From: Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson <lakinroe@silcom.com>
To: International Permaculture List <permaculture@openpermaculture.org>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [permaculture] Oil and Water: Can They Mix? Western and Indigenous Approaches to Economy, Ecology and Community. October 28 to November 1, Sante Fe
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 05:52:46 -0700
SANTA FE CONFERENCE BRINGS TOGETHER INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, POLITICIANS,
ACTIVISTS AND BUSINESS LEADERS
Schumacher College is co-sponsoring SEED Graduate Institute's upcoming
conference: Oil and Water: Can They Mix? Western and Indigenous Approaches
to Economy, Ecology and Community. It takes places from October 28 to
November 1 in Santa Fe, USA, and brings together indigenous scholars,
elders and educators from across the continent with sustainable business
leaders, politicians, activists and scientists dialogue about the important
issues of our time. In addition to keynote speakers such as Richard
Douthwaite, Hazel Henderson, Oscar Kawagley, Gregory Cajete and Linda Hogan
and smaller break out sessions, the conference will feature a unique
dialogue process based on a hybrid of Native American talking circle and
Bohmian dialogue moderated by Leroy Little Bear, former Director of Native
Studies at Harvard. To find out more, visit www.seedgraduateinstitute.org
and click on the "Oil and Water Conference" links.
Western and Indigenous Approaches to
Economy, Ecology & Community
October 28 - Nov. 1, 2006
La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Oil and water: We were always taught they couldnt mix. In the same way, we
are taught the old must make way for the new; that the march of progress
must go on. But is that really true? Can we mix indigenous and Western
approaches? Can we create original thought that brings the best of the
old and new to bear upon todays complex problems?
Oil and water. Oil comes from inside the earth, water from the sky. Water
flows down from our mountains to our rivers to the ocean and returns to
where it came.
We are water. Water is life.
Water has traditionally been thought of as a commons because it is the
ecological basis of all life. In the last century, water is becoming
private property, moving from community to commodity. While everyone has
been concerned with the price of gasoline, bottled water is now far more
expensive than gasoline.
Oil is natures way of recycling plant material. It is created over
millions of years, but we are using it up over decades, years, and weeks,
faster and faster. Oil has become the symbol of greed, a magnet for war,
the main ingredient of the petrochemical age. Nations that possess oil
possess power. Those nations dont want the status quo to change. But it is
time for an oil change.
* * *
Most importantly of all, it is time for a change in our thinking.
Fragmented thinking = a fragmented society. It is time for a deep change in
the way the mind works. The products of fragmented society a feeling of
social disintegration and alienation, have too often been exported along
with the products of capitalism the alluring comforts of a modern
technological society.
The world is an interrelated whole. If we see the world as an interrelated
whole, our ecology is ultimately our community. Responsibility begins first
for our local communities, and then in understanding the interconnection of
all the systems we are nested in around the globe.
There is a great opportunity for healing if our consciousness can mature to
the point of holding different ways of knowing without judgment. If we are
to return to an ecological way of thinking, we cannot ignore natures
economy and the interrelation of all that live on this planet. We can also
not ignore the human-made money economy or simply wish it away. Money is
not bad in itself. Economy and ecology are at their root about maintaining
house (from the Greek oikos). It is possible to think of the money economy
in terms of the natural world, to look for pattern and synergy rather than
isolated accounting apart from the whole. Money can be a powerful tool for
social good. And consumers have the power of their pocketbook to change the
habits of the corporate world. All of this begins with a change in
consciousness.
This conference is a ground-breaking conference that brings the leading
thinkers of the West together with strong indigenous voices, women and men,
elders and youth. We come together in the spirit of community, seeking to
learn from each other and from the Earth herself. The mix of people is as
profound as the topic.
The tools of the conference are in keeping with our message. We have many
diverse speakers presenting in both plenary and small group sessions, and
we will also come together for group dialogue, special events, and
community building on particular topics of interest. The conference is
dialogic-based as opposed to simply informational based. Our central
purpose is to gather together to co-create and re-envision the future in
sustainable ways that honor our traditional wisdom and future generations.
