The Inner Dimensions of Climate Change Series
Fostering Societal Change by Listening to the Natural World
A Conversation with:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse
Melanie Goodchild
&
Shashank Kalra & Vibhuti Aggarwal
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Stories of spiritual connection to Earth are a vital need for the world community at this moment in time. Indigenous Peoples have long looked after and honored such stories, and to be able to witness and hear them is something we recognize as an invaluable gift as well as a responsibility. We cannot only listen and hope to be inspired, but must also commit to restoring a holistic consciousness and reverence for the natural world in our own hearts.
To meet the many challenges of climate change and face the ecological damage we have caused, we must explore and look directly at the deeper roots and causes of these crises. We must remember and reconnect with our innate ability to listen to Earth, and live so that our actions may be an expression of gratitude and awe. How does ceremony, song, offering, and wonder not only nourish us but also prepare us to live with courage and dedication? What kind of world do we envision when we look within?
A more awakened consciousness of care, respect, and interconnectedness are necessary to heal the patterns that aim to divide and dominate. This consciousness that we can cultivate within ourselves can ultimately bring us back into communion with each other, humanity, and the natural world. Please join us for this live conversation on November 9th. Link to register below.
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Evening Fire Ceremony and Song led by Tiokasin Ghosthorse and Laila Atshan, Palestine.
Inner Dimensions of Climate Change gathering, Cyprus 2018
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Tiokasin Ghosthorse — Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota—is an international speaker on Peace, Indigenous and Mother Earth perspective. A survivor of the “Reign of Terror” from 1972 to 1976 on the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River and Rosebud Lakota Reservations in South Dakota and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding and Church Missionary School systems designed to “kill the Indian and save the man,” Tiokasin has a long history of Indigenous activism and advocacy. He spoke as a 15 year-old at the United Nations - Lake Geneva, Switzerland. He is an active board members of Simply Smiles, and The Center for Earth Ethics. Tiokasin speaks frequently at venues such as Yale University’s School of Divinity, Ecology and Forestry focusing on the cosmology, diversity and perspectives on the relational/egalitarian vs. rational/hierarchal thinking processes of Western society. Tiokasin was a 2016 Nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize from the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy. Tiokasin is the Founder, Host and Executive Producer of the 26 year-old award winning “First Voices Radio” (formerly “First Voices Indigenous Radio”), a weekly one-hour live program syndicated to 74 public and community radio stations in the US and Canada. www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org A master musician and a teacher of magical, ancient and modern sounds, Tiokasin performs worldwide and has been featured at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Apollo Theatre, and the United Nations, as well as at many universities and concert venues. Tiokasin serves on boards of several charitable organizations dedicated to bringing non-western education to Native and non-Native children. Tiokasin describes himself as “a perfectly flawed human being” and a Sundancer in the cosmology of the Lakota Nation. Tiokasin has served as a mentor to many young leaders from the Inner Dimensions of Climate Change series and spoken at the UN COP Climate Summits in Paris, Bonn, Marrakech and Katowice.
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We must realize this important distinction: We are not defending Mother Earth. We are Mother Earth protecting herself.
-Tiokasin Ghosthorse
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Melanie Goodchild is an Anishinaabe (Ojibway) complexity and systems thinking scholar. She is moose clan from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Ketegaunseebee First Nations. Melanie is currently a PHD candidate in Social & Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo and is a Research Fellow with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience. She is a proud member of the Iron Butt Association riding her Harley-Davidson motorcycle 1000 miles in 24 hours! Melanie is a faculty member with the Academy for Systems Change, the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning and is a Scholar Practitioner Faculty member at the University of Vermont's MS and PhD in Leadership for Sustainability. She is an Advisor to the new Systems Awareness Lab at MIT. Melanie is an alumna of the IWF Leadership Foundation's Fellows Program sponsored by Harvard Business School and INEAD.
"I come from a colonized First World country called Canada. My dad went to Spanish Indian Residential School and my mom went to Roman Catholic Indian Day School. I have a lifestyle of privilege and wealth compared to previous generations of my family, affording me the opportunity to earn a HBA and MA in Sociology from Lakehead University. I study complexity and systems thinking at the University of Waterloo in my doctoral program. My petition to the manidoog (spirits) is that I can use my privilege and knowledge/wisdom to nurture the collective well-being of all humans from the four directions, future generations and all our relations, the non-humans. I asked my ancestors to help me, be with me, remind me when I forget something. Nadimooshin ji-mshkoogaabwigayaan minima ji-zoongde'eyaan."
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My petition to the manidoog (spirits) is that I can use my privilege and knowledge/wisdom to nurture the collective well-being of all humans from the four directions, future generations and all our relations, the non-humans.
- Melanie Goodchild
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When: Wednesday, November 9th 2022
(Please double check your time zone)
New York 10:00am - 11:30amEastern Time (US & Canada)
Costa Rica 8:00am-9:30am
London 2:00pm-3:30pm
Stockholm 3:00PM-4:30PM
New Delhi - 7:30pm-9:00pm IST
Where: On Zoom - Register below
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The Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) was founded in 2002 to mobilize those of great insight, wisdom, and compassion. Those who are working quietly for the upliftment of the world to come together in dialogue to address the critical issues of our present time. A major focus of GPIW’s work in the last decade has been to nurture and assist young ecology leaders working on issues related to climate change and the ecological crisis. GPIW explores the root causes of the great imbalance we are experiencing by working on the inner levels and asking how we can reclaim our deepest living connection to Mother Earth and to one another.
This work is under the stewardship of a small group of women who work with many others around the world to help manifest the special qualities of the sacred feminine, which enables the inner transformation needed for us to meet the challenges facing Earth’s community of life.
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Thank you to our individual supporters and longtime partners,
ITRI-USA & DDMBA for making this and other programs possible.
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