The work is challenging, like a jigsaw puzzle.
In order to attain the specific materials we need, we must call upon a vast network of Land and Water Protectors who are stewarding spaces which host the lives of the Beings we require. Harvesting must be done at an exactly specific time of year, (sometimes within a window of a single day or two). If we miss the seasonal deadline, we must wait until the next season. With climate change in full swing, phenological patterns are beginning to change, which adds further complexity.
We also care greatly about living out our values, which makes the presently-necessary fossil fuel emissions we emit very painful for us. We are presently working to explore other models that would make travel less necessary, and to be frank- we could use more brains who can contribute their thought-labor to help solve this conundrum. Contact us here if you protect land/water that you would be willing to offer up for the cause.
Seeding new worlds,
living within capitalism
It’s a conundrum to be sure. We are helping to grow a new future, yet entirely bound to the constrictions of our present-day reality. Empires (and other power structures) have made it nearly impossible to do this work, by design. Bioregions becoming self-reliant challenges their oppression.
Our work costs quite a bit of money at present. We are currently exploring ways to make the work more sustainable by developing a wider support structure and collaborating with other organizations to pool resources. We are exploring the possibilities of re-establishing traditional trade routes so that we can return away beyond the financial era.
In the meantime, however, we also need to ensure that the folks who are doing this work can feed their kids, too. That means that we need to support our movement workers with fair pay for their love-labor.
Life costs Life.
Western society has brought us so very far away from the realities of our own existence. Food arrives processed and pre-cooked or from half-way around the world. When we have need for something, we buy it from a store- often times without thinking twice about where the materials for that product came from. In dominant society, even the topic of death is avoided at all costs. But the reality is that our lives cost Life. Indigenous ways of being have long taught how to honor this fact and live responsibly in the world around us- meeting every single one of our needs within the provision capacity of our regional ecology. It is in this way that we don’t live beyond our means.
Our work returns our communities into connection with these realities. Harvesting from our Earth is a beautiful relationship to maintain, and it leaves us with a feeling of connection and gratitude for all the gifts we are given. It should be emphasized that a feeling of connection and a sense of gratitude are deeply-engrained human needs, and if our needs aren’t met, we cannot be healthy. Close to all materials we use at GLII are harvested from the Earth in a good way, in-teaching with elders’ guidance of traditional practices. We are always examining ways that we might improve our processes and welcome any advice on how we may do this.