Interview on Wild Sacred Journey
Approaching with Protocol: Re-Storying Good Relationship with Place, Culture, Ancestors, Story, and Our Own Humanity
A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Kate Powell at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival in Edinburgh with my dear friend Dougie Mackay.
We have stayed in touch since and, recently, she reached out to interview myself and Kakisimow Iskwew on the work we’ve been doing together. I really enjoyed this interview and I hope you will too.
From Kate:
About this Episode:
“It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.” - Wendell Berry
Seeing a need to call people back into their humanity, finding ways to help them go about their days with more goodness and beauty, is something at the heart of both of our work.
We also both love stories and myths.
In fact, we talked about those very things in episode 38. Recently, he’s been teaming up with Kakisimow Iskwew (aka Natalie Pepin) - a Metis Cultural Educator who helps guide Indigenous people reclaiming their culture to connect with their living teachings around art, food, language and connection to spirit.
And together, they’re offering deep spirals into the story ‘Briar Rose’ as a way of beginning to access indigenous cultural memory of Mother Europe.
I jumped at the chance to have them both gather with me here to spiral around some of the big, important questions many of us who want to live as creatures and want to do something about the ugliness which seems to be everywhere in the world today seem to be grappling with and wondering about.
Questions like:
What is culture? And if we’re ‘white’ or of European descent (particularly if we live in so-called ‘North America’), do we have ‘culture’?
How are we defining indigenous - as an identity or something else?
What does it mean that stories hold memory?
How do we navigate the hunger, the thirst, the grief and shame which seem to be in so many of us these days as we reach for something meaningful and nourishing? And if we find some deeper roots, and they feel like their ‘ours’, how do we go about honoring them in a good way?
Since we recorded the conversation, I attended a three-hour online version of their spiral into Briar Rose and the story is still resonating within me and moving me in ways that aren’t ready to be articulated yet; but are inviting me into deeper relationship, into protocol, with the story itself and the living culture it’s carrying.
May this conversation be a way of growing more culture - may it offer you some soil, or perhaps the glimpse of some roots, an idea of where to dig to find something which invites you back into deeper humanity. And if you’re feeling the call, I highly recommend their work with Briar Rose. You can find more about it here: https://meetingmyancestors.com/briar-rose/
As always - if this conversation moves you in some way, please help share and pass it on to others you think might also be moved. This type of sharing helps feed these conversations and the work we’re up to in the world.
Find Natalie/ Kakisimow Iskwew: https://meetingmyancestors.com/
Find Kate: www.wildsacredjourney.com
About the Podcast:
In a world where humans who feel vibrant, whole, and fully alive seem to be increasingly rare; where burnout and brokenness seem to be increasingly the norm; it seems worth exploring how did we get here? And, more importantly, what perspectives, cultural practices, and spiritual-ancestral-animist wisdom might help us stay true to the spark and rhythm of our aliveness through this wild, heart-breaking, but ultimately rare and precious life?
Thank you for being here. I’m your host, Kate Powell - an old soul and highly sensitive empath who guides humans who want to use their burnout as a jumping-off point to journey into their shadows and the shadows of modern culture in order to embody their heart-values; remember a deeper, wilder sense of belonging to the world; and reclaim the rich and sacred spark of their aliveness.
Episodes drop on full and new moons.
Intro music by: Oleksii Kaplunskyi
Find me: www.wildsacredjourney.com
Instagram: @wildsacredjourney_kp
All the money raised from your pledges to this Substack go to support the work of indigenous, cultural activist Kakisimow Iskwew.
We are offering our Briar Rose & The Indigenous Memory of Mother Europe in a variety of formats. Join us for an online version of our one hour session on Jan 2nd called O'Brien's Bridge: Under The Flagstone- Fairy Tales As A Bridge To Ancestry. We’ll be live in Edmonton on Dec 22nd 2024 (37% full) or our six-week, online course (24% full).
She’s also offering her own Digging Roots cross cultural programs.
Learn more, get tickets or join the email list at the link below.