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Aaron Perry
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDvpgl5tnY
Xiye Bastida, 17-year-old climate activist and global youth leader, discusses the world-wide climate crisis strike planned for September 20, 2019. Extraordinarily articulate, insightful, and dedicated, Xiye encourages all of us to engage in these critical times, to participate in the “Fridays for Future Movement,” and to take action wherever we’re located, joining the millions of people in 130+ countries, being organized by 6,000+ youth leaders!
Joined by her mother, Geraldine Patrick, Xiye discusses her blended indigenous background (part Celtic, part Otomi-Toltec), and her deep connection with the living water that animates all life on planet Earth. Understanding that the essential role of humanity is to take care of life, she also discusses maintaining balance – health and well-being – in the midst of leading an urgent global movement with colleagues like Greta Thunberg. Her advice includes: maintaining the flow of friendships and family, connecting with nature, the importance of sleeping, eating well, and self-care practices.
Not only is Xiye a profoundly effective leader and organizer, she is also still a high school student! Recognizing that the gifts we are each given are in fact responsibilities, Xiye urges each of us: “Don’t just watch us… strike with us!” and discusses how the youth of today – Gen Y and Gen Z – will account for 37% of the voting population by 2025.
She recently launched a Youth Activism Training Program, sits on the Administration Committee of Peoples Climate Movement, is a member of Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion, was invited to speak about Indigenous Cosmology at the 9th UN World Urban Forum, and was awarded the “Spirit of the UN” award in 2018.
More information at: strikewithus.org. Twitter: @xiyebastida Instagram: xiyebeara
TRANSCRIPT
[Start of transcription 00:00:07.0]
Aaron: Welcome to the Y on Earth community stewardship and sustainability podcast series. Today, we have the opportunity to visit with Xiye Bastida. Hey, Xiye.
Xiye: Hi.
Aaron: How are you doing today?
Xiye: I’m good. Thank you.
Aaron: Great. So excited to have this conversation with you and to share with our audience all of the amazing work you’re doing. Organizing, really all over the place. Xiye Bastida is a 17-year-old climate activist living in New York City. In 2018, she became the leader of her school’s environmental club where she mobilized 600 students in the first global climate strike. Since then she has taken a city wide leadership role in organizing climate strikes and speaking out about climate justice issues and rallies. Bastida was born and raised in Mexico as part of the Otomi-Toltec indigenous peoples. Currently, she is one of the lead organizers of “Friday’s for Future” and sits in the administration committee of People’s Climate Movement.
Recently, she launched a youth activism training program to expand the climate justice movement. Xiye is a member of Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion and in 2018 she was invited to the ninth United Nations World Urban forum to speak about indigenous cosmology. Notably, she received the spirit of the United Nation’s award in 2018. Xiye, it’s so wonderful to have this opportunity to speak with you. Obviously, you and I have met. We’ve been together for a few days at the American Renewable Energy Day Conference in Snowmass, Colorado. It’s been an incredible gathering of folks and I am so excited to be able share the story of what you’re doing and most importantly what our audience can do to get involved.
Xiye: Yes.
Aaron: Regardless of where you’re located and to dive right in. Could you just share what’s happening? What’s coming up and what can we be engaging in?
Xiye: Yeah, so right now the youth movement, the climate strike movement has really taking off and it’s been a real catalyst for the future action that is needed to address the climate crisis. And right now we are organizing the September 20th climate strike and this is a different kind of strike because it’s inter-generational. The past strikes that we’ve had, had been youth lead. On March 15 we got 1.6 million students marching with us worldwide. On May 24th we got 1.9 million students world and for September 20th we’re calling for adults to join us because to solve the climate crisis we need this movement to be collaborative.
We as youth, we cannot vote yet so that’s why we’re relying on our, on adults who can vote and represent the voice that we need to protect our future. And what we’re doing is a lot of organizing, a lot of planning, a lot of outreach and really getting the word out on why it is so important for us to address this issue right now, because what we do in this next 10.5 years is really going to define the next 10,000 years.
