
Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future

In many Indigenous traditions, seeds are considered sacred.
Melissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
Its instructions seem so simple: to be grateful—to practice reverence for community and creation—and to enjoy life.
Melissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
Nanabozhoo is the Anishinaabeg culture hero and trickster figure who uses primal fire to ignite the Sun.
Melissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
Bioneers supports the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Melissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
Original Instructions refer to the many diverse teachings, lessons, and ethics expressed in the origin stories and oral traditions of Indigenous Peoples. They are the literal and metaphorical instructions, passed on orally from generation to generation, for how to be a good human being living in reciprocal relation with all of our seen and unseen r
... See moreMelissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
Bioneers fosters a culture of solutions grounded in four billion years of evolutionary intelligence.
Melissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
In this way, Indigenous education is more about observing things in action, understanding things in their context, and listening to the reflective rhythms and inherent wisdom that spiral through a story.
Melissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
for humans to get along with each other and to respect our relations on the earth, we must embrace and practice cognitive and cultural pluralism (value diverse ways of thinking and being). We need to not only tolerate difference but respect and celebrate cultural diversity as an essential part of engendering peace.
Melissa K. Nelson • Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
For Six Nations people, this is known as the Law of the Seed, an honoring of the natural cycles of continuous creation and regeneration.