Designing Bio-cultural Refugia : seeding ancient wisdom in the fertile soils of modern Regenerative knowledge
Exploring the potential of creating refugium for regenerative cultural seeds nested within biological refugium for rare, endangered, ethnobotanically pertinent and/or practical plant species
(This post serves as the 19th post which is part of the Stacking Functions in the Garden, Food Forest and Medicine Cabinet : The Regenerative Way From Seed To Apothecary series)
You can watch the full video below:
Also available on Rumble, Odysee and Youtube:
We live in a time of extreme deforestation, manmade desertification, “sustainable development” resulting in massive biodiversity loss, widespread degenerative exploitative industrial agriculture, corporations and governments disrespecting the sacred waters of the Earth and the biopiracy of the very genetic fabric of life.
Moving in tandem with the trends listed above over the past few hundred years, the Earth has also seen a sort of ‘deforestation of human cultures’ or ‘clearcutting of place based wisdom’ (if you will), with imperialistic anthropocentric statist regimes attempting to use violence and coercion to snuff out traditions, worldviews and languages of indigenous peoples that offer animistic perspectives and embody a way of seeing and interacting with the world that involves humility, reciprocity and biomimicry based agriculture (food forests, regenerative agroforestry, forest gardening etc).
The situation is dire, but at the same time, we have access to an unprecedentedly empowering set of tools, which if put to use in service of life (and in the interest of protecting and propagating vanishing ancient regenerative cultural traditions) can be used to create oases of bio-diversity, cultural diversity, food/health sovereignty, truth and integrity even in the growing desert of struggling ecosystems and forgotten cultural traditions.
Given how interconnected our world has become and how we now have access to so much information about diverse cultures with ecological literacy based ancient traditions and techniques, combined with modern regenerative soil science, new tools and access to a diverse array of medicinal and food tree species, we have the opportunity to switch flip the script on Globalism, make ‘regenerative lemonade’ out of the lemons globalism gave us.
In this time where so much of the land around us has been reverted to an earlier stage of ecological succession, as Akiva says in the intro to his book (Trees Of Power) “The ground is open and waiting for seeds. We can bemoan the tragedies that nature has endured or we can cast seeds and plant a future”.
We can look upon the unnaturally deforested landscapes that are eager to return to their once forested state as opportunities in disguise where we can apply the seeds of both ancient cultural wisdom, modern regenerative science and choice food/medicine species to accelerate the regeneration of forest landscapes while also creating permanent (self-perpetuating) food production systems and spaces for cultural seeds to set down roots, grow and send out seeds on the wind.
Through combining our unprecedented access to information in books, online and through modern tools that potentiate ancient regenerative techniques we have the opportunity to plant the seeds for a new ethnoecologically rooted traditions as a family (or as a communities) which provides ways to further divest from supporting statist regimes and for younger ones to re-connect with the Earth, develop ecological literacy and learn important life skills.
Over the past year, in the process of doing research for writing my next book, which will have a central theme of food forest design, I've been studying the forest ecology and ancient regenerative agroforestry practices of cultures here in Ontario.
Now, what I found is here in Essex County, where we live, 99.9% of the primary forest has been chopped down in the last 200 years. So that led me to ask the question, how was it that the cultures that lived here were able to provide all the food that they needed for themselves without destroying the most of the primary forest (as our modern society has done in only the last 200 years) when they lived here over multiple millennia?
Prior to the global proliferation of imperialistic statist regimes flowing out of Europe into the rest of the world that carried anthropocentric worldviews with them, there were many different groups of people that had place-based wisdom which was regenerative and ethno-ecologically grounded in the place where they lived, meaning that they had traditions and worldviews that saw the ecosystems that they lived within as a part of them, as teachers, as living beings worthy of respect and reverence.
And that was part of their traditions that allowed them to keep those ecosystems thriving as well as their people thriving.
Examples of this can be found in the aborigines of Australia, in the people of the Amazon, the terra preta builders, and all the way up to my ancestors in what is modern-day Scotland and Ireland, where the Gaelic people and the Druids, they had a written law, the Brehen law, that recognized trees as living beings, as nobles, and respected the ecology of the forest, allowing for the ancient oak forest to remain there to feed the people until the Romans came in, and a similar story to unfolded to what occurred here in Turtle Island (with their own version of the Romans, coming in the form of the Spanish, British and other imperialistic statist interests).
I wove a couple threads of this kind of information through my book in the context of what I described as recipes for food for the soul, and acknowledging and recognizing ecologically grounded traditions of cultures far and wide.
Several examples you can find in the Regenerating Communities chapter, where I talked about Voluntarism, Brehens, and the Prophecy of the Seventh Fire.
And then additionally, in the chapter where I share regenerative poems and short stories is where I talked about the Edo period in Japan, both with my recipe on miso paste and in the chapter on regenerative poems and short stories, where I shared something, my perspectives about the art of kintsugi or healing broken ceramic with gold lacquer to make it more beautiful than it was before.
So I'll read this paragraph from the beginning of scars of the heart as maps for the soul.
We can create forest gardens, regenerative agroforestry farms and gathering/co-creating spaces within them that give ancient ethnoecological traditions (of both our own ancestors and the ancestors of others in our communities) a place to thrive and become integral facets of daily life, pillars of ethical worldviews and inspiration for future generations in our communities.
Pursuant to this, the following post will explore the what, why and how of Creating Refugium (for both endangered ethnoecological cultural/traditions and plants).
First of all, What is a Refugium?
Here is an excerpt from this post by Dana O'Driscoll re: the concept of Refugia:
Refugia
Refugia is a concept discussed by E. C Pielou in After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America among other places. In a nutshell, refugia (also called “fuges”) are small pockets of life that were sheltered from broader happenings on the earth that destroyed a lot of other places. In terms of Pielou’s work, refugia were small pockets of life that were for various reasons from the worst of the effects of the last ice age when the rest of the lands were barren and covered in ice. These isolated pockets survived as a sheltered spot, a microclimate, a high point, and so on. When the glaciers receded and left a bare landscape devoid of topsoil or life, it was these refugia that allowed life to spread outward again, repopulating areas in North America covered by glaciers. Of course, Refugia aren’t limited to North America–they are a worldwide phenomenon, and even our human ancestors, at various points in our history, have used them to survive challenging environmental conditions.
In the Anthropocene, that is, the time of human-dominated ecological change we are currently all experiencing, things are a bit different than in glacial North America. But things are not as different as you might think. For one, the loss of biodiversity and essentially an inhospitable landscape can pretty much sum up the 40,000,000 acres of lawns currently in cultivation (in the US alone), the 914,527,657 acres of conventional farmland (in the US), and the amount of concrete and houses taking up land. We also have wild areas that have been subject to pillaging and resource mining–these areas are a lot less diverse than they once were. The spaces that aren’t being actively pillaged likely are recovering from pillaging (at least where I live out here) or are subject to other duress–and the few spaces that are supposedly “safe” and “protected” are constantly under threat from new government profiteering operations (legislation encouraging/allowing logging, mining, etc).. And so, we have a situation where a biological life, generally, has a lot less space to grow and thrive unhindered. As my post described earlier, we have evidence of the loss of biodiversity in a wide range of ways.
Given this, I believe that the concept of refugia is a useful one to consider–and even enact–given the circumstances that we have going on here now. A lot of us don’t have control over what is happening in the land around us, but we can work to help cultivate small spaces of intense biodiversity, spaces that preserve important plant species, then we can put more of the building blocks back into nature’s hands for the long-term healing of our lands.
Creating Refugia: Goals
We can cultivate refugia in cultivated/human-dominated spaces (like lawns, etc), or we can create them in wild spaces (forests, wild fields) that we know will be safe for some time.
In the permaculture and organic gardening communities, people have been long creating spaces that are intensely planted, that may be perennial or annual in nature, but they might be doing them with different goals. Most often in permaculture practice, the goals are intensely focused on the site–the goal of bringing a degraded piece of land back into healthy production, with a range of yields, some of which are beneficial to humans, and some of which are beneficial to other life. In other words, permaculture designers often use a kind of sanctuary model. For organic farmers, they may have many of the same goals, but different (more annual) means; both may be interested in some economic benefits as well.
Working to actively create refugia can add and complement these existing goals in the sense that we are creating a protected place (physically and energetically) that is richly biodiverse with the idea that this biodiversity can spread if given the opportunity (or if we spread it ourselves–you might be able to see where I’m going with this!).
I would like to suggest that each of us, as we are able, create biologically diverse refugia–small spaces, rich in diversity and life, that can help our lands “weather the storm” and a place where we can grow seeds, nuts, and roots to scatter far and wide. Or if we are already cultivating biologically diverse gardens, homesteads, sacred gardens, and the like, we add the goal of becoming refugia to our plans–and plant accordingly. I would like to suggest that we can see this not only as a physical act but as a sacred and spiritual practice. (source)
Cultural Refugia:
(Mediums through which endangered ecological cultural seeds of wisdom can be preserved and propagated.)
