 My name is Maria. My last name is Montego. I just gave a protocol of introduction to the ancestors of this land that we are interviewing in. The program itself is an education and cultural facility. Dodem is a word that is an Inishinaabe word that means clan or family and so I can spend the lifetime explaining what Dodem means so I won't but I'll give you an idea. It's a family that you pertain to and it could be an animal family, it could be an energy family, it could be of a spirit like a little people family. And Ganonza is a Ganiengahaga word which is a Mohawk word that means lodge so Dodem Ganonza is the clan lodge so it's where all the different clans can come and gather and our program is now in its 21st year of operation and it's in the heart of Toronto and our principal mandate is to bring indigenous and non-indigenous people together in a safe learning space so that they can build their awareness on indigenous rights culture and history and build their relationship to the land that we're sitting on and standing on and move forward in more harmony acceptance and understanding between each other. So that's our principal mandate and we're in partnership with the federal government now known as Indigenous Services Canada previously known as Indian Affairs and the Native Canadian Center of Toronto is our home agency so it's a partnership that's been going on for 21 years now and it's a proud partnership it's a good partnership that we have so our principal audience is all people all people from all different ages primarily adults and it's primarily adult education but our educators are indigenous wisdom keepers known in modern times as elders but we would call them grandmothers or grandfathers knowledge holders scholars academics indigenous individuals who carry wisdom that they can provide to the public our staff of Indigenous Services Canada so that that relationship can move forward in a good way. Doron Kanolta came about as a result of the OCA crisis so in the 1990s the OCA crisis happened in what people would refer to as Quebec today and I won't go too much into detail in terms of what the OCA crisis was except that it impacted us in a profound way that we became aware that many Canadians had very little to no knowledge on Indigenous history culture rights even more scary was that the staff members of the federal government in particular at that time known as Indian Affairs the federal department had very little to no knowledge on Indigenous history culture yet we're making decisions that were impacting Indigenous people in profound ways and so many people had no understanding that the territory in in Quebec was unseated territory therefore occupied by what we would call Canadians today and so most people have a hard time understanding what those words mean and what we're talking about so when the people the Geninkahaga people the nation were defending their inherent rights their natural rights their ancestral rights many people did not understand that and the result of that was a lot of violence and discrimination and a lot of harm towards Indigenous peoples in the nations and the little people the family the community so it became so apparent that there needed to be a facility in which federal staff could come and learn and educate themselves and what we could bring together people that were Indigenous non-Indigenous to learn about that history and contemporary issues so that that violence wouldn't have to reoccur and so the first lodge was built in Gatineau which is the Kumik facility and then the Ontario region decided that they needed one as well and so that's where the birth of Dodem Ganonza came about 21 years ago in 1998 in September and so that's how we were built and the facility was built in such a way where it was important to have a partner so the federal government thought of the the staff members there thought that it was important the Indigenous staff members in particular felt it was really important to have a facility and then they looked for a partner which was the native Canadian center of Toronto and so the manager for the facility there's only it's only staffed by one individual which is me in this moment in time which is the manager of the facility and they would be hired and then supervised by the native Canadian center so I'm in partnership with the federal government but I don't work for the federal government and then it was believed that this partnership would allow for the best possible programming to come about and there would be advisory committee members from each of the partners that would come together and support the manager in terms of the programming and the logistics of the facility and that's been in place for 21 years now and so the facility really has a mandate right but the vision of it depends on who the manager is that comes through those doors right and it's built that way so when they hire the manager they're looking for particular skills and knowledge in particular whether they have lived experience in an indigenous community whether they have language whether they understand the historical and contemporary issues experienced by indigenous peoples and so every manager that has come through the facility and there's been many has built the facility and contributed to its growth in many unique ways and beautiful ways and so we're always thankful for every manager that has been here but I can't speak about the particular vision they had or how they brought it together but for myself I have a degree in indigenous history from McMaster University but more important than that is I have the lived experience of being indigenous but also of spending the majority of my time in ceremony with the grandmothers and grandfathers and living on the land and and attending it so it's it's part of my everyday life and so I bring that to this particular role that I have as the manager and from that and from having a contemporary relationship with indigenous nations and community is outside of the city but also within the city so the urban community is really important as well and so all those relationships in that experience life life experience and as well as the historical knowledge because you need a little bit of academic in there right those books and stuff I bring that to this role and do my best to be able to have a vision