Hi Friend,

Last week, on Fourth of July, we offered a webinar looking into the historical origins of democracy and some of its contemporary implications.

Over 80 people have registered so far, making this the biggest event that we have hosted by ourselves. Krissy and I are so appreciative of those who joined us - Dr Montgomery Hill, who was in the midst of the annual ceremony, The Great Law, up in Six Nations, in what is now Ontario, Canada; social entrepreneur and public housing advocate Ramona; and international restorative justice practitioner Jasmyn Story.

And we are so appreciative to everyone who joined us!

The past and the present interwove themselves in our conversation in powerful, tangible, and hopeful ways.

We are keeping registration open for the next week or so, so that people can have access to the recording, the resource documents, and attend the Follow-Up conversation on Sunday, July 21 at 1pm et.

The large number of people who registered (something only possible because it went beyond our own small networks - so thank you to all of those who shared!) indicates a real hunger for these conversations.

Maybe, an indigenous friend mentioned to me when I was telling her about it, this is a sign that people are finally ready to have this conversation.

Certainly, as America (and other countries) face serious existential crises about the future of democracy, people are desperately looking for different ways of engaging.

I also totally get that for some people, talking about democracy at all right now is really hard. Each week seems to bring additional reasons why that's so.

And some folks are curious - perhaps newly, or perhaps again - about an old and largely forgotten origin story.

After all - none of this is new. Nothing we are talking about hasn't been recorded, discussed, and shared for several centuries.

Yet the histories of democracy, from Canada to Europe to India to Nigeria to New Zealand, consistently forget the Indigenous roots of democracy... including the key ways that colonial Americans did NOT adopt many/most of the core teachings of these Indigenous communities.

And it's so relevant to how we relate to one another. And to land/waters.

Governance is not just about people. It is always also about land/waters, animals and fish, and our capacity for collective health and well-being.

Land isn't just big open spaces or the grassy spot under the tree in your backyard.

Land in the modern world has many names, and many (sometimes conflicting) jurisdictions/governing aspects.

Land is: housing. real estate. wilderness. sacred sites. national parks. scraps on the corners. graveyards. highways. family homes. farmlands. political districts. and many other categories that don't always translate or talk to one another well.

What happens if we tell different origin stories?

Will it change things?

Will it make this moment better?

Maybe.

I don't pretend to know what is possible. And I'm not interested in offering you (or myself) some kind of, 'don't worry everything will be ok' kinda talk, because that's not helpful.

And I've seen incredible things happen.

I've seen deserts become forests within one person's lifetime. Languages once declared dead be re-membered and literally sung back into existence. People drastically shift closely-held beliefs within a few years. Tender human hearts receive and experience healing. Ancestral memories return.

Origin stories can help shift something very deep.

These origin stories in particular are very

much a kind of tectonic plate - it is slow, it is deep, and it can require a period of time - time as fluid, time as multi-dimensional, time as shimmery - to shift.

And shifts can and do happen.

Tectonic plates can - and regularly do - move.

😊😊😊