On October 1st, 2021, we organized a panel discussion in preparation for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. To watch & listen on YouTube, click here.
Below is opening words that I shared to introduce the panel. You can listen and watch me share these words on Youtube.
Lev’s Speech for Oct 1st Panel:
Good evening, my name is Lev Natan. I am the Founding Director of Alliance for a Viable Future.
First and foremost, it’s essential that we acknowledge that we are gathering here on land where the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans called home. It’s where they raised their children and celebrated the good things of life, together.
Next, I need to send greetings and thank you to everyone who has made this possible.
Thank you to so many people and organizations. We wouldn’t be here together, right now, if it wasn’t for the hard work and dedication of so many community members who share in our commitment to observing Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
First, I need to send greetings and thank you to my family. My wife, Sarah, my son, Emet, and my parents Allen and Sherry, for the sacrifices that you have made in order to support me to do this work. Thank you so much for your support.
Thank you to our panelists for agreeing to share their precious wisdom with us, tonight: Carol Dana, Jake Singer, Bonney Hartley, and Shawn Stevens.
Thank you to the core organizing team - Susan Jameson, Michael Johnson, Al Blake, and Jeff Wallman. Thank you to the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of Southern Berkshires for generously sharing your beautiful space tonight, and to Karen, Erin, Robin, Jessica, and Ray.
Thank you so much to all of our individual donors who believe in this work. Thank you to our sponsors for your generous contributions. The fact that so many businesses, organizations and foundations in our community have said, “yes, we want to support Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” in our first year of organizing this public event in Great Barrington, is a powerful and significant affirmation. Let’s take a moment to visit our website, to acknowledge our sponsors.
And, now, thank you, each and every one of you - those of you who are here, in person; those of you who are calling-in on zoom; those of you who are watching the recording. And, thank you to your families and all of the people in your lives who made it possible for you to be here.
I would also like to send my greetings and thank you to the Elements of Life: Thank you to our precious Mother Earth who gives us everything that we need; may their always be clean, pure water to drink, may we always have the warmth of a fire to keep us warm and to cook our food, and may their alway be fresh air to breath. Thank you to the whole web of life. You connect us all together. You are the reason that our hearts and our minds are one. Thank you.
It was not my intention to leave anyone out. So, as I learned from my Lakota relatives, Aho Matukuyasin. Thank you to to All My Relations.
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Now I feel it is important to share some personal words about why I am committed to organizing my community and bioregion to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
For more than twenty years, I’ve been asking these questions: Why do we humans treat each other and the earth the way that we do? Why do we have racism? Why do we have economic oppression? Why do we treat our home, the living earth, as a product to consume? Why do we destroy the very life support systems that we rely on to survive?
Those questions led me to even more urgent questions:
How are we going to clean up the mess that we have gotten ourselves into? How are we going to heal our society and the natural world?
More than fifteen years ago, I had the opportunity to live with native people in Africa, India, New Zealand and Mexico. In my time with the Maasai people in Northern Tanzania, I experienced a peace of mind that I had never before known. My body’s visceral intelligence taught me that the indigenous way of life is precious. I felt a deep wisdom in their homeland and I developed a profound respect and love for Indigenous people.
When I returned to the states, I had the good fortune to begin an apprenticeship with an Algonquin man in the Hudson Valley of Upstate New York, named Hawksbrother, who introduced me to one of his teachers, Chief Jake Swamp of the Mohawk Nation, who told the story of the PeaceMaker and The Thanksgiving Address.
I felt deeply inspired, as I learned about the Haudenosaunee Confederacy - an alliance of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and later, Tuscororos.
The following words from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s website speak to it’s value to us all:
“Often described as the oldest, participatory democracy on Earth, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s constitution is believed to be a model for the American Constitution. What makes it stand out as unique to other systems around the world is its blending of law and values. For the Haudenosaunee, law, society and nature are equal partners and each plays an important role.”
This sacred form of governance that inspired our founding fathers, also inspired me to see a vision for the Northeast Bioregion. It’s a vision that has become our mission at Alliance for a Viable Future.