as to what kind of programming would benefit the public and the staff and so I spent a lot of time consulting the grandmothers and grandfathers for what what they see is needed what they what their gifts are and what they would like to bring into the programming and I spent a lot of time speaking and engaging with them and so sometimes there's some elders that are really have this deep connection to the water right so have them come in and do water ceremony or teachings and then there's some elders that are really you know gifted in the area of plant medicines or the land and spend has been 30 plus years working with those medicines so I have them come in and talk about that relationship with those plant beings in the spirit that's in each plant some elders are incredible at knowing the historical experiences like the trees and the land claims and the different laws and rights that are out there so we'll get them to come in so every grandma and grandfather has a whole life of experience and they have particular gifts and so I focus on what their gifts are and what they're passionate about and then I create programming based on that how those gifts will support the needs of the public or the staff in terms of their learning and so I match it together and but the most important process that I have is what we call working with the tobacco or the SEMA so I work with with that tobacco and I ask what we would call from the unseen real the ancestors a lot for them to give me insight into what workshop or what education session needs to come forward and that's difficult at times for our mainstream world because it doesn't always follow logic right and so sometimes I'll just get a feeling like I need to have a workshop on fire and on the sun and if you ask me you know what's the logic behind that I'll just say I had an impulse or something came to me after praying with the tobacco that said you need to have this workshop and in my experience people will come out of the workshop and say that's exactly what I needed to hear right and so really that's an indigenous methodology where we work with this medicine to um to talk to that unseen world those ancestors and those original teachers to help us and guide our programming so that's the principal way I do it and then I have other methods as well and we have um we're very lucky here where the elders the grandparents and the knowledge keepers those wisdom keepers are the leaders and so they're the ones that really guide us and that's really a beautiful thing that the facility is able to have right and so even though we have an advisory committee um and we have kind of some parameters of how the programming is supposed to move that's secondary to what the grandparents are saying right so um so we don't have a lot of pressure as other programs have programs have in terms of hitting this particular number and this amount of people um that's not how we operate here although we do keep the statistics like general statistics of how many people are coming in just to give an idea of like um numbers right like in terms of like being staffed by one person and having this amount of resources how many people are coming in right so is it the adequate amount of resources so we do keep some statistics um but in terms of our um evaluation or how we know the program is being successful it really comes from the stories um that the participants share with you so when the participants come to to see an elder or to sit in a workshop and when we hear those words this really changed the way that I think so their beliefs or the way that I feel their attitude or the way that I see the world their insights when they share that that's that's how we know we're being successful because there's a shift in their beliefs values or attitudes um and they now see the world in a different way and the relationships that are forged between indigenous and non-indigenous people so those stories that people share with us that's how we know that it's being successful. Doron Canota is really in the heart of a large city Toronto and there really is no other facility like Doron Canota in this massive city and so we are a resource that's really needed and that's how we've been very successful in staying alive for 21 years um but there there's some challenges that come with that the other thing is that being in such a large city the climate or the the issues that are happening in the city impact this facility greatly so in the majority of Doron Canota's history um we had a steady number of people come through our doors right you know very steady number not not massive not small just a steady number and then in the last four years or three years when the TRC the Truth or Reconciliation Commission gave their 94 recommendations um it really really impacted us significantly where we went up 54 percent in terms of the number of people coming through our doors not not taking into account the amount of emails or phone calls for inquiries because all of a sudden everybody was interested in the indigenous topic and issue and peoples and history and they had these 94 recommendations and the government internally all levels of government universities colleges everybody was like what do we do with this and unfortunately there hasn't been a lot of resources put towards that education piece so there's this these recommendations but where are the resources to meet the recommendations in terms of education to the public and so this little facility in the heart of Toronto all of a sudden was bombarded by all these individuals from everywhere from interested Canadians um you know moms and dads wanting their kids or themselves to learn a bit more to you know priests and nuns to school board directors to federal directors and employees to doctors to lawyers everyone came to our door and said help us understand and um and I'm one person employed in the facility so we really had to step back and look at what are our resources and what's our mandate and how can we meet the need um and so we created our programming we created something called the indigenous awareness 101 session um and I created that because a lot of the agencies in the city were also being bombarded by individuals coming and asking them for help and support in awareness building but those agencies are mandated for the healing of the