Copyright Resilience
The Planet Local Summit, which took place in Ladakh from September 3-7, brought together visionaries, practitioners, and cultural change-makers to celebrate localisation, indigenous wisdom, and co-shape pathways for futures that are local, resilient, and healthy. Writer and regenerative farmer Gregory Pettys shares his experience at the summit, reflecting on travel as a key ingredient of learning and connection, and on embracing feminine leadership to restore balance, community, and harmony with the rest of nature. Recently I was invited to attend the Planet Local summit in Leh, Ladakh to join a celebration of the life work of Helena Norberg-Hodge. As a regenerative farmer and staunch advocate for localization, Helena has remained one of my greatest inspirations for over two decades. In a world desperately lacking genuine mentors, she consistently demonstrates what it means to gracefully carry the title of elder. Just as did her kindred spirits, Joanna Macy and Jane Goodall, who recently bid us all farewell, Helena has dedicated her life not only to the benefit of those around her but so too to those far from her and whom she will never know because they have not yet been born. This kind of noble dedication to life is indeed what Cree author Martin Prechtel is referring to when he speaks of “becoming an ancestor worthy of descending from.” It was an honor to be in attendance with hundreds of visionaries, seed keepers, indigenous activists, writers, community organizers, healers, natural builders, water rights advocates, story tellers, etc. to discuss the many ways in which countless beings of our shared planet are now coming together to actively co-create a more inhabitable world, one that does not require allegiance to any state or central bank but rather invites the revival of ancient understandings that modernity has nearly wiped out. In times like these, when humans are statistically more lonely and isolated than they have ever been, it is essential that we prioritize convening regularly, in our own communities and so too at special events such as this, to remind ourselves of that which the media fails to shed light on; People are grand, filled with myriad creative insights and contrary to the hateful narratives of divisiveness now so widespread, are deeply in love with each other and our earth. The author (left) with Helena Norberg-Hodge (centre) and Thais Mantovani (right) Narratives beyond the loud mainstream For a couple glorious weeks in one of the most elevated regions on Earth, I and a merry group of hopeful devotees of soil and hope managed to remind ourselves that there are countless other narratives beyond Trump, Musk and Netanyahu’s incessant screeching. Yes, a genocide is happening in Gaza. Yes, a man-made famine is wiping out countless beings in Sudan. Yes, white supremacy is dangerously on the rise worldwide. We cannot be naive about any of this. Modern life has without doubt ushered in the sixth great extinction. We aren’t heading towards an apocalyptic scenario, we are deep in the throes of it, now. This is all very much true. Yet we mustn’t be so consumed with this hellish nightmare that we forget to balance our understanding of this unique moment in our shared collective human journey with the countless other stories unfolding around us now that mainstream media seldom, if ever sheds light on. You won’t hear on Fox News about how masterful the indigenous tribes of the Himalaya are regarding farming year-round with very little water in seemingly uninhabitable regions. In fact, on most corporate-run news channels you won’t hear about the importance of soil and water. Modernity has been startlingly successful at managing to all but entirely sever all awareness of the human/earth relationship. The once universally recognized sacred contract (i.e. natural law) with this planet we all depend on for life is strangely never spoken of on CNN, Aljazeera, or The Times of India. Don’t go looking on Truth Social for any details regarding how ancient Buddhist practices can offer more sustainable economic structures for our rapidly crumbling global economy. Don’t expect to hear about how Julian Brown, the 22-year-old black inventor from Duluth, Georgia has discovered a way to tackle plastic pollution by converting it into clean fuel (that can power cars!). One must go out into the world on ones own terms to learn about such magic. To find Truth, we must be like pilgrims, and go further. Which is precisely what those who trekked beyond the formidable mountains surrounding Leh, Ladakh for the Local Futures Summit did. Takeaways from the Local Futures summit There were many takeaways from the Local Futures gathering in Leh. But two points really hit me hard. Had I not been physically present I doubt the earth-shattering importance of these notions would have resonated in me with such volcanic force. It is imperative that I stress this point. Since COVID, our world has become exponentially more insular. We experience life through screens. We rarely even feel the actual temperature anymore as air-conditioning monitors all seasons with consequential precision. As such, our sensitivity to actual life is rapidly beginning to atrophy. We cannot truly understand life unless we actually bear witness to it in real time, with the multi-storied geography of a place making its mark on our bare skin. A map hanging on the wall is mere entertainment if the landscape it represents is not actually entered into. I for one came to these beliefs because of genuinely lived moments that slowly reformed me, tender, precious and oftentimes tragic experiences shared collectively with other humans (and beings of the more-than-human realms too) in real time, in multisensory penetrations of presence not merely observed through an iPad or read in a book, but transmitted symbiotically within a particular space in time. Intellectual knowing falls short here. What was gained by those who made the voyage to Ladakh was not the result of debating in a classroom or coming to some grand conclusion after hearing unqualified podcast bros discuss crypto and A.I. from some comfy air chair in Texas. These “takeaways” presented themselves as gifts, earned via sensually encountered engagements with the raw elemental realms of reality. A rare experience indeed in these curious screen-obsessed times. Travel is fundamental to learning The first take away, which piggybacks off what was just here mentioned, is that traveling is important. We need to travel more. We need to experience sensually new possibilities and learn directly from other humans we