Labor with a Mitakuye Oyasin Perspective
Mitakuye Oyasin – “All My Relations” – is a Lakota affirmation that we are ALL related. Every animal, every plant, every other human, even every rock and waterway is our relative, and so we treat each and every one with honor, respect, appreciation and dignity as we do a relative. We were gifted this perspective by LaKota One Heart.
Through a Mitakuye Oyasin perspective, we reconnect with Nature at our farm on the shores of Lake Champlain, where all four Elementals – clean, healthy Earth, clean healthy Air (Wind), abundant Fire (Sun) and clean, healthy Water –dwell. In this beautiful outdoor setting, we use organic farming and regenerative agriculture to restore and protect healthy fertile soils and clean our water, and we respect and appreciate farm animals and wildlife. Our Spirits are recharged by helping both earth and water heal and by producing food for ourselves and for other two-leggeds the way it should always have been produced – with respect for Nature and for all life today and in the future. Our work expresses Mitakuye Oyasin!
Why on a Farm?
Today, our major agriculture production systems are predicated on poisoning us and other living beings. They are based on the consumption and destruction of the natural world and its resources. The overarching goal of industrial agriculture is to minimize and externalize production costs and to steal resources from others, including Nature and future generations, so that the food sold today is as cheap as it possibly can be.
To reconnect with Nature, we need to (1) experience the link between Nature and our food production, and (2) change our food production system so that it embodies a Mitakuye Oyasin perspective. That way, Nature’s health and well-being are enhanced instead of being abused. To paraphrase a Gandhi quote, to change how our food is produced and thereby reconnect with Nature, we must be the change we want to see in how our food is produced.
Manual labor is required to farm in a good way – that is, to regenerate, using organic farming practices, the over-worked and neglected pastures in much of rural America. Loving labor is also needed to ensure high standards of animal welfare and to make allowances for the needs of wildlife.
Come work with US!
We welcome employees and visitors who want to experience and express our shared respect, appreciation and joy for/to all Life – Mitakuye Oyasin – by both being in Nature and working to make our food production consistent with a Mitakuye Oyasin perspective. We are at a beautiful spot on the shores of Lake Champlain and exercise outdoors in fresh air and sunshine. We pay competitive wages.
You may want to join with us in a simple ceremonial song to call forth our Mitakuye Oyasin intent in thought and deed. Through manual labor – mostly pulling and cutting weeds, seeding and scything – our physical bodies connect with the Earth and the Plant Kingdom. We have opportunities to speak with the Earth and communicate with the plants.
If you feel called, you can also help care for the cattle and express admiration for and appreciation to them in thought and song. Through our service to these peaceful animals, we gratefully acknowledge their service to (and our place in) this planet’s amazing, breathing, dancing Circle of Life.
Stay for a few hours or for a half day. If you want a 1-2 day immersion experience, you can camp at the farm. We can provide shared meals as well.
After you recharge your physical self, and remember/strengthen all your relationships in the physical world, you can apply the Mitakuye Oyasin perspective in your other work and service and life. Come back again to our farm and recharge or deepen your Mitakuye Oyasin perspective. Let Nature heal you.
Begin your Mitakuye Oyasin work experience by e-mailing us at [email protected] or call Robert at 802-233-0064.
Mitakuye Oyasin and Pilamayae (thank you)!
