Who are the intended readers?
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.
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.
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.
“There are forces deeper than blood. It is to these that I look, to the roots of tradition and their growth from ages-old human integrity and knowledge of the world.”
What does Proven Sustainable refer to?
Proven Sustainable is the overarching title of our website and conversation series initiative that’s comprised of all dialogue codes and associated materials from Proven Enduring and Resilient (Indigenous) and Proven Free and Resistant (Maroon) assemblies.
Are the Peoples shown on this site the only people who fit the criteria for Proven Sustainable™?
No, there are other Peoples who fit the criteria of “Proven Enduring & Proven Resilient” - living in place for 500 years or longer, stewarding and defending their land while making no efforts to colonize distant Peoples. There are also other Peoples who fit the criteria for the “Proven Free & Proven Resistant” - Peoples of African descent who have lived in place for 150 years or longer in the Western Hemisphere, stewarding and defending their African roots and land against white supremacy.
Anyone who has a recommendation for People who have not yet been represented in this collection is welcome to contact us with your suggestion.
Why do you capitalize Peoples?
Using a capital letter P for “Peoples” is meant to invite readers to consider the implications of esteem in the English language for members of groups whom the dominant culture may see as distant and strange or whom they may not recognize at all. In addition when we capitalize Indigenous, Black, Latinx, White and Peoples we are asked to consider agency in ways that lower case indigenous, black, latinx. white and peoples does not.
What can I do with this information? How can I support this effort?
“To be attracted to an ancient way of life is to initiate one's personal spiritual emancipation.”
Malidoma Some
If you are a member of a Proven Sustainable Peoples, you may decide to use this portal as a bridge to connect with others. You can use the resource list at the bottom of each Peoples page or communicate directly with us.
If you are a young member of Proven Sustainable Peoples, you 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.
If you are a non-indigenous visitor you can educate yourself using the information provided on this site and offer material support to the Peoples if you feel called to do so.
How can I learn more about the Peoples in each materials collection?
Follow links to resources at the bottom of each Peoples’ page.
Go off trail and do your own research using names and places as search terms.
How did you choose the organizations recommended for support and why aren’t there support suggestions for all groups?
The organizations recommended for support are groups that are working directly for and with the Peoples they serve. In some cases there are many such support organizations that meet this criteria. In others we could find no organizations that support the Peoples we’ve named. If you have suggestions for additional support organizations please let us know.
For each Peoples collection, there are individuals quoted and displayed in photos - why did you pick these individuals’ voices?
There are far more spokespeople from each of the Peoples’ assemblies than we have the capacity to present. We chose these individuals because they had things to say about our primary questions concerning endurance, resilience, freedom and resistance. The quotes we’ve selected should not be considered summations of the complex lived experience of any individual. Rather we hope that they can be considered a springboard for further study, contemplation, connection and action.
"The truest messaging comes from these shared, historical narratives, the metaphors, the ceremonial practices, and the dreaming that give you and your land your identity and the structures of meaning that inform who you are and where you are."
Katsi Cook
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?
We intend for these words and images to be used as Freirean codes for deepening critical consciousness.
We want this information to be easy to share via social media.
We imagine the pages as kindling sticks used to ignite a fire of curiosity that will be sustained through deeper study and resolute alliance.
You have a media literacy question for each dialogue code. Why is media literacy important?
We all need to analyze media messages to unearth their constructions - Who made this? For what purpose? What’s their bias? What’s mine?
For Indigenous readers these media literacy questions are designed to consider preferred ways to convey messages from your People.
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.
How can we invite many stories to blossom?
We can explore the complex and dynamic stories of Indigenous Peoples whose land lies beneath our feet.
We can ask new questions and listen to answers that help our understanding become more nuanced and comprehensive.
We can seek out the voices of additional individuals of each of the Proven Sustainable Peoples.
““The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.””
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.
Those of us working to reimagine human relationships on a living earth 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. Non-Indigenous partners 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.
“Not only celebrate our presence but also value and honor the struggle, as it is such struggle that provides a context for understanding and truly appreciating our survivance."
Sonya Atalay
How can I become an advocate for the Peoples honored in Proven Sustainable?
Donate to the organizations listed on each individual’s page.
Host a sharing session with friends and encourage each one to support the organizations and Peoples whose pages you visit.
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.
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.
Anyone who wants to support the goals of this project is encouraged to directly support the Peoples and their designated priority projects.
Our collaborative Proven Sustainable Conversation Series is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Any funding directed towards the Conversation Series will go towards production efforts to ensure the the recorded discussions are diligently captured and meaningfully distributed. This Conversation Series and website are not-for-profit and created with the intent of channeling support directly to the Peoples represented.
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 have been made to contact each living individual or their appointed advocates to invite participation in collective decision-making and collaborative creativity. We hope to provide further opportunities for the Peoples represented here to share their proven sustainable experience in various other forms in the future including an extension of our conversations series, blog posts or interactive forums.
How can we listen to the voices of representatives from proven sustainable communities?
Our conversation series is a collection of thought provoking talks with Indigenous people and their supporters to challenge our unconscious assumptions and colonized perceptions about them and ourselves in order to better inform our actions in uncertain times.
Each conversation explores individual and cultural beliefs and practices for living sustainably and resiliently amidst drastic environment changes and ongoing historical efforts of erasure.
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?
“If you listen to many voices and stories and discern a deep and complex pattern emerging, you can usually determine what is real.”
Tyson Yunkaporta
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 materials collection of all assembled Peoples.
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.
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.