Exploring Roots of Entrepreneurship... (part 1)

Chatting with a group of friends about land, time & economy

In my mother's town every November 19, there is a sunrise ceremony on the banks of the Stann Creek River.  It is a ceremony that commemorates the arrival of the Garifuna People to the safe shores of what is now Belize.  Central to the commemoration are:  song, oratory, canoes and the plants.  Specifically, the food plants that are brought from the distant homelands, to be re-planted, making this new shore "home".

Working our borrowed Minnesota Milpa

Meso-American People have a tradition of economic development that is highly integrated into the concept of community.  Among many Maya communities in Southern Belize, for example, when a new couple formalizes their commitment to move through life as a nuclear family unit, the entire community mobilizes to gather the materials necessary to build their new home together.  A home that is comprised of the natural elements obtainable from their surrounding environment.  A home that is measured using units that are comprised of the male partner's own unique hand and height measurements.  A model that truly demonstrates the harmony that can be achieved between humans, nature and our environment.

Milpa in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, Belize

These types of highly integrated practices - which have sustained thriving, vibrant communities through the rise and fall of more than one empire - are of great importance and relevance to our current human task of regaining balance and equilibrium between each other and our first, natural environment - Mother Nature.

----

Clip from a soon to be released documentary on the Indigenous Youth Freedom Project