I've just returned from a deeply connected week at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. I was attending the Oglala Lakota Indigenous Wisdom and Permaculture Convergence (IWPC) hosted by the Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative (OLCERI) Ecoranch. We spent 5 days at OLCERI learning traditional ecological knowledge, gathering in ceremony, deconstructing our own ancestral relations, engaging in cross-cultural dialogue, and envisioning a future where we may live in harmony with each other and with the earth.
I began my adventure on July 24th. My bags were packed, my car was cleaned, and my two dear friends Laurel and Luz were singing in the Prius. We waved goodbye to our home, the Bay Area, and we drove on highway I-80 towards South Dakota. We spent our first night in Salt Lake City. As we entered into the urban environment, we were greeted with nonstop fireworks. As we pulled up to our Airbnb, we asked a couple of kids what was going on. "It's July 24th, duh...Utah's birthday". The next morning we sat off for our final destination - Pine Ridge Reservation.
I didn't truly know what the convergence had in store for us as we drove down the bumpy road into OLCERI. Honestly, I don't think that any one had a strong idea of what the week would turn into. I recently went to a talk by Michael Meade, and he said that the difference between stagnant ceremonies and transformational ceremonies is that, in the later, there is room for the unknown. I believe there are many conferences/convergences where there is a rigid structure and little room for change. IWPC was not one of those convergences. On July 25th, as we drove onto Brian's land of OLCERI, we entered into a space that allowed for the unknown and invited every participant to co-create the experience.
The next few days were filled with magic and deep connection to other people and to the land. I would find myself volunteering in the medic tent for part of the day and then transition to a talk on traditional medicines. I would look up and see people stomping on clay, sand, and straw to make cob for a rocket mass heater. When I'd turn my head I'd see another group in a pickup truck returning with wild-harvested chokecherries, which Winona would then use to make chokecherry patties in the massive solar oven that my friend Brennan made.
During the evenings I'd find myself in a tea tent sharing medicine songs and stories. The next day around that time I'd be in a yurt sitting with a man who had just injured his back by being bucked off of a horse that he had recently trained. Upon exiting the yurt, I'd be faced with a double rainbow smiling across our campsite.
One night I found myself entering a sweat lodge, facilitated by a Lakota man in their tradition. We sang songs and offered prayers to our ancestors. We shared sacred water and gave thanks to the fire tenders. The next morning I would wake up and join a drum circle held by Afia Walking Tree. That night I found myself sick to my stomach along with a few of my friends. We woke up in the middle of the night, offering our last meals back to the earth in an almost ceremonial manner. We had caught the stomach flu that the rest of camp already had or would soon catch as well. The stomach flu was going around all of Pine Ridge Reservation and was not limited to the convergence. A few wise people said that getting sick was ceremony in a sense, as we had stepped onto land that was stewarded by a culture that believes in reciprocity. If we were to receive something from the land, it demanded something from us in return. The bug was only 24 hours long and I was soon back to the medic tent helping out with people who were just coming down with the flu. I had never worked in a medic tent before, and it was a beautiful reminder that the healer, the sick, the sickness, and the healing are one in the same.
It's hard to describe what happened on those plains. We created a community and an experience that we had all dreamed up together. I have deep respect for the Lakota people that I met. Before arriving at OLCERI, I didn't fully understand how hard life was on Pine Ridge Reservation. Unemployment, meth addiction, and teen suicide are extremely high. The average income on the reservation is under $6,000. The weather is harsh and the land can be unforgiving. This can be attributed to the long history of Native American oppression by the hands of the US government and citizens. Yet here these people were, opening up their homes and their stories and their precious knowledge to us outsiders. I have never witnessed such profound human capacity to forgive and to once again trust people from another culture who had historically destroyed much of the Lakota nation. My heart is heavy for the generations of pain that were inflicted upon the Lakota people. Yet, I find that my heart is also swelled up with the hope that we can heal past traumas and co-create a world where different peoples can live in harmony which one another. Thank you and deep gratitude to Brian for opening up your land, to the Lakota people for sharing your culture, to the organizers of the convergence for seeing this dream into a reality, and for every person who attended for opening your hearts to one another.
If you feel called to donate to OLCERI and the continued efforts of the convergence, you can do so here, and many thanks for reading : https://www.generosity.com/education-fundraising/pine-ridge-permaculture-iwps-convergence