Sacred Civics

Building Seven Generation Cities

Jayne Engle, Julian Agyeman, Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000601374
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Urban Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Sacred Civics argues that societal transformation requires that spirituality and sacred values are essential to reimagining patterns of how we live, organize and govern ourselves, determine and distribute wealth, inhabit and design cities, and construct relationships with others and with nature.

The book brings together transdisciplinary and global academics, professionals, and activists from a range of backgrounds to question assumptions that are fused deep into the code of how societies operate, and to draw on extraordinary wisdom from ancient Indigenous traditions; to social and political movements like Black Lives Matter, the commons, and wellbeing economies; to technologies for participatory futures where people collaborate to reimagine and change culture. Looking at cities and human settlements as the sites of transformation, the book focuses on values, commons, and wisdom to demonstrate that how we choose to live together, to recognize interdependencies, to build, grow, create, and love—matters.

Using multiple methodologies to integrate varied knowledge forms and practices, this truly ground-breaking volume includes contributions from renowned and rising voices. Sacred Civics is a must-read for anyone interested in intersectional discussions on social justice, inclusivity, participatory design, healthy communities, and future cities.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003199816, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

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3Honouring the Sacred in CitiesIndigenous Teachings for City Building

Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook

DOI: 10.4324/9781003199816-5

A Time of Transformational Shifting

Within their collective memory, most Indigenous cultures hold allegorical prophecies¹ about a time of darkness and uncertainty that precipitates a deep transformational shift in the ecological, spiritual, philosophical, epistemic, and cultural foundations of society, leading to a period of deep reflection and accountability by the Peoples for their actions and how they impact the land and the future generations. It is also a time of awakening in the Peoples of their sacred relationships and covenants with the Earth and all beings, and their duties to cultivate and activate their spiritual, cultural, and ecological understanding and responsibilities. According to our Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and the Ancestors, the darkness is not a malevolent force but rather, a manifestation of the collective pain, trauma, fear, and ignorance that have not yet been brought into consciousness and integrated into our collective wholeness.

Colonial capitalist systems around the world have fundamentally transformed people’s relationships with the Earth, as well as global social, economic, and political systems and institutions. Over the past several centuries, capitalist forms of land ownership and use, economic growth, extractive resource development, agriculture, health care, production, trade, consumption, science, and technology have become extremely unsustainable, unhealthy and inequitable for our social and ecological systems. Our dominant modes of living and producing have brought a prolonged period of intensifying darkness and physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological distress for many impacted communities.

Consequently, the Earth’s systems and beings have borne levels of devastation and suffering that are pushing many ecological and human communities over their threshold for adaptation and resilience. This time of shadow is a threshold to important environmental, social, and internal shifts, and often amplified with disasters caused by extreme weather events, and massive health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Such crises cause not only pain and loss to many families and societies around the world, but also cascading economic, mental wellness, social, and political impacts that reverberate into the forthcoming generation(s).

In a spirit of rebirth and renewal, the prophecies also foretell these times of uncertainty and distress are when the richest teachings, self-discoveries and transformations can occur at individual and collective levels. Collective reflection and truth-telling about the brokenness and inherent flaws within our national and global systems and paradigms have been happening at an unprecedented level throughout media platforms and boardrooms everywhere. People are looking more than ever for values and models that connect us to one another and to place; and that hold the promise of building a more regenerative and life-sustaining world.

Two iconic prophecies from the Northern and Southern hemispheres that encapsulate an archetypal awakening of sacred energy and consciousness through both the deep transformational shift happening in our planet and global society, and the path to transformative reconciliation for Indigenous and settler peoples are: the story of the Harpy Eagle and the Condor from Indigenous lineages in the Amazonian and Andean regions of South America, and the Anishinaabe prophecy of the Seven Fires from Turtle Island.

The Harpy Eagle and the Condor Prophecy² is an allegory of long ago when human societies split into two divergent paths—that of the Eagle and that of the Condor. The path of the Harpy Eagle is the path of the mind, of the industrial, and of masculine energy. The path of the Condor is the path of heart, of intuition, and of feminine energy. Despite their differences, the two pathways are complementary, symbiotic, and interconnected—similar to the Harpy Eagle and Condor who soar together in the same sky and in both the forest and mountain landscapes. In this way, the Peoples of the Harpy Eagle and those of the Condor will be able to create a new level of consciousness for humanity if they activate this potential and ensure that a new consciousness is allowed to arise.

