About

Historical Context

We are living in an era of cascading collapse. From the melting of the ice sheets to the challenges upon our human immune systems to fight off viruses, we face uncertainty as to whether humans can survive as a species.  And yet there are Peoples who have survived the tests of climate changes and the attacks of settler colonialism and modernity. 

Some might argue that these Peoples represent just a tiny fraction of humanity and thus cannot be a true model for human survival.  We must remember that at one time our species was reduced  to several thousand individuals. A ““saving remnant” persevered and now there are over seven billion of us.  Our ancient ancestral beliefs about being human on a living earth have been carried forward by small communities of indomitable survivors who are honored on this website. Their lives as first Peoples have been grounded in unity, order, wisdom, skill and compassion. The modern world, in contrast, has given rise to separation, power over, self-interest and chaos in service to a mythic notion of progress.

It is not enough to learn about these first Peoples. We must stand with them as they continue their ongoing struggles to survive systemic injustices that now lead to conditions that cannot sustain human life on earth.  This is an invitation to connect, to learn and to take action for they - and we - may just be the saving remnants this time around.

Personal Path

My name is Sox Sperry. I’m the initiator of Proven Sustainable. During my decades as an educator I've had the great fortune to be led by circles of mentors. These elders are the planters who have sowed the seeds for this project. I’ve been involved in many collective efforts to invite, in the words of Paulo Freire, “liberation (as) a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it.” For the last 15 years I’ve done this as the primary curriculum writer for Project Look Sharp, integrating media literacy into core curriculum to enhance students’ critical thinking, metacognition, and civic engagement. 

Why is this an important project for me? As my friend, the poet Ketu Oladuwa says, “It’s all about relationship.” I was first introduced to the wisdom traditions that are at the heart of this collection through my relationships with three remarkable elders – Gloria Joseph (Cruzan heritage), Jim Koplin (German) and Joan Cassidy (Unkechaug, Huguenot).  They each helped to shepherd my first immersion into Proven Sustainable lifeways when I was a student teacher at Taos Pueblo Day School in 1974. I must also call the names of Tonita Lujan and Crucita Archuleta as Taoseñas who modeled for me the practice of standing and seeing into the far distance as we shared recess duties beneath the snow peaks of Taos Mountain.  In later years I was fortunate to share time with elders in other repositories of traditional knowledge, notably in Kiffinda, Guinea and in the Taoist temple on Mount Qing- cheng, Sichuan.

My wife Lisa Tsetse and I now live on Gayogo̱hó:nǫ' (Cayuga) land. The ancient warrior’s trail leads from the Cayuga heartland of Goioguen and runs through the hillside behind our home in Ithaca, NY. The footsteps of the Cayuga ancestors are never far away. Nor are the footsteps of my own ancestors, a crew of mostly European descended folk who include white supremacists (Jacob), settler colonizers (Deacon) and patriarchs (Thomas) along with pacifists (John & Katherine), internationalists (Florence) and feminists (Catherine). I have all these ancestors inside me. You may notice them in the biases that shape this work. I recognize all these who have come before me as strands in the many threads that make up this web of awareness of myself in the world.

FAQs

Who are the intended readers?

1. Members of Proven Sustainable communities who wish to extend and reinforce bridges to other traditional Peoples and to connect with non-traditional people whom they might want to educate and from whom they might want to solicit material aid and support.

2. Young people with cultural roots in proven sustainable communities who want to extend education about their own traditions and to make them aware of beliefs and practices of other traditional Peoples.

3. Community educators in non-indigenous communities who desire to initiate discussion and action in support of cultural change in the world toward Proven Sustainable beliefs and practices.

How will this site develop in the future?

Our steadfast intention is for this site to unfold in collaboration with the Peoples that are honored here. Committed efforts will be made to contact each individual or their appointed advocates to invite participation in collective decision-making and collaborative creativity.

Proven Sustainable is a work-in-progress with a two-tiered design. One tier is organized as “Proven Sustainable/Proven Resilient” and when completed will include 16 collections of Peoples from 8 different regions of the world. Eight of the 16 collections have been realized with another eight yet to come.

The second tier is organized as “Proven Free” and will include six more collections of Peoples of African descent who have lived in place for 150 years or longer in the Caribbean and the Americas, stewarding and defending their African roots and land against white supremacy. These Peoples will be added over the coming months with completed sets indicated by photographs on the Proven Free grid.

How can I learn more about the Peoples in each collection?

1. Follow links to resources at the bottom of each Peoples’ page.

2. Go off trail and do your own research using names and places as search terms.

What can I do with this information? How can I support this effort?

1. Members of Proven Sustainable Peoples may decide if and how you would like to connect with others, using this portal as a bridge. You can use the resource list at the bottom of each Peoples page or communicate directly with us.

2. Young members of Proven Sustainable Peoples can learn about your People and other elder sisters and brothers through deepened personal study. You can do this by following the links in the resources section of each collection.