For the purposes of this post I will be focusing on cultural facets that have ethnoecological characteristics (and/or cultural facets that embody and promote ecological literacy / Regenerative relationships with the earth). There are many cultural facets that do not fall within that realm of focus, and others may wish to preserve those unique cultural expressions and create cultural refugia of different forms for that purpose. The fact that I will not be discussing them here does not mean I wish to diminish their worth or value, it is simply beyond the scope of this discussion.
Below I will discuss some of the cultural expressions I have encountered that either are Regenerative in nature or, they have the potential to become Regenerative.
These are some of the mediums through which people that value certain aspects of their culture have managed to distill down, encapsulate, enrich, protect, propagate, share (and sometimes conceal) facets of their unique culture, which can then be passed onto future generations:
Some Cultural Refugia Mediums (not an exhaustive list):
1. Art
⁃ Physical art (carvings, sculptures, paintings, pottery, earth works, standing stones and basket weaving)
⁃ Non-physical Art ( music , poetry and non-written languages)
Here is a list of some musicians that I feel are preserving and propagating ancestral wisdom in their music (not an exhaustive list, feel free to add your own suggestions for additions in the comments section below):
Sean Stanton - Seventh Fire (Roots and Culture)
https://seventhfiremusic.com/
one example of a song: Grand Rising
https://www.rootscreateculture.com/
Parker Raymond Webb - Fungi Flows
https://www.youtube.com/@FungiFlows
one example of a song: “Invitation”
William Padilla-Brown - It's Cosmic
https://linktr.ee/itscosmicmusic
one example of a song: “Elysium”
https://haomaearth.com/blogs/journal/william-padilla-brown
one example of a song:
Grant Ellman - Prezence
https://www.prezencemusic.com/
one example of a song: Taxation Is Theft
Alex Mishka Frith – Mishka
one example of a song: Neva Give Up
Ben Stanford - Dub FX
one example of a song/album: Theory Of Harmony | (Full Album Experience)
Nick Mulvey
one example of a song: Mountain To Move
Drew McManus - Satsang
https://www.satsangmovement.com/
one example of a song: “I Am”
Vladiswar Nadishana - Nadishana
http://www.shkp.nadishana.com/index.php/kuzhebar
one example of a song: “National Anthem of Handpanistan”
Felipe Andres Coronel - Immortal Technique
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC877kk3HLR31M26Xst_0ENA
one example of a song: “Toast to the Dead”
Eli Nathan Nachowitz - Eligh
one example of a song: “First Contact”
Tommy Emmanuel
one example of a song: “Lewis and Clark”
Rising Appalachia
https://www.risingappalachia.com/
one example of a song: “Medicine”
Xavier Rudd
one example of a song: “Follow The Sun”
David & Steve Gordon (flute)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC58JHHbmqaW9jnHp-cNyP5g
one example of a song: “Prayer For The Four Directions”
Doug Appling - Emancipator
one example of a song:
Starling Arrow
one example of a song: “Wild Sweet”
Christopher Ciccone (flute)
handmade flutes: https://bluestarspirit.bigcartel.com/category/star-children
one example of a song (played with one of his flutes): “StarChild Jharri” (Key of E 444Hz)
Hent Telenn Breizh
one example of a song: “The Gael” (Breizh Pan Celtic offers a Brittany-Ireland version of The Gael, the famous music from the film The Last of the Mohicans, composed by Dougie MacLean)
2. Traditions, Stories, worldviews and Spiritual Practices
⁃ Traditions or voluntarily agreed upon (consensus based) laws that relate to honouring the cycles of nature , giving thanks for the gifts each season or each tree/plant offers and culinary traditions that are specific to each celebration, ritual or prayer. Eg the Brehon Laws that acknowledged non-human beings such as bees, trees, mountain springs, rivers and cats as having innate rights).
In many ways, permaculture design is itself a form of cultural refugium, in that much of the methodology and the perspectives and the ethics of permaculture design are derived from ancient indigenous ethno-ecological worldviews.
Now, while it is true that many people have become aware of these cultures and these viewpoints through permaculture, I also feel that it's important for us to honor those ancient traditions that became part of permaculture practice as being whole and complete onto themselves, and not just taking on an exploitative relationship with those traditions, where we don't honor the cultures as having their own worthwhile complete worldviews that are worth looking at aside from permaculture.
⁃ Stories as means of relaying ethnoecological values through emotionally evocative (written or orally shared) depictions of characters interacting that highlight the importance of ethics based on ecological literacy and moral integrity. (Eg. The Creation story of ”Sky Woman Falling” or the cautionary tale of the “Wendigo” as it is expressed by Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book Braiding Sweetgrass”).
⁃ World views that are animistic and based in humility (rather than arrogance and anthropocentrism) such as the many cultures that see trees, rivers, lakes, mountains etc as alive , imbued with a spirit and deserving of our respect and reverence.
⁃ Spiritual practices surrounding the above listed things such as prayers, blessing the land, seeds, water, air, fire, stone, trees and the stars, meditative practices involving grounding within a forest/garden with the intent to connect with the non-human intelligence that dwells there and spiritual maxims that encourage us to use our unique gifts in service of life and remind us we are a young species that needs the ecosystem around us much more than it needs us. (Eg the covenant of “The Way Of The Honourable Harvest”, or the Druidic concept of seeing all aspects of nature as sacred and non-human beings as teachers imbued with a spirit, or the 7th generation principle of the Haudenosaunee confederacy)
3. Linguistic Expression (Written and spoken Language)
⁃ Scrolls, tablets, Carved stones and books.
Some books that come to mind which I consider to be embodiments of cultural refugia (not an exhaustive list) include: Braiding Sweetgrass, To Speak for the Trees, The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic, Sand Talk, Dark Emu, The Biggest Estate on Earth, The Living Wisdom of Trees, The Spirit of Trees, Tending The Wild and Land Healing.
Then there are other books that while they may not focus solely on preserving the ethnoecological cultural essence of one place or people, they do weave threads together from multiple forms of place based wisdom and also offer ways to apply those ways of seeing and creating using modern tools and science.
Other books that I feel offer frame works for the reader to receive the gifts of ancient ethnoecological wisdom and plant those seeds of wisdom within the fertile soils of modern science and tools include: Radical Mycology, The Healing Trees, Trees Of Power, Becoming A Good Relative, The Most Dangerous Superstition, The Voluntaryist Handbook, Land Healing, The Serviceberry, Medicine Wheel for the Planet, Living Energies, A Magical Compendium Of Eastern North American Trees, Beauty In Abundance, The Art Of Fermentation, The Regenerative Landscaper, All of Matt Powers’ books (especially Regenerative Soil and The Permaculture Student 2 and I also attempted to offer that to the reader in my first book (and will be focusing on that more specifically in my next book).
There are also online written forms, businesses and projects that invite us to explore and remember ancestral wisdom and merge those worldviews with modern understanding, i`ll list a few that come to mind below:
- shares some very illuminating and helpful perspectives and concepts in the following two posts that I highly suggest you check out:
https://www.ancientoriginspermaculture.com
I admire Matthew Gardner's ethos and messages he shares as he walks the length of the UK along the Spine of Albion.
He is embarking on an epic journey and inspiring people to excavate ancestral seeds of knowledge, create Cultural Refugia and enrich their connection to the living Earth along the way. Contribute here… https://gofund.me/18fe89e4
You can also check out his School of Living Myth where he guides students along their own mythic path of Becoming themselves.)
He is an Australian born Teacher, Mentor and generally passionate being devoted to re-culturing the western world and guiding emerging leaders as they become themselves.
In a time of civilization collapse and renewal, he founded School of Living Myth, a frontier Wisdom School that's based online and in-person.
He lives in an old Tibetan Buddhist Sanctuary in the foothills of the Black Mountains (Wales).
You can support his work (which is revolutionary in my opinion) of merging the timeless with the emergent through this link.
check out the Regenerative Farm and Permaculture Education Center for inspiration at: www.sunandbloomfarms.com - (They are looking for apprentices for the 2025 growing season!)
sign up for Alan Booker’s Biocompatible Design course here: https://mailchi.mp/321f88a239c1/optkhfg4ta and learn more about his work at the Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design here: https://learn.i2rd.co/
Check out my friend Michael Williams’ company Urban Forage where he is providing nutrient dense food for his community while breathing new life into sustainable ancestral foraged foods in a modern creative context:
https://soilsoulstory.medium.com/decolonizing-permaculture-with-principle-0-9c027e4726c1
screenshot from “How to Grow Koji at Home (Low-Tech Guide!)” with Julian Scanlon from R-Future 2025, you can learn more about his work through the links in the image below 
Julian Scanlon’s company that offers ancient cultural wisdom combined with modern science to educate and empower with Koji https://bioneers.org/lyla-june-interview/
“In Diné cosmology we’ve already experienced the destruction of four or five worlds, so as a culture we’re actually very accustomed to this idea of worlds dying and being reborn.
One of them was with a flood, which happens to be a recurring theme in cultural narratives throughout the world, so we don’t think these are just stories. We think this actually happened. Some of the collapses are social. Things come to a head, and people are forced to evolve or perish. One of those collapses took place in Chaco Canyon. Our people then had caste systems and slavery there and didn’t manage their land well. A lot of Diné people won’t go to Chaco Canyon for that reason. A lot of tourists go to see the archaeological site, but we as Diné never go back because that’s a place where we messed up.
