In my recent NIW interview with Peter Seligmann (CEO of Nia Tero, Board Chair for Conservation International), I had an epiphany when I heard him speak about the difference in perspective on the forest by Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest versus a Westerner. The classic western frontiersman sees the trees in the forest; whereas the Indigenous Peoples see the forest in the trees… or as Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese monk) would say, the cloud in the paper (Bodi Leaf). What does this mean? A frontiersman aims to hunt badgers and foxes for meat and skins to sell, pans for gold to become rich, surveys to lay (false) claim to a plot of land as if one can, and cuts down trees wherever he please. This self-action is extremely limited and false and misses to see the forest through the trees. Rather, in the collective worldview of the Indigenous Peoples –the forests are the trees and the trees are the forests. The biotic and the abiotic nature of nature are one. The animals and the environment commune. The health of one reflects the health of the other. I dwell in the forest, and the forest dwells in me. There is no separation. The energy, the air, and the water that breathes me, energizes me, inspires me, mentally charges me, activates me is the same for the tree and all other life that be.

The creation myth of the Skywoman Falling tells the story of the selfless collaboration of animals, the earth mud spread over the turtle’s back, and the dance of the sky woman in gratitude for the animal’s care of her — as giving birth to our Garden of Eden, as making earth and covering it with green life for an earth ecosystem-rich with biodiverse plants, animals, fungi to then adapt, evolve, and thrive. (Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass) Why have these stories been hidden from popular western culture for so long? They hold the secret to our return to nature and nature’s return to our home (eikos).