First Nations Métis Inuit community members and the staff are already so incredibly busy and you know over overworked and underpaid and all that stuff and a lot of times people would come into the friendship centers and ask you know youth employees you know what's your take on residential schools and they don't realize that that very question triggers a whole whole amount of trauma and so when I talk to the community one of the things they said is we need to be able to get them to go somewhere and have them slow down because they're you know it's it's a lot for us and um we have a lot on our plate and um it's not necessarily our responsibility to to answer these questions and so I was trying to help our community and so I created the indigenous awareness 101 session here at the lodge um and also because a lot of the grandmothers and grandfathers or elders in the facility were asking um people to slow down right they were kind of running before they even walked and so they were visiting elders without even really knowing the basics of protocol of how to approach them or what even our medicines are about or how or the difference between indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing versus a western way of relating and so the indigenous awareness 101 session was created about three years ago um to give people the basics right to help them understand the difference between the world views how you approach people and give them some guidance on some steps they can take um in in in building those relationships um just basic stuff like how do you smudge why do you smudge how do you make a tobacco bundle um or you know the difference between a western scientific approach versus an indigenous scientific approach um and and also getting them to look at their perception that they're bringing into the room and their um um their biases I guess and getting them but really bottom line was to slow people down and really become aware of um themselves and so that that session came about and that that was some of the challenges and some of the other challenges that we face is there's tends to be a romanticism about indigenous people indigenous healing and um a lot of people who are disgruntled with a western either medical system education system um uh government system tend to want to then grab on to an indigenous um way and they come they think that the elders will be the solution and they tend to romanticize our way of life right and so um those are challenges that we face right now in particular and so a lot of people will have um this kind of unrealistic view of indigenous people and and come and and idolize I guess or or put elders and knowledge keepers on a pedestal not necessarily see us as human beings right so we struggle with all of that and um a lot of people would call never having known anything about indigenous history or rights or nations or what a clan is or have never engaged with any of that what would call and say I need to go to a sweat lodge now right and we would really struggle with that and a lot of times um obviously cultural appropriation you struggle with that a lot so Doron Ganota has has had those conversations us how do we how do we make sure that we're doing relationship building in the best way possible and ensuring that um those that come through our doors um are welcomed are held in a safe space but at the same time are challenged on their perceptions on their beliefs and also um are able to um receive and be given truth because um you have to be willing to see some of those truths about yourself in order for those relationships to move forward in a good way so we've had to really look at how do you do that right um how do you and we've we've put things in place like the awareness 101 education session that I facilitate before they even meet the elders or knowledge keepers um in order for me to have some of those harder conversations with them and to slow them down a little bit and then they can go to the next step which is beginning to build those relationships right so why can't you just come right um through our doors and we put into a sweat lodge ceremony you know why is that you know not the best way right or why getting your spirit name is not the first thing that you want to do in your journey of reconciliation right um and so but having compassion right knowing that there's reasons these are their their first actions or first approach right so having a lot of compassion but also um being able to um have that hard conversation right so I do that awareness 101 that's my role here slow people down a bit for me that's been a really important question especially being the manager of an education and culture facility where I design and program um everything that happens here so I've had many experiences in my life in which um those grandmothers or grandfathers or my parents or my community or indigenous um teachers have helped me find answers to that question what is indigenous education and the best way for me to describe it is as indigenous people we have these beautiful creation stories and many people will tell you go back to the creation story when you're looking for answers to questions that you have about life or about who you are or how you move forward in life so as indigenous people especially rooted within those creation stories I would say that what was so beautiful about our way of life our people our nations our communities was that we truly understood what it meant to be a human being that we really understood um that as a human being you're going to travel through these life stages you're going to travel through this life experience um and you're going to face many challenges and those challenges are not bad they're actually there in order for you to transform what we would call integrate the darkness or those challenges or that contrast transform it into what we would call wisdom for the purpose of propelling you forward throughout your life and how you see that is how indigenous nations explain the stages of life so when you look at that for example that medicine wheel you're going to go through various stages in life and you're going to go through the infant the child the youth the young adult the adult the the older adult and then the grandparent stage and your spirit is not aging what it is becoming um more developed