At that time the youth rose up and the Creator sent us a drought, which we needed to give us the courage to change, and then we broke apart and eventually started new, much more evolved societies. We had to learn by going through the fire. Similarly, there’s a California tribe who say that they were in a state of famine, and everything was hard, and the women cried and prayed for their dying children. That prayer, that love, is what gave rise to the acorn maidens coming down to teach them how to gather, prepare and eat the acorns. There are a lot of different stories of collapse and rebirth like that around the world. Europeans have had that too. They had quite evolved social systems that were destroyed by conquerors on many occasions. The conquest of tribal peoples by the Romans, and then the collapse of the Roman Empire centuries later is a famous example.
So, I guess the way we manage it, the way I’ve heard of people managing it (and I’m not an expert) is through prayer, always asking for help. As they say: “When you hit rock bottom, the only place to look is up to Creator.” And humanity right now is going through a collective hitting of rock bottom, …So I think that’s how we manage it, through humility and prayer, asking for guidance.”
- Lyla June ( from the interview linked above).
- https://rumble.com/v51ut36-common-ground-full-film-2023.html?start=1122
⁃ Spoken language that embodies ecological literacy, humility and compassion (Eg The Ogham tree alphabet of ancient Gaelic/Druidic culture or the Potawatomi language in how there is no word for “it” and every being is referred to as him and her, rather than “it” , recognizing non-human beings as kin, family and/or learned elders).
For some info on how I am applying those concepts in my young urban food forest, read:
Merging physical refugium with cultural refugium
When we ‘cross pollinate’ and ‘companion plant’ these two concepts to create a new whole we can nest forms of cultural refugia within physical refugium adding both synergy and increased resilience to both paths of preserving diversity.
I have been working on a community food forest project recently and endeavoring to intentionally design gardens, tree guilds and gathering/creating spaces for humans that are specifically tailored to support, invigorate, encourage and provide the ancient ethnoecologically relevant plant materials for ecologically grounded cultural expressions (ceremonies, blessing rituals, art workshops and unique culinary expressions) and I had thought that my approach might be novel, well it turns out many people have already thought of this exact same thing, and there is a word for it.
Biocultural Refugia
Through nurturing ethnoecological ancestral seeds we can help to create the antidote to multi-generational amnesia, anthropocentrism, apathy and “plant blindness”.
Through each of us excavating the ancient Regenerative (ecologically literate, Reciprocity based, animistic and reverent) knowledge, worldviews, technologies, techniques and traditions of our ancestral past we essentially receive heirloom seeds of knowledge passed down to us by our ancestors.
Through our taking decisive action to germinate those seeds of knowledge within the substrate of a holistic vision for the future (with a foundation of modern Regenerative soil science, a culturally enriched (globally connected) information base and modern mycological science) we can accept the gifts of place based wisdom from our ancestors and give those Regenerative seeds of knowledge new found vigour, potential, anti-fragility and purpose.
What we are essentially doing when we engage in that process intentionally is an ethnoecologically defined form of ethnogenesis.
Ethnogenesis refers to efforts to create counter-cultures which are permanent.
Ethnogenesis driven by an ethnoecological imperative of reciprocity is the process of creating an emergent regenerative culture.
“Active ethnogenesis is deliberate, direct planning and engineering of a separate identity. This is a controversial topic, because of the difficulty involved in creating a new ethnic identity. However, it is clear that active ethnogenesis may augment passive ethnogenesis. Active ethnogenesis is usually inspired by emergent political issues” (source)
“…[W]hat we tend to think of as cultures are actually patterns of systematic refusal which emerged in response to political conditions deemed unacceptable to some people within a given society. Those people then separate themselves in some way from that society, becoming culturally distinct in the process.”
ethnogenesis: the emergence of a subculture or counterculture which, if able to continue on its line of flight (or détournement ), would become a different culture entirely (New Travellers and, historically, Irish Travellers are good examples).
The emergence of new cultures through ethnogenesis is well-documented, and often stems from flight from state power (Scott), a process which begins with a choice to differ from the majority of an existing group. (source)
When we collect, preserve, cultivate and share heirloom seeds (while simultaneously feeding ourselves, growing medicine, providing habitat, nectar for pollinators and biomass for building soil) what we are really doing is engaging in a (non-genetically, non-religious, non-nationalistically and non-geographically defined) form of Ethnogenesis, creating an emergent culture that is primarily defined by its Ethnoecological attributes.
As I discuss in my presentation for R-Future 2025, Permaculture Design and the Regenerative Food movement actually represent forms of non-genetically, non-geographically and non-religiously defined forms of Ethnogenesis, as they are both sets of worldviews, methodologies, perspectives and movements that are decentralized, yet represent a clear and distinct pattern of “systemic refusal” and the creation of counter cultures (which prioritize a specific set of ethical imperatives and ecological literacy over the edicts of statist regimes or corporate interests). For more on that read:
For more on my views about involuntary governance structures (such as “democracy”) and how I feel that embracing Food and Health Sovereignty are critically important leverage points that those of who want to walk the path of satyagrahi in resisting immoral multi-generational racketeering operations (involuntary governance structures such as “democracy”, communism, fascism, socialism etc) read:
and for more on the nature of involuntary governance watch
When we recognize, give our attention and reverence to, and interact with species of trees and plants that bind our present with our ancestral cultural past, in a way that honors the diversity our family of humanity and giving back to the living earth, we begin to engage in ethnogenesis in a way that connects our hearts, minds and conscious awareness to both the wisdom of our ancient indigenous ancestors (and people from all over the planet that may look very differently outwardly, yet at their core, share the same innate God given spark and ancient cultural connection to the living world).
The term ethnogenesis, as I use it in this presentation, refers to efforts to create countercultures which are permanent.
Ethnogenesis driven by an ethnoecological imperative of reciprocity is the process of creating an emergent, regenerative culture.
Active ethnogenesis is deliberate, direct planning and engineering of a separate identity. This is a controversial topic because of the difficulty involved in creating a new ethnic (aka cultural) identity. However, it is clear that active ethnogenesis may augment passive ethnogenesis.
Active ethnogenesis is usually inspired by emergent political issues ( recent examples of political issues that forced people to systematically refuse to be part of said corrupt systems shown below).
As you can see, the process of creating permanent counter-cultures (aka the process of initiating non-genetically, non-religious, non-nationalistically and non-geographically defined forms of Ethnogenesis) are occurring now with many people not necessarily being conscious that they are a part of that process.
One might say that the process of Active Ethnogenesis would also accurately describe the birth of the United States of America (systemic refusal to remain oppressed/taxed by a bloated transnational imperialistic statist regime, which culminated in the American Revolution).
And I would say that it also describes, the emergent health freedom, health sovereignty and natural medicine movements that were (in a significant way) expanded exponentially in places like Canada (and all over the world) over the last 3 years in response to various totalitarian government edicts and corporate profiteering operations that forced people to wake up, reassess the nature of the industrial allopathic medical system and systematically refuse to support it any longer.
I highlighted and elaborated some of the variables that instigated this emergence of a natural health based counter-culture (which is exemplified in the images above) in this note: https://substack.com/@gavinmounsey/note/c-84928518
It's worth highlighting that in the way in which I'm using this term, ethnic we typically think of as racial or genetic differences in individuals, but in the context of ethnogenesis for culture, it does not have to be defined by a genetic difference or a national difference, but rather by a difference in culture and how one chooses to live and how one chooses to interact with their fellow beings and the nature around them.
So this allows for the openness of people of vastly different genetic heritages to be part of a shared culture based on decisions they consciously make. I feel like it's important to emphasize that the way I'm using this term is intended in an inclusive manner and has nothing to do with genetic heritage or race, and rather has to do with the choices one makes in individuals, especially in this time when political happenings in the United States are resulting in a lot of people shifting to isolationist views in relation to their views of so-called immigrants and other peoples.
I have interacted with some people expressing views that fit into that category in the comment threads on the Corbett Report and i`ll share some screenshots below.
If you want to read the full conversation which I took a screen shot of above and engage in the discussion (assuming you are a Corbett Report member, here is a link to the thread.
If you want to read the full conversation which I took screenshots of above (and below) and engage in the discussion (assuming you are a Corbett Report member, here is a link to the thread.
I want to make it clear that the way in which I use the term ethnogenesis in this post and my R-Future presentation is more about opening up the possibility of people from vastly different genetic lineages joining together with a shared purpose that aligns with a regenerative attitude towards the earth.
For more info on my working definition of the term ethnogenesis (in the context of how I use the term) watch this preview from my presentation:
https://odysee.com/@recipes4reciprocity:e/EthnogenesisDefinedRFuture2025preview:a
I touched on two such examples of species that helped to define, enrich and connect cultures from all over this world in my articles both Birch Trees and Pine Trees.
Widely present tree families such as birch and pines tree are a sacred reminder of a time before arbitrary lines were drawn in the sand by statists for greed and ego back to an era when many of our ancient ancestors knew the birch trees and pine trees and had a reciprocal relationship with them. Long before people were swearing allegiance to kings, queens and flags they were swearing allegiance to the living Earth and recognizing our ancient kin (such as the lady of the woods and the nobles of the global woodlands) and the many gifts they share with us.
Cultural refugia become supported, potentiated and enriched when they are nested within physical biological refugia. And the seeds of knowledge, traditions and vision that the cultural refugium architect seeks to preserve can only set down lasting multi-generational roots when those seeds are planted in the fertile hearts and minds of the young ones. Thus, the antidote for multigenerational amnesia, plant blindness, spiritual blindness, anthropocentrism and apathy can be synthesized through creating cultural refugium (ancient cultural seeds germinated into living practices, traditions and place based wisdom that heal our relationship with the earth) nested within physical refugium (Regenerative forest gardens where endangered ethno-ecologically pertinent species are given a priority in the design) can provide heirloom cultural seeds. These heirloom cultural seeds of knowledge will be enriched by the stimulus of modern knowledge and capable of taking root through educational programs that invite children to get involved and show them why those practices and ways of living will enhance their lives.
Many of us with European ancestral heritage (and/or heritage linked to the places on earth that are considered to be the cradles of “civilization”) tend to think of the term “indigenous” as describing people of specific cultural and genetic backgrounds that are different from us based on where we currently live. In truth, indigeneity is a facet of each and everyone of our ancestral bloodlines (regardless of skin colour, genetic heritage or nationality).
The oversimplified (and often totally inaccurate) stories we are told about “hunter gatherer” cultures portray this linear (and almost classist) dichotomy between pre-agricultural cultures and post agricultural city state cultures. We get this story portrayed to us that the story of “progress” or “advancement” of humans goes from us being drooling cavemen hunting herds of animals to grain growing farmers practically overnight, but the reality is a lot more nuanced. In reality, for thousands of years prior to the existence of sedentary monoculture farming communities and involuntary government structures (such as feudal dictatorships, monarchies and nation states) there were learned groups of human beings that had spent countless generations gathering place based botanical, geological, mycological, hydrological and spiritual wisdom and they learned to apply that wisdom in the form of practical knowledge to access medicine, food, warmth, shelter, to navigate and find deeper meaning and spiritual purpose.
Those groups of humans living close to the land, developing ecological literacy with advanced botanical and mycological knowledge were ubiquitous all over the earth for thousands of years, and those people, regardless of who you are and where you live, are your indigenous ancestors.
Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy found in 1991, was carrying birch polypore fungus and the herbal medicines chamomile and yarrow have been found on 50,000-year-old teeth. Our most distant ancestors (that have often been portrayed as thuggish idiot cavemen) appear to have possessed more mycological and botanical knowledge than most people living in cities today.
Long before people were swearing allegiance to kings, queens and flags they were swearing allegiance to the living Earth and our revered non-human elder kin in the kingdoms of tall rooted beings, the living rivers, the lakes and the mountain peaks.
For many of us with European Indigenous Ancestral roots, our ancestors were persecuted by various imperialistic regimes and characterized as “witches”, “savages” or “uncivilized”.
Lyla June explores this lost European indigenous history in an essay published on in The MOON magazine titled “Reclaiming our Indigenous European roots”
The following are some excerpts from that essay:
"They estimate that 8-9 million European women were burned alive, drowned alive, dismembered alive, beaten, raped and otherwise tortured as so-called, “witches.” It is obvious to me now that these women were not witches, but were the Medicine People of Old Europe. They were the women who understood the herbal medicines, the ones who prayed with stones, the ones who passed on sacred chants, the ones who whispered to me that night in the hogan. This all-out warfare on Indigenous European women, not only harmed them, but had a profound effect on the men who loved them. Their husbands, sons, and brothers. Nothing makes a man go mad like watching the women of his family get burned alive. If the men respond to this hatred with hatred, the hatred is passed on. And who can blame them? While peace and love are the correct response to hatred, it is not the easy response by any means.
The Indigenous Cultures of Europe also sustained forced assimilation by the Roman Empire and other hegemonic forces. In fact, it was only a few decades ago that any Welsh child caught speaking Welsh in school would have a block of wood tied to their neck. The words “WN” were there-inscribed, standing for “Welsh not.” This kind of public humiliation will sound very familiar to any Native Americans reading this who attended U.S. Government boarding schools..
..The parallels between the genocide of Indigenous Europeans and Native Americans are astounding. It boggles my mind that more people don’t see how we are the same people, who have undergone the same spiritual assault. The only difference between the Red Story and the White Story is we are in different stages of the process of spiritual warfare. Native Americans are only recently becoming something they are not. They are only recently starting to succumb to the temptations of drugs, alcohol, gambling, self-destruction and the destruction of others. Just as some Native American people have been contorted and twisted by so many centuries of abuse, so too were those survivors of the European genocide. Both are completely forgivable in my eyes..
..Our task is to shake the amnesia. To not be ashamed of our European-ness, but to reclaim our beautiful grandmothers, to reclaim our venerable grandfathers, to reclaim our lost languages, our lost ceremonies, our lost homelands and become one with the Great Sacred Motherland of Europe once again. The European diaspora is spread all throughout the world, searching the planet for something that lives inside. I promise you will hear it when you climb the mountains of Switzerland! Of Scotland! Of Tuscany! Of Hungary! Of Portugal! Of the Great Sacred Motherland of Europe! Just because bad things happened upon her bosom does not mean she is bad."
- Lyla June
For a more in depth exploration of that topic watch this:
When a student asked Lewis Cardinal (the University of Alberta’s, Native Student Services Coordinator the question Are White People Indigenous? this was part of his reply:
"I will attempt to answer only one or two thought pieces at a time. So please continue to write to me with one or two questions and I'll to my best to respond immediately. Your query is a considerable one and one that as several facets that much be placed into context with each other.
However, to answer your first question, yes, White people were at one time "Indigenous" and practiced a life that sought balance and respect for Earth and others. Some (Europeans) still have a value system shaped by those older Indigenous traditions. All people share that common ground. Even when we analyse our collective human mythologies, as did Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth, Hero of a Thousand Faces) et al., you will see that the golden thread that joins us together is quite surprising we do shared common ground as human beings. Of course, human beings being faulty and all, those deals sometimes remain ideals. Overall, an Indigenous perspective does usually lead to a greater sense of equality and balance than a hierarchical framework.
In other words, all humans are Indigenous, however many have left the foundations or framework of their Indigenous worldviews and have accepted, adopted, or assimilated to the dominance model of a hierarchical worldview.
And it is very interesting that through out the last 2000 years to see and study how our "religions" have been coerced or co-opted to endorse a hierarchical structure upon its people. As well, how science is also used to promote that concept as well.
Another facet to your query must recognize that "Colour" like "White" or "Red" or "Black", etc., is a hierarchical construct. Colour coding is a form of separation and categorization that shows little respect to anyone and supports an "us and them" mentality, which further supports the concept of a binary opposition. People are not naturally opposed to other people, we have only been taught that way: negative behaviour is taught. We have to be careful, in my mind anyway, that we focus on cultural foundations and worldviews and not the colour of skin. Geneticists know that Race is a scientific indeterminate.” (source)
I also suggest you read this interesting piece titled Decolonization for White People - by Jason Kierkey:
“Are White People Indigenous? - Drew Dellinger” :
https://healingfromwhiteness.blogspot.com/2006/01/are-white-people-indigenous-drew.html
In a time of extreme deforestation, cultural imperialism, colonialism, multi-generational amnesia, globalization, “sustainable development”, and all time low levels of ecological literacy we can use a slight shift in perspective to reframe these realities as opportunities in disguise.
Through embracing an animistic and relational worldview with the living Earth, you are invited to realize that each time you make a choice that nourishes, respects and enriches her, you are nourishing, respecting and enriching yourself... and each time you make a choice that degrades, harms and pillages her, you are degrading, harming and pillaging yourself.
Consider water for instance, we are made of mostly water as human beings, and yet many of the cultural norms in modern industrial civilization involve pillaging and polluting the sacred waters.
Many of our ancient indigenous ancestors recognized the sacred waters of the living Earth as living beings, imbued with a spirit and deserving of the same recognition and respect as any of our other kin as such.
Within ancient Gaelic cultures the springs, rivers, lakes and wells were seen as beings that have a spirit and innate rights. Under their Brehon Laws (known in the Gaelic language as 'Fénechas) the Gaels (Druids and their Brehon successors) acknowledged the living waters of the Earth had innate rights just as all human beings did (including equal rights for women, which at the time was far ahead of any other European laws for women). The Brehon Law defined our Kinship with Water, our responsibilities to respect her and offer blessings and express gratitude when we receive her gifts.
Many peoples of Turtle Island had similar traditions that spoke of the living waters in the rivers, steams, springs and oceans as their kin, and beings from which we can receive gifts, wisdom and should express our gratitude towards in different ceremonies.
Rather than build churches with walls that separate humans from the sacred inspiration and embodiment of Creator's design, many of these ancient animistic indigenous cultures chose to recognize and/or create spaces for prayer, sacred ceremonies, knowing the will of the Divine and blessing rituals that were centered around flowing springs, sacred groves of trees and/or sacred wells.
People visited the springs and wells for their traditional virtues of healing and divination. In the time of the Druids and the Brehon, sacred trees of the Ogham were planted as both offerings to the water spirits and to serve as guardians of the springs and wells. If a physical cure was sought, the seeker would drink or sometimes bathe in the water. And in fact, the water of some holy wells have indeed been found to contain curative properties, mostly due to the presence of certain minerals. But the healing influence of the wells was due to more than their medicinal qualities. The well or spring itself was viewed as a shrine dedicated to the miraculous emergence of living water, in all intact indigenous cultures, it is a symbol of generation, purification, and the matrix of life itself. To quote Mircea Eliade, ‘…water symbolizes the whole of potentiality; it is fons et origo, the source of all possible existence.’
Spiritual qualities automatically cluster about the manifestation of such a powerful archetype. The holy wells of Albion (aka the British Isles) were, in fact, such popular places of worship in pre-Christian times, that the early Roman Church took great pains to stamp them out. But, as is the way with an insuppressible archetypal force, the forms changed while the essential mystery continued unaltered (becoming part of new traditions with quasi-Christian trimmings).
These sacred groves, sacred springs and sacred wells were tended reverently for millennia, in many cases becoming spectacular old growth forested habitats that simultaneously provided a space for ceremony, blessings and worship for connecting with Creator while also providing habitat for our non human kin and also protecting the waters. However, as was well documented in Fred Hageneder's book "The Spirit of Trees: Science, Symbiosis and Inspiration", the Christian church began an aggressive crusade to destroy these sacred groves, sacred wells and sacred spring sites in an effort to destroy the cultures of all peoples they deemed as "heathens", "savages" and "pagans" starting around the year 723 AD in Europe.
Traditional ethnoecological worldviews of many of the pre-christian animistic indigenous cultures described above had recognized a relationship between trees and rain (eg. indigenous peoples had, and have place based wisdom that taught how the trees invite and call the rain to them). As Zach Weiss pointed out in his recent R-Future presentation, those worldviews are now being proven to be accurate my modern day science.
Within the Druid tradition–along with many others–are full of stories about sacred waters. From the Chalice Well in Glastonbury to the invocation of the “Salmon who Dwells Within The Sacred Pool,” water was viewed as a being and it was a sacred responsibility to care for her in the traditions of my ancestors.
The legacy of the polar opposite of that ancient animistic indigenous worldview (which was imported here to Turtle Island by anthropocentric statist regimes and imported to Albion by other statist regimes in earlier centuries) involved/involves the systematic multi-generational brainwashing of the population to no longer regard the living waters as a relative, a being and kin deserving of reverence, but instead to view her as nothing more than a "resource" to be owned, extracted, commodified, bottled and sold.
Many centuries after the introduction of those imported anthropocentric worldviews regarding the sacred waters, many of us on Turtle Island (and elsewhere) no longer no the joy of being able to dip a cup into a stream, river or spring and drink safe living waters. Most of the living waters have been poisoned by governments and the corporations that dominate those subservient statist regimes and due to exploitative water extraction, diversion and hydroelectric misuse many of the living springs and wells that were tended by and assessable to people for millennia in these lands have run dry.
The statist regimes we happen to be born within are now very fond of talking about "sustainable development", yet the kinds of "development" they have been sustaining for centuries now have resulted in the poisoning of the rivers, the ground waters, the drying up/diversion of aquifers for power corporations and the poisoning of the Great Lakes. This trend of "sustaining" their toxic, anthropocentric and hubristic way of "developing" continues today in northern Ontario and Quebec where our government is greenlighting the destruction of over two hundred thousand hectares of pristine Boreal Forest, rivers and lakes for open pit lithium and cobalt mining (to meet their EV "sustainable" development goals). Hard rock lithium mining involves deforestation, draining lakes and rivers, blowing the land into pieces with explosives, carving deep gashes into the Earth with giant machines, using truckloads of industrial solvents like sulfuric acid (resulting in water contamination with toxic sludge) dragging that processed rubble to processing facilities with fleets of heavy machinery then processing the ore with extremely high energy furnaces using another slew of toxic chemicals (which further contaminate the water table, lakes, rivers and ocean elsewhere).
What I describe above is what results when we allow our energy to flow into systems of governance that are driven by anthropocentric worldviews and that should highlight the moral imperative of divesting in such systems and instead reviving the animistic ways of our ancient ancestors.
This is one of the reasons why I feel that creating Biocultural Refugia is so important and I feel that applying the concepts I discussed in my presentation on that concept in the context of creating sacred water sites for ceremony and prayer is an extremely important expression of biocultural refugia. Those of us that are blessed to steward riparian habitat, river banks and springs can plant the seeds for new Sacred Groves and co-create (and/or revive) traditions and ceremonies that honor and heal the living waters that we can pass onto future generations.
Some are working within the imported systems of law to grant bodies of water legal personhood (such as New Zealand’s Whanganui, United States’ Klamath, Colombia’s Amazon, Canada’s Magpie river) as a way to protect them using the language of modern western civilization and I admire their noble efforts, but I would also encourage us to each plant more decentralized seeds for cultural revival, creating new sacred groves, sacred spring traditions and helping these traditions to become an integral aspect of our local communities. In doing so, we plant the seeds for a multi-generational movement of love, tradition, courage and nurturing of these places to become a more powerful incentive to protect them than any government bribe or threat ever could provide.
This is a call to all who wish walk the path of satyagraha and use their time on Earth to heal our relationship with the land and the elements. I speak to those of you who wish to give your energy and time to nourish all life to thrive.
That is exactly what Designing Biocultural Refugia is all about. We can apply some of the concepts I share here and each of us can come up with and implement our own ideas for how we can plant the seeds of ancient animistic wisdom within our modern day communities to set down roots, heal our relationship with the living waters, the living soil, the oceans, mountains and tall rooted beings and so that we can become ancestors worth descending from.
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Cha bhi fios aire math an tobair gus an tràigh e.
(The value of the well is not known until it goes dry.)
-Scottish Gaelic Proverb
She is more than just your Earth Mother, for beyond the many gifts that are provided to you by a human mother, the Earth also provides everything you need to live, thrive and experience joy since the moment you are born to the moment you go back to her. She gives you the air you breath, the water you drink, the food you eat, she gave you the calcium that is in your bones and the iron that is in your red blood cells (which flow through your heart, even now).. she shares the indescribable beauty of her art work to nourish your soul and the calming rhythm of her eternal heart beat to let you know you are safe and you are loved.
Many of us live in areas that were once covered in biodiverse climax forest ecosystems only a couple centuries ago and are now mostly denuded of trees. Children born into these ecologically degraded landscapes can now often recognize more than a thousand corporate logos but can identify less than ten species of plants.
One of the many degenerative inevitable results of this widespread ecological illiteracy or “plant blindness” leads to a sort of impoverishment of the soul. Plant blindness leads to spiritual blindness. It does not matter how many times someone is brought to a building or institution designated as a place to know/connect with the divine, if one lives with plant blindness and in a place so ecologically degenerated that they can no longer walk in the Cathedrals that the Creator designed called Old Growth Forests then their ability to perceive and know the will, genius and beauty of Creator’s design is impaired and their perception of beauty skewed.
Being raised in a place devoid of the ancient majestic rooted beings that once dominated the landscape distorts peoples baseline assumptions for what a forest is influences increasingly anthropocentric, materialistic and degenerative lifepaths in humans raised there. Multi-generational amnesia results and ecological illiteracy leads to poverty of the heart and imagination.
Or in other words, as expressed by the character in this clip from a film called “Dinner With Andre”, in an extreme urbanized (“smart city” type) situation, it can lead to such a devastating form of ecological illiteracy and plant blindness that “we become a bunch of robots, and as history and memory are erased, there could come a time when almost no-one remembers what life was like on the planet”.
Seeing those problems as an invitation to apply solutions that are potentiated by having a blank slate (a space that is currently in an early ecological successional state due to human disturbance) we can begin the sacred work of planting forests composed of many food and medicine bearing species so that we regenerate forest habitat while also taking action to feed human communities, offer a space for creating new place based traditions, honouring ancestral food practices and create opportunities for interactive educational programs to increase ecological literacy in the youth and offer the antidote for generational amnesia.
So if the current dominant culture that we were born into is defined as exploitative, hyper-centralized, ecologically illiterate/destructive, anthropocentric, materialistic, superficial, and toxic the question we need to ask ourselves is, do I want to continue defining myself by, giving my energy to, anchoring myself to and lending momentum that culture or is it time to choose a different path?
Many cultures in the past chose a different path and can offer us helpful sign posts we navigates and forge a path into the future that involves humility, ecological literacy, kindness, courage, integrity and ingenuity.
My Gaelic ancestors offer some helpful sign posts, but it is also worth noting that aspects of each and every ancient culture involved behaviors that will no longer serve us in the present as we work to create a regenerative future that embodies the Permaculture ethical ethos (Earth Care - People Care - Future Care).
