Chrissie Castro, Executive Director of the California Native Vote Project, reimagines the foundation of American society through the lens of the "Founding Mothers" of Indigenous communities. She emphasizes that these women were the true pillars of their communities, choosing leaders and making decisions that ensured abundance and well-being for everyone. Unlike the hierarchical and often inequitable structures introduced by European colonists, Indigenous societies prioritized gender parity and resource sharing, leading to a community without prisons or homelessness.
This deeply ingrained culture of sharing and stewardship, not just among people but with the natural world, guides Chrissie’s work in promoting economic opportunity. She described how in many traditional indigenous cultures, there are elaborate ceremonies and protocols around giving things away. Reflecting on the Founding Mothers, she reflects: “It would have been unthinkable to hoard wealth. In fact, wealth accumulation was not something that was respected or even thought of as a good thing.”
She passionately rejects the notion that there are insufficient resources to meet everyone's needs. Instead, she advocates for a spiritual and collective responsibility to care for one another, asserting that this principle should be the foundation of a reimagined economy and democracy. She says: “The spiritual purpose of all of us is to care for the collective and to be part of the collective. That is our purpose, and that is the founding principle on which our Mothers would have shaped our democracy.”
We caught up with Chrissie at The Opportunity Youth Forum (#OYF) Cross-Site Convening, hosted by the Aspen Forum For Community Solutions (AFCS). To learn more, please visit: https://lnkd.in/dWjqWmCT