Aaron: Yeah. This really underscores the sense of urgency that we really, that we need to have around these issues right? And I heard you earlier talk about the importance of our language around this and that, the term climate change is really not an appropriate term anymore.
Xiye: Yes, so up to recently we’ve been using the term climate change to define what’s happening in this world but that term cannot encompass the catastrophe we’re living in. We need to use terms such as climate crises, climate breakdown, and climate emergency. Since the strike started there’s been over 600 governments who declared the climate emergency and for September 20th which is going to be predating the September 23rd Climate Summit in the UN. We’re asking all governments to declare climate emergency and that is, that is what we are bringing to the table. This sense of urgency, if we don’t do something, in really the next 18 months politically we cannot ensure a livable future. In 10 years I’m going to be 27 and I should be worrying about what I’m going to do after university and where I’m going to work not where I have to live?
Aaron: Yeah, that’s right. So, I’m so struck as we discussed Xiye, you are the same age as my son Hunter and he is also increasingly engaging in the ecological and environmental issues that face us. And I’m just so struck that you are putting so much of your time and energy into all of this.
[05:03]
Aaron: While also in a few weeks you’ll be back in high school. It’s your senior year, you’ll be applying to colleges, you’ll be doing many of those things. My gosh, to take on this level of responsibility and really a sense of ownership around the imperative to impact the future. Where does that come from? What is it that planted that seed in you?
Xiye: Yeah, so I am Otomi from Mexico, is an indigenous community and the indigenous philosophy is that we take care of the earth, because the earth takes care of us. So we need to bring that sense of reciprocity into the movement and we need to remember that we are on earth to take care of life not to take over life. And something that really shifted my world around was that in 2015 my town suffered from flooding and from then we moved to New York city and that is when I realized that the climate crises follows you everywhere.
There’s no way to escape it because it’s really affecting all of us and it’s the only issue that is affecting everyone, everywhere and the only thing we can do is face it. So that it doesn’t affect more, some people more than others because that’s the justice part of it that we’re bringing to the table.
Aaron: Absolutely, so this event. September 20th its sounds like this is going to be taking place in cities all over is that correct?
Xiye: Yes, so there is. It’s going to take place in over a 130 countries and there is over 6000 people who have pledged to organize for September 20th and in the United States alone we have strikes in over a hundred places and if you visit strikewithus.org and you put your zip code in you’ll be directed to your nearest strike. If there is not a strike in a location that is comfortable for you, you can organize your own strike and we have tool kits and resources for you to get permits and press and outreach and we just really want this movement to expand all over the world. Nationally, locally.
Aaron: And you shared also earlier that the strike on the 20th of September that’s not the final show is it? It’s not the last straw by any stretch is it?
Xiye: So, we really want to emphasize that September 20th is not a goal it’s just a catalyst for future action and the engagement of humanity into the protection of earth. It’s the catalyst for the culmination of thousands of climate activists that won’t stop fighting until the climate crises is reversed.
Aaron: Absolutely. It’s so important. So I have a question, that I know a lot of our audience is going to relate to in different ways and in other episodes we’ve talked about the cultivation of health and well-being and maintaining balance in our own lives while we’re also increasingly engaging in these incredibly important issues,
Xiye: Yes.
Aaron: And so what are some of the practices and the methods you’re using to maintain that balance as you’re putting so much of your energy into this mobilizing work while also working as a student and maintaining friendships and all that.
Xiye: Yeah.
Aaron: What’s your key for balance?
Xiye: So, it’s very important to keep your friendships flowing and your relationship with your family alive and also it’s very important to go back and be in contact with earth and Mother Nature because that’s when you remember what you’re protecting. If you are in an office or studying for tests for hours then you get disconnected from what we need to be in contact with. So one of the main things is really be in contact with nature. Open, maintain your relationships open. You know really ground yourself spiritually and keep this momentum going because, and really bring it to everything you do. I believe that the climate crises affects every aspect of our lives so when I’m in school my college essay is about the climate crises.
Aaron: Yeah.
