Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future

Bioneers is aware of and sensitive to the national and international controversy and debate on the commodification of the sacred and on the intellectual and cultural property rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Its instructions seem so simple: to be grateful—to practice reverence for community and creation—and to enjoy life.

The Bioneers’ framework of interdependence brings together all the parts—and diverse voices—to build connections among many communities across boundaries of gender, race, culture, class, and age.

It’s precisely what humanity most needs now to slip through this epochal keyhole of history where the stakes are the very survival of our species and countless other beings in the web of life.

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.

Bioneers supports the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

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

“reverence movement”

By 2006, the landmark UN Millennium Ecosystem Report warned: “Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.”