadora indígena, Julieta ha ganado reconocimiento internacional como miembro del Concejo Internacional de las Trece Abuelas Indígenas – un grupo de maestras espirituales, mujeres medicinales y guardianas de sabiduria, desde su fundación en 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julieta_Casimiro

Dona Julieta y sus hijas Lourdes y Eugenia hablan con Joanna sobre su trabajo como sanadoras con los hongos Teonanacatl. Ellas se refiere a los hongos como “los niños santos.”

NOTE: Please click here for the English translation of this interview by Joanna.

Music: Stars of the Morning Sky (from “Ars Moriendi”) by Jonas Hellborg & Glen Velez

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Julieta Casimiro is a Mazatec Healer. As well as her work as an indigenous healer, Julieta has gained international recognition as a member of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers – a group of spiritual elders, medicine women and wisdom keepers since its founding in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julieta_Casimiro

Joanna speaks with Doña Julieta (and her daughters Lourdes and Eugenia) about her work as a healer with the Teonanacatl mushrooms. Julieta refers to them as niños santos (little saints).

NOTE: This is the English translation by Joanna. For the original Spanish version please click here.

Music: Stars of the Morning Sky (from “Ars Moriendi”) by Jonas Hellborg & Glen Velez

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David Cumes, M.D. was born in South Africa and received his medical training at the Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg. Specializing in urology, Dr. Cumes was trained and has previously taught on the staff at Stanford Medical Center. He has published extensively in professional journals and currently has a private practice in Santa Barbara, CA.

Although Dr. Cumes has had classical training in a profession that relies heavily on science and analytical reasoning, he has pursued a personal quest that evokes his intuitive and introspective capabilities. After extensive travel which included time with the San Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert, Dr. Cumes explored the role wilderness plays in personal healing and transformation. He founded a company called Inward Bound, and leads groups on healing journeys to remote wilderness areas. As a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School of North America, he has formal training as a wilderness guide.

He has published three books. In the first, “Inner Passages Outer Journeys”, Dr. Cumes explores the restorative power of nature. It discusses practical theories of wilderness psychology and synthesizes relevant aspects of ancient traditions such as yoga and Kabbalah. The second book, “The Spirit of Healing” , discusses the interrelationship between the patient, the healer, and the Divine Force or “Field” as essential components of the healing process. The book is filled with personal anecdotes and insights from his surgical practice, his travels and his studies of ancient healing wisdom, shamans and San trance dancers. More recently Dr. Cumes has been initiated as an inyanga or sangoma (South African shaman.) The third book is about this journey. He has established a healing center in the far north of South Africa (Soutpansberg mountains) where he has built “Tshisimane”.

http://www.davidcumes.com

David Cumes speaks with Joanna about the rol of wilderness in healing transformation, the calling of the ancestors, his own initiation as a Zulu sangoma (shamanic healer), the multiple factors in the healing process…

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Robert Wolff is a social psychologist and is the author of Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing, also A Book of Dreams and What It Is to Be Human: Hope Lies in Our Ability to Bring Back to Awareness. Some of Robert’s essays and photographs are available on his website.

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Jeffrey Lewis is a story teller and trader who has lived for many years close to Zuni and Hopi indigenous people learning about their traditions and stories:

“My role in the revitalization of these ancient routes has been a blessed one. I have brought macaw feathers from the Mayan jungles and worked to preserve that species. I have traded for weavings from the highlands of Guatemala and southern Mexico; shells from as far away as southeast Asia; corals from the Mediterranean. I have crawled into the mines at Cerillos and recovered turquoise; worked to re-establish the Zuni fetish trade.

All of this I have done. My commitment has always been that of preservationist: to preserve and protect the cultural rights of indigenous
people: to practice their religion as well their long and rich heritage as artists.”

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Moughenda Mikala is a tenth generation nganga of the Missoko Bwiti sect from southern Gabon. At the Awakening in the Dream house in Mexico, Moughenda offers Bwiti iboga root healing and initiation. Bwiti, originating among the forest Pygmies, is a traditional African spiritual practice whose essence is ancestor worship and direct connection to God. The initiations relate to the five aspects of Missoko Bwiti: Ngonde (bwiti of visions and diagnostics), Mioba (bwiti of healing with plants and herbs), Bosuka (bwiti of knowledge of creation), Mabundi (bwiti of women), and Senguedia (bwiti of protection).

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Dorothy Shockley is a Legislative Aide to Senator Albert M. Kookish of Alaska. She is a Native Alaskan and talks about the “True Spirit of Alaska” and the life of First People in rural Alaska.

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Evon Peter is the National Director of Native Movement Alaska and former Chief of the Neetsaii Gwich’in from Arctic Village in northeastern Alaska. He has served as the Co-Chair of the Gwich’in Council International and on the Executive Board of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. Evon is an advocate of Indigenous Peoples rights, youth, and a balanced world. His experience includes work within the United Nations and Arctic Council forum representing Indigenous and environmental interests. He is featured in the 2005 full-length feature film “Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action,” that follows four Indigenous people working on issues of Environmental Justice in North America.

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Joanna presents a blessing ceremony by Dave Courchene (Nii Gaani Aki Inini), Elder and spiritual advisor from the Anishnabe Nation, Eagle Clan. Dave is the visionary behind The Turtle Lodge the First Nation’s Center for Learning and Healing in Sagkeeng, Manitoba, Canada. A documentary about his vision and journey The 8th Fire made by Cindy and Andy Pickard premiered October 13, 2007 in Austin, Texas.

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Kajuyali Tsamani (COL) – Shaman, initiated by Bernardo Moscote, Master Shaman of the Kogi Nation, indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.

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Joanna Harcourt-Smith interviews Robert Wolff Social psychologist and author of Original Wisdom – Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing, A Book of Dreams, Ha’ina Mai Ka Puana; Let The Story Be Told, SPIRAL and Rain of Ashes.

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Joanna Harcourt-Smith interviews Jean Liedloff – Consultant and author of “The Continuum Concept” a book offering a new understanding of how we have lost much of our natural well-being and showing us practical ways to regain it for our children and for ourselves.

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