Xiye: My research project in chemistry is about how a warming weather actually affects the oxygen in water so I’m aware of this every day and my main purpose is to really communicate to others what’s going on and my passion is to help people and I believe that the climate crises is affecting the most people.
Aaron: Absolutely and I want to come back to that point in just a moment but I can’t help but share that a little bit older than you as I mentioned you’re the same age as my son. I’ve been practicing and really attempting deliberately to deepen my own balance practice and what I have found as a writer, as an activist.
[10:01]
Aaron: As somebody very engaged in recording episodes like this and so forth is that if I’m not deliberately going to out and connecting with woods and physically connecting with the soil my cognitive performance declines. My energy declines, my mood and attitude actually gets negative.
Xiye: Yeah.
Aaron: And sometimes I realize, holy smokes I have so much work to do right now. The thing I have to do is unplug and go connect with nature.
Xiye: Yes and the one of the most important things as an activist is really to take care of yourself and eat. Don’t forget to eat. Don’t forget to sleep and these are things that people who are in the movement don’t tell you because we’re so busy talking about solutions and actions but in order to keep on going and in order to maintain the strength that we need we really need to take care of each other.
Aaron: It’s so beautiful and I really love that opportunity we have as individuals to understand, to embrace and to practice the truth that stewardship regenerations, sustainability really is an inside out gesture and it starts with how we are caring for ourselves and our immediate relationships. It’s such a beautiful piece of wisdom for each of us to carry. Okay so I have to ask, you mentioned chemistry. What are thinking about in terms of what you want to study and where you think you’ll be heading on a personal path?
Xiye: Yeah. So, I wanted to study biochemistry a while ago but now I realized that we as students, we are messengers of the existence science and the climate crisis has been solved. We just need to implement those solutions so now I’m going into environmental studies, international relations and political science because I believe that now we just need to bring all these, all of these together and really keep communicating it to people and really realize that this is a global issue that requires global solutions.
Aaron: Absolutely, you know this something so many of us in the Y on Earth community are really familiar with that by and large. We are not facing mere technical challenges in fact we have a lot of the solutions as you say and that ultimately this is a question of culture and this is a question of what we’re mobilizing as a society and why? Right?
Xiye: Yeah.
Aaron: The fundamental why? Which is why we call it Y on Earth, right?
Xiye: Y on Earth. And you know we need to change this culture of consumerism, of complacency and in order to change that culture we need to change the narrative.
Aaron: Yup.
Xiye: And in order to change the narrative we need to communicate personal stories of people who are going through hard times in real time.
Aaron: Yeah.
Xiye: So, we are really into this movement. We’re really bringing forward personal stories and personal solutions to make it personal because the environment is personal.
Aaron: Absolutely and on that not with your personal story, you and your team recently put together a beautiful video that we’ll be sharing on our yonearth.org blog page where you’ll see a handful of other videos from some of our other ambassadors and Xiye to make it official I’m so happy to welcome you as our newest ambassador to the Y on Earth community.
Xiye: Thank you.
Aaron: And it’s a real honor to be able to share your story and what you’re doing with our network and the fundamental hope and imperative here folks is that each of us is mobilizing around these efforts. And I want to say in addition to engaging with the protest movement in your area on September 20th also please consider supporting financially the work that Xiye is doing and if folks want to support financially how do they connect with you to do that?
Xiye: The best way to connect is to go to our website strike with us and we have a coalition of seven youth groups including Extinction Rebellion Youth, Sunrise movement, Future Coalition, Friday’s for Future, US Youth Climate Strike, Earth Guardians and Earth Uprising. Any of these organizations take money and right now we’re putting together a fund in where we can all. Where we can direct all of our donors and we can take money accordingly.
Aaron: Oh beautiful. Okay so it’s kind of like a central shared fund raising resource.
Xiye: Yes.
Aaron: That you guys then allocating out of depending on what’s happening?
Xiye: Yes.
Aaron: Okay, that’s really, really beautiful to know you’re doing that. Well, I have to say we got off camera. We’ve got mom. Your mom is here with us. Geraldine and as a parent, I just, my heart is just glowing knowing that Xiye is doing this incredible work and that she and other students like her are the force that is creating the future. We want for our kids and our grand kinds and Geraldine I was hoping you might come and join us on camera here.