3. Non-indigenous visitors can commit to educating ourselves and to offering material support to these sisters and brothers.

How can I become an advocate for the Peoples honored in Proven Sustainable?

1. Donate to the organizations listed on each individual’s page.

2. Host a sharing session with friends and encourage each one to support the organizations and Peoples whose pages you visit. 

3. Contact the political and NGO powers responsible for protecting the lands, languages and rights of the people to affirm your support for their continued survival.

Are these the only Peoples who fit the Proven Sustainable criteria and how can other Proven Sustainable groups be included and become participants?

There are other Peoples who fit the criteria of the Proven Sustainable/Proven Resilient section of this project: living in place for 500 years or longer, stewarding and defending their land while making no efforts to colonize distant Peoples.

Anyone who has a recommendation for People who have not yet been represented in this collection is welcome to contact us with your suggestion. 

How is this project funded?

Proven Sustainable has a deliberately low budget. The expenses are for website development, printing, mailing costs and donations to support groups for each of the Peoples. 

These costs are currently covered by the website host, Sox Sperry, whose intention is to keep costs minimal in the future. No financial contributions will be accepted to the website itself. Anyone who wants to support the goals of this project is encouraged to directly support the Peoples and their designated priority projects.

Who designed this website?

Kelsey Greene is a visionary and website craftswoman. She and Sox have been colleagues as media literacy advocates at Project Look Sharp for the past decade.

When Sox’s wife Lisa TseTse turned to Kelsey to redesign her website she wrote: “Kelsey rescued me from the edge of being digitally obsolete! She moved me with compassion and fierce clarity into the 21st century, leading with a professional excellence that inspired and rejuvenated the very essence of my work.” That’s all the invitation Sox needed to turn to Kelsey for this project.

What are dialogue codes?

A dialogue code is a quotation from an individual and an accompanying image intended to inspire collective reflection and action about how we might sustain ourselves on a living planet. These codes are the core content on the individual People's pages. See more about dialogue codes on the Using the Materials page.

Why have you chosen to use the teaching format of dialogue codes and the media format of slide decks?

1. We intend for these words and images to be used as Freirean codes for deepening critical consciousness.

2. We want this information to be easy to share via social media.

3. We imagine the pages as kindling sticks used to ignite a fire of curiosity that will be sustained through deeper study and resolute alliance.

How can we invite many stories to blossom?

1. We can explore the complex and dynamic stories of Indigenous Peoples whose land lies beneath our feet.

2. We can ask new questions and listen to answers that help our understanding become more nuanced and comprehensive.

3. We can seek out the voices of additional individuals of each of the Proven Sustainable Peoples.

You have a media literacy question for each dialogue code. Why is media literacy important?

1. We all need to analyze media messages to unearth their constructions  - Who made this? For what purpose? What’s their bias? What’s mine?

2. For Indigenous readers these media literacy questions are designed to consider preferred ways to convey messages from your People.

3. Indigenous histories have too often been narrated by others. Asking “Who said this and why?” helps to restore agency where it belongs – with the People themselves.

Does this project mean to suggest that we must “go back” to recover old ways?

No.  For non-indigenous people to suggest that we can become like our ancient ancestors would be romanticizing, appropriating and pretending.  The old ways are grounded in beliefs about what it means to be human on a living earth. These beliefs remain as a north star pointing the way.

 We must unearth the beliefs and practices of resilience and integrate them into the foundations of sustainability. For the past 500 years, settler colonialism coupled with Indigenous dispossession has continued to undermine the very ground upon which Proven Sustainable Peoples live and breathe.  We must follow their leadership as they continue to struggle, survive and thrive in the face of relentless attacks on their bodies, languages and the very belief systems that have enabled their survivance.

We must stand in solidarity. We can’t go back. In order to go into and through the uncertainties of our times, we can and we must re-member. We must stitch back together our original collective earth-centered bodies.

What are the strengths of this approach to indigenous wisdom?

• A diversity of Peoples from across the globe enables us to see the patterns of humanness that can support our way into and through ever-changing uncertainties.

• A diversity of voices within the Peoples enables us each to acknowledge our own uniqueness.

• A foundation in the lived experience of real people enables us to know that these ways of knowing have deep roots.

• A ready-to-use simple structure enables educators to use these materials in a wide variety of ways for different purposes and groups.

• A proven format based on the work of Paulo Freire and the inquiry-based approach of Project Look Sharp encourages and supports the vitality and continuity of ongoing essential questioning.

What are the limitations of this particular model approach?

• It does not address the ways in which some modern cultures have respected and adapted some of these beliefs and practices.

• It does not include a comprehensive collection of all Peoples who are proven sustainable and resilient by the definitions of this project.

• It requires a willingness to engage with open questions in a complex way, a form of inquiry with which those primarily schooled in the banking concept of education may not be familiar.