Some of these cultures that offer us helpful sign posts that are from Turtle Island formed democracies (such as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy) others were matriarchal societies but the one through-line that can be observed in the majority of traditional views and spiritual teachings of all of the indigenous cultures of Turtle Island is that they recognized all of our fellow non-human beings on Earth as animate, imbued with a spirit and as persons deserving of our respect and reverence. Also, something that is of critical importance to realize about the difference between the religion and spiritual beliefs that used to guide the people that called this land home, compared to the imported European religion, is that all the various indigenous teachings viewed our non-human fellow beings on Earth as wise elders, from which we had much to learn.
For the most part, Turtle Island inhabitants cultivated relationships with our more than human brethren and sistren. These relationships were based on symbiosis, respect and reciprocity.
With all that being said, I want to emphasize that I think that placing any culture, group of people or individual on some pedestal as pure is unhealthy. I feel we should be vigilant to make sure we are not romanticizing their past nor romanticizing the potential of their worldviews to provide solutions to the present challenges we face. Lyla June elaborates on that truth in her informative discussion on the history of Chaco Canyon and how it relates to the ethnogenesis of the Diné people (which I quotes above.)
I would also like to highlight the fact that psychopathy, greed and other anti-social traits are not unique to modern western culture. Unpleasant, selfish (and even sometimes ecologically degenerative) characteristics can be observed (overtly) in the traditions of specific isolated indigenous peoples (some of them were slave trading warlords and others may have respected the forest but were somewhat materialistic coveting ornate possessions).
Other indigenous peoples refused to trade with people that enslaved others and wanted nothing to do with money (as was the case with some of the people (as was the case with some of the people that are described in the this essay, who called the Eastern Woodlands, where I now live, home). Thus, I feel that while no culture is perfect, and some may have lived in a way that expressed more compassion, ethical social structures and holistic thinking than others, one thing is certain, and that is that these starkly contrasted cultures offer us helpful sign posts as we attempt to navigate and forge a path towards a more honest, equitable, kind, abundant and regenerative future.
So, just to be clear, no, I am not saying we should live in mud huts, engage in tribal warfare and/or do animal sacrifice ceremonies etc. I acknowledge conflicts and rituals that existed in a small number of indigenous tribes and how these behaviors do not serve us as we strive to live in peace and with compassion. However, I would suggest that we should keep in mind that demonization and dehumanization of the perceived “enemy” or targeted “sub-human class” of an empire is a time tested psychological warfare technique that has been employed in both real time conflicts and retrospectively as “victors write the history books”.
Each one of us can seek to tap into the deep well of place based knowledge that was gathered and honed over centuries to millennia by our ancient ancestors and/or those who lived close to the land and to the forest before we moved to where we are today. For some of us finding the way into that ancient wellspring of knowledge may require some excavation as centuries or even millennia may have passed since those who lived close with the land and who had reverence for and who gathered the knowledge of the medicine and food plants of that bio region lived there.
Cultivating a regenerative bio-cultural refugium and/or food forest biocultural refugium (to preserve both endangered species and cultural traditions) is one way we can embark on a radically different path that leads towards a Regenerative Future.
What if instead of making choices that feed into and perpetuate a culture that is exploitative, hyper-centralized, superficial, anthropocentric, ecologically destructive, materialistic and toxic we took action as individuals to plant the seeds for a counter-culture that is generous, kind, decentralized, decolonized, honest, courageous/heart centered, ecologically literate/reciprocal, spiritually grounded, animistic/humble and healing?
What if we each take action to move in the direction of systematic refusal to the aspects of our dominant western culture which I listed above to instead define ourselves as part of a permanent culture that has yet to be seen on the face of the Earth?
Studies related to paleoethnobotany have offered us insights into how ancient cultures defined themselves in lasting ways through how they interacted with the ecosystems that supported them. The story of the essence of their cultures were written into the living soils, the depth and breadth of which tells the tale of wise and humble people’s who lived for thousands of seasons cultivating and gathering food in a way that was reciprocal, regenerative and aligned with ecological literacy. Those peoples over time became defined regionally and genetically by others, but I would contend that the most important aspect of their culture was not where they lived or what color their skin was, but rather it was how they lived and how they gave back to the life that nourished them.
People like Lyla June and Marten Pritchel offer helpful sign posts for those seeking to develop a long term reciprocal and reverential relationship with the land on which one currently lives as they are people that have not only indigenous bloodlines, but both living indigenous relatives, conscious awareness of practical applications of traditional indigenous knowledge, and also European bloodlines with a conscious awareness of the ancient indigeneity of those aspects of their being and ancient ancestors (that are all to often forgotten or overlooked by many people with predominantly or solely European genetic bloodlines).
All throughout history Statist empires sought to steal the land from and impose their will upon people who had chosen to live in close connection to the land and the forest by assigning them with the dehumanizing, condescending and derisive label of being "uncivilized"/"savage".
For more info watch:
As Dr. Lyla June astutely points out, this was/is not only true of how the statists sought to annihilate, assimilate and pillage the cultures and lands of the diverse peoples of Turtle Island. It was also true (and is still also true) for how statist regimes have sought (and continue to seek) to do the same to other people who lived (and live) in close relationship with the living Earth all over the world.
What I have found on my own path to excavate my ancestral indigenous roots and decolonize my own worldviews is that (as Lyla June states in this video) in many ways this process can present unique challenges for those of us with indigenous ancestors to Europe. In many cases, those with European ancestry are looking at one to several millennia of colonialism and brainwashing to undo and peel away before you get back to the indigenous roots of a people. The pop-culture propaganda distorts our own self-image when we begin to look into how our European indigenous ancestors lived.
For instance, many in modern times have been conditioned to see the ancient Druids and their Celtic predecessors the Brehon (Breitheamh) Judges as "savages". This is also nothing more than the sad propaganda of a hollow social, agricultural and scientifical involuntary governance Statist regime attempting to erase the cultural accomplishments and memory of those they sought to silence and dehumanize in the name of imperialistic conquest and greed.
The Druidic wisdom keepers encapsulated their combined memory of medicines, conflicts, natural disasters, geology, meteorology, pathways to peaceful resolution and stories that educate the listener about astronomy, mathematics and ecology into rhymed verse (often recited as part of a song with harps or flutes). Those concentrated expressions of their culture were passed down to the time of the Celts arriving and were then written down in Ogham on stone and wood to become the Brehon (Breitheamh) Laws (or Fenechus). They used verse, song and stone to create Cultural Refugia.
They had laws to honor and protect the bees and the trees and saw men and women as equals (long before anyone in Europe).
The first recordings of the Brehon (Breitheamh) Laws were made around the year 700 BC. They were collected (not invented) by a great Breitheamh (judge) named Ollamh Fodhla and inscribed into Ogham in stone and on elongated wooden panels. These were said to be the written form of laws, ways of seeing and knowledge with much more ancient roots and deep history in that land which was (up until then) passed down through the form of rhymes and verse (in the form of music).
The Roman church began attempting to erase that cultural history in the year 438 AD when monks were sent to gather all the Brehon laws (recorded on wooden panels and stone) and transcribe them (censoring that which did not align with the Christian views of the world and our place in it). The Christian statist interlopers gathered the sacred laws of the Breitheamh in Teamhair na Rí ('Tara of the kings'), and formerly also Liathdruim ('the grey ridge') and after transcribing them in what they described as a ”purified” form (meaning censored, altered and redacted) they destroyed all the original Ogham writing they could get their hands on. This attempt to steam roll the old Druidic ways and distort Brehon Law to serve as another tool for indoctrinating and assimilating the Celtic people failed as much of the Ogham which recorded the ancient knowledge was carved into large stones all over the land in hidden corners, cliffs and boulders.
Each tree had a series of philosophies around it in the oral culture ( a voluntarily agreed upon system for protecting nature). This system was agreed upon each time a word was written or carved into stone for it became the foundation for the Ogham Script.
Ogham script is one of the oldest forms of writing and is referenced throughout Celtic mythology. Long before the days of paper, stone was inscribed as a form of communication. Ogham script consists of lines representing twenty letters. These lines can still be seen to this day along the edges of many standing stones found throughout the Celtic nations.
Yes, you got that right, Europe’s very first alphabet (Ogham Script) arose in Gaelic/Celtic culture and is comprised of characters that are mostly named after trees (all of which were considered sacred because of their medicinal properties). The alphabet begins with a symbol for a shoreline pine and ends with a blackthorn tree.
The usage of this living language rooted in the trees and medicine plants provided a cultural and literary foundation that ensured people didn’t harvest everything and left medicine for their children’s children’s children. Trees with important medicine had a sacred status as a form of protection against human greed.
The ancient knowledge keepers (Breitheamh or “Brehon” judges) of the time saw what the Roman Christian church was attempting to do and so they made sure to infuse their wisdom into verse “wrapped in a thread of poetry” and taught these songs to the bards and townsfolk far and wide to preserve the essence of their culture. Again, they had the foresight to use verse, song and stone to create Cultural Refugia.
This wise covert approach to preserving their cultural wisdom persisted for well over a millennia until it again came under direct threat from statist regimes that sought to erase the past and impose their degenerative involuntary governance structures upon the Celtic tribes.
