Blank Looks

They want to know what you’re talking about. They think they sort of know. You tell them you are going to the 11th Council Gathering of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.

 “Are you indigenous?” 

 No.

 It will be held on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana.

 “Do you have Native blood?”

 No.

 Their faces become, if possible, even more blank.

 I can imagine their unspoken question: “Why would an old white woman go to an Indian reservation where she will have to camp to listen to a lot of old Indian women?” 

 First, not all indigenous people are Native American. The grandmothers come from Brazil, Central America, Gabon, Nepal, Tibet and New Zealand as well as from the Americas.

 Second, I went to learn, to join in their prayers and blessings and to be part of their efforts to heal the earth – not just from environmental degradation but also from the myriad atrocities that have covered the planet with blood.

 “Okay.” My listener is doubtful. "How can someone learn from aborigines? They are invisible. They have no culture. They are primitive and conquered peoples."  

The 13 indigenous grandmothers represent cultures that go back thousands of years – before there were governments – to the time when people and animals and plants and places could communicate – learn from one another. If the earth is to be healed, if our species is to be healed, these are the women who can help us accomplish this.

 Born and raised in the ultimate consumer culture, I need their perspectives.

 Born into a patriarchal, misogynist culture, I need their energies to empower balance and harmony between the sexes.

All of us have genetic memory of prayer circles and sacred fires. Remembering our original ways of being is a process. This process is facilitated by those with an umbilical cord connection with the earth.

 That’s why I went to the 11th Council Gathering of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers