What is BeNative?
BeNative is a project that weaves our collective intelligence to rekindle our deep connection with nature and the essential wisdom that fosters coexistence with all living beings. Through stories, rituals, and fantastic realism, we explore the ways in which humans and the territory communicate, shaping our sense of belonging and reciprocity with the world around us.
Framework:
Developing Belonging Through Stories, Rituals, and Fantastic Realism
Developing Belonging Through Stories, Rituals, and Fantastic Realism
Stories: Making Sense
Stories actively shape perception, rewire neural pathways, and influence emotional regulation. Oral traditions encode ecological survival knowledge through metaphor and allegory, preserving essential wisdom across generations. BeNative integrates storytelling through three interwoven dimensions:
The Stories Nature Is Sharing
Nature is constantly communicating—through wind, water, movement, and cycles. The challenge lies in how we perceive and translate these messages into something we can understand. By learning to listen, we rediscover our place within the larger web of life.
The Human Stories
Human cultures have long been interpreters of nature’s messages. This dimension explores:
- Indigenous knowledge and oral traditions (e.g., Braiding Sweetgrass).
- Scientific research and discoveries that mirror ancient wisdom (mycelium networks, neuroplasticity, deep ecology).
- Indigenous knowledge and oral traditions (e.g., Braiding Sweetgrass).
- Scientific research and discoveries that mirror ancient wisdom (mycelium networks, neuroplasticity, deep ecology).
The New Stories We Create
Our personal experiences shape evolving narratives. Functional storytelling allows us to shift perspectives, challenge paradigms, and cultivate deeper connections. This section explores:
- The role of storytelling in reshaping human relationships with nature.
- Changing conservation narratives (e.g., wolves as protectors vs. villains).
- How storytelling bridges past, present, and future.
- The role of storytelling in reshaping human relationships with nature.
- Changing conservation narratives (e.g., wolves as protectors vs. villains).
- How storytelling bridges past, present, and future.
Rituals: Patterns of Meaning and Reciprocity
Rituals are actions, cycles, and patterns that give meaning and dynamism to life. They function as a form of governance between people and nature, reinforcing reciprocity and interdependence.
The Rituals of Nature: Rituals are not just human constructs, nature itself operates in patterns that resemble ritualized behaviors. Examining seasonal, biological, and ecological cycles as forms of ritual in both natural and human systems. A way of connecting with territory.
Memory, Myth, and the Land – Exploring how territories and ecosystems store cultural memory through oral traditions, rituals, and indigenous knowledge.
Ritual as Technology: Rituals function like technology, structuring time, behavior, and social cohesion, and they are evolving alongside digital storytelling. The role of ritual in a world increasingly mediated by digital storytelling.
Fantastic Realism: The Intersection of Story and Ritual
At the intersection of stories and rituals, fantastic realism emerges as a way to manifest reality. Here, landscapes act as living archives of cultural memory, encoding knowledge about survival, ecology, and identity through myth and ritual.
At the convergence of storytelling and ritual, fantastic realism emerges as a means of shaping reality. Landscapes act as living archives of cultural memory, where myths and rituals encode survival knowledge, ecological awareness, and human identity. By blending the mystical with the tangible, fantastic realism offers a way to engage with the world not just as it is, but as it could be.
BeNative is an invitation co-create our new story by listening deeply—to nature, to ancient wisdom, and to the stories we have created. Through storytelling, rituals, and the power of fantastic realism, we remember our belonging to the land and rediscover ways to live in harmony with all living beings.