A less convenient life

I arrived in the island-nation of Dominica yesterday.  I've been thinking of coming here for about a year now in search of a very different way of life--a less convenient way of life.

I'm acting on an idea that has been getting stronger in me lately:  we modern people are addicted to convenience.  Quicker=easier=better...right?  The more functions your phone can perform, the better it is.  More square feet in your house, more horsepower under your hood, more letters after your name indicating the degrees of education you have earned--these are all important and good by modern standards.

I'm skeptical, to say the least.  What we call the modern way of life seems to be destroying the planet.  What we think of as modernity seems to be diminishing rather than increasing the quality of life on Earth for all forms of life, not just human.  We can email and talk with someone on the other side of the world, but who is your neighbor?  Do you and your neighbors like on another?  Do you ever help one another, or just get together because it's good to be together?

We can't "turn back the clock" and pretend that the industrial revolution and the modern explosion of scientific and technological "progress" didn't happen.  Well, we can but then we'd be in denial.  It happened, and we are where we are at this point.

But I do think we as modern people can and need to explore simpler, lower-tech ways of living.  That's what I'm here to do.

Of course, there's all kinds of contradictions in my experiment in simple living.  I flew here on an airplane (though I did try to figure out how I could get here by sailboat).  And obviously I'm writing this blog posting on a computer, and will post it through the internet.

I'm not an extremist or purist when it comes to simpler, lower-tech, more natural ways of living.  I just think it's a direction we need to explore.  It's a direction that I'm really excited to explore.  

Simple, natural, "lower-tech" living is obviously not my original idea.  Far from it.  The Amish have eschewed more complex technologies during modern times, and can still be seen plowing their fields and traveling on roads with real horses providing the power.  Many other peoples have either rejected "higher technology" or don't have access to it and so live lives that by modern standards are very "poor" and simple.  

Simple, natural and lower-tech is the only way that most human beings throughout history have lived.  If you go back far enough in your lineage and could visit some of your distant ancestors, you would find people making things with stones, wood, plant fibers, bones and shells.  Most modern people--including me--possess very few of the handworking skills that our ancestors used both to survive and to create beauty.  (I have a special appreciation for indigenous people such at the Sentinelese man mentioned in this article who shot an arrow at a helicopter that was sent to "rescue" his people after the 2004 tsunami.)

To me, this is a sad loss.  Back in September of this year I attended a permaculture course.  In it, this man taught me how to make a simple basket using only locally grown tule reeds, my hands and a beautiful and ancient technology that was perfected long ago by local native people, who can weave baskets with tule that hold water.  Making my crude but functional little basket in this way was a wonderful experience.  I felt pride in my simple but beautiful accomplishment.  One of my teachers, Martin Prechtel says "These ancient ways are not quaint, they are elegant and noble."  He also says "Your spirituality is in your hands."  These kinds of sentiments move me deeply, and fuel my life's direction.

So, why Dominica as a place to pursue this way of life?

Many reasons.  I love islands, I love the tropics, and I love the Caribbean which is close to my family and friends in Florida.  Dominica in particular has a unique history and place in the Caribbean.  It is also the only Eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre-Columbian native Caribs, who were exterminated or driven from neighbouring islands.  I was greeted at the airport yesterday by one of the chiefs of the Carib people of Dominica (they call themselves "Kalinago"), Chief Charles Williams.  I had a very nice stay with him and his wife, Margaret at their guest house.  

Dominica is also known for being exceptionally beautiful and naturally rich.  It is the most volcanic and mountainous of the Caribbean islands, and is home to a great abundance and diversity of life. 

Unlike many Caribbean islands, which are still ruled/administered by the U.S. or European countries, Dominica is its own country.  I like that.  I'm relatively small and independent myself, so I like that about Dominica.  :-)

Another good thing about Dominica:  I've been offered access to land here.  A really nice guy from Boston named Gerry owns this land in the southeast of Dominica.  Though it's listed as for sale, he seems more dedicated to good stewardship of the land than making money from it.  I will go to meet and get to know this land in the next few days, and probably start living there in a hammock strung up between two trees, with a tarp over it.

Speaking of low-tech, I made a purchase today that I'm really excited about:  a machete (known as a "cutlass" in Dominica).  Mine looks exactly like this one:

I really like it.  These things are standard, necessary equipment for working the land in places like this.  It's a very simple and yet very powerful tool.

Another low-tech addition to my life here is a new friend named Florian.  He's from Austria, here for a few weeks of hiking.  He goes by "Flo"--I like that.  This is Flo:

He claims that he works in a bank in Austria but I don't believe him.  Too nice of a guy to work in a bank.

