#324 Climate Justice conference Highlands North Carolina

We were at the Franklin UU one Sunday and someone introduced themselves as Wendy they were visiting from Washington State to attend a climate Justice.

retreat or get together up and Highlands North Carolina.

After the service, I asked a little more about it and she gave me some details. I told her it might be nice if we came up for a few days and participate.

She told us just enough about it to get connected and we went up on I think Monday or Tuesday and talk to them about how it would be to just be a commuter to go up and back each day. The people attending stayed on-site at the resort. They said will this is what you do and this is all about what it would cost and it was thirty bucks a person per day but that included meals so it was a little bit pricey but at the same time we felt like it was a worthwhile thing to attend so we did it.

From our place up to the highland’s location was probably 45 minutes one way so that became a bit of a chore but we muddled through it.

We carpooled with Wendy because she had a small rental car and we had a giant truck so she was so nice about the whole thing.

Towards the end, we filled our car up with gas and offered to pay her for some money but she was just fine with the gas part.

We went up the hill to attend starting at about breakfast on Tuesday.

I will talk more in detail about the whole thing later but we would listen to many detailed lecturers and informative stuff and all kinds of things about learning about the way to make climate change a better situation as we were all concerned about global warming.

We went to a lot of lectures, presentations some good music, and lots of great food and good hikes. India went to one that talked about food production and it definitely kind of screwed her up. I think I've seen bits and pieces of that before where it shows the cruelty of animal slaughter and how we could do much better but make but we don't do better. If we could eat more plant-based and less meat we probably destroy the planet less. There's a certain amount of liberal sort of whacky. I figure you have to take the good with the weird and on average it's still good to battle climate change even if we're not quite as enthusiastic/crazy as some people.

We went to a lecture called how to decolonize oneself and it was led by a fella naming himself as half Cherokee half-white guy. He has a lot of counseling on the reservation out in Oklahoma. He was an interesting guy just beginning to end. He talked about how since the first European contact the Native folk have had a really bad day ever since. We all just pretend it didn't happen but Native people were colonized by Europeans who brought disease. Down in South America, they were destroyed by disease, and even out here in North America, they were destroyed. Ever since it's started it's just been a strategy of let's just destroy the native folks.

I got the guy's contact information but I just kind of forgot his name right this second. He was a very good speaker and just a down-to-earth kind of guy he said that these are things that we need to talk about. I think he knew that his audience was 99.5% white meaning that the only people that were non-white were maybe Marcus and his family. Marcus was one of the visiting speakers and he had his family along. They were noticeably native folks by their ceremonial dress and tan-looking skin tone.

He said the things that I'm going to say you're going to make us all feel uncomfortable. White guilt, misplaced guilt because you didn't really do anything wrong but you still feel guilty anyway. Let's not just pretend this is all normal. Knowing that we need to change why we act the way we act. I think what he was getting is white folks start acting like whatever I see is mine and they take it because it's mine. Natives start thinking about what's the use we always lose anyway. It's a real problem and he just said that when you talk about it gets a little better and he's a counselor and he helps people through things. Needless to say, there is an awful lot of drug abuse and alcoholism on Native American reservations because people are just so bummed out. So we continued listening to the decolonization talk and like I said he just kind of laid it out starting with 1492 with Columbus and went forward and said it's just been a bit of a train wreck for us. People do celebrate Columbus Day and how great he was and he said he was a brave man but his motives were less than perfect too because he didn't mind just finding slaves and people to serve him. Just give me the gold and what can I take for Europe. In a way, it was good because it opened up unknown lands For natives it destroyed all we love. It was hard on the natives by all means right behind Columbus came the conquistadors and they killed South America with the disease.

As part of the lecture, he decided we should split up into groups and so we did. I almost forgot what we talked about but I noticed that like in my group there was a native lady who I would later find out her name is Tawna. She was the wife of a guy named Marcus who was doing a lecture on the third day about his eco-village and they had their two little kids there and a couple of teenagers so they were and Aunt Lou.

They were there as guests as a part of Marcus' lecture but even then I knew that it must be awkward for them because it was about 99% white and they were the native american family. Maybe one person of color or two on the staff or interns and so it must have felt awkward. I think they're used to it so that's that. Tawna was in our group and I remember her she didn't have anything to say because she was more like observing as they were there as guests as a part of Marcus's lecture. She said later it will seem what does the Native girl have to say, what's the Indian perspective on this. I think what she really wanted to do is listen and not be bugged, so what do Indians think?

I made a comment that in our travels that I had seen out west on a documentary that there were some widows and other people in the Navaho nation that had not known electricity. They don't even have refrigeration because it's hard out that way. The documentary talked about solar and all.

I thought I could probably be helpful in some way and I said it was my goal when we travel out west to find myself being helpful with solar to someone. Tawna kind of perked up and said hey we could use a guy like you.

She mentioned that they had some sort of a generator issue and something needs to be hooked up to a well but we could talk later. I wrote down my contact information for the speaker who lives out in Cherokee Oklahoma and also I gave it to the young man who I would later find his name was Nick.