After more than 500 years of conquest and colonialism in Turtle Island and Abya Yala (North and South America), many Indigenous Peoples across the Americas are working in partnership to fulfill the prophecy of the (Harpy) Eagle and the Condor, including a 2015 gathering of diverse Indigenous women leaders in New York who joined in ceremony and signed a historic Treaty in Defense of Mother Earth (Indigenous Women of the Americas 2015). The Treaty states:

As Indigenous Women of the Americas, we understand the responsibilities toward the sacred system of life given to us by the Creator to protect the territorial integrity of Mother Earth and Indigenous Peoples. These responsibilities include the safety, health and wellbeing of our children and those yet to come, as well as the children of all of our non-human relatives, the seeds of the plants and those unseen.

Indigenous Women of the Americas 2015

The Seven Fires Prophecy tells of seven prophets who came to the Anishinaabeg and told them of their journey into the future, marked by seven sacred fires. The story is quite detailed and portends of events that Indigenous Peoples have witnessed and experienced from the creation of Turtle Island to the present-day impacts of settler colonialism and the global capitalist system. However, during this time, the Peoples would awaken from this time of illusion and suffering, retracing their steps to recover the gifts of the original instructions, stories, and teachings from the Creator that had been left on the path. William Commanda, late Anishinaabe Elder and holder of the Seven Fires Wampum belt shared this version:

A New People would emerge. They would retrace their steps to find the wisdom that was left by the side of the trail long ago. Their steps would take them to the Elders, who they would ask to guide them on their journey … There will be an awakening of the people, and the sacred fire will again be lit. At this time, the light-skinned race will be given a choice between two roads. One road is the road of greed and technology without wisdom or respect for life … The other road is spirituality, a slower path that includes respect for all living things. If we choose the spiritual path, we can light yet another fire, an Eighth Fire, and begin an extended period of Peace and healthy growth.

Commanda 1997

I share calls to action and transformational change interpretations of the spiritual teachings and featured in this chapter from my role as a conscious steward of the urban lands, waters, and places with immense humility and recognition of the ancestral and contemporary Indigenous knowledges and practices that inspire and enrich my own thinking. My lineages include: Akawaio from Guyana; Dutch–Romani from the Netherlands; and Fukien from southern China. Born to immigrant parents, I am a transplant and settler within the homelands of the Anishinaabeg, Wendat and, Haudenosaunee confederacies, governed by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum covenant in the place now known as Toronto.

The Indigenous Soul of Modern Cities

Contrary to industrial and commercial histories and visions of city building, cities are not created from capital, bricks, and mortar. At their core, they are built from our relationships to land, community, and place, transformed over time by how those relationships and their underlying values evolve. Unfortunately, many natural and built spaces and place names in cities across Turtle Island bear little resemblance to the original languages, ecological landscapes, and features upon which they are built.

Wetlands and watercourses have often been diverted, dammed, dredged, or artificially created. Wild landscapes like forests have long been fragmented and sculpted into parks and trails; or cleared and covered with asphalt, concrete, and built structures. Indigenous place names have been Anglicized or Gallicized from their original languages, or names have been changed altogether—changing or erasing the original meaning rooted in First Peoples’ languages, relationships with and perceptions of the lands and places where they lived, seeded lands with crops and stories, harvested food, navigated trade and hunting routes, and held gatherings and ceremony.

Although these transformations were driven by the colonial interest to build settler cities as a marker of material and commercial progress—in Canada, they were grafted upon the ancestral territories and permanent or seasonal use sites of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nations. As part of our collective placekeeping, city building and reconciliation work in cities, it is immensely important that we honour the Indigenous lineage of and vibrant contributions to municipalities, and develop an expanded vision of what a city means today, and for the next seven generations.

