Greetings to our friends of Elderberry Wisdom Farm and welcome!
If you missed our July newsletter, it was because we were out of the office to fulfill our commitment to summer ceremonies. We traveled to Hanbleceya Vision Quest site at Gifford Pinchot National Forest in July. We love the spiritual setting in the deep and quiet forest where we have held ceremony since 2001. I’m still catching up a month later. I am taking time on this quiet Monday back here at the farm to greet you so we can publish our September issue of the Elderberry Wisdom Farm E-newsletter.
Native Americans invited to apply for Environmental Career Opportunity
Elderberry Wisdom Farm staff are continuing to interview and recruit our first cohort of Native American students and adults for our Traditional Ecological Knowledge Workforce Development Project.
We welcome Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults to apply for this career pathway planning opportunity. We are including both federally recognized tribal members as well as those who self-identify as Native. This Internship starts early in October and will be held on Thursdays and Thursdays through mid-December. Stipends and tuition reimbursements are provided to interns with funding from US Department of Agriculture through our partner, Chemeketa Community College.
If you desire to help restore our region’s sacred landscapes, including traditional First Food species that may be threatened and/or endangered; or start your own horticultural or agricultural micro-enterprise, or if you would like to work on or start your own organic farm, this career opportunity may be ideal for you!
Our education team is evolving our culturally-tailored multimedia learning model to be increasingly experiential and include outdoor time on our Native farm. Our cohort of Native students will learn to integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Western science so they can accomplish successful career pathways aligned with their own earth-based cultural heritage. They will also learn Native American leadership skills as well as have opportunities to strengthen their health and wellness resilience.
If you are interested in exploring potential environmental, agricultural or horticultural career pathways, we invite you to inquire. We are providing a partially virtual option including during morning classes that are being held indoors at Elderberry Wisdom Farm. Outdoor classes are also being held in the afternoons in our greenhouse, in the pollinator hedgerow and the blue elderberry patch.
Our organization is young and our outreach is still small so we continue to rely on our collaborative partners to help us with outreach. We appreciate our colleagues forwarding this opportunity to their Native contacts.
You will find additional information about our plans at our website. If you need additional information or if you have questions, please contact Rose at rose@elderberrywisdom.org. You can also email your expression of interest to us along with your resume or bio. There is still time to apply!
Volunteer Events Building our Greenhouse
Elderberry Wisdom Farm will be constructing our new greenhouse on Saturday and Sunday, October 2-3! Our 24' x 48' gable greenhouse kit has a strong steel structure that we will cement into the ground prior to construction. The greenhouse is part of the training space for Native American interns participating in the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Workforce Development Project being held October through December 2021.
If you are interested in helping us, just sign up and let us know when you can join us. Thanks so much for considering this opportunity. Saturday, Oct 02, 2021 - 9:00 AM- 12:00 NOON and 1:00 - 4:00 PM; and Sunday, Oct 03, 2021 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 NOON and 1:00 - 4:00 PM https://www.volunteermatch.org/s/auth/activity?org_id=1164189&opp_id=3397064
Honoring the late Lakota Medicine Man and Spiritual Leader Martin High Bear
We commemorated the passing of the late Lakota spiritual leader and medicine man Martin High Bear on September 2. The Founder of the Native American nonprofit corporation, Wisdom of the Elders, Inc., he crossed over to the Spirit World on September 2, 1995 at Providence Hospital in Portland, Oregon.
We appreciated the opportunity for quiet reflection on the day of commemorating Martin’s passing. We continue to remember since we will celebrate his birthday on September 11. He was born in 1919 so he would be 102 if he was still with us this year.
Known as Uncle Martin by many of his friends and relatives, he taught and doctored thousands of people during the years that he travelled the country and even to Europe. He conducted Sun Dance and Vision Quest ceremonies, plus doctorings, namings, weddings, adoptions and other ceremonies. He is also known for his vision, the Seven Commandments of the Sacred Buffalo Calf Maiden which has helped to restore the traditional cultural values or spiritual qualities of the Lakota. These teachings are being finalized in a biography which is being edited in preparation for publishing in the near future.
It was a day like all others, except it seems that some special spiritual gifts were given. We appreciate that we are continuing to gain a clearer picture of our work in service to our Native American community. We have richer insights and understanding of the work we are responsible for as Native Americans and Alaskan Natives. The wisdom and knowledge we constantly seek continues to flow to us from different directions, including some recordings of Native elders from our old film archives. We’ve received calls from collaborative partners from the past, and the blessings of family circle.
We also received notice on September 2 that our recent real estate offer to purchase the 17.6 acre private agricultural forest in back of our 2-acre farm here in rural Marion County may be successful. Part of Elderberry Wisdom Farm’s plans is to open a Native Plant Nursery owned by Native Americans, cared for by Native Americans and where Native students, interns and all of our volunteers of all backgrounds can learn the Traditional Knowledges of the ancestors of this land. This land could help to make that vision possible over the next decade.
UN Food Systems Summit scheduled for Thursday, September 23 is virtual
The United Nation’s Food Systems Summit will serve as a historic opportunity to empower all people to leverage the power of food systems so we can achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. This inclusive global process is “offering a catalytic moment for public mobilization and actionable commitments by heads of state and government and other constituency leaders.” We encourage you to stay updated on the state of food systems and hunger throughout America and the world. See: https://www.unfoodsystems.org/registration/index.php
Over the past 18 months, the Summit has brought together all UN Member States and constituencies around the world – including thousands of youth, food producers, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, researchers, private sector, and the UN system – to bring about tangible, positive changes to the world’s food systems. As a people’s summit and a solutions summit, it has recognized that everyone, everywhere must take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food.
The UN will reaffirm its commitment to promote human rights for all and ensure everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to participate. … Together we can and must leverage the power of our food systems to achieve all of our shared goals for people, planet, and prosperity.” https://www.unfoodsystems.org/registration/index.php
Please Share Our Monthly Newsletters
Thank you for your interest in the work of Elderberry Wisdom Farm. Please let your friends know about us and that they can sign up for our monthly update so that we can continue to share our messages. We are grateful to see a few new colleagues joining our newsletter list each month. We are still a tiny dream and vision so it is exciting to see the increase of new listserv members interested in our updates. We also welcome volunteers both on the farm and virtually assisting us with outreach and other communications.
Land Acknowledgement
The board of directors and staff at Elderberry Wisdom Farm acknowledge that for thousands of years, the Native ancestors of the land and our own ancestors continue to watch over us and our sacred landscapes. They inhabited and cared for these lands with great love, wisdom and attention. Living on the land for millennia is the wellspring of an extensive body of knowledge, values, beliefs and practices that many refer to as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), or traditional knowledges (TKs). This knowledge, passed down orally, through personal experience, and spiritual teachings, continues to be the foundation of our cultural identity and survival. It is increasingly relevant today. We draw upon it’s strength from being practiced and continuously evolved so that new knowledge is integrated into the ancient practices. Native Americans carry this understanding in our hearts as a trust for future generations with the understanding that it is of benefit to all of us and all of our human family. The best way to ensure its survival is to continue to use it and share it. We live and work in the Willamette Valley, the traditional homelands of multiple bands of Kalapuya. We acknowledge that all of the land and water of our region on which we practice restoration is their ancestral home. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, they were forcibly removed to Western Oregon reservations, which served more like prison camps than villages. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians. As we strive long-term to help conserve and protect our natural resources from emerging climate issues and other challenges, we acknowledge how much we need the wisdom and traditions of these peoples and their ancestors.
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