I saw that it is possible for us to remember the original peoples’ of this land, and to honor their original instructions - to be grateful and to take good care of everything that has come before us.
I saw that it is possible to revitalize this way of governance, that integrates “law, values and nature.”
I saw that it is possible to teach our children and future generations to live together - with peace, with creativity, and in harmony with the earth.
While this vision inspired me many years ago, it left me at a loss for what to do. I looked around and I didn’t know where to begin. The vision and the task seemed so great. Eventually, it became too heavy for me, and I fell into depression, anxiety and confusion.
I felt hopeless about the state of the world and about my own ability to create positive, meaningful and lasting change. At the same time, I was struggling with the symptoms of chronic Lyme disease. These factors were like a perfect storm that sent me into what I’ve heard described as a dark night of the soul.
I share this deeply personal life experience because I want you to know that my relationship with Indigenous Peoples’ Day is deeply personal. Like many young adults in my generation, while enduring this Dark Night, I questioned whether it was worthwhile for me to even be here, and more than once, I actually thought about taking my own life.
It was the Indigenous ceremonial way of life - sweat lodge, vision quest and the Sundance ceremony, quite literally, that saved my life. Through the generosity of my adopted granddad, Jake Singer, who you will hear from tonight, I was able to heal and gradually step into leadership.
Everything that I have now - my health, my family, my capacity to work, function and contribute to my community - is because of the Indigenous ceremonial way of life.
It gave me a way to keep going, to not give up, when I was going through my darkest trials. It gave me a way to hold-on to the vision that inspired me. And, it made me strong and healthy, once again - physically, emotional, mentally and spiritually.
In the last fifteen years, I’ve come to rely on the indigenous ceremonial way of life - for the things that are most important to me - my family, my health and my faith and trust in the future. I have learned that this way of life didn’t just teach me how to be strong and resilient, it actually made me strong and resilient.
When I look around and see the world that we’re living in, I see us needing to learn to be strong and resilient.
While it’s important to ask Why - “why are we in this mess?” - it’s more important to jump in, to get involved, and to lead by example. To do that, we need to develop our capacity to be strong and resilient.
In the last five hundred years, since Columbus came here to Turtle Island, Native American people have faced the unimaginable. The colonial project of Manifest Destiny attempted to wipe out their cultures. The American government forced the children of indigenous nations to go to horrifying boarding schools and attempted to make them forget their language and their spiritual connection to their people. And through all that, they have found a way to survive and to protect their ceremonial way of life to. They are still here, and they will continue to be here.
And, not only that, they have survived with a spirit of generosity that is so strong and vital that some even welcome young white folks like myself into their ceremonial ways and adopt us into their families, so that we can heal together.
For me, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about standing in solidarity with Native American people. It’s about taking a stand, together, and saying the genocide and attempted genocide of Indigenous Peoples in the United States of America was wrong. It was a crime against humanity. It’s about acknowledging this truth, so that we can move forward into the future, standing on a foundation of truth and reconciliation.
It’s time for us to come together, as one, to do what needs to be done for the children, and for future generations.
I’ll say that much for now. Thank you for your kind attention and your care for this work.
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Before I introduce our panelists, I would like to introduce a very special guest - Gwendolyn VanSant, the Chief Executive Officer and Founding Director of MultiCultural Bridge, an organization that has become a pillar in the Berkshires, teaching us how to live together with more harmony. She also sits on the W.E.B Du Bois Legacy Committee, where she collaborated with Randy Weinstein to introduce the Indigenous Peoples’ Day Proclamation to the Great Barrington City Council, which was signed into law on Sept. 23rd, 2019 by Steve Bannon, William Cooke, Leigh Davis, Edward Abrahams, and Kate Burke.
I would like us to give a round of applause for Gwendloyn, Randy, and the Great Barrington City Council for their honorable work to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day here in Great Barrington.
Now let’s give a warm welcome to Gwendolyn - for her to say a few words.
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And, for next steps to stay engaged, click here.