
Building Reciprocal Relationship with the Earth
Five Indigenous Elders Share their Wisdom
Five Indigenous Elders Share their Wisdom
“I come from a long line of teachers of rivers, who did not live in big cities and traffic,” shared Chief Caleen Sisk, spiritual and tribal leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe at Resilience of Sacred Places: Defining Security, dialogues hosted by the Sacred Land Film Project and the David Brower Center in July 2015. These dialogues shared the vision and perspectives of Native American women, defenders of sacred sites and Indigenous cultures, on “homelands” and “security.”
It can be said that human beings are a continuum. We are pieces, stories, visions and reflections of those who walked this Earth long before us.
The Ancient Wisdom Rising gathering is an effort to preserve the living continuity of ancient wisdom through dialogue, connection and discovery.
“We need strength-based grantmaking, which recognizes the internal strengths of Indigenous peoples and their inherent knowledge and wisdom.”
Sacred Fire Foundation believes that Elder wisdom holds answers to many of the world’s pressing challenges. Honoring ancestral wisdom is a way of deepening our roots to build our resiliency and be grounded in a world that often seems destabilizing and uncertain. We recognize that all our ancestors also waded through the uncertainties of life, adapted to their natural environment and braved many storms, and this knowledge is comforting knowing that we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel or invent a new app to solve problems.