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A key step toward re-indigenization is a “coming home” to our own bodies, a deep “rooting” into earth through our own flesh, a return to the sense of connectedness that is ever-present in sensation. There are many simple somatic practices that can help us access sensation any time we are feeling “out of body.” (For starters, see the short resource list at the end of this essay.)

Art as Technology, Not Luxury

At this crucial time in human evolution, it is to our benefit to uproot the foolish notion that The Arts are only for the “talented” and for “professionals,” or that they are a luxury the average person cannot afford. The embodied arts are far more than frivolities for the privileged few. These systems were evolved over eons by the grassroots and are best regarded as potent and sustainable “soft” technologies in the truest sense of the word. (Technology comes from the Greek word tekhne, meaning skill or art.)

In direct contrast with “hard” technologies (automobiles, computers, etc.), which commonly pollute and consume vast resource supplies, the body-based arts depend only on resources within ourselves. Considering the dangerous imbalance in consumption levels and the over-reliance on hard technology in industrialized societies, a refocusing upon the soft technologies is an intelligent survival strategy.

Technologies of the social realm like dance, ritual, storytelling, and song (the original software!) have always served as communication methods, social exchange and conflict resolution strategies, information transmission schema, knowledge banks, and efficient energy utilization patterns. And, as anyone involved in ecological and activist groups can attest, it is primarily social conflict that impedes our progress and creates burnout, not lack of hard-tech. The Arts serve as grease for the social wheels. Thus, if social dysfunction is the great limiting factor in implementing truly ecological habitats, it is greatly helpful to view them as tools for re-indigenization.

Embodied Activism—Countering Dissociation

As techno-industrial society races along ever more digital and virtual pathways, humans witness the disturbing side-effect of losing touch with our embodied experience. Our modern habit of fouling of our own nest is evidence of a people suffering acutely from disconnection and dissociation from the body at every level—the personal body (Soma), the social body (Community), and the greater earthly body (Gaia). Dissociation is a serious psychological pathology yet one so widespread among modern people that it is unfortunately considered normal—and even encouraged by technologies in which we “inhabit” virtual and cyber “worlds.”

Since our bodies are quite literally composed of and from earth (carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen …), a re-inhabiting of our bodies amounts to a profound activist strategy for re-association with Earth and re-indigenization to Place. Aligning with our bodies may seem to be a small contribution, but since our habitual denial of the body lies at the root of our mistreatment of the earth, these small ripples eventually become a sea change that affects the entire world. Simply by becoming advocates for our own flesh and blood, we initiate an embodiment of activism, practicing behaviors that come increasingly closer to those of true “indigeneity.”

By utilizing the arts, we can facilitate a shift away from slavery paradigms where we push our bodies beyond their capacity, and instead learn to honor our needs for proper alignment, rest, and play as essential to community function. Such a body-based philosophy encourages us to dissolve outdated views of manual labor as a chore that is somehow “beneath” us. Instead, we learn to value earthwork as a privilege: an enjoyable and healing endeavor where we can express our creativity, breathe fresh air, and exercise our bodies—all the while helping the shift toward sustainability.

Beyond the Mat: The Yoga of Earthwork

All the arts originally evolved within the context of Place and Community. Long before they arrived in