Indigenous cultures are not static, they change with the times. The Tribal Trust Foundation (TTF) is changing too. At our strategic planning retreat in the beautiful El Capitan Canyon, our board and advisors reflected on our purpose, past projects and how we can continue to be an effective ally organization to Indigenous peoples and causes. As our facilitator, Georgia Beasley recognized, “With well established, authentic relationships with Indigenous communities across the world, and a deep desire to kindle the spark of indigenous holism to bring the sacred back into the modern word, TTF has an important role to play in this landscape.”
Tribal Trust Retreat & Fire Ceremony
One group exercise at the retreat was to envision a world we wish to see. The gap between that vision and where we are right now is “Our Sacred Why.” This is why TTF exists and takes action. Our projects over the past twenty years with the San Bushmen who live in the Namibian Kalahari Desert is an example of TTF taking action to create a world where Indigenous people are honored, respected, and supported so they may continue to practice their traditions and way of life uninterrupted. At their request, we are supporting the building of a village school with an Indigenous-led curriculum.
“Land is foundational to our identity, but over generations of colonization, we have been disconnected and dispossessed from our traditional ways of being. Land-based healing can take place when we return to reconnect to the land while utilizing supports to relearn, revitalize, and reclaim our traditional wellness practices.”
Land-based healing can be achieved even in areas around the world where indigenous culture is almost lost. One such place is Northern Ireland, my ancestral land. I was able to dialogue with the past in order to inspire and shape my future. I found meaning and inspiration from the signs in nature and researching the stories of the many generations before me. Join the TTF in envisioning a world where Indigenous and non-Indigenous people value, revere, and practice indigenous peoples’ sense of holism and connection to all things.
In thinking about what’s happening with our planet, in thinking about climate change, globalization, and homogenization of cultures, it’s become more and more clear to me that the work that the Tribal Trust is doing is so important, especially around preservation of language and traditional crafts and cultural practices. When Indigenous knowledge and practices are lost and forgotten, they’re not just lost in the microcosm. Indigenous people know and have always known how to live in harmony with the earth in ways that we don’t have language for.
~ Sam Davis, Artist, Philanthropist & TTF Donor
In deep gratitude,
Barbara
Barbara Savage
Founder & Executive Director
Tribal Trust Foundation
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