That is why the statists of the British monarchy (queen Elizabeth) ordered her thugs to "Hang harpers, wherever found, and destroy their instruments".
Harpers, however, were not the only Irish treated with such hostility. In an attempt to gain control of Ireland, laws were enacted by the English Crown making it illegal for the Irish to speak their language, own land, become educated and to marry. The penalty was death.
This forbidding of the bards from reciting their verses in their native Gaelic tongue (under penalty of death) was similar to how the Canadian Government would later force the First Nation children of Turtle Island into concentration camps (euphemistically called “residential schools”) cutting off their hair, forbidding them to speak their language and thus attempting to sever the hereditary line of knowledge which was passed down in verbal stories in their own language.
Between 1650 and 1660, Oliver Cromwell ordered the destruction of harps and organs. Harps were burned and harpers were forbidden to congregate. Despite this, various records indicate that some Highland chiefs retained their harpers well into the eighteenth century, and place names such as Harper’s Pass, Harper’s Field (both on the island of Mull), Harper’s Window (Isle of Skye) and Harper’s Gallery (Castlelachlan in Argyle) remind us of the one-time importance of the harp in these areas.
The truth is, that like the Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands of Turtle Island (what is now called "Canada") the Druidic way of seeing, living and interacting with our fellow beings on this world (which was passed down to their Celtic descendants) represented a clear example of how people can live, prosper and interact without the existence of a state (centralized involuntary governance structure). Those people who were speaking the languages of those ancient ways of being, living in close connection with the land and in a stateless society were seen as a threat to the imperialistic statists who were attempting to impose their degenerative and unnecessary systems of domination on those two separate continents.
Thus, the First Nation children were kidnapped and threatened not to speak their ancient language nor tell the stories of their ancestors, the orders were given to round up and murder the Celtic harpists and bards in an attempt to erase what the Jesuit Priests described as "Wicked Liberty" from the collective cultural memory.
Thankfully the statist thugs and agents of involuntary governance failed to kill and silence all the story tellers, and this ancient wisdom offered by these windows into our shared history persists despite their despotic and vicious attempts. Thanks to the brave story tellers, rhymers and covert harpists of the highlands we have glimpses of a trail map that is both ancient and socially advanced, and can help us find sign posts as we trail blaze towards a more regenerative, honest, equitable, compassionate and hopeful future.
Another factor I think is extremely important to consider for those of us looking to connect with ancestral wisdom and ways of seeing, especially those who feel that their ancestral indigenous past has been completely erased from written history, is that each and every one of our ancestors wasn't just connecting spiritually with the living earth, they were also connecting biologically with the living earth.
They were connecting with the trees, the fungi, the soil, the living waters, and all the information that they received from those beings through exosomic data, through naturally occurring microRNA that are being exuded by all the beings on Earth and received by their genetics is also available to us now.
So when you go out in the forest and you breathe that fresh forest air, when you touch the living soil, when you eat a fungi, you're receiving an upload to your memory, to your ancestral memory, the same kind of information that your ancestors could have received. Now for more on this, I highly suggest checking out William Padilla Brown's information on truffles and how he sees it as a keystone species, and Paul Stamets' information on psilocybin mushrooms.
And when you think about that biological connection in the context of an old growth forest, and how the trees there can live many hundreds to thousands of years, and they're connected underground through the mycorrhizal networks to countless other beings, what you're really talking about is a living library of knowledge.
And those are the kind of living libraries that our ancestors would have tapped into biologically, energetically, and through biomimicry using their minds.
So it serves to show how important it is to protect the last few old growth forests and how through going there and connecting as our ancestors would, we can tap into that same living library and begin to build or rebuild our traditions.
Through our recognition of the immense wisdom embodied in something as seemingly simple as a leaf or recognizing how the tree that produced the leaf is involved in myriad symbiotic relationships that might teach us how to behave more honorably, efficiently and regeneratively as humans, we begin to be able to discern the beauty and majesty that is all around us, we begin to become capable of reading the blueprints of Creator and feeding the Holy in Nature that God imbued her with.
We can engage in this sacred process in the garden, in the forest and in our dealings with both human and non-human beings within “civilization”.
We are now called to look within to find these seeds and then merge them with a handful of physical seeds outwardly so that we can consciously initiate regenerative ethno-ecologcally defined ethnogenesis through our actions in on this beautiful Earth, creating pockets of emergent placed based culture all over the planet and using our unique gifts to become the medicine that both the Earth and our human family needs so desperately.
In order to see a new culture and way of living take hold and begin to become the norm we must cut our ties to the old ways and begin to live a new way. We must remember what our ancestors were wise enough to understand and forge a close knit relationship with the land we live on. The interdependence, sacred geometry, efficiency, resilience and regenerative capacity of the intact ecosystems where we live can provide us guidance on the path forward. Through emulating these living systems in the garden/farming sector and engaging in biomimicry with our technology we can create resilient systems and ways of perceiving that can provide us food, medicine and wisdom on our path to create a brighter future. And it can begin with something as simple as humility and a handful of seeds.
“Everything in Nature ran according to its own nature; the running of grass was in its growing, the running of rivers their flowing, granite bubbled up, cooled, compressed and crumbled, birds lived, flew, sang and died, everything did what it needed to do, each simultaneously running its own race, each by living according to its own nature together, never leaving any other part of the universe behind. The world’s Holy things raced constantly together, not to win anything over the next, but to keep the entire surging diverse motion of the living world from grinding to a halt, which is why there is no end to that race; no finish line. That would be oblivion to all.
For the Indigenous Souls of all people who can still remember how to be real cultures, life is a race to be elegantly run, not a race to be competitively won. It cannot be won; it is the gift of the world’s diverse beautiful motion that must be maintained. Because human life has been give the gift of our elegant motion, whether we limp, roll, crawl, stroll, or fly, it is an obligation to engender that elegance of motion in our daily lives in service of maintaining life by moving and living as beautifully as we can. All else has, to me, the familiar taste of that domineering warlike harshness that daily tries to cover its tracks in order to camouflage the deep ruts of some old, sick, grinding, ungainly need to flee away from the elegance of our original Indigenous human souls. Our attempt to avariciously conquer or win a place where there are no problems, whether it be Heaven or a “New Democracy,” never mind if it is spiritually ugly and immorally “won” and taken from someone who is already there, has made a citifying world of people who, unconscious of it, have become our own ogreish problem to ourselves, our future, and the world. This is a problem that we cannot continue to attempt to competitively outrun by more and more effectively designed technological approaches to speed away from the past, for the specter of our own earth-wasting reality runs grinning competitively right alongside us. By developing even more effective and entertaining methods of escape that only burn up the earth, the air, animals, plants, and the deeper substance of what it should mean to be human, by competing to get ahead, we have created a brakeless competition that has outrun our innate beauty and marked out a very definite and imminent “finish” line.
Living in and on a sphere, we cannot really outrun ourselves anyway. Therefore, I say, the entire devastating and hideous state of the world and its constant wounding and wrecking of the wild, beautiful, natural, viable and small, only to keep alive an untenable cultural proceedance is truly a spiritual sickness, one that will not be cured by the efficient use of the same thinking that maintains the sickness. Nor can this overly expensive, highly funded illness be symptomatically kept at bay any longer by yet more political, environmental, or social programs.
We must as individuals and communities take the time necessary to learn how to indigenously remember what a sane, original existence for a viable people might look like.
Though there are marvellous things and amazing people doing them, both seen and unseen, these do not resemble in any way the general trend of what is going on now.
To begin remembering our Indigenous belonging on the Earth back to life we must metabolize as individuals the grief of recognition of our lost directions, digest it into a valuable spiritual compost that allows us to learn to stay put without outrunning our strange past, and get small, unarmed, brave, and beautiful.By trying to feed the Holy in Nature the fruit of beauty from the tree of memory of our Indigenous Souls, grown in the composted failures of our past need to conquer, watered by the tears of cultural grief, we might become ancestors worth descending from and possibly grow a place of hope for a time beyond our own.”
(from: The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive)
Practical Biocultural Refugium Ideas:
Some examples of how this can be applied in the garden in our everyday life would be if you're setting up your first garden take time to develop some botanical literacy of the plants that naturally occur in your area and get to know if there are any people that were indigenous to that area get to know their knowledge of the plants the medicine plants and the food plants that grow there and if you can connect with them try to form a reciprocal relationship where you could have a space where those plants could grow and if you have a community garden space a space where perhaps a Garden can be devoted to the traditional cultivation methods and people can learn from each other and have a space to grow and share.
And if you do have access to a community gardening space, think about practicing the seventh generation principle and get the kids involved.
In order to really see the solutions outlined above take hold and give to future generations it must involve nurturing ecological literacy and animistic perspectives in the kids as an "inoculation" against multi-generational amnesia, "plant blindness" and to reverse the degenerative trends of The Anthropocene.
Here are some screenshots from the website of a local program here in Southern Ontario called Forest School (by “natural pathways”) that gets kids out in nature learning about trees, soil, fungi and how they can give back to the Earth.
(Here is another example of a program that helps increase ecological literacy in the youth with hands on experience on the west coast of Turtle Island) :
Plant trees that won't only benefit you, but will also give to future generations that can live there for a very long time, provide lots of food, medicine, organic matter for the soil, and beauty for people to appreciate in the future.
