“You have accomplished the impossible! 30 communities with 14 film crews in remote locations in 6 different countries… to pull all of that together and deliver this important message is a feat of epic proportions.”
“I am stirred deeply by the messages coming from these communities and individuals as they help us see the pandemic through a wiser and larger lens, helping us consider how to move forward and live into the teachings the Earth is giving us now.”
…”Something truly exciting that we must experience to understand where we come from and where we are going. Congratulations!”
“A very visionary job. Congratulations — proud to be able to appreciate and share it.”
These messages and many more arrived in my inbox yesterday, the day of the online premiere of our new transmedia series, “Cosmology & Pandemic.” From Germany to New Zealand, from Canada to Argentina, people were viewing our new website.
As you may have seen, yesterday we went live with Episode 1 of Cosmology & Pandemic. We launched our new website, where you can find our feature film and our three stories, and previews of coming episodes, and sign up to stay abreast of the new developments on the series. At the same time, Mongabay and Mongabay Latin America published an excerpt called “Indigenous guides warn of repercussions if we don’t fix our relationship with nature.“
A different version of that story is now live on the Esperanza Project website: “Message from the Mamos, the Prophets of the Sierra Nevada.” We have also posted the other two stories – The Kamëntšá Biyá: Land Use Planning in Defense of the Sacred, and The Misaks: Balance and Harmony as Medicine. We will be sharing more about those stories next week, but if you want a sneak preview, you can click on the links already.
But what has generated the most response was the story behind the series, which I shared with you earlier this week, “A journey through ancient cultures during the pandemic that shook the world.”
The vision and the voices of our Indigenous colleagues are making waves. We have gotten enthusiastic responses from as far away as New Zealand.
What do you think of the series? Please give us your feedback — your comments on this post, and on our social media sites (listed below), are the fuel that keeps us going — and they also have the very real impact of making us visible.
It’s been gratifying to see the enthusiastic responses that we have received. Still, our audiences in English-speaking countries are lagging far behind those in the Spanish-speaking countries, and we are thinking hard about how to break through for the US and Canadian and European publics. This message is at least as important for the so-called First World, which has led the charge to commodify the planet’s resources that has created the circumstances that the Mamos, the Misaks and the Kamentsás are warning us about.
It’s really the conundrum of our times. How to awaken and mobilize our sleepwalking relatives from the mirage of modern civilization so we can turn this boat around? We have launched a three-week campaign to bring this series to the masses, and we hope you will help. We hope this series will be a powerful platform from which to plant seeds of a deeper, wiser consciousness, a step forward into that better world we know is possible.
We are grateful to all of you who have supported us — and now comes the work of planting those seeds. We are asking you to take one more step and help us spread the word about this series in your networks. We are sharing widely throughout our social media platforms and also through our email lists. You can find and follow us here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheEsperanzaProject
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.esperanza.project
Twitter: https://twitter.com/esperanzaprojec
WhatsApp: +52 33 1692 1230
I hope you will join us, in the ways that work best for you. And thank you, dear readers, for all that you do.
As fourteen-year-old Ati Fania Torres advises other young people — and this is a message to all of us: “Take care of Nature, so that she takes care of us.”
Muchas gracias por compartir la sabiduría de nuestros pueblos nativos e indigenas como las preparaciones de plantas medicinales, el uso del fuego, la obediencia a la madre naturaleza y al cuidado de nuestro planeta. Me siento muy orgulloso de ser colombiano y de aprender de nuestras propias culturas más legendarias en nuestro país
Thrilled it is being well-received. As you know, I focus on mundane things like apostrophes & “not clear who that is” but agree it is a feat of epic proportions and glad others are more effusive!
Thank you, DL, for all you’ve done to help make this series as clear and clean and understandable as possible. I hope you’ll continue as our volunteer copyeditor – your eagle eyes have helped us many times!
The plus in bringing wisdom and knowledge of people that have been ignored or worse, plundered and exploited to the tune of pharma corp united -that is now wearing the hat of Big Pharma, is valuable in the greater sense – however as a group working in the USA within the construct that is supported by the systems that set up the problem we are all facing, a big what next comes to mind? Many docs brought info into my world, and felt that was the extent of their mission. Who here is interested in unraveling and reweaving a narrative aligned with the larger picture, one that is able to bridge meanings and rest the path, the mission and purpose in a larger sense?
Thank you for your observations, Deborah – there is so much truth to that. Most of us are actually based in Mexico, Argentina and other parts of Latin America, though we do have one collaborator in the US and one in Australia. We see our mission as exactly that, unraveling and reweaving a different narrative. We appreciate your taking the time to read and comment!