The Language of Awe

“We won’t save Mother Earth, Mother Earth will save us”. This was just one of the many disruptively transformative teachings shared by the Lakota teacher and master musician, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, on the night I first heard him speak in a crowded central London venue ten years ago. I was fortunate to listen to him teach many more times over the five years that we worked together, and the wisdom he imparted about Lakota cosmology and culture has been a foundational source of guidance in my work.

When I listen to Tiokasin, beyond his words (and his frequent challenges with translating the Lakota worldview into English), it feels like stepping into (or at least closer to) that multi-dimensional, non-hierarchical, and relational world, inhabited by his people, the Lakota nation of the Cheyenne River, South Dakota. It can sometimes be confusing, often intentionally so on his part, but for a time, I feel unshackled from the Western mind and reminded of the radically other, ancient, and intelligent ways of being human on this wondrous planet.

I hope you enjoy this conversation.

About the Episode

In this episode, we speak about Tiokasin’s early experiences and traumas in the boarding school system, and how, through the violent methods of colonisation, his people (and others) were forced to assimilate and forget their languages and lifeways. We speak about the importance of intuition and listening to Earth as an antidote to the control and domination paradigm deeply embedded in modern ways of relating, even within the environmental field. We talk about the multi-dimensional Lakota language, a language of relationality that understands the world in terms of energy, and finally, the shared human language of awe that can help us to return to a relationship of respect and humility for the ‘ mystery’ or ‘creative force’ imbued within all life.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota and has a long history with Indigenous activism and advocacy.

Chapters00:00 Introduction to Tiokasin Ghost Horse
02:16 Tiokasin’s Personal Journey and Indigenous Identity
04:40 The Impact of Boarding Schools on Indigenous Culture
09:30 Understanding Domination and Relationship with Nature
12:43 The Teaching: Earth Will Save Us
20:39 Decentering Humanity and Listening to Mother Earth
25:17 The Cycle of Life and Earthly Relationships
27:59 The Power of Language and Consciousness
31:32 Understanding Time and Ancestral Connections
35:04 The Language of Earth and Relationality
38:07 The Language of Awe and Innocence
43:38 Hope, Action, and the Future of Earth Consciousness