EMBODYING INDIGENOUS WISDOM with Anita Sanchez

Welcome to the next episode of Awakening Together with my guest Dr. Anita Sanchez.  

Have you ever wondered what indigenous wisdom means and why it might be closer to perennial wisdom than we imagine?  Let’s explore this together.  

What I love about this conversation is that we dive straight in and bypass the superficial altogether.  My hope is that our words activate and support you in your own learning and growth process.  Because the meme ‘indigenous thinking will save the world’ is very popular these days, it’s important to ask, what does it mean to be indigenous. One definition might be that you have a direct path to the original instructions given to your ancestors, that you are still listening to nature and the wisdom of life’s living systems all around you, you remember you are one.  In this way, the indigenous are those people who never left being stewards of the deepest connection with life and they are honor bound to share these ways of being with their family and community.  In this way 7 generations is not just a brand, but it is a way of being in right relationship with all life.  Given this, and one that can embrace us in hope, we are all indigenous.  

In the 90’s, I remember hearing John Trudell, American Indian Movement activist and artist, say, “we are all indigenous.”  It stopped me in my tracks and dropped me into a still point of inquiry about belonging and wholeness, because I wanted to understand why I didn’t feel that I was indigenous even though I was producing this event with him on his Spoken Word tour and I had gained the reputation for being a white journalist who could be trusted by native people’s. In truth, I had simply forgotten my indigenous roots and the golden thread connecting me had been broken.  But now it could be restored.  If we go back far enough we all can find those roots and connections.  Even so, it is a blessing to have this wisdom so readily available through our indigenous brothers and sisters.  As you’ll see in this conversation with Anita, we have the opportunity to step into her life and to feel the truth and richness of her lineage.