For more about our presenters, click the link above
Riane Eisler
Lynne Twist
Walter Echo-Hawk, Jr. (Pawnee)
Hazel Henderson
Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley (Yupiaq)
Leroy Little Bear (Blackfoot)
Ralph Metzner
Gregory Cajete (Santa Clara)
David Abram
Lloyd Pinkham (River People)
Linda Hogan (Chickasaw)
Ashok Gangadean
Nancy Maryboy (Dineh/Cherokee)
David Bacon
Tony Clarke
Phillip H. Duran (Tigua)
Chellis Glendinning
Allan Savory
Leon Secatero (Canoncito Band of Navajo)
Lynn Trojahn
Estevan Arellano
Dennis Martinez (O'odham/Chicano)
Christina Selby
Larry Littlebird (Laguna and Santo Domingo Pueblos)
Taylor Selby
Elaine Cimino
Jesse Wolf Hardin
David Riley (Laguna Pueblo)
Gary Deason
Kathy Sanchez (Powohge Oweenge)
Richard Douthwaite
Alfonso Montuori
To register call
505-792-2900
or register online
SEED Graduate Institute - 1700 Atrisco Dr NW, Albuquerque, NM 87105 - tel:
505-792-2900 / Fax: 505-792-5060 / email: seed@seedgraduateinstitute.org
SEED (Source for Educational Empowerment and Community Development) was
founded in 1996 to bridge indigenous wisdom and modern knowledge,
established disciplines and new leading edge fields, and experiential and
academic learning. SEED is a 501c3 tax-exempt non-profit educational
organization. In the year 2005, SEED is launching a Graduate school,
called SEED Graduate Institute, granting an MA degree in "Original Thought"
with areas of study in Indgenous Ways of Knowing, Global Ecology, Science
and Cosmology, Integral Healing, and the Expressive Arts.
The mission of SEED Graduate Institute is to provide a synergistic,
interconnected holistic education that can empower individuals to find
their true calling in service to their community and the natural
world. For more about SEED Graduate Institute. Our school is located in
the heart of Albuquerque's West Side community, just south of I-40 and
Coors Blvd.
History of the Organization
For its first five years of existence, SEED operated exclusively as an open
university, establishing a learning network of classes, seminars and
workshops in northern New Mexico and beyond. An open university is about
teachers teaching their life passion to students who want to be there; not
for credit, but because they are genuinely interested in the course
material and because it can make an immediate difference in their
lives. Since 1996, over 8000 students have participated in SEED programs.
Since 1999, SEED has sponsored an annual summer camp for children, called
SEEDlings, and the Language of Spirituality Conference, featuring quantum
physicists, Native American elders and linguists. SEEDlings Summer Camp
seeks to bring to our future generations much of what we offer to adults.
The camp emphasizes environmental education, Native American practices and
story-telling, mind-body disciplines, and the expressive arts. It is held
in conjunction with Hummingbird Music Camp in the beautiful Jemez Mountains.
The Language of Spirituality Conference is an international conference
conducted primarily in a talking circle dialogue format, and has included
Nobel Laureate physicist Brian Josephson, Leroy Little Bear, former
Director of Native Studies at Harvard University, and authors Fred Alan
Wolf, Joseph Rael and Nancy Maryboy, among others. The history of the
conference goes back to 1992, when Leroy Little Bear first approached David
Bohm, and initiated a dialogue with Bohm, David Peat, Sagesh Youngblood
Henderson, Dan Moonhawk Alford, and others, sponsored initially by the
Fetzer Institute and then MIT. The 1992 dialogue coincided with the 500th
year since Columbus came to Turtle Island, and completed a cycle in which
indigenous, holistic thinking, once suppressed and disregarded, reemerged
on equal footing with leading edge Western science. SEED agreed to sponsor
these historic dialogues when funding sources ran dry, as they are the
embodiment of our mission. Leroy Little Bear has been the moderator of all
the dialogues.
SEED now sponsors four annual conferences: The Language of Spirit (formerly
the Language of Spirituality) in the summer, the Art and Soul conference in
the winter, the Ecology Conference in the spring, and the Integral Healing
conference in the autumn.
The current plan calls for the establishment of a leadership track for
Native Americans in the spring of 2005. This track will be an MA track that
is integral to the Indigenous ways of Knowing degree program and the
overall Graduate school. The full Graduate school is scheduled to commence
in fall of 2006.
SEED Graduate Institute
In the coming seven to ten years, SEED intends to build a campus for The
SEED Graduate Institute and for continuing education on the 3 plus acre
plot where we are currently located. The budget for the campus is 7.5
million and will include 9 total buildings and beautiful, indigenous
landscaping that will integrate the interior of the buildings with the
exterior of the property. The existing 5000 sq foot building now serves as
both the administrative offices and classroom space.
A second building is planned for groundbreaking in 2006. The second
building will be a Library, for SEED, and for the West Side of Albuquerque,
and will initially also serve as classroom space for the Graduate program
prior to construction of the Department Buildings (Target Date 2007). The
final buildings on the property to be constructed will be the Performing
Arts and Conference Retreat Center, and the Student Union, Coffee House and
Book Store (Target Date 2010).
[permaculture] Oil and Water: Can They Mix? Western and Indigenous Approaches to Economy, Ecology and Community. October 28 to November 1, Sante Fe,
Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson, 08/15/2006