Remembering the Indigenous Mind:
A Journey of Healing and Transformation

by: Illana Berger, Ph.D.

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An important component to knowing ourselves and our indigenous nature and to recovering or remembering the mind that embodies this way of living/being is found in an understanding of the impact of imperialism and colonialism. To gain this understanding, we must de-construct the thinking, the assumptions, and the conditioning that has been passed down generation after generation since the initial contact with colonial forces. We must begin to understand and perceive of a time before colonization in which our original cultures were intact and in balance with the land. At that ancient time, we had autocratic dominion over our lives and were born into a universe which was wholeheartedly of our own cultural making, influenced by the forces of nature. We lived along side other cultures, practiced our rites and ceremonies, and sensed the world through the landscape and the sentient world that surrounded us.

In order to fully de-construct our lives, we first must be fully conscious that we have been colonized. Most all of us have been colonized in some way or another at some time or another. In fact, the impetus to colonize well may be a product of endemic colonization historically. We must understand the ways in which each one of us individually, as well as culturally, has embodied the assumptions and conditioning of colonialism.

Like a fish in water, it is difficult to comprehend the environment which surrounds us. However, without this awareness of a colonial conditioning, we cannot escape its clutches. We must come to understand how we were colonized and what that means in terms of our past, our present and our future. Though in the past we might have found ourselves absolutely marginalized, today we find ourselves part of the dominant culture, fully acculturated into colonialism and full participants in what is termed “the globalization movement.”

Globalization can be interchanged with imperialism. It is a movement that has enormous implications for us as cultural people, as well as for our role in the future of the planet. Globalization carries with it a conversation that is intoxicating. It inspires a new wave of exploration, discovery, exploitation, and appropriation by infusing emergent research with goodwill in the form of patents, new medicines, and genetic advances. The ends in this modality, it is suggested, are for the good of humankind, and therefore justify the means.

As researchers gather traditional herbal and medicinal remedies and remove them from their cultural context, as we gather belief systems and ideas about healing, about the universe, about relationships, and ways of organizing, and the practices and rituals that go along with such beliefs, such as sundances, sweat lodges, massage techniques, prayers, chants, use of stones and crystals, and specific dances and songs, the methods and practices of colonial intellect are imposed to secure new systems of rule and new forms of social proprieties.

Colonization is not only a cultural phenomena. It is extended into both the body and spirit as well. If we look at the character of cancer cells, we can see that cancer is a metaphorical physical expression of colonization. Cancer cells conquer healthy cells and convert them into the colonial practice of massive occupation of parts of our physical bodies. Eventually, the cancer cells become established, the next generation of cells become cancerous as though it always was their purpose, and the body’s resources (blood supply, for example) are redirected to support the now dominant cancerous culture. Only by removing, inhibiting or integrating the cancerous cells with the environment they now occupy can the indigenous cells return to their essential purpose, and support the body’s systems for its own good. When we deeply understand colonization and how to de-construct this in our everyday lives, I believe, we will also eliminate cancer from our bodies.

Colonization shows up in the spiritual realm as well. People who go into sacred sites oblivious to the spiritual power or significance of the place and act irreverently or unconsciously while there, demonstrate the depth at which colonization has numbed us to the presence of the sacred and of Spirit. When individuals or groups feel entitled to experiment or dabble in sacred ceremonies or rituals of other cultures, without comprehending either the sanctity or genesis of such ceremonies and rituals or the dangers of working with the powers of Spirit in this realm, the arrogance of colonization is revealed.

Colonization also shows up in the way we grow and consume our food. The use of refined or processed foods keeps us disconnected from our food sources, our land, and the beings upon whose very lives we depend. A false sense of security is fostered through the consumption of these processed, manufactured, and/or genetically altered foods. We eventually believe, consciously or unconsciously, that we do not even need the land in order to keep our bodies alive. We remain numbed and stupefied while the land and resources are controlled by imperial and colonial forces and ultimately are depleted of their nurturing abilities to our detriment.

Imperialism, globalization, and colonialism all succeed by disconnecting people from their histories, their thinking, feeling, and the ways in which they interact with the world. Systematic fragmentation eventually is seen in the expression of ourselves as people, as cultures, and as races in the modern world.

This is how it was in the past and how it still is: Most of us are alienated from our own cultures of origin. If we re-experience the stories which tell our histories, our creation stories, our personal and cultural narratives in the original language embodying the world view and traditional tribal knowing of our Ancestors, perhaps we would, could, might understand ourselves in a genuine, authentic, more loving and honoring way. And, if we come to understand ourselves in this way, then we can extend the wisdom gained to all other beings with whom and which we share this lifetime.>>more