Ancient Futures. I have been blessed to sit in theSan Bushmen healing circle on the soft Kalahari Desert sands many nights over the past years. Listening to the rhythmic clapping and singing of the women puts me in an altered state and at peace. I watch the medicine men go into trance while dancing around the fire. Their bodies shake as they transcend this reality traveling to another dimension of time and space. It is there, we are told that the San receive spiritual medicine to heal and protect their community. Yet, this ancient spiritual technology that has sustained the San people for well over sixty-thousand years is disappearing and almost gone.
San Bushmen Trance Dance by Roberta Marroquin
The Ju/’hoansi San community living in Nhoma, Namibia recognize that it is critical to pass on this knowledge for healing and survival. Their solution is to create Ancient Futures: Indigenous and Western Knowledge Systems Collaborating for Nature Conservation and Cultural Preservation, a pioneering Indigenous-led educational model for a remote school in their village designed for San children to learn about their indigenous traditions. At the same time, these indigenous youth will acquire foundational academic concepts in their own language from a teacher that understands and respects their culture.
This pilot program includes participation by anthropologists, researchers, and educators to evaluate the indigenous-led curriculum. TTF is coordinating funding from private donations, grants from foundations, and our many stakeholders, including Kalahari Peoples Fund. Thus far, we have raised funding for the construction of an adobe-style school building. We are seeking $1.3 million to fund this program for three years.
A floor plan of the San school in Nhoma, Namibia
San youth in Nhoma, Namibia, photo by Moritz von Hase
WISDOM WEAVINGS
In the spirit of Dia de Los Muertos, the indigenous Mexican holy day of honoring the ancestors (those who have passed before us) that is celebrated on
November 1st and 2nd, we offer this brief teaching from Chickasaw writer, Linda Hogan:
Walking. I am listening to a deeper way.
Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me.
Be still, they say.
Watch and listen.
You are the result of the love of thousands.
Imagine how your life would be different if you woke up each day remembering that you are the result of the love of thousands!
Linda K. Hogan is a poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist, and writer of short stories. She is currently the Chickasaw Nation’s Writer in Residence, and is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts. She lives in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.
The Tribal Trust Foundation is located in the unceded homelands of the Chumash People and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. By recognizing these communities, we attempt to honor their legacies, their lives, and descendants. To learn more about the Indigenous People’s land on which your home or work sits, visit: native-land.ca