We're sharing a room in the capital city of Rouseau.  This is the view from our room:

Ok, gotta go.  Flo and I are gonna go out and enact another ancient and low-tech ritual--going out on the town on a Friday night in search of a good time.  :-)

Who are "indigenous people"?

For most of us, this question brings to mind people whose skin is some shade of brown, and who live in natural/traditional ways that are markedly different than the ways of “civilization”. At least in the United States, the term “indigenous people” tends to be used as a racial category, along with “Asian”, “Black/African-heritage” and “white”.

This is the way I usually hear the term “indigenous people” used--as if it's a racial category. Used this way, the term “indigenous people” becomes one more way that capitalism/racism/imperialism divides the world's peoples into categories, as if we have nothing of significance in common with one another. Yuck.

What does “indigenous” actually mean?

There seem to be various and conflicting meanings that have become attached to this word.

1. First, the etymology of the word.  The literal translation of the Latin roots of this word is “in-born person” or “born in a country, native”. Note that in this definition, you are “indigenous” of the place you are born, regardless of where your ancestors came from. Most countries seem to recognize this definition by granting “citizenship” to anyone born on the soil of that country.

2. Here's the Webster definition: “having originated in or being produced, growing, living or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment (as in "indigenous plants" or "indigenous culture")”. This one is vague. Are oranges indigenous to Florida? Well, they didn't develop in Florida and they weren't growing here until people from Spain brought them here. But according to Webster, if they grow here and live here, they're indigenous. Doesn't matter where your great-great-great-citrus grandparents came from (Asia). If you're an orange tree growing in Florida, you're indigenous. This is the same as meaning #1.

3. More commonly, when referring to a species or a human culture, “indigenous” means “developed in the place where it is living”. Hawaiians are the indigenous people of Hawaii because their culture developed there. Sabal palms are indigenous to the deep southeastern U.S. because they developed there. Tomatoes are indigenous to South America (yep) because they developed there. That's all pretty straight forward. But also different than the first two meanings above. By this definition the Seminole people in Oklahoma are not “indigenous people” because their culture developed in what is now called Florida and not where they are living now.

4. Then there's the meaning of “indigenous” that is basically a racial category, as I described above.

5. And finally, there's the way Thomas and I used the word in our first posting (below), which describes a way of living that is based on having a deep knowledge of and conscious relationship to the natural environment.

Confused yet? I think you'd have to be. Because while there is overlap in the meanings above, there's just no consistency in how this word is used.

In spite of these conflicting definitions of the word “indigenous”, one thing is clear: most of us who live in “civilization” do not identify as indigenous unless we can trace our ancestory to people who knew how to live in a very nature-centered and spiritual way that predates “civilization”.

If you think you're operative definition of “indigenous people” isn't fundamentally racial (#4), take a look at this guy:

Does he look indigenous to you? Of course not. He's a white guy. He looks like a guy who might give you a loan at a bank (if you look like him). Or someone who might pilot the commercial airliner that takes you from one city or another. Definitely not indigenous.  Right?







Ok, now take another look at him:

Super nice clothes, huh?

This man is most definitely an indigenous person. Even the UN recognizes him as such. He is Saami. His people are indigenous to parts of what are called Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The Saami are indigenous--at least by every definition above except the racial definition.

This man and his Saami people are an oppressed minority in the countries they live in. Their natural, traditional, indigenous way of life is constantly threatened by the "civilized" people of Scandanavia. Sound familiar?  This is true to the extent that the Saami are widely seen as victims of racism in the countries where they live.  Yes, that is the word that is used over there.  The Saami are considered a racial minority.  The United Nations is supportive of talks between the Saami and Nordic governments on the topic of "Saami self-determination". 

In other words, these people are NOT seen as Norwegian, Swedish, or Finnish within the countries that they live, and they do not identify with these nationalities (more than they have to).

Ok, now are you confused?  I hope so.

I think most of us need to seriously rethink what an “indigenous person” is.

For most of my life, I've seen myself as a “non-indigenous” person. If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're in the same boat because I only know a few people who identify as indigenous. (Hi Marcie! Hi Thomas!) I've spent my whole life so far feeling I was “indigenous of nowhere”. That I'm not really from anywhere.  But I was born somewhere--a place called Urbana, Illinois. By the first few definitions above, I am indigenous of that city and state, and of the United States. Do I think of myself as “indigenous” of Urbana, Illinois? Of course not. Does anyone? I doubt it. Because the word “indigenous” has become so polluted by racism in the U.S.

