“We are sitting on the graveyard of vast, advanced, sophisticated, beautiful civilisations who we owe our very existence to oftentimes. Indigenous food scientists from thousands of years ago are what’s feeding the world today. We brought the world potatoes. We brought the world tomatoes. We brought the corn. We brought the world cacao. We brought the world vanilla, you know, all these things. We had diverse systems. We understood that diversity was the cornerstone of health, and, I guess prosperity.” Lyla June
E99 – Lyla June on INDIGENOUS FOOD SYSTEMS, SACRED KNOWLEDGE AND COMPASSION
PARADIGMS EMBEDDED IN OUR LANGUAGES OF BEAUTY
Listen to the conversation:
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About this interview:
“We are sitting on the graveyard of vast, advanced, sophisticated, beautiful civilisations who we owe our very existence to oftentimes. Indigenous food scientists from thousands of years ago are what’s feeding the world today. We brought the world potatoes. We brought the world tomatoes. We brought the corn. We brought the world cacao. We brought the world vanilla, you know, all these things. We had diverse systems. We understood that diversity was the cornerstone of health, and, I guess prosperity.”
In this episode, Amisha talks to Lyla June Johnston, Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages.
Lyla engages audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing guided by her blends of studies in Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Lyla is an advocate for Indigenous food universities for revitalisation of Indigenous food systems.
Amisha and Lyla explore how destruction of indigenous societies/food systems, indoctrination, de-skilling and economies of convenience have conditioned us to be living out of tune with ourselves, each other and the beauty of the land. They speak of sacred practices and indigenous stories that can guide us into ceremonies of deep listening, a life of compassion and re-skilling, so that we may reconcile identities and remove obstacles imposed by systems standing in the way of our experience of true living and love. They share personal and sacred insights of connecting with our ancestors for their ‘medicine’ to aid us in our healing and in growing our courage so we may connect with pathways for liberating and reforming ourselves through self-love.
“We aren’t living, though the way we were designed to live. To be attuned to ourselves as human beings, and to be attuned to the beauty of being human, just go outside.” ~Lyla June
Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, scholar and community organiser of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages.
Her dynamic, multi-genre performance and speech style has invigorated and inspired audiences across the globe towards personal, collective and ecological healing. Her messages focus on the climate crisis, Indigenous rights, supporting youth, inter-cultural healing, historical trauma and traditional land stewardship practices.
She blends her undergraduate studies in human ecology at Stanford University, her graduate work in Native American Pedagogy at the University of New Mexico, and the indigenous worldview she grew up with to inform her perspectives and solutions. Her internationally acclaimed performances and speeches are conveyed through the medium of prayer, hip-hop, poetry, acoustic music and speech. Her personal goal is to grow closer to Creator by learning how to love deeper.
To find out more about Lyla’s work, visit lylajune.com
To connect or work with Amisha, visit amisha.co.uk
To find out more about St Ethelburga’s, visit stethelburgas.org
Listening To Each Other, Listening to Earth, is a collaboration with St Ethelburgas, and is funded by the Kalliopeia Foundation. For this collaboration — will be hosting 8 podcasts, and some live events. We give deep gratitude to both for making this possible.
Listening to each other : Listening to Earth reaches for the place where spiritual ecology and climate justice meet. It explores the integration of spirituality with grounded action through the lives and leadership of people of colour.
Kalliopeia was founded as an independent foundation to help support people and organisations who are working to bring spiritual values into institutions and systems of everyday life and work.
St.Ethelburga’s builds community resilience for times of ecological and social emergency. Their work is organised around 4 principles which are:
- Put values into action
- Seek opportunity in crisis
- Build community across differences, and
- Protect what is sacred
Resources and links from this episode:
- Music . Bandcamp . Lyla June
- Music . YouTube . Lyla June
- Lyla June Facebook
- Lyla June Instagram
- Pat McCabe
- St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace
- Kalliopeia Foundation
- Be part of our 100th Episode celebration
Connect more with us:
- Beautiful Leadership mentoring
- Amisha’s One-to-One sessions
- Amisha’s book – INTUITION
- all that we are membership
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