In this episode, Vanessa Andreotti, a Brazilian educator and advocate for Indigenous rights, explores how to become good elders and ancestors. She emphasizes the need for a collective responsibility beyond our own lives. Vanessa invites listeners to reflect on what it means to age gracefully, the significance of storytelling, and the deep connections between generations. She critiques society’s view on aging, highlighting the potential for transformation through disillusionment and the urgent need for intergenerational wisdom. This conversation is a profound reminder of our role in shaping the future.
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insights INSIGHT
Eldership and Mistakes
True elders learn from mistakes and share wisdom to prevent repetition.
They embody grace, humility, and generosity in passing down lessons.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Befriending Pain
Shift your relationship with pain and see it as a teacher and alert system.
Befriend pain instead of numbing or avoiding it.
question_answer ANECDOTE
The Four Mountains
The Cree elder's story of four mountains illustrates a pathway to aging and becoming an elder.
It emphasizes the interconnectedness of life stages and the importance of elders for babies.
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Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism
Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti
This book critiques the modernity narrative as a single story of progress, development, and civilization that is expiring. It argues that modernity, driven by expansion, colonialism, and resource extraction, has created significant harm and imbalance. Andreotti calls for 'hospicing' modernity, offering palliative care to its decline while nurturing new, potentially wiser systems. The book includes thought experiments and exercises to help readers reimagine learning, unlearn harmful behaviors, and expand their capacity to handle difficult and painful issues. It emphasizes the need for humility, accountability, and a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of human and natural systems.
Drawing on her work as an educator, indigenous and land rights advocate and her mixed family history, Vanessa invites us to reflect on what it means to die well. How to become good elders and ancestors?
This timeless wisdom teaches us about the ways in which we can be in service of the greater good. The times we are living in often make it difficult for elders to play their role and teach the younger generation about the mistakes and successes they have experienced. Vanessa sparks ideas around the multiple layers of time, aging and pain and opens up opportunities to interact differently with our elders and ancestors so we can let their stories be medicine for generations to come.
This is from our archives, part of a beautiful and powerful conversation we had in episode 156 with Vanessa Andreotti on Radical Tenderness, Eldership and Decolonisation // Embracing Our Pain. We hope that hearing this small piece will allow you to find new insights, embrace them and continue this practice of becoming a good elder and ancestor.
Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org
all that we are with amisha tala oak (fka the future is beautiful) 