I figured they would have a way of contacting me if they needed some help. Later I spoke to the father figure guy his name is Marcus he would be speaking on Thursday doing a presentation about what he called an eco-village she mentioned that they have some son of generator issues and Company to be hooked up to a while but we could talk later so I mentioned my contact right now my contact information for the speaker who is living out in Cherokee Oklahoma and also I gave it to the young man who I would later find his name is Nick. I spoke to the father figure guy, his name is Marcus and he would be speaking on Thursday. He said he was giving a presentation about what he called an eco-village. He said to watch my presentation and then maybe we'll talk afterward and I said that sounds fine.

He had a really interesting speech and all and even then I thought it was odd that somewhere during his speech he mentioned that they believed in arranged marriages I thought that was kind of weird but otherwise seemed interesting.

I was sitting in the lunchroom and I sat down beside a young lady whose name was Eve, Marcus ‘s niece. We just chatted and she said you know I just don't think I've met you, yet how are you doing? I said I'm Randall she says I’m Eve. We talked a little bit and we talked candidly because that's what I like to do. At some point, she said I went to an all-white school growing up, and sometimes people would say what do you think you're an Indian? She would say god I mean I was kind of raised by a white person for the most part because I live in an all-white culture in Florida. I can just tell how I feel not as an Indian but as a young lady and then she talked about how they had traveled quite extensively and they've been to South America and Japan. When they were in South America they felt that they looked like the amazon people and that was exciting because native is native. She said the Japanese people were so very nice but anyway so the only other thing I thought I would mention is I guess I was lobbying in a way I kind of wanted to get to know who these folks are. I would take the time to have little conversations with everybody. Nick was a little quiet. I spoke with Aunt Lou and she talked about this and that. She talked about her role as an elder and she also said that she was struggling with diabetes and it was also hard to walk. She said she needed to get her diabetes under control before she could have a knee operation.

She talked about how a whole lot of the native people eat horrible and they're dying and diabetes and obesity. Marcus' teachings at the village had helped her get on a proper diet with a lot less sugar and such. It was all very interesting. I didn't talk to Nick, Marcus’s nephew that much but I hung out with him during a Native guy nature trail walk and talk. The guide was from a Cherokee reservation up the road and came down a guest speaker visit. There were a couple of little kids bouncing all around having fun and he would point out all kinds of medicinal plants and other plants that were good for making the color yellow and that was kind of neat. I got a real kick out of it and I kind of knew that it was going to be a pretty woodsy thing and I actually went barefoot because I do that quite a bit. I'm sure I looked like a crazy person but it felt good to have the cool dirt on my feet. I sometimes think that it looks like I'm trying to make a statement. Look at me, the barefoot guy but at the same time, I like how it feels so I hope everybody takes it the right way. He was just walking and talking and showing plants and their purposes. I had a conversation with the guide. He was a little older, probably my age. He said he was a school teacher and told me about a really strange situation at work where he works with special needs kids. They were going to bring a new kid at him come Monday morning who had never been in civilization. People out in the woods had raised the kid and he had never been exposed to any civilized folks. He said it was t a pretty big challenge for everybody but he was kind of concerned for the safety of the other children in the classroom. The child had grown up with none of the values that we are used to so the child might behave violently.

When we were walking I did make one comment and I think Nick was listening in. When a person looks like me how do I even know what to say? I said I know that you guys say I'm an Indian and an Indian did this an Indian did that but for my purposes, I'm always thinking that we've kind of used that word the wrong way. and I heard a comedian say that whenever Columbus got here he looked at him he thought he was in the West Indies. In the story, he said oh you're an Indian and the native guy says not I'm a South American. Columbus says no you're an Indian and so this is been going on for quite a while. Four hundred years later we all decided you’re an Indian. I mentioned to him that it was a little awkward for people like me so I said I've kind of learned to just say a native guy or indigenous people and the older fellow that was the teacher said that sounds pretty good to me.

We went to quite a few lectures and some of them were sadly really boring but quite a few were very interesting. On the whole, the climate Justice Conference was very good, and overall we learned a lot. I felt good about what we were doing. We participated a little bit in a Native American ceremony where they had incense smells coming from my dish of burning herbs and it was all quite cool. Marcus had his two children helping all of us with the incense. You would let the smoke roll over you to ward off bad spirits. India went to one lecture that talked about Factory American Food and it showed the brutality of how modern slaughter goes on. It's one thing to kill animals but they are cruel to them and that should not be. We began to think we will eat down what we have in the freezer. then start looking at more humanely raised meat be it chicken or beef because there just ought to be a better way to do things and so that was our takeaway from that.

Before we left I sent Marcus an email and said well if you can use some help I'm willing to help. He didn't respond for quite a while like a week or two. He said that he had been very busy with the eco-village and finally had a chance to digest my email. He said sure if you want to help out with some electrical we could use kind of help with getting a water well hooked up and a generator going. We made arrangements and I came on down for a visit. I ended up staying for about 10 days that's a whole other post.