And if you have the space, try to create a space where you could have workshops where people could come in and do things like basket weaving and other traditional art forms from your area where regeneratively accessible resources can be used to create art that has a functional purpose. And if you happen to be stewarding a large tract of land that intersects with the ocean, you could think about inviting Indigenous people to practice their regenerative clam gardens or oyster gardens there.
These are things that invite cultural traditions to have a place to unfold and they also give to the future because these tidal zone gardening habitats actually enrich biodiversity and they become a sort of multi-generational increase in food availability in that area.
Another extremely important thing we can incorporate into every one of our gardens, whether they be our individual gardens or community garden spaces, is we can learn from the ancient soil builders that used to use tool of fire to create biochar and then we can add on our knowledge of regenerative soil science, create biologically diverse compost and foliar sprays such as actively aerated compost tea, apply that to the biochar and then build permanently enriched soils.
We can give those to future generations and they can become oases of beneficial soil life that spread outwardly as we work on our project spreading through the community.
And then when we apply those other features along with regenerative hydrological features that help to slow the water and help it to permeate into the soil, what we're doing is we're adding a synergy to our projects where we're helping the sacred waters to nourish the other features of our design and then we can give that to future generations in the enriched hydrology of the area.
And if you're creating a biocultural refugium, whether it be in the context of your garden or a community gardening space, don't forget to invite your fungal relatives to be part of the mix.
Stacking functions with mycological knowledge that we've gained in the last hundred years can add an amazing dimension of cultural enrichment as well as the potential for producing huge amounts of food and medicine and building soil on site.
You can use waste products from your local town like coffee grounds to grow oyster mushrooms.
You can get wood chips often from arborists.
You can inoculate them with different species, grow them underneath vegetable beds, use them underneath your tree plantings.
There's so much potential to unlock when you tap into the mycological knowledge.
For more info :
And that brings me to another pathway I found to be really empowering when I'm stewarding ancestral knowledge as well as endangered plants or rare heirloom plants in a garden space.
And that is to embrace the ancient worldview of the animistic worldview to see plants as our relations, as our relatives, and to let go of the idea of this “invasive” plants idea.
While there are plants that can out-compete some native plants, When we look at plants, if we see them through the lens as the gifts that they can offer rather than seeing them in an adversarial way, we can see that there might be a potential for that plant that's now naturalized in an area to provide gifts to the project we're working on while giving a space for the plants that we do want to grow there.
One example would be the Phragmites. Here in Ontario, they're seen as invasives and people go to war with them with chemicals and machines. It is a futile effort because their strong rhizomes come right back but you can use the plant material, the stalks grinded up instead of hay or straw to grow oyster mushrooms so you can use them as a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms turn those things into food as long as you're getting them from a clean area because they do hyper accumulate specific toxins from polluted waterways and you can also use the stalks that are dried as supports for your young plants like you would bamboo if you get the bottom like three feet of the really tall ones you could use those like bamboo instead of importing bamboo from overseas and then additionally the seed heads you can use in a similar way that cattails would have traditionally been used to make insulation for things like pillows.
You can use either buckets or even something like an old laundry basket (shown in a pic below).
Below are some research articles that focus on using ground up and hydrated Phragmites australis stems/stalks as a substrate for growing Oyster mushrooms. The material does indeed work as a suitable substrate.
It would of course be worth taking into account that Phragmites australis is good at hyperaccumulating heavy metals like cadmium and lead (and likely takes in other potentially toxic compounds if they are growing in contaminated soil/water) so sourcing the material from a relatively pollution free place would be wise.
Research and data on the viability of using Phragmites australis stalks/stems as a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms :
- https://www.academia.edu/62013452/Cultivation_of_Agaricus_bisporus_X25_on_Reed_Plant_Phragmites_australis_Straw_Decomposed_by_Using_Actinomycetes
- https://outsidethehops.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/growing-oyster-mushrooms-from-wild-grasses/?fbclid=IwAR1oL_NQLjjyIlruszsYZNz4DN9fYipso3c4lhtXMFedf7N58qBCNvm9EGA
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/1060/1/012060/pdf
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889157522005427
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29801232/
- https://www.slu.se/globalassets/ew/org/inst/huv/forskning/vass/wetlands.pdf
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For info on how to grow oyster mushrooms in containers (such as buckets or laundry baskets):
- https://northspore.com/blogs/the-black-trumpet/growing-mushrooms-in-buckets-containers
- https://outsidethehops.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/oyster-mushrooms-straw-bucket-tech/
- https://www.fieldforest.net/product/oysters-on-straw-instruction-sheet/instruction-sheets
- Growing Oyster Mushrooms in a Bucket: How to use a bucket and pasteurized straw to grow mushrooms:
So there's three different ways that I found through seeing a plant as a relation and looking at it through the gift thinking lens, I can see how that plant could add beauty, diversity and enrich the soil in my local projects rather than seeing it as the enemy.
And once you've got the physical components of your biocultural refugium set up, don't forget to incorporate the non-physical components.
Perhaps learn to refer to the plants, the fungi, the earth, the rocks, and the other attributes of your garden space in the language of your ancient ancestors, or in the language of the people who used to be indigenous to the place where you now live is.
Learn to see those plants through the eyes of your ancestors and develop some kind of practice that you can do, some kind of prayer or meditation that helps you connect to that space and helps you feel a place-based connection to the place that you're nourishing.
Now if you can't find a tradition that is rooted in your own ancestral past, then perhaps you could develop one of your own and engage in a sort of ethnogenesis of a ritual practice that helps you to connect with the land.
A few examples of cultural refugia that I include in my book come in the form of culinary expressions from cultures that offer us ecological wisdom we can apply in the present.
Some of the cultures that I include recipes from include the Mayan people, the people of the Triple Alliance (aka “Aztec”), the people of the eastern woodlands of Turtle Island, people from Laos, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Japan.
Four Full Recipes From My Book Are Available Through These Links Below.
These recipes posts also offer related ethnoecological info on how the cultures those recipes were inspired by grew/grow their food in a way that also gives back to the living Earth (providing cultural refugia in the form of culinary expressions, which can become biocultural refugium, if you grow your own ingredients regeneratively, save seeds, and share the seeds in your community):
Sopa de Lima (Yucatán-Style Lime Tortilla Soup) with information about the Mayan Milpa crop rotation system, their forest gardens and other soil regeneration techniques developed by indigenous peoples.
Vegetarian Khao Poon - This vibrantly flavored Laotian soup is a reflection of the diversity of the ecosystem, cultivation method and beautiful culture that inspired it.
Moroccan Harissa Spice Medley and Vegetable Tajine - In the article linked below I share 2 more recipes from my book and info on the ancient forest gardens of Morocco
Those forms of cultural refugia expressed in culinary expressions can be made into biocultural refugia through growing your own ingredients for the recipes in this book, saving seeds from them, and then sharing them in your local community, thereby increasing biodiversity while sharing cultural wisdom from the past.
For those looking to expand your regenerative knowledge and apply it in your local community, I highly suggest checking out Matt Power's Advanced Permaculture Student Online course.
As I was writing Recipes for Reciprocity, I found the knowledge shared in those courses and the networks that I connected with to be invaluable.
Here's to a 2025 when we plant the seeds of ancestral knowledge within the fertile soils of the present to create a harvest of abundance, integrity, ecological literacy and resilience for future generations.
If you are not already aware and have not signed up yet, I will be sharing a presentation at a conference called R-Future on based on the subject matter above this week.
Join us LIVE to start your New Year Regeneratively!! Less than 3 Days & We Begin - It's FREE For Everyone To Attend: https://matt-powers.mykajabi.com/r-future
I don't think a conversation about reforesting can be complete without reading the beautifully written little book, "The Man who Planted Trees" by Jean Giono. Only 50 pages, but definitely one to inspire. Available from Chelsea Green. Enjoy!
Wow. What a lot of work went into this. I'm not sure if I'm contributing correctly. It's something I've always just done. I live on a very small lot and don't have a lot of room, but I have areas of my yard where I throw old seeds, plants that have gone to seed and just let those areas "do their thing". I've found that many things that need to be babied in the garden, end up doing quite well once they have "acclimated" to the soil, weather, etc. I call these spots my "garbage spots". I do clean them up a bit from time to time, but I just let nature run it's course. I typically can get edible items like parsnips (they go insane), dill, coriander, and numerous other plants. If I'm unable to eat or use what grows there, the bees are always happy there and when before I clean things up now and then, birds and rabbits love these spots for either hiding or feasting. Nature knows what to do and it seems like it's begging to be left alone to do it's thing sometimes. I don't know if things that are not native to the area benefits things in the "big picture", but I sure enjoy seeing what pops up every year and enjoy seeing wildlife and bees having a place. What I do doesn't require work, watering, or anything. Is it a mess? Sort of, but I've been learning that Nature seems to kind of an "ordered chaos" for lack of a better term. Sorry for the rant. Hope it was kind of on topic. Thanks for your work. I'm learning some new things by reading your posts.