• In primal cultures, there's a tendency to interweave everything with everything else, including art. People are very creative and expressive in everyday life, through ceremony and ritual, dance and art and carving and weaving and various aspects of life that are just considered quite normal for primal peoples. Part of primal cultures is a strong engagement with and resonance with eccentricity and uniqueness so people do things, even hunting, is an art form that people do in different ways.

Yin Paradies is a Wakaya anarchist radical scholar spreading decolonial love from, and as part of, unceded Wurundjeri land. Yin is also a climate and ecological activist committed to understanding and interrupting the devastating impacts of modern societies who seeks meaningful mutuality of becoming and embodied kinship with all life through transformed ways of knowing, being, and doing that are grounded in wisdom, humility, respect, and generosity.

I first heard Yin Paradies speak at the QuillWood Academy on April 23, 2024 where he gave a paper called ‘How did humans live before modern societies?’, which you can view on Yin’s YouTube channel. 

During our conversation I asked Yin what he thought might be most useful for artists and cultural workers to know about ‘how humans lived before modern societies’?

His responses took my breath away and literally slowed me down as our conversation unfolded, I was mesmerized, as if the silences were a third guest in the Zoom recording space. I felt like I was embodying Yin’s thoughts in real time.

In a nutshell, Yin’s research contrasts primal societies, which were egalitarian and kinship-based, with modern societies that emerged 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, bringing mostly patriarchy and hierarchy.

His thesis that modernity, despite its technological advancements, is linked to trauma and self-destructive behaviors whereas primal cultures, which view time cyclically and integrate art into daily life, enhance community ties and creativity. 

I agree.

I also asked Yin about deep listening:

• Deep listening is more about having that humility that we have everything to learn or something to learn from any aspect of the cosmos that we are in relationship with or entangled with. That sense of slowing down is about cultivating a different way of being aware. 

Near the end of our exchange we spoke about the role of art in times of crisis and how art has the potential to awaken new perspectives and foster community engagement, which is the theme of my next season of this podcast, starting in 2025, so I am thankful for his insights: 

• I think art can very much lead the way in terms of giving us those capacities to compost our own shit and to reimagine ourselves and our world. And importantly, probably most importantly, to re-enchant and reconsecrate our world because to be enchanted by the world is to grow in kinship and care and reverence and reciprocity with the world. 

Yin invites us to reimagine ourselves and reconsecrate our world through kinship, reciprocity and care. 

You can also see this conversation on the conscient podcast YouTube channel : e193 yin paradies - interweaving everything with everything else.

Yin recommended reading is Darren Allen’s  works on primal and modern cultures.

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). 

It’s my way to give back.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish free ‘a calm presence' Substack see https://acalmpresence.substack.com.

Your feedback is always welcome at [email protected] and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on July 8, 2025