GLOBAL INDIGENOUS DIALOGUE
Given that Indigenous nations are currently engaged in many struggles and processes of rebuilding or reclaiming their own traditions of governance and good relations, there is a core element that has been consistently advised among Indigenous elders, ceremony keepers, and spiritual leaders and that is: for Indigenous peoples to effectively reconcile and rebuild their communities they must return to the spiritual as the core of recovery and political movement.
Indigenous elders, cultural, and spiritual leaders have repeatedly issued calls for holistic and spiritual approaches to solving our problems and reconciling relations and relationships. These relations are holistic, interconnected, and extend beyond, and yet include the individual, family, clans, nations, nations-states, Mother Earth, and the universe. It is also known that Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are directly tied to each other, as brothers and sisters, and must find ways of working together, sharing with one another, and with that same spirit find common solutions and strategies that in the end will serve us all.
It is, therefore, with this understanding that Indigenous peoples from around the world have gathered and will continue to gather to create sharing, learning, and relationship opportunities to support each other in our cultural reclamations and efforts at peace and reconciliation through the formation of this organization.
- photo credit: f gladue
