Talking Leaves: An Indigenous Perspectives Podcast

Today's show, “Accessing an Animate World”, explores the healing and comfort that arises from living in the spirit of an indigenous perspective, not only for indigenous people, but also for those in the mainstream. Many of us live in a world where our views of nature, our experiences with nature, and our understanding of nature are mediated by an objectifying Western scientific perspective, and by media stories about a vanishing natural world. While our planet is most certainly experiencing the disruptive influence of human activity, for many indigenous people the overwhelming reality of nature and experience of the natural world is that of an encounter with our other-than-human kin, who are vibrantly alive and well and reaching out to embrace us. Let us take you on a journey into that universe.

Podcast transcript (pdf)

We welcome Thomas Linzey to our program today, on the topic of “The Rights of Nature, Bringing Indigenous Perspectives into the Legal System.”

Thomas Linzey serves as senior legal counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights – CDER - a nonprofit organization committed to globally advancing environmental rights. He is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary community rights and rights of nature movements, which have resulted in the adoption of several hundred municipal laws across the United States. In 2008, he assisted the Ecuadorian constitutional assembly to draft its Rights of Nature provisions for the new Ecuadorian constitution. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Forbes, and The Nation magazine.

Podcast transcript (pdf)

Today's program guests are Grant Paulson and Christian Domer. They are each on the line with us from Australia. So they were going to start first by giving some brief backgrounds on themselves, and Grant, can you tell us something about your family background and the variety of experiences that you've had that are both personal to you, and also reflect the experience of a lot of your people?

Today, we are exploring how to come to terms with and heal the wounds caused by the legacy of Indian residential schools, where young indigenous children in the U. S. and Canada experienced forced assimilation for nearly a century.

Today’s topic is Shamanism, and our guest is Sas Carey of Vermont. Sas is a healer and a registered nurse who, since 1994, has been traveling to Mongolia studying traditional Mongolian medicine. She became close to a small ethnic group of reindeer herders, and has returned often over nearly three decades. Shamanism is an important part of traditional Mongolian culture, and Sas has attended and participated in shaman ceremonies.

This episode of Indigenous Perspectives is about how those of us who are disconnected from nature are trying to reconnect with mother earth and why we're trying to do so.

Today's show celebrates Earth Day. For all of us on Mother Earth, every day should be Earth Day. Indeed, for those of us who have indigenous ancestry, every day on earth is Earth Day, as we are more or less in continual intimate contact with the natural world around us. I say “more or less” in continual contact because the reality of life and a world turned upside down by colonial history is that indigenous people have been repeatedly displaced and relocated. Like many of our natural kin: the winged ones, the rooted ones, the four legged, we often struggle to maintain nurturing connections with the earth. That struggle is the theme of today's show.

Podcast transcript (pdf)

On this show, we have two guests who are Potawatomi: Paige Willet is talking with us from Oklahoma in the southwestern United States where our reservation is located; Eva Marie Carney is talking with us from the east coast of the United States, far from our tribal reservation. Paige is a journalist who works on our tribal newspaper. Eva is a tribal legislator. I will have each of them tell you more about who they are, and what they do, during this program.

Study Guides Available⁠ on our Educational Materials page on ⁠TalkingLeavesForum.org⁠

Podcast transcript (pdf)

Many of you are familiar with the fact that indigenous people have deep spiritual connections with the natural world. Documentaries, ethnographic literature, fiction - much of it written by Native Americans - and my own book, all reinforce this notion., At the same time, these portrayals of indigenous people run the risk of sending another message - that those with Indian or First Nations ancestry are the only humans who can have and hold on to deep spiritual connections with Mother Earth.

This idea can discourage individuals from the joy of feeling connected with the natural world around them. And it can also discourage us from collectively developing the respectful and reciprocal relationships with nature that we need to cultivate if we are to emerge from the current culture of exploiting the natural world.

Podcast transcript (pdf)

Our guest is Tom Dearhouse, a member of the First Nations people known throughout much of the world as Mohawks. That image and name originate in literature and images of skywalkers navigating narrow steel beams far above city streets. The reality behind these popular images is far more complex. Tom Dearhouse is going to help us to explore a rich cultural history and its very vibrant current indigenous community.

Study Guides Available⁠ on our Educational Materials page on ⁠TalkingLeavesForum.org⁠