and so for the Mayan people as an example my people believe that you are this beautiful little seed represented by the corn that is inside of your thymus or your immune system area and your spinal cord is that lifeline that you've come in agreed to live right that intention you've come to this world and so that little star seed gets planted and then you travel through your life experience and develop that star seed right you you come so you're planted into the womb of the earth which is your mom right and you're developing for nine levels which is if you look at a Mayan pyramid it's nine levels right and so you're here developing and being molded and we would say that it's the grandmother ish mukane the moon that's molding you and you stem from the seed of the sun so you're a little star seed a little light that's developing and they say that as you journey there is going to need uh you're going to need some some support because this life here in a human life where you feel everything your body is a sentient body it's a feeling body you're going to need to learn how to transform the experiences inside the womb of the earth right and so we understood we didn't have a romantic vision of the human life we didn't say you're going to come here and everything is going to be in harmony and you're going to just dance around and just going to be all these beautiful that is life but life is also contrast so as Mayan people as indigenous people we understood that if you're coming into a physical life experience all physical matter requires a positive charge and a negative charge right and but there's a neutral charge too and you can neutralize the positive and the negative so we understood that we understood that you are coming into a world a physical world in which there will be contrast meaning there will be a dark side to it a shadowy side to it and so we had ceremonies and teachings in place throughout every life stage that would support you as you travel along your life path so that you will always be able to come back to what my people call the point of zero the point of light and innocence so you travel and you experience all these things in life but you had ceremonies and life life teachings for every stage that would help you integrate what we would call the darkness and more wisdom and come back to that point of zero that point of light so what that tells you I can talk about this for years right but what that tells you that is that we as indigenous people understood what it meant to be human and we understood that as a human being your life itself is the learning and that you've come here because you're to learn right through life itself so we didn't put anyone in a classroom to sit and learn what other people have experienced we would just sit we would allow you to go through life and experience your own stuff and we would guide you through the ceremonies or the teachings to understand your own experience for the purpose of becoming your own wisdom so what what that's very different because if you notice the western education system you'll go to school and you're basically asked to take all this information and retain it memorize it and then be tested on how much you've retained and nobody really really asks or cares what you think about maybe only once you get to your phd level but your masters is mastering what's already been written out there by the experts right so as indigenous people indigenous education at the core sees the human being as the expert but not as a given you're the expert in your ability to engage with life experiences and transform those experiences into wisdom itself so do you know how many times i have climbed trees that i have fallen from having grandmothers and grandfathers look at me climb know that i'm going to fall from that tree but not at one time ever stopped me from climbing that tree and i never quite understood that until i realized that what they were doing was allowing me to learn from the experience myself and why is that so important it's the difference between knowing versus becoming the teaching so indigenous knowledge indigenous ways indigenous education understands that if all you ever the only way that you learn is from getting information all it is is an understanding but to actually integrate it so that you become that knowledge so that you are peace not just understand peace but you become peace you must have a lived experience of it first and that lived experience is often in the contrast so for example i was born in war so how do i understand peace because i understand the opposite of it which is war but it's not just in the experience of war it's in the capacity through ceremonies through healing ceremonies to transform the experience into a wisdom of peace so how do i know peace because i've integrated the experience of war and transformed it and so that's a really different way to see but that to me is indigenous education so in many ways you're like a cell phone right all these things come at you and then you process it to give a message right and so as indigenous people indigenous education my job as a knowledge holder my job as a teacher is not to make you believe what i believe but to to share what my experience has been in helping you move through your lived experience and come to your own conclusion so i'm not here to tell you what to choose i'm simply here to tell you you do have a choice that's how i understand indigenous education and so um that's a very different way but it's a very important way and um often people will the next question they'll ask me is well how do you transform the experience into wisdom and in every nation especially on the american what they call the american continent from the tip of the north to the tip of the south our teachings and our expressions are very unique and different how we receive them from the ancestors and spirit world is very different but at the core of it they will always tell you that you are an elemental being so you're made up of air you have earth you have fire called the spirit and then you have water and when those four elements are in balance the body begins to process and transform at the level of the cells and so anytime that you go into indigenous ceremonies where are they going to put you within the elements all ceremonies will have our medicines all