How does “two eyed seeing” come into play in respectful reciprocal relationships?

To be able to build those respectful and reciprocal relationships (and trust). Being able to have the Indigenous perspective and the understanding of what that is and the western science perspective and the understanding (of what that is). To move forward and make real progress, it is necessary to understand both perspectives and how to bring them together. 

Just because there is a line on a map it doesn’t mean that a bird won’t fly over that line to get a worm that’s going to feed its family.

How does an Indigenous Person or Organization find ways to communicate indigenous perspectives to non-indigenous folks?

When trying to connect and articulate the Indigenous perspective, (with regards to climate change) to someone who is not indigenous and has no idea about what that perspective looks like. It’s now trying to find a way to communicate that perspective that makes sense to them.

It’s being able to identify a commonality with the Non Indigenous person and come up with analogies that make sense to them. On how we feel and see things and those observations (about climate change for example) moving forward.  

What are the 7 Fires "prophecies"? How could indigenous prophecies differ from typical religious prophecies?

It talks about the journey (and milestones), for Indigenous People that have led us to what we’re dealing with now. Right now, in our (Indigenous Prophecy) we are the 7th fire and a “fork in the road” and that fork will determine if the 8th fire is lit (or not).

The first fork represents the path that we’re going down right now. It’s all technology and we’re not thinking about the environment. We’ve become very destructive and killing what sustains us (which is the earth). 

The other side of that is we start to realize what really sustains us and we start to become reconnected with the environment and nature and start to listen to our original teachers which are those beings in nature. It’s the animals, it’s the four legged, it’s the swimmers, the flyers (birds), the trees, and the plants. 

We really start to reconnect and observe and listen to what they’re telling us what the future looks like and how to proceed. That’s what lights the 8th fire which is connecting to the Indigenous people.

What does “All My Relations” mean?

We are conditioned to think that we are (as human beings) the be all, end all of this earth that we live on. This is far from being true. Indigenous People have their own creation stories and teachings.

If you take a look from around the world, Indigenous People have the same values. We are the babies of this earth. Everything else was here before us and will continue to be here after we are all gone. That is what all our relations is. We are all related to everybody and everything. 

We are all connected in some way, shape or form be it the wind ones, they are our relatives, they have their teachings, they have the responsibilities. The tree and plant species, the four legged, all the animals, the swimmers. Those are all of our relations.