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Oren Lyons on Our Relationship With the Earth
Kayenta, Arizona, North America - June 20, 2011 - TRT: 07:34
Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons traveled to Arizona in June from his home in upstate New York to attend an elders' gathering in honor of our mutual friend, the late Hopi leader Thomas Banyacya, who, like Oren, was a tireless international spokesman for native people from the time the indigenous rights movement took root in the 1970s. We had the honor of interviewing Oren on film for our Losing Sacred Ground series. Some excerpts from a wonderful interview follow, along with two film clips of a great story Oren told about our dependence on the Earth, and a second clip with Oren's amazing explanation of the Wizard of Oz. Here's are some of Oren's comments from the interview:
"I would say that probably the biggest loss I see in humanity now is the loss of understanding of relationship. They don’t understand their relationship."
"There are almost seven billion people in the world today. The whole Earth is being covered with smoke. We've affected the big systems to the point of melting the ice in the north. We've disrupted the patterns of the Earth and we're going to suffer the consequences."
"For Indian nations and indigenous people, the most important thing is relationship. We value relationship way beyond anything else, way beyond what you can have. Relationship — to be close, to be next to the tree, to be next to the water, to be next to the earth. Relationship's really good. It's really rich. How do you maintain this relationship? How do you keep it fresh? How do you work with it? Well, our people have done that through ceremonies."
"Where we've lost our way, I think, as human species, we've lost the understanding of relationship and therefore lost respect. But pockets of indigenous people have hung onto that. So, your teachers are going to be indigenous people."
"Business as usual is over. It's not competition; it's cooperation. You are going to have to fight for the commons. We have an intellect and we better start using it for the common good because that's where we have to change. Our future's in our hands, and we can handle it, if we work together."
How did Oren first learn about his relationship to the Earth? Listen to his story…
"I would say that probably the biggest loss I see in humanity now is the loss of understanding of relationship. They don’t understand their relationship."
"There are almost seven billion people in the world today. The whole Earth is being covered with smoke. We've affected the big systems to the point of melting the ice in the north. We've disrupted the patterns of the Earth and we're going to suffer the consequences."
"For Indian nations and indigenous people, the most important thing is relationship. We value relationship way beyond anything else, way beyond what you can have. Relationship — to be close, to be next to the tree, to be next to the water, to be next to the earth. Relationship's really good. It's really rich. How do you maintain this relationship? How do you keep it fresh? How do you work with it? Well, our people have done that through ceremonies."
"Where we've lost our way, I think, as human species, we've lost the understanding of relationship and therefore lost respect. But pockets of indigenous people have hung onto that. So, your teachers are going to be indigenous people."
"Business as usual is over. It's not competition; it's cooperation. You are going to have to fight for the commons. We have an intellect and we better start using it for the common good because that's where we have to change. Our future's in our hands, and we can handle it, if we work together."
How did Oren first learn about his relationship to the Earth? Listen to his story…
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