We often hear about sustainability from those who represent the conditions and systems that have led to unsustainability and our current planetary crisis.

Almost always lost are the voices of people who have genuinely proven themselves sustainable and free for centuries: Indigenous and African Maroon communities.

 

Let’s look to cultures that have stood the tests of time.

These dynamic and resilient peoples have faced profound climate changes and the assaults of the modern world. They understand “humankind’s relationship to nature (through a ) pre-colonial, pre-patriarchal, pre-modern story,” as John Mohawk describes.

This education-based website offers words and images from representatives of earth-centric cultures that are paired with reflective questions for deep thinking and dialogue. All learning materials are free and recorded conversations are a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.

 
 
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Explore Indigenous Insights and Ways of Life

Peoples who have lived in place for 500 years or longer, stewarding and defending their land while making no efforts to colonize distant peoples have been selected for the Proven Enduring & Proven Resilient materials collection.

View each respective page of the Peoples shown by clicking the boxes below:

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Khomani San

Africa

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Zhongnan Hermits

Asia

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Chukchi

Arctic

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Kogi & Arhuaco

South America

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Hadzabe

Africa

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Ainu

Asia

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Inuit

Arctic

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Quechua

South America

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Yolngu

Australia

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Sámi

Europe

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Haudenosaunee

North America

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Hawai’ian

Oceania

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Noongar

Australia

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Basque

Europe

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Hopi

North America

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Māori

Oceania

 
 

See the Significance of the African Maroon Mindset in Practice

Since the first slave ship crossed the Middle Passage 500 hundred years ago, peoples of African descent have gained liberation by escaping and then defending their maroon sanctuaries throughout the Western hemisphere.

The Proven Free/Proven Resistant materials collection consists of Peoples of African descent who have lived in place for 150 years or longer in the Caribbean and the Americas, stewarding their African roots and defending their land against white supremacy.

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Saamaka Maroons

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Jamaican Maroons

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Quilombolas

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Gullah Geechee

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Vodouists

Black Seminole

 
 

Deepen critical consciousness. Take effective action.

It is our hope that the pages we’ve created can become kindling sticks used to ignite a fire of curiosity that will be sustained through deeper study and resolute alliance.

The reflections and actions arising from Proven Sustainable are in service to the continued survivance of Indigenous Peoples and to the re-membering of a dismembered world in which humans live in balanced and respectful relationship to all other beings.