This episode of the Roots Watering Hole podcast series is with Gavi and Remi Welbel of Zumwalt Acres Farm, in Sheldon IL. In this lively episode, my co-host Dr. Akilah Martin, Gavi, and Remi explain the roots of their projects in ancient Jewish spiritual traditions. Akilah and I have a deep, deep interest in the ancient indigenous traditions, concepts, and practices from Africa and around the world. We are humbled by the universality of ancient spiritual traditions but also recognize as Dr. Rupa Mayra states ..."European missionaries and medics waged war on Indigenous shamans and healers. Physicians were part of the violent colonial project, bringing new medicines and conceptualizations that dissected Indigenous peoples apart from their ways of knowing and consequently from their health. Campaigns against witchcraft and the ignorance of colonized people were lessons in the brutal imposition of a colonial worldview".
It is in the spirit of memories of ancient spirituality and ways that connect us to the rituals and ceremonies and cosmologies that unify us to the cosmos and our kin beyond humans. The reverence that we are committed to reconnecting with and is central to our recovery from all episodes of the trauma of enslavement and colonization is the spirit in which we offer this episode. It is a demonstration of the indigenous impulses that exist but is often covered up even in contemporary iterations of "religions". We welcome this chapter in the story to our connections to the land, the flora and fauna, the waters, and the air who's health (yes, all of these entities have rights, not corporations) is interconnected to our collective health and well-being...
For further information about topics in the podcast see:
Zumwalt Acres Farm
Zumwalt Acres Farm YouTube Video
Savanna Institute
Regeneration International
Agroforestry
Black Oaks Center
Stand With the People of Pembroke, Stop Fossil Fuel Expansion
Healing Forest
Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs
Evanston Food Forest
Refuge Food Forest
Chicago Regional Tree Initiative
Morton Arboretum
Janie's Mill
How to Make Sourdough Bread: Ultimate Beginners Guide