Book Club: Mitchell

Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change
By Sherri Mitchell

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Quote: “As Indigenous people, we have been guided to carry the sacred teachings that allowed us to maintain our connected way of life, so that when this time came, we would be able to help guide humanity back to a more balanced way of being.”

I’ve been waiting to read this book for months. I didn’t know why I couldn’t take it off the shelf. Then, I read the section of the book about teachers where Mitchell says, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” This struck me to the core. I had inner work to do before approaching Sacred Instructions. I’ve been grappling with my own cosmology, and it wasn’t until now that I could authentically witness a traditional, Indigenous cosmology. 

For any readers who are White or unfamiliar with an Indigenous worldview, I invite you especially to read this book. Rather than a superficial practice of “New Year’s Resolutions” (this is an overgeneralization, and if you find it helpful to calibrate yourself in that way, don’t me stop you), consider this as an opportunity to approach wisdom that’s been passed down for centuries and delivered so powerfully by Sherri Mitchell. 

In response to the provocative question, “Will we as a species finally find a way to create a reality of peaceful coexistence, now that we know that failing to do so would be a complete destruction of ourselves?” she tells us, “A wound cannot be healed by pretending that it doesn’t exist. It must be examined, cleansed, and tended.” Mitchell writes with clear-eyed poignance about a holistic path forward for humanity, which remains largely asleep. She also says, “Decolonization is the beginning. It is not the end point. We don’t know what lies on the other side of decolonization, because we haven’t had the opportunity to create it. What we do know is that decolonization allows us to reconnect with the people and places we come from; it allows us to define our own identity, on our terms, in ways that are reflective of our own understanding of ourselves; and it allows us to speak the truth about our shared history of violence, heal our traumatic wounds, and redefine a sacred way with one another as human being and between human beings and the rest of creation.”

I cannot wait to read her next book, Sacred Laws: Foundational Laws of the Universe through an Indigenous lens, which will be released soon. Learn more about her work at https://sacredinstructions.life/. For The Kaleidoscapes, this book has many key takeaways, including the reminder that artists working at the intersection of climate and imagination must always collaborate rather than compete. If you are already doing brilliant work, we’d love to connect, support, and partner with you. 

This is truly a sacred text, and I recommend it as such. Read when you are ready. 

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Mitchell is one of the authors featured in All We Can Save— an anthology collection that we’ve been incrementally reading in community through a zoom Circle. The next Circle meeting will be held on January 2nd at 1pm EST, and you’re welcome to join! 

If you read one of these recommended texts and want to engage in dialogue with our Artistic Director, Gail, send an email! No question or thought is too big or small. I’m processing these texts, and I’d love to be a conversation partner to you. 
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