Community Gratitude to Jake, Judy and Leona Swamp

Hi, this is Peter Cow and Sky-Maria Buitenhuis, co-founders of Village Nature. Welcome to our lineage reciprocity campaign for 2023.

As Village Nature we run the Bringing It Home and Ecological Homecoming yearlong courses. These journeys are based on the 8 Shields map - a collection of patterns and principles of connective culture, based on wisdom gathered and distilled by Jon Young and the 8 Shields Institute, from many lineages and tribes across North America, Africa and beyond.

Jon was supported and mentored by many elders from these different lineages, and each year we give 1% of Bringing It Home's annual gross income as a lineage gift of gratitude. For the 2021-2022 cycle, we honoured the Lakota Woptura lineage of Gilbert Walking Bull, who shared the 7 Sacred Attributes (qualities expressed in human beings) with Jon Young.

This year we are honouring the Mohawk and Haudenosaunee lineage that, through Jake and Judy Swamp and their Tree of Peace Society, shared the principles of peacebuilding and healing that are another important part of the 8 Shields map.

We are fundraising for ASESHATE:KA'TE GRIEF SERVICES, a not for profit organisation run by Jake and Judy's daughter, Leona Swamp.

Leona says

"At Aseshate:ka'te Grief Services, wellbeing is at the forefront of what we’re working towards. The mission of Aseshate:ka’te Grief Services is to help individuals heal and recover from loss by renewing their spiritual fires one loss at a time.

"The mandate of Aseshate:ka’te Grief Services is to renew the spiritual fire within individuals by offering services that work to strengthen and encourage growth and awareness of self by utilizing and incorporating cultural teachings while helping them heal and recover from loss. The impact of healing oneself extends to all those around them. As the fire within grows, so does the fire within the family and the community."

This healing by passing through grief is an important part of the peacebuilding wheel, laid out as the North West/South East axis on the map, and as embodied by Hiawatha in the epic Haudenosaunee Peacemaker Story.

Our 1% is a humble £201 this year, but with your help, we hope to raise this sum significantly, to more fully match our gratitude.

We ask you to look into your heart for how it has grown in understanding and connection from these teachings (or other similar indigenous teachings) and give what you can from this place. We are grateful for the opportunity to give back in some way.

In deep gratitude,

Peter and Sky-Maria

The Peacebuilding Wheel of the 8 Shields Map:

Peacebuilding Principles

Principle of Peace

This is an agreement for each of us to take responsibility for our own Personal Peace, on physical, emotional and mental levels. When we recognize that we are out of our personal peace to the degree that it affects our ability to use our best words and intentions, we ask for a break to do what is needed to regain our inner peace, then join in the conversation again. If the peace of a whole group has been disrupted, all decision-making processes cease and we move into a condoling process led by a trained condoler.

Principle of Good Message

Following the Principle of Peace, the Second Principle is an agreement to use Good Message. This means we choose our best and finest words, we speak from our personal perspective, and we acknowledge the value of all other perspectives as part of a greater whole. We agree to speak with the intention of uplifting the whole, with kindness and without blame or judgement. We also do not speak about other people who are not present, unless we intend to include them in our conversation, or at least acknowledge to them that they were spoken of. If there is a pressing need to speak to someone because a person's personal peace has been disturbed, and it's difficult to talk to the other people involved, one can talk to an elder or a healer in confidence.

Principle of Unity

The third principle is the Principle of Unity, the ability to work together in harmony while respecting the perspectives of all involved. We acknowledge that we will reach a felt sense of Unity if all of us are doing our best to reach and maintain our personal peace and good message.

Principle of Healing or Condolence

When Unity has not been reached even after trying to follow the principles of personal peace and good message, we agree to move into Healing or Condolence. At this point we need to condole because the lack of Unity indicates that there is unresolved grief and trauma to be worked through in order to regain our capacity for successful peacebuilding.

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We also share the 8 Shields map and this explanation of the Peacebuilding Wheel here in gratitude and recognition of the work done by Jon Young and the 8 Shields Institute.