[15:01]
Aaron: And just share a little with us for you, as mom. How does this feel that this is all happening?
Geraldine: Well, for me it’s a continuation of you know the energy that dad and mom have been channeling for a long time. We were also activists that were mobilizing. I mean back there in Mexico and myself in the South of Chile we were trying to make people understand that we didn’t need to dam the most sacred river of Mapuche people’s in seven places. That energy was really not necessary if we’re all conscious of how we are consuming the electricity in our homes and in the industry and that’s required a lot of front line, you know. presence together with Mapuche sisters and brothers but also being you know there in city halls or the equivalent in Chile.
And I’m calling for press conferences for a long time and ever since we’ve been, when I moved to Mexico you know we came together with your father. We also continued in this path through keeping a space in the newspaper, nationally where we would, especially your father would be writing for this newspaper. We became professors at university. So, we’ve always been channeling a philosophy that is about the caring for life. Which is what we have inherited to you and I think that you’re doing it in such a balanced way you know, communicating so we feel really proud of you and we are here to support you in every level.
Aaron: Oh, yeah. Absolutely beautiful.
Geraldine: Yeah.
Aaron: Beautiful and what, as a professor what do you teach?
Geraldine: So, its ethno-ecology.
Aaron: Ethno-ecology cool. Yeah.
Geraldine: Yeah, so.
Aaron: Maybe for some of our audience who might not be familiar with that term?
Geraldine: Yes, so ethno, ethno speaks about indigenous people’s right and so then ethnoecology is the interdiscipline. It’s a combination of disciplines where you are able to understand together with indigenous community. How is it that there Cosmo vision and their value system and their laws of origin and their original stories, or creation stories drive how they interact with mother earth. How they understand and build knowledge around mother earth and Her cycles and how it will determine what they do when they do it throughout the year cycle. And how they will be reading the signs that nature give them so to do this or that or to plant this or that. So it’s being beautiful you know it’s allowed me to understand also the original calendars of Mesoamerica meaning the Mayan calendar. The Otomi-Toltec calendar of your dad’s peoples and also the Mexica Aztec calendar system.
Aaron: Great. Some of the most sophisticated in the world.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: Right?
Geraldine: Yes. Yes they are and it’s fascinating.
Aaron: It’s absolutely wonderful. The mention of cycles reminds me last night there was some discussion around the predominant Judeo-Christian and Abrahamic creation stories and stories and mythologies around time as it continues and this many [inaudible 00:19:04] versus an understanding that it’s cyclical which all of us regardless of where we come from on the planet. We are all of indigenous heritage.
Geraldine: That’s right.
Aaron: And all of our people if we go far enough back in time had a cyclical understanding of the reality. That’s how things work here with the moon, the solar cycles, the seasonal cycles, the water cycles, etc.
Geraldine: That’s right.
Aaron: I’m so struck. I love, first of all I have to share that my personal attunement to lunar cycles, to solar cycles, to seasonal cycles actually makes me happier and more balanced as an individual.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: I know that from experience and I’m curious from your perspective with a.
Geraldine: Yeah.
Aaron: Different cultural context what do you think this means in terms of what we’re doing as a global society?
Xiye: So, right now we are on, a lot of the linear cycles. Not only in terms of time but also in terms of money and the economy.
Geraldine: Production.
Aaron: Yeah.
[20:03]
Xiye: So, what we are, what we want is more production, more money, more growth and uncontrollable growth is another type of cancer.
Aaron: Right.
Xiye: And that system that we’re in right now is unhealthy. So we need to come back to cycles and it doesn’t mean it’s here but it’s a spiral that goes up.
Aaron: Yeah.
Xiye: And we transcend with it and we need to go as you said back to recognizing the cycles to harvest, to plant. Cycles of calendars, cycles of consumption. We’re not telling you don’t eat meat, we’re telling you eat meat when there’s a special occasion. So we need to bring back that consciousness of really connecting with the cycles of the earth and when you disrespect. When you disrespect the cycles you’re disrespecting indigenous cosmology and you’re disrespecting the earth itself.