right which is the earth will have our water will ask you to breathe in a sweat lodge you're going to have to know how to breathe deeply to activate the healing properties in the body and in the medicines so we understood ourselves as elemental beings so here's the other thing you're born elemental so in indigenous education we automatically know that you were born with the best technology ever created which is an elemental body so all you have to learn how to do is work the technology which is your elemental body so what do indigenous people do we teach our kids when they're little about their elements say that's why every ceremony we're on the land we're working with all the parts of creation which are all the parts of you so that you know how to work your technology your body for the purpose of transformation so you're connected to a spirit world an energy world that is that has massive massive amount of consciousness and so not only do you live these experiences and then use the elemental body to transform it into wisdom and knowing but also your cells are completely connected to the spiritual world in which you can also bring forward consciousness to share with the world that's why if you notice indigenous knowledge keepers elders or grandmas and grandfathers people will say how come they don't have any notes how come they just get up there and start talking or how come they can lead a whole circle and not have any notes and then they're always looking for PowerPoint presentations and they say how do you do that well because we know that we're connected to all our relations so not only does your body transform experience into wisdom your body is also connected to everything that exists all your relations and so can also bring forward wisdom to share with the world and uh some people in our modern times will call that channeling but um so we're internally referenced so the expert is you right by engaging with what you were built with naturally and so how much does education cost nothing because you're you're it right so you don't have to go to six years of university so somebody will say hey you know something about the world we know that the minute you're born into the womb of the earth she will give you nutrients she will give you you just she's gonna mold you right and it's in your that's your birth right so you're learning as well as teaching at the same time so in my culture they actually tell you what that seed is so my seed would be what keep the hatch which means um a flint knife like a medicine knife so when when i'm born my parents know that they've just given birth to this little seed called the hush so they know that i'm a medicine being that i've come to learn about what it means to cut negativity like a knife like the blade of a knife and it's the volcanic blade the volcanic knife glass that comes from obsidian right so they know that i'm going to be very sharp attitude too right so they know that i'm on this journey to discover what it means to not only be medicine but to give the medicine to my people another star seed might be what we call the hummingbird or eek which is the breath of life so if a parent gives birth to this little baby who the elders say that's the breath of life they know that that baby is going to journey to discover what it means to breathe life into themselves and then share it with the world as to how to breathe life into themselves so not only are you the learner you're also the educator the minute that you come into this world that's very different because it's all an internal process it's all about discovering who you are and and how to gift who you are to the world for the benefit and well-being of your community as a whole so there is no such thing as the leader in an indigenous community there's no such thing as the teacher in an indigenous community there's all these beautiful seeds going through the process of life and then when they come to the grandmother and grandfather stage they're to share what their experience has been through life share being the word right and then just to guide the other seeds that are going through it but it's a given that every single being that is born into a physical world is going to be a leader in the community within their own gifts or their own seed or their own teachings that's a very different way and also I feel I feel called to add that um the the other part for that for me that's really important is to understand that in in in the creation stories I've heard including my own peoples that the we didn't come to just know this we didn't know that tobacco was the way you talk to the spirit world we didn't know that you know um for the Mayan people we wear beautiful weaving weaved clothing it's gorgeous stunning um called the we bead for the women right and um so all of those things that our people know how to do all those ceremonies and all those um teachings that we carry and knowing that we're elemental beings and all comes from the teachings we originally received from the parts of creation and I feel really called to remind people of that and to say that because my vision for the future in indigenous education is to remember um to honor those original teachers and those original teachers are the animals you know I show people often when I do presentations um I showed a Mayan woman weaving her her traditional clothes and then I show a video of the spider when the spider spits out the its thread and she starts to weave that's where we got it from um and or when I talk to people about that medicine wheel comes from the that deer that deer that teaches you balance and how to be a sentient being that deer can sense when something's out of harmony so she teaches us balance again or the crocodile my people's culture teaches us what it means to know how to calm that mind so you don't bite somebody else's head off right or that water teaches us about purification and cleansing and you're made up of how much percentage of water and those thunder beans teach us how you know when they shoot their thunder it clears the air we can breathe better right after a thunderstorm and they teach us that when you come into a room and there's a lot of tension if somebody were just to be real and tell the truth as sharp as a thunderbolt it would clear the air in that room real quick and then we can get