The International Council of Thirteen Grandmothers

When the Grandmothers from the four directions speak, a new time is coming.

— An ancient prophecy

One of the most profound examples of decolonial feminist foreign policy in action is the work of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. An international alliance of indigenous female leaders who focus on issues of environmentalism, internationalism, and human rights, the group emerged as a Council at the Dalai Lama’s Menla Retreat Center on Panther Mountain, Phoenicia, New York, in October 2004.

Fulfilling the ancient prophecy by paving the way for a new time, the council is dedicated to upholding indigenous practices and ceremonies while affirming the right to use plant medicines without restrictions.  

The Council has brought together grandmothers from the Yup’ik, Tamang, Mayan, Oglala Lakota, Omyene, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Mazatec, Hopi, Havasupai, Tewa, and Takelma communities, as well as from the Amazonian Rainforest and Tibet. The Council has also received support from formidable leaders and elders from other parts of the world.

The council meets once every six months, with a visit by members to each other’s homelands. They strive to build relations across their lands and to learn about each other’s cultures. They hold a seven-day prayer vigil during these meetings and deliberate on world events. The Thirteen Grandmothers were brought and remain united together by a common vision - to form a global alliance of prayer, for education and healing for the earth and all her children, and to protect the lands and cultures upon which all people depend.

Building Healed Futures

“The way that we preserve our ceremonies, our culture, is by sharing the knowledge with those who would take the time to listen.”

- Grandmother Mona Polacca, Hopi/Havasupai/Tewa

The thirteen grandmothers are a formidable example of longstanding practices of feminist foreign policy. Operating as a global alliance connecting communities across four continents, several tribes, and peoples, they are dedicated to prayer, education, and healing for the planet and all its people now and for seven generations to come. They draw from their ancient wisdom, traditional medicine, ancient healing rituals, and prayers as they build a path to a more stable future for humanity.

The thirteen grandmothers resist environmental destruction, capitalism manifesting in the form of widespread material culture, and militarism in the form of the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons. In the film “For the Next 7 Generations,” the thirteen grandmothers speak of how they all received a message telling them that the world is in agony and that we must come together to heal her and all her inhabitants.

They also strive for healing justice by addressing the legacies of colonialism. Relationships between the modern nation-state and Indigenous communities world over are built on the foundations of the doctrine of conquest and doctrine of discovery, underpinned by the principles of “manifest destiny.” These doctrines are edified in Papal Bulls, specifically Dum Diversis dated June 18, 1452, Roman Pontifex dated Janiary 8, 1455, and Inter Caetera, dated May 1493. These Papal Bulls effectively gave European nations dominion over the lands of indigenous people, and endorsed the European “Age of Discovery,” which ultimately resulted in the occupation of, settlement over, and theft of Indigenous communities world over. This foundation remains alive and well to date, and is kept thus through systemic violence.

Resisting the legacy of Colonialism, the grandmothers met in Rome in July 2008, to dialogue with the Vatican on the Inter Caetera, a Papal Bull dating back to 1493 that authorised the conversion of Indigenous people of the then newly discovered Americas to Christianity. While they laid a flag of peace and conciliation outside the Saint Peter’s Basilica and issued a written statement to Pope Benedict XVI along with gifts, they were not received by the Vatican.

These grandmothers invest not only their communities’ long-held wisdom, but also their efforts in the late stages of their lives to build a future for generations they may never see in their lifetime. A powerful subversion of the consistent trope of “leadership” being about the individual – oftentimes a pursuit of cult status – these women are not in this journey for themselves.  

The thirteen grandmothers are also building healing relationships with nature through the use of ancient rituals, sustainable and gentle agricultural practices, and protecting water to keep it clean and accessible as the root of all life will die without water. They stand for peace, justice, food sovereignty,

References

Mona Polacca (2011). "Realizing our Roots and the Power of Interconnectedness," in Tyson Miller, Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America. SEE Innovation, pp. 399–400.

 Patricia Monaghan (2010). Goddesses in World Culture, Volume 1. Praeger. p. 159.

 Rigoberta Menchú (2007). Learning Endogenous Development: Building on Bio-Cultural Diversity. Practical Action.

Joan Chittister (2009). "The past is a very living thing: Try not to forget it". https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/where-i-stand/past-very-living-thing-try-not-forget-it