Aaron: Yeah and in for those of us who believe in a creator it’s a disrespect of our creator right?
Geraldine: That’s right. Definitely.
Aaron: Absolutely. So I have to also ask as a parent. What are the thing we get to do as parents is name our children and I know that Xiye has a beautiful name with a lot of meaning layered into it and I was wondering if you might share that with us.
Geraldine: Yeah, so when Xiye was still in my womb we’re thinking with dad what was your name going to be and Xiye came a lot. So Xiye means soft rain, drizzling rain.
Aaron: Soft rain.
Geraldine: The rains that fall in September time when the corn is pretty much just you know building up its content so that it will be really nice and you know juicy. And when Xiye was born she quickly showed us that she had so much energy that I said okay. Why don’t I look for Toltec name because of my Toltec ancestry? So I found that “Bada” would be a good fit and “Bada” means the one who regulates the weather and it’s actually a mermaid. So the mermaids of the Loch had this capacity to regulate the weather and I said well that’s beautiful because when you were born in the head waters of the Lerma river which is the longest river in Mexico starting in Toluca Valley or Zambata the valley of the moon, this sacred river holds a mermaid as well and she according to the Otomi-Toltec cosmovision is also the keeper of the weather. So I found that, that connection was beautiful and that yeah she was owning that name as well.
Aaron: It is absolutely wonderful and so fitting to the work that you’re doing.
Xiye: Yeah.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: You know this makes me think too that we know as we look back through the last few thousand years of the history of what we would call the civilized world that in many regions of the planet, that civilization has left in its wake deserts. Desertification right? We think of places like the Fertile Crescent which is now an expanse of sandy desert by and large. And one of the great opportunities and imperatives we have right in front us is this restoration, reforestation, afforestation work. Soil building work.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: And one of the things that occurs as we help heal ecosystems, the water cycles kick in in such a way that, the way the living trees and plants interact with water is actually affecting weather and bringing in more rainfall precipitation in places that would otherwise be arid if not outright desert. And so I was wondering if might speak to that a little bit this connection with water and what that means to you.
Xiye: So, I’m sure you’ve heard it before but water is life and that is so true in so many ways. Water has, you know it’s immortal and it’s always going to be here regardless of whether we are here or not but our duty is to protect that energy. The energy that water has and it flows. It’s always flowing. It takes many shapes. Its chemical composition is also very, very pleasing. Its polarity is very interesting and it’s just such a special element that it just one-fourth elements that are really part of everything and without water we have noting.
[25:00]
Xiye: And without fire we have nothing. Without air we have nothing. Without earth we have nothing. So it’s this balance of this four elements that are so special and water is particularly the one that I connect with the most because my name means rain and I believe in the power of water to bring life. To make everything be born again, that rebirth that we need and the water cycle is also very interesting and if you think about it if we have a lot of heat it’s just a lot of water is going to evaporate and that’s why we have a lot of rain. So, it’s essential to understand water in the sense that how helpful it can be to revitalize everything but if we don’t respect it, it can also be destructive that’s why we need to go back to that balance of water being what it’s meant to be which is protection and nurturing.
Aaron: Absolutely, beautiful. You know on one of our previous episodes our friend Kimba Arem who is a musician shared about a movie she created called Water that features all kinds of research that’s been going on all around the world and certain parts of the world where water has been even further energized and charged and we find in other regions and it gets into the chemistry and even the geometry in the patterns of water as essentially a liquid crystal and it’s in all of us. Each of us is at least 70% water often with newborns and young children that can be as high as 90% water. Water has memory. Water is one of the ways we do our healing work with the biodynamics soil activation in stewardship work that we do. Water’s essential and Xiye the fact that your name means what it means it reminds me of my childhood in the Pacific North-West with those gentle soft rains that would come through. It’s just wonderful and beautiful.