In 2021, more than 80 percent of Indigenous Peoples in Canada call cities home, and are active in every sector of society and the economy. As such, urban hubs across Canada are in fact not settler cities, but Indigenous cities. In fact, the urban reserves of: Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and Roseau River First Nation (two of many under the Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreements) in Saskatchewan and Manitoba; Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in British Columbia; St. Mary’s First Nation in New Brunswick; and the Yellowknife Denes in Northwest Territories are some examples of First Nations that are within or adjacent to major municipalities.

Yet despite this, settler urban planning and policy processes often sought to erase, dispossess, and dismiss Indigenous rights, presence, and expressions of placekeeping in public spaces and civic institutions throughout Canada’s cities. In response, urban Indigenous and ally collectives and organizations have been working to unsettle built and natural commons and reclaim public spaces around settler cities. As part of this decolonizing work and reclaiming Indigenous rights to the city and models of city building, is the imperative for both Indigenous Peoples and civic allies to dismantle an entrenched colonial settler worldview in policies and practices, thereby creating space for Indigenous and other worldviews and forms of placekeeping.

Indigenous city building also extends to rural and remote Indigenous communities in that many Indigenous Nations and regional Indigenous organizations provide governance, social, health, public infrastructure, and environmental services that are similar to municipalities—albeit different in scale and approach. For Indigenous Nations, the path toward the resurgence of peoples’ sovereignty and self-governance centres on increased self-sufficiency for their communities and bridging systemic divides by closing gaps in data and digital infrastructure; health and social services; and opportunities in economic development and educational and entrepreneurship advancement.

In particular, there is a lot of momentum among Indigenous business and community leaders to restore, build, and strengthen Indigenous economies and reconciliation economies aligned with the wisdom of traditional Indigenous economic models, relationships with the Earth and community, and Indigenous cultural and humanistic values.³ A reconciliation economy is a promising model for advancing Indigenous economic and social development in all spheres of wellbeing, and enabling the equitable distribution and sustainable management of a community’s or city’s natural and economic wealth among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples.

As the First Peoples of their respective lands, the Ancestors of contemporary Indigenous Nations built vibrant settlements, governance structures, housing, land and water stewardship, and food production technologies, and social and health systems. They were the original placekeepers and city builders, artists, planners, innovators, scientists, and architects. Indigenous models have transformed natural environments and urban landscapes and embody connectivity to land and place, kinship, holism, sovereignty, vitality, and cultural continuity.

As Indigenous urbanism and models for planning, placekeeping, urban land stewardship, and governance emerge more within mainstream spaces, there is a growing shift in consciousness, values, and models toward greater inclusiveness, humanism, and relationality. Such shifting will hopefully shake governments and institutions out of their status quo complacency and power structures while also laying the foundation for Indigenous-informed futures for cities.

Critical self-reflection by settler governments and institutions of structural inequities, epistemic racism, policy biases, and blind spots, especially those that privilege dominant settler views and reproduce unequal power dynamics and exclusionary practices, is the only way to disrupt status quo patterns and inequitable practices. When dominant paradigmatic assumptions are challenged in an honest and reflective way, there is the possibility of transforming dominant narratives into multiple place-based narratives grounded in the situated experiences and practices of diverse peoples. A number of core actions are needed for such transformation to implant in a way that is sustainable and aligned with urban Indigenous sovereignty and futures. These actions are at the heart of a more genuine process of decolonization and transformative reconciliation and are commonly asserted across the Indigenous worlds in Canada, USA, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand:

• Honouring and integrating Indigenous sovereignty in all Indigenous–settler relationships and engagement with Indigenous Peoples;
• Restoring land rights and access to Indigenous Nations and Peoples (including urban contexts);
• Recovering the health and wellbeing of rural and urban ecosystems and species; and
• Righting Indigenous–settler relationships and building a regenerative reconciliation economy based on collaborative and equitable sharing and stewardship of the abundance of Turtle Island across Indigenous and settler societies (Manuel and Derrickson 2017).

Anishinaabe arts journalist and Chair of the Canada Council of the Arts Jesse Wente advises that the recognition of sovereignty, restoring land, and rebuilding a reconciliation economy tog...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Gratitude
• Introduction
• Part I Space
• Part II Time
• Part III Agency
• Part IV Togetherness
• Index