back to the creation right so all those things all that wisdom that indigenous nations carry came from somewhere and those original teachers my vision is that we'll remember to honor them remember to that a lot of the questions we have a lot of the stresses that we have a lot of the worries that we're experiencing today we don't really have to reinvent the wheel like we don't have to really stress ourselves out and you know you don't really have to battle each other for funding on how to create a successful youth program to deal with anxiety you might want to remember that to plant corn like our ancestors originally taught us our grandmother ish muka name right originally taught us will help with that why because she taught us that when you plant corn the little child when he plants corn that little seed into the earth and sees that corn grow into a full full stock that and then pulls the corn and makes tortillas to feed his people that little child is reminded of their capacity to manifest right to be able to create and they're not going to be so afraid about survival or feel all this anxiety about getting it right because they might not be able to make it out there which is what most teenagers are experiencing today an anxiety of life a fear of life just plant some corn so the child will see that they have a relationship with the earth and they can plant these seeds that will grow into full life physical life what are seeds their thoughts right so a child knows that their thoughts will manifest in a physical world so we don't have to go and panic about how do we create a successful youth program to deal with these modern issues we we have to go back to those original teachings and remember what our our original teachers taught us on what it is to live a good way and the more important thing to understand in my opinion about that is that i don't know if you've ever had a moment where you saw kind of an animal in the wild right and you just saw them and you were like or you or you stopped maybe and for maybe a short second there was a pause of like this intense moment it's like a small time and i believe that happens is because you're both recognizing each other so when we talk about a deer it's not that the deer is separate it's the deer is teaching you of what you have within yourself that is the deer so all the parts of creation external are really internal so balance is inside of you represented externally by the deer but it's really a part of who you are so if you really want to know what it means to be a human a successful human a healthy human to live a good life you would go to the original teachers that remind you of the parts that you have inside of you that are reflected within them right and so my vision is that we will realize that we're not supposed to be suffering or struggling here that we were really given everything but the one thing we're going to have to remember is what we would call humility right because deers you know they don't attend meetings and they don't email and they don't text you you have to go out into the bush and build a relationship with them and i that's my vision that we'll go back to those original teachers um because we've lost our way a little bit right i'm excited i think for many people it'll be the best of times and for many other people it'll be very hard times um but i i'm excited because i feel that humanity is going to begin to discover how powerful we really are and in order to understand the degree of power often you have to completely surrender right so you always experience the opposite to understand right and so i believe humanity is in a position right now where they're going to ask some really important questions about their way of life about government about education and about health care um which tends to be in a western or mainstream system very externally referenced right so the experts are outside of us right and or the power is outside of us right which is why we take to the streets and we protest because we're asking for the recognition of our rights and whenever you see that extreme feeling of disempowerment i know that what that means is you're also going to give birth to the opposite of it from an indigenous perspective right indigenous way of knowing and so that means that this entire time that we've been experiencing the suppression or injustices and violence and discrimination that we're also giving birth to a different reality and so what happens when an individual is made to feel like they have no power i believe what will happen ultimately is the discovery of true power and the collapse of the illusion that power could ever have existed outside of you right and if you look at the systems and structures that are in place right now including education you'll start to realize that it's been a system that's been built from historical experiences almost like a trauma response system a system that it's like a little kid that's been hurt so badly and has had to survive for so long that decides to build this little club called privilege and and and decides who's going to be in you know benefit from it and who's not like a little club like you can belong and you can't belong right but really the little child is trying to protect itself is trying to control its destiny it's it's out of fear and it's out of survival and it's out of um a belief of scarcity not enough right and so they're trying to hold on to this power and and they watch the people outside try to get into this to this club we might call that privilege right but it's not a a state of growth it's not a state of creativity and it's not a state of expansion right because at the core of it is trying to control right and so when you look at that that's kind of how I would describe our current systems and structures but I know that the individuals that are fighting or trying to get into this this what I call this club will also be caused to eventually discover that that's never where power has ever been and so why I say I'm excited is because I believe humanity is on the brink of discovering something so deep within side of themselves that they realize that they've never ever lost and then in fact they are all the current circumstances are pushing us to really discover that that infinite and expensive and beautiful divinely gifted power that we