Thank you for sharing that. So I want to ask also you know with the Y on Earth community, the book Y on Earth we have a reference to Gen Y, why the millennial generation which I actually missed myself by like four years and you’re now talking about the combination of Gen Y and Gen Z? And it’s such a powerful emerging part of the demographic of the planet and of this country and I’m wondering could you just walk us through what do you mean first of all by Gen Z, Gen Y and then what are some of these demographics, statistics that we should be aware of?
Xiye: So. Gen Z is my generation. I think it goes, it started in 1995 to 1999 and what’s interesting is that most, we are the largest generation right now and by 2020, 37% of the voting population is going to be Gen Z and Gen Y. Which is extremely powerful because we know that we need to get involved in that political system in order for our future to be secured and that’s why I really advocate for our involvement in local policy. Understanding of state policy. National policy always keeping in mind international agreements and international relations, so we are, we are the fastest growing generation and we’re also going to be the largest group of individuals’ age wise. Which is also amazing because if you think about it each child represents two parents most of the time. So when you get a child into the movement and they talk to their parents that is how it grows.
Aaron: Yeah.
Xiye: And that’s why this movement has grown very organically and that’s why adults are so eager to help us because they understand that, they could have, they had the opportunity to have children and really grow up make like. Look at their children grow up and just the thought of their children not having that opportunity must be crazy.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: Yeah. Yeah.
Xiye: And I know my mom wants to be a grandmother.
Aaron: Yeah.
Xiye: But yeah. We are extremely powerful in a sense that we strike today but we will vote tomorrow.
Aaron: We strike today and we vote tomorrow. I love that. So let me just remind our audience this is the Y on Earth community’s stewardship and sustainability podcast series and today we are speaking with Xiye Bastida and her mom Geraldine and want to be sure to mention that you can join all of this action through strikewithus.org.
[30:04]
Aaron: And be sure to check that out or you can enter your zip code to get the immediate resources in your area. Also, connect with Xiye on her, through twitter Xiye Bastida is her handle there and it’s on instagram Xiye Beara, B-E-A-R-A and we’ll have this in the show notes as well so you can get spellings and such there. And I also want to take the opportunity to thank all of our monthly giving members at the Y on Earth community who are helping make this series possible as well all of our community mobilization work. We are now published as our community mobilization kit so you can get that at the website along with all of our other resources and if you have not yet joined the monthly giving program you can do this at yonearth.org just click on the donate button and you can choose any level that works best for you to give on a monthly basis. When you join I’ll send you a code so that you could get free downloads of all of our eBook and audiobook resources. And in fact you could share that could with your friends also.
I would also like to thank several of our sponsors who are helping support this work and they include Patagonia, Madera Outdoor, waylay waters, Earth Coast Productions, Puriem, the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America and the Lidge Family Foundation. Thank you all so much for your support and it is so exciting to be collaborating and mobilizing with you. Frankly, we’re all just getting started this is a climate emergency. It is imperative that we act. The amazing secret to all of this is the more we act the higher our own qualities of life become. Our own relationship, our own health, our own wellbeing is enhanced as a result of doing this important work and with that in mind. I’d like to ask perhaps it’s a bit more of a spiritual question. What do you think is happening on the planet right now for our species? What do you think it is that we’re going through?
Xiye: So, I think that we are on a spiritual level that is, it’s about learning and it’s about making the right choice. It’s about choosing morality over greed, personal power and it goes back to choosing planet over profit. Choose the future over profit and that has been said over and over but what we need to realize is that all of this a challenge for humanity and a challenge for our self into what is the right thing to do? And the right thing to do is you know so abstract but right now it’s becoming so clear and it’s our opportunity to take that chance of doing.
It required a very big challenge for all of us to come together and it’s extremely devastating that this is happening but we can, we have to look at it from the best perspective possible and think, this is our opportunity to build a global community and relationships have been fractured for centuries now and now I’m seeing all types of different people come together in the religious spectrum and the generational spectrum and racial ethnicity and everything is really coming together in a way that I don’t think we have seen before. And we are even realizing our relationship with the earth and animals and you know why did it take us so long? It’s because we’re interested in saving ourselves and that is we have to move past that and realize that this is also an ecological crises and species. Millions of, one, I don’t know it’s like one million species are dying every day I think its 200 species are dying every day and species that we have not even seen. So this is really an awakening for all of us. A spiritual awakening, creative awakening because right now we just need to be creative and we need to be active, to be connected.
