As an elective for my Master's in Education for Sustainability, I took a course titled "Existential Resistance: Ceremony as Decolonization". We learned by witnessing the Sundance ceremony at Blackfoot in Alberta, Canada. Here, I experienced what it was like to step outside of modernity and into a space I was very unfamiliar with. The structures of Western society were very obviously gone, and what was left was a beautiful reminder that there are other ways of knowing and being. I experienced my first sweat lodge, found a new perspective on pain (through learning about 'sacred pain'), and came to know about how simply changing perspectives can be a start to decolonizing oneself.
I wrote a paper that delves into my Sundance experience (with some background information and a bonus creative writing piece at the end). Read the full paper here. This is an excerpt from my paper:
Being removed from this dominant, mainstream form of education and put into a place of ceremony, my frames of thinking started to shift. In school, we analyze and rationalize everything and try to create hypotheses or give things reason. In contrast, the pedagogy of ceremony requires that you simply be . Language acts to control, therefore in being rather than thinking, reading, or writing, we do not try to possess the knowledge and meaning can arrive in its own way. This shift also diminished my neurotic need to have a full schedule, and I am learning to trust that a flow exists, which we cannot control. I have also come to know that there is no real need for me to be in competition with myself or with my peers in terms of money or grades; those ideas are echoes of colonial individualism and ownership.
Sundance was a few months ago now. It feels so far away in time and space! So many things have changed since then. I still certainly believe that it was a major catalyst in a long transformative journey that I am, and forever will be, on. However, I can also feel some of the teachings slipping away. Space plays a big role in influencing mindset, and being in a space of ceremony allowed me to reflect on Western norms and all of their various pros and cons. Flowing back into work and school, I have re-adapted to the current structures (a little rigid, timelines, expectations, pressure, the usual). However, teachings that I still carry with me from Sundance include an awareness of the systems I reside in, a greater appreciation for all life, and more trust in the process. I think that Sundance influences my work as a sustainability practitioner. “Papercut by papercut”* I am bringing these teachings into my writings, how I engage people, and how I design things. Less power structures. No more “us vs. them”. No NIMBYism. Yes to dialogue. Yes to open-mindedness + other ways of being. Yes to creating space for diversity.
*a phrase I borrowed from Harold Glasser.