My ancestors came mostly from Germany and Prussia. Not indigenous peoples, right? Well, who were the ancestors of these “Germans” and “Prussians” that I descend from, that lived a few thousand years ago in what is now called Europe? How did those ancestors of mine live? What did they believe?

Go to the “History of Germany” Wikipedia page and under “Pre-history” you find a pathetic few sentences that make very vague references to “Germanic and Celtic tribes” that lived in what is now called Germany. By the way, "Germany" got its name from Julius Caesar, who dubbed it "Germania" right before he and his troops built a bridge across the Rhein from Gaul (now France) so he could conquer those "Germanic" savages.  Does it seem strange to you--as it does to me--to refer to these tribes as “Germanic” when that term was first used by the emperor who intended to conquer and "civilize" them? Were they nobody before Caesar "discovered" and named them? Who were they? Who did they think they were?

Of course my ancestors were tribal, indigenous people who lived in tribal, indigenous ways in those lands where their ancestors had been for thousands more years. We all descend from indigenous people. It is the heritage of all of us to be from a people who knew how to live very naturally and spiritually in a particular place. You may be “exotic” to the specific place you live now, but your ancestors and there culture are most definitely indigenous to some specific place. Guaranteed.

And we are all indigenous to this planet we call Earth.  Our species developed here on this planet over billions of years.  You and I and all of us belong here on this planet.  This is a very deep and significant fact of who all of us are.

Why don't people of “European heritage” tend to see themselves as “indigenous”? That question probably warrants a whole other article about the internalized effects of empires and “civilization” that have lingered for a few millenia now in the minds “European heritage” people, who generally seem to pretend that they and their ancestors have always been "civilized". (“Europe”, by the way, is the westernmost vestige of the Eurasian continent. Look at the map below and try to figure out where Asia ends and Europe begins.)

The questions that I think are even more critical to ask are:

1. What are the consequences of not seeing ourselves as “indigenous” of somewhere (even if using the liberal meanings # 1 and 2)?

2. What are the consequences of seeing “indigenousness” as a race? And,

3. What are the consequences of not learning to be “indigenous” of a particular place (using meaning number 5 above)?

Take a good look at the state of the Earth's environment, and I think you have the answer to all three of these questions.

Devastating.

Why bother really taking care of where you live if you're not really of or from (read "indigenous to") anywhere? Is where you live getting trashed? Not you're problem! You're not really from their anyway!

Hopefully this essay leaves you with more of an idea of why we've begun to refer to the village we envision as “neo-indigenous”. And why we believe this type of village is so important for both the health of the planet, and the times we live in.

Forward into our past

Welcome!

Around the time of the winter solstice last year, I got a clear vision of how I want to live. My vision centers on creating and living in a "village". I use this word because for us it refers to a traditional, indigenous, tribal and natural way of life. Since December, I have been nurturing and developing this vision together.

I feel very strongly that "civilization" has gone completely crazy and is threatening to destroy Life on our precious planet. I also believe that human beings are essentially tribal, natural and spiritual beings who are meant to live closely with each other, Nature and Spirit. For the sake of our own health as a species and that of the planet as a whole living organism, I believe that humanity needs to move back toward the simple, natural, communal and spiritual way of life that indigenous peoples have been living for a long, long time.

I just arrived in Miami a week ago from a year and half of exploration and learning that led me to this vision, as well as to many other wonderful people and places. Here is something I created a few days ago that I hope will help us develop a local base of support for our vision:

http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/grp/1725144023.html

The creation of this village is an open project. It belongs to the Earth and all of humanity, and will need the love, support, ideas and energy of many, many beings. I welcome the participation of anyone who shares this vision with us and feels moved by it. You are invited to make this vision and this project your own in any way that makes sense for you. You don't have to plan to live in this village in order for it to be yours.

This blog is an open invitation to stay in touch with this vision and our progress toward realizing it. I hope the blog will become an online gathering place for anyone who wants to share in this adventure with us. We will post developments and inspirations of all kinds here.

I hope that over time, others of you will send us things we can post here--whether yours or someone else's—things that feed the vision we are creating. I welcome any kind of submission--an article, a poem, a passage, a photo, a song--anything that feeds this vision.

Again, welcome! I am glad to have your energy with me in this adventure of creation. You can subscribe to the blog via email in the upper right hand corner. And please feel free to share this blog with anyone who you think will be interested.

With love, honor and respect for all beings,

Paul