Aaron: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know it reminds me that in so many of our indigenous and traditional cultures the role of the human being on this planet is to be the steward in a stewardship relationship to our places.
[35:00]
Aaron: And my sense is that more and more of us are re-awakening to that role and reclaiming that role and we have to. There’s an imperative in doing so right? It’s beautiful from my perspective that, that’s part of what we get to experience in our lifetime. That this is happening all around the world and Geraldine I want to ask you the same question from your perspective. Again, its mom and having been engaged in this kind of work for many years. What do you think is happening on the planet right now?
Geraldine: Well, I can tell you from the teachings that the elders left you know, the Otomi and Maya saw this period of crises and of awakening happening. They, and it’s fascinating how it’s completely inserted in this 26,000 year cycle.
Aaron: Yup.
Geraldine: And within that there’s five equal cycles of five thousand two hundred years and within that there’s each of them 52 hundred years cycles there is 10 cycles of 520 years. So how precise can it be that the Otomi-Toltec left on stone a date which was 13 year, 13 reed which was 1492. Yes?
Aaron: Wow.
Geraldine: When, from the, from Europe there is the first contact with this continent and they had seen already that this 10th cycle 520 years into the future would be really, really critical would be the clashing of cultures and of cosmovision would be really tough. And that’s it would require so much suffering to interact in a way whereby there could be mutual understanding and dialogue. And yes indeed we have come into 2012 which was the completion of 520 year cycle and even the last 52 years were critical. Even according to very old Shinto traditions from Japan they have the same calculation of this last 52 years it’s incredible. And now they say that yes we are coming into this inter-cultural dialogue, this dialogue and unification process where all religions can talk to each other and acknowledge each other and connect with each other’s belief systems in a peaceful way. In a constructive way. Understanding that we’re all you know in this co-evolution whereby, we are just in this flow of creation and of renewal of the creation processes and what we we’re told according to what’s written in stone and written on this beautiful codices we call them like painted ancient books and in Central Mexico is that we would still need to go through a phase of 13 years after 2012.
Aaron: So that makes it 2025?
Geraldine: So, instead 2025, 2026.
Aaron: Okay. Yeah.
Geraldine: Which would be the final shedding of what we don’t need. What we would really come to realize like your saying Xiye. You know prioritize and have a very clear criteria of what we need to emerge into you know. Coming to be that we’ll, we will feel lighter when we shed from what we don’t need. When we detoxify ourselves from what has been keeping us you know stagnant.
Aaron: Yeah.
Geraldine: And with unclear vision so we are in the middle of those 13 years right now and it’s really a pivotal time where we have like Xiye says, the last 18 months for that awakening and shifting moment.
[40:05]
Geraldine: And take that risk and come out of that comfort zone and really say okay enough is enough and I will do all that. I am responsible for doing because according to the Cosmo vision of indigenous peoples more than gifts we’re born into the world with responsibilities and so it’s clear. We are here to take care of life in every of her forms and every of her expressions and I just want to say here that Y on Earth you know the awakening that you’ve had and the agency that you have and how so many are joining you and thank you for the opportunity for Xiye come more into your world and vision. You know it’s so comforting to the spirit that you’re doing this regenerative work, you know this teaching. So yes.
Aaron: Thank you.
Geraldine: We want to acknowledge that. Yes.
Aaron: Thank you. Thank you.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: There is a lot of feeling involved in this work that we’re doing and that’s inside that’s in the world and my hope and prayer for each of us is that we engage in that healing work even more deeply. Even when it’s uncomfortable.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: And we’re pushing through some of that discomfort. It’s so important and I love the message around the responsibilities and for many of us we thank in terms of the gifts that we’ve been given and to recognize those as responsibilities. I think it’s such a beautiful key.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: To opening the door.
Geraldine: Yes. That’s your dad’s wisdom coming through yeah. I mean the [inaudible 00:42:00] yeah.
