Reflections on the Responsibility of “Privilege”

Until the gathering of indigenous people from around the world at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota caught me on fire I had rarely visited Facebook. The surging use of this “social media” as a means to draw awareness to what was happening there caught me on fire. Watching the live feeds, the drone footage and impassioned messages I was quickly hooked to this digital message board. However this couldn’t have happened if I had not heard the call of Spirit long before, what it did do was strike a resonate note within my core. I still follow some of the feeds and am gladdened that the fire could not be extinguished. The Red Road or path of the heart is the one we walk together, this marvelous journey that brings to focus that Spirit is All things.

For some time now I have wanted to relate my story as a wašíču woman as perhaps it can help bring about a much needed compassionate understanding that will help all races of people find the prophesied harmony of the Spirit in all things.

As a young woman age sixteen I was drawn to Native American culture and tradition spending many hours in shops and museums that featured their way of life for I already knew that deep in my genetics was a memory that wanted to surface. I cried reading the story of Wounded Knee and I joined in the spirit of AIM with all my heart. It is only now looking back that I more fully comprehend the reasons for this.

I am not sharing this to try and stake any claim about being a Native American, I did not live this life on a reservation or experience the crushing trauma of losing my heritage or watching my relatives go hungry when the only relief available was to drink or find oblivion with drugs. There is a fine line though for all of Mother Earth’s children are suffering even the “privileged” ones who stare through the eyes of vacated souls. They too never had a chance to grow into their spirits fed as they were on false histories, false ideologies created to promote mass consumerism. Many live within families that bear the stamp of hypocrisy, families who pretend to practice mercy and peace in box churches then go home to abuse and berate their children.

I did not grow up in Syria or Palestine or any other country whose people are experiencing the relentless slaughter of their families and the ruthless eradication of their traditions along with the theft of their cultural heritage and destruction of sacred sites. This is the line I want to erase when we speak of race. This is way I stand on Truth alone and it is to this truth I want to speak.

I am a white skinned woman who has been fortunate enough to have an aunt who has for over twenty years researched our family genealogy including visits to our ancestral homes in Europe. I knew I was a mix of mostly German and Scot, what I came to find out via her painstaking work is that both my maternal and paternal family lines go back to Nordic roots, or speaking in terms of race the white race.

My purpose here isn’t so much as to pull from historical writings as to simply draw awareness that every Native Culture has suffered genocide, including the great Northern tribes, the Celts, the Scots, the Druids, the Dacians and on and on it continues today. No single race can be said to have suffered more than another, it is time to erase the totality of debt thinking that any People owe another People. The Black Snake, the iniquitous predator is the shared enemy. This dark force has long worked unseen invading the hearts and souls of men and women everywhere. Today the black snake is revealed as more and more people awaken to their own Spirit, learn to listen to the inner voice that knows there is a way through the dark night of the collective soul.

My own research into native cosmologies, the spoken and the written shows me that there is a common thread. Each culture creates with its own song lines the lyrical creation of the Earth. I often hear the differing tones that when they meet create new harmonies and potentialities.

During those moments of silence, during long walks in nature where one can listen to the song of running water, feel the sun’s light penetrating into the furthest reaches of their soul, when one feels the caresses of the wind, when the feet walk barefoot on the Earth and the stones are heard this is the place where all People can meet.

Memories awakened long ago in remembrance of lives lived as Apache and Lakota … as Celt, as Scot, as Egyptian, as Norse, as Dacian, as Cyrpriot and so the list grows. As incarnates we have lived through vast stretches of time and every Native culture shares a similar story that we come from the stars.

So while individuals, tribes and Nations attempt to reclaim their divine right to preserve a heritage, to have returned what was stolen; their land, their way of life let us not forget the lessons of all people everywhere. We have crossed boundaries and mixed our blood, we have traveled the Earth in varied incarnations and for those who have been abundantly blessed either through privileged lives or visionary spirits there comes responsibility to Be your own Bearer of Light, to fan your inner flame and shine. Be a light in the darkness for in the world of Spirit all things are connected.

 

“Spirit and Stardust”

“We need to remember where we came from; to know that we are one. To understand that we are of an undivided whole: race, color, nationality, creed, gender are beams of light, refracted through one great prism… We become conscious of the cosmos within us. We hear the music of peace, we hear the music of cooperation, we hear music of love…”

Sunday, June 9, 2002
Special Keynote Address by
U.S. Congressman, Dennis Kucinich

Woman and Wolf

 

 

 

 

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