Gwen Leaffe Carr

I attribute my success to relying on the wisdom of my ancestors. My people survived genocide, and I draw strength from that history and understanding. I understand both the colonial paradigm and the indigenous paradigm, which gives me a unique perspective. I know the real history of this country - how it was built on the genocide of my people and the slavery of African Americans, and how the U.S. government structure was formed by my people's governance systems. This deep understanding of history, combined with my personal journey of being adopted at birth, raised by a rich Greek family, then finding out I was Indian, finding my tribe, re-enrolling myself, and steeping myself in the knowledge of my tribe, has shaped everything I do. I was given my name, Menegwague, which means Butterfly Woman, because I bring change wherever I go. My life has been about metamorphosis, emerging from the cocoon of my own struggles to bring transformation to the world.

The biggest challenge and opportunity right now is that we are living at the epicenter of toxic patriarchy. This country was founded by white slaveholding men who borrowed the governance structure from my people, who had been governing for 10,000 years with checks and balances and representational democracy. But the most important thing they left out was the role of women. This was set up to fail from the beginning because they left out more than half the population. The cost of this is not just financial, it's our ethics, our morals, our ability to understand what is good and what is not good, what is healthy and unhealthy. The lines between good and evil are getting blurred. We need to have hard talks about the real history of this country and recognize that if we are going to survive as a species, we need to reconnect with our original, fundamental relationship with the Earth right now. The opportunity is to help the world rematriate and reimagine our relationships based on matriarchal principles of balance, reciprocity, and life-giving rather than life-taking systems.

The most important values to me are understanding our relationship with every living thing and recognizing that we are simply one of many species on this Earth. My belief system is life and Earth-centered, focused on reciprocity that is sacred. All of us are sacred, our bodies are sacred. We do not need to yearn for that which is greater than ourselves simply because we've been told that we are fundamentally flawed. I believe in planning for the next seven generations, which is what my people do. I have a deep, abiding faith and love for humanity and people. I believe in what is life-giving versus life-taking. The wholeness of life-giving requires balance between everything, including us. We are the ones that are out of balance, not Earth. I also believe deeply in dropping shame, because shame is the chains that bind you and keep you small. Shame stops you from accessing your core power as a human and your spiritual essence. It's about control, and you can't control powerful beings. My values center on helping people access their real power as human beings on this Earth.