Aaron: Beautiful. Well, thanks to you both and before we sign off for the moment I want to just reiterate. September 20th is a massive event worldwide engaged with it go to strikewithus.org to connect with what’s happening in your area. Check out the amazing video Xiye and her team created that we are going to have on the Y on Earth blog page and it’s just a beautiful piece in fact the music on that is by Compton Kidz right?
Xiye: Yeah.
Geraldine: Yeah.
Aaron: We have to chat about them for just a minute right? Before you sign out.
Xiye: Yeah. So, you know they’re amazing. They’re, the purpose of the anthem which is called Stand Up is to bring together the youth movements that have been going on for the past five years, ten years. So we’re bringing together black lives matter, gun control like enough is enough, the climate movement. We’re really bringing all together to show that we understand that all of these issues are interconnected and that we are 20% of the present but we are 100% of the future.
Aaron: 20% of the present, 100% of the future. This reminds me you know many of our traditions speak of seven generations and speak about making our decisions with that responsibility with the next seven generations in mind and I remember for years and years I’m part Mohawk actually from the Iroqouis league and I remember for years feeling my gosh seven. I mean great number but pretty abstract and then I realized wait a minute because I had met my great grandmother.
Geraldine: Yes.
Aaron: And if I am so fortunate to meet any great grandchildren.
Geraldine: That’s right, you’re about here.
Aaron: That is a span of seven.
Geraldine: Yes. You’re about here and you’ve met them three and you meet those three. Yes.
Aaron: Yes.
Geraldine: That’s how. Yes. That consciousness then, that’s wisdom. Yes. It’s right on the spot.
Aaron: A 100% of the future and Geraldine you and I are in the middle of that I want to give you the opportunity to make a final statement or message to our audience before we sign off and then we’ll give Xiye the last word as we’re moving forward on that beautiful progression of seven generations.
Geraldine: Yes. Yes. So everyone listening here remember that you’ll have ancestors and that ancestor’s pretty much you know the one here if you’re around here, here. What’s with all these roots, with all these wisdom that we relate to indigenous peoples? So please do your homework and look for those roots.
[45:05]
Geraldine: And find with dignity, find the wisdom that your ancestors were carrying and bring it forth into your current way of living you know. Reconnect with that memory because truthfully as simply as it might sound to look at the moon when you are in the season of planting or sowing or harvesting it’s that kind of simple teaching that will feed your spirit so much and really ensure that we participate in the re-harmonizing and regenerating of mother earth.
Aaron: Beautiful. Thank you. Xiye,
Xiye: So, what I want to say is that we all the responsibility and the liberty thankfully, to make our voices heard and everyone’s story is so important to bring into the movement and just doing something for what you care about is being an activist. And we should all be activist in this time and age and really recognize that whatever you care about, whatever your skills are you have, you possess the creativity to be part of the movement in a constructive way. Recognize that this is intergenerational. This is, this is political, this is about racial equality. This is about transportation, energy grid. This is about everything and so really anything that speaks to you, you can use it to speak to everybody else.
Aaron: Absolutely beautiful. Thank you both for taking on the responsibility of speaking and of sharing your messages in general to the world and to specifically today with our Y on Earth community. It’s a real pleasure and honor to have you on the show so thank you both.
Geraldine: Well, thank you so much Aaron. Thank you.
Xiye: Thank you.
Speaker 3: The Y on Earth community stewardship and sustainability podcast series is hosted by Aaron William Perry, author, thought-leader, and executive consultant. The podcast and video recordings are made possible by the generous support of people like you. To sign up as a daily, weekly or monthly supporter please visit yonearth.org/support. Support packages start at just $1 per month. The podcast series is also sponsored by several corporate and organization sponsors. You can get discounts on their products and services using the code YONEARTH. All one word with a “y”. These sponsors are listed on the yonearth.org/support page. If you found this particular podcast episode especially insightful, informative or inspiring please pass it on and share it with a friend who you think will also enjoy it. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for your support and thank you for being a part of the Y on Earth community.
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