carry inside not arrogance not control that's not what I'm talking I'm not talking about force right I'm talking about that real power and we'll begin to see us ourselves as highly evolved creative spiritual beings having a physical human experience right that's my definition of humanity right and so I I'm excited because I I begin to realize that all that pressure all that darkness that we've experienced will be integrated for the possibility of discovering who we really are and what we're really capable of and that the minute that we begin to tap into that and we will tap into it because our current circumstances are pressure pushing us or collapsing us to ask those questions deeper there it's almost like it's it's an intensity that's it's kind of pushing us to really ask these questions and then it's like you're you'll discover it kind of like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz where she finally realizes she was wearing the shoes she could have tapped this whole entire time and I feel like that's what we're on the brink of discovering or what I call our master sounds and to begin to realize that we are creative beings and we have the capacity of transforming our external world on a level that I don't think we've ever experienced but you can only understand that if you've been able to tap into it on the inside so I get excited because I realized that one of the biggest tragedies in my opinion from the process of colonization or conquest that happened to my people or indigenous people is this belief that the creator is somehow outside of you so the separation from creator or from creation so and that tends to to be a common thing that I hear when I go to a ceremony people will plead to the creator they'll plead to creation but in my meditation or time spent fasting I fast every year the time spent working with the grandmothers and grandfathers in a lot of our teachings that doesn't really it's not there the creator is all that exists and it's actually inside of you so when you say creator please help us who are you really talking to but yourself a higher part or part of yourself that's actually connected to all that exists all your relations right so you're not separate you're all you're connected in and intertwined at all times so that's a powerful thing to discover not here but to discover here when you really feel it and you begin to see the spirit and everything that exists including this chair or this beautiful facility or all these sacred items that's why we call them sacred because they all carry a spirit and that spirit is the creator and it's inside of us as well so when you start to discover that you discover a power and and that fear begins to go away because you start to realize wait a second I'm actually creating all of this yep you are creating all of this and then instead of looking at the external world to change for you to be in a good place you start to explore the self and that's where we're all I think everything will change when the self is explored but not so that you can say I'm powerful but eventually in the exploration of the self you will actually transcend the self and when you transcend the self you actually realize all your relations that interconnectedness and you would never ever be able to harm another individual because you see them as you so often people will say well Maria if people believe that they're the creator isn't that a very dangerous place and I said no way because the only way to truly like if you really understood yourself as the creator it means that you would also see it in everybody else that's how you know you got there so you wouldn't harm you see you can't it's it's not possible if you don't see it in everybody else that you you haven't seen it in yourself yet so it's kind of a a natural law that um takes takes care of itself eh and so I am I'm excited for that so I don't see what we're going through um as something I want to push away or get rid of I believe in the capacity of the human being to transform so I often tell people this is a world where anything goes this planet the earth um this is a world where where you have what we call free will and you are powerful and creative you can create anything in this world and oftentimes that scares people right because it means you can create weapons and and war and all this stuff but I also know that you were built and designed with an elemental body that can also meet free will head on and has the capacity to transform anything so instead of being afraid of the darkness you would you would engage with it and integrate it to become more light that's powerful when you discover that so you don't lock all your doors trying to push darkness out of your home you would recognize the power within yourself to transform and integrate the darkness and when that kind of fear dissipates you welcome life again and I that's why I'm excited and so my vision for indigenous education is going to be that we're finally going to realize that it's the self that needs to be explored the human capacity needs to be explored and from my time with many um experts in the field not only of indigenous education you know um but also other experts that are non-indigenous in the quantum science and the quantum fields they're saying the same thing that our education system has to change and it's going to collapse because it's not working out anymore and what people are more curious about is well-being and what does it mean to be human and indigenous people guess what we have thousands and thousands of years of practice and knowledge around that question so what is our biggest contribution to the future we're going to share with people what we know about what it means to to be human beings so indigenous people will will be leading the way without a doubt will be leading the way if we can also heal and transform the darkness and experience of colonization and integrate it into wisdom to move all of humanity forward I don't believe we can lead the way holding on to that narrative and that hurt of colonization and conquest we must first be willing as indigenous people to remember who we are and our stories and our languages and our ceremonies so that we can integrate that dark experience transform it into more light and lead the way for the rest of humanity to find out who they really are