can eat a meal with, take a hike with, cry, laugh, be confused and excited with. There is a wild belief among well-intended climate change activists that it is a noble thing to cease to travel. Indeed, many of the corporate giants today cashing in on greenwashing tactics subtly (and not-so-subtly) attempt to feed this belief to us all too, along with other fantastical ideas that suggest that the messes we are now facing are our responsibility, that we are responsible for it and we need to fix it. While this may be true in some ultimately speaking, when rationally observing relative truth, the fact is that no, “we” did not do this. There is a relatively small amount of astronomically wealthy people who are single handedly responsible for climate change, for genocide, for polluted water, air, etc. And guess what, they travel all the time. And as they do so, they learn ever more ways to make more profit by keeping us ill informed. They know how important it is to travel, i.e. to learn. Photographs from the author’s travels in Ladakh Travel is arguably the single best way to learn. As Mark Twain famously said in his classic work, Roughing It, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Obviously, we shouldn’t travel in private jets and in the increasingly common extractive sleazy-tourist kind of way but to travel as a genuine seeker, with a deep-seated understanding of reciprocity centered at the core of each movement isn’t only an OK thing to do, it is something we must do.. We need to get out and journey far beyond what we know, physically, and cultivate nourishing relations with the supposed “other”. The future is female The second take away, which I warn you is highly controversial, is this; The future is female. In this liminal space we find ourselves now in where the old world is clearly dying and the new world has yet to be born, we find two greatly differing views regarding gender. One suggests that men, especially white men, are somehow divinely accorded with the capabilities of leadership in all areas. The other court declares that all are equal, that women should have the same rights as men. Yet what I have experienced (again experience is the key word here), through direct exposure to lived examples of this many, many times, in many locations the world over, including Ladakh, is that in places where females are leaders, all life benefits. “Female” in this sense has little to do with one’s anatomy. People must be free to be who they are, as they are, naturally. Autonomy is as essential a trait here as anything else and, ironically, the openness to such is itself a feminine trait. We are talking more about qualities here, not biology per se. In Ladakh and elsewhere I have ventured where the traditionally recognized traits of feminine energetics (i.e. nurturing, empathetic, compassionate, sensitive, emotionally intelligent, intuitive, creative qualities, etc.) there is generally less war, cleaner water, more free time, less depression, more creativity and thus more innovation, better health, less fear, etc. Whereas when the generally understood energetics of the masculine (i.e. brute strength, courage, assertiveness, dominance, competitiveness, etc.) are most valued the result is generally a constant state of war, perpetual risk of famine and/or reliance on chemicals not soil, obvious decay of society, etc. This may seem like an over generalization. Indeed, for most of my life I have also felt so. Yet what was mentioned at Local Futures in this regard aligns perfectly with what I have myself discovered when I travel to places in the world where small-scale, localized communities have masculine strengths not dominating how society is run but skillfully serving an exalted feminine leadership team. The result of such an arrangement is vastly more beneficial to the entire ecosystem than the brute top-down power structure we typically see in the modern world today. One need not look far for examples of this. The key thing to notice here is how a misguided understanding of what masculinity is has resulted in widely spread abuse of power, mismanagement of resources and an increasing inability to live harmoniously. Real masculinity is by nature but an extension of fully developed femininity, and vice versa. Humanity has experienced this balance in countless expressions throughout the world and throughout history. We mustn’t again backslide into a debate about whether women are better fit to lead than men or the other way around. For this grossly misses the point. When we consider that “The Future is Female”, we are humbly returning to a heightened understanding of more noble traits lying dormant in all of us. Construction of a traditional earthen home (left) and a Ladakhi woman collecting flowers (right) Photographs by the author Maybe my take-aways are nonsense. I do not claim authority and none of us should. If anything is certain in these liminal moments of myriad transitions it is that nothing is fixed or eternally certain. I feel confident in assuming that all in attendance at the Local Futures Summit perceived the event in a thousand unique ways and that all the differing revelations harvested there carry great value, values we could all benefit from in this time of increasingly homogenized, fear-based thinking. Sitting, walking, laughing, crying, debating, eating, making crafts, dancing, etc. with peoples from all nations, all walks of life, all genders, ages, etc. allowed me to delightfully escape the mainstream view that suggests there is a well established, technologically advanced, modern formula that we all need to understand and fall in line with. In truth, multiple truths abide, ancient futures that offer myriad alternatives to business as usual. In Ladakh, we learned that localisation looks a million different ways and sings in a thousand different keys, but it always gives back more than it takes and is humble enough to listen. As Einstein famously said, we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. For too long the dominant view has been locked inside an echo chamber controlled by an elite, narrow-mined few. At the Local Futures Summit, we were briefly offered a glimpse at ways of addressing the most pressing matters of our time in a way beyond that which the most powerful suggest, ways beyond right and left, beyond religion, beyond conventional understanding altogether but more attuned to eternal ways of nature, and dare I say it, love.I was deeply moved by the appeal to empower more the compassionate side of humankind and return to a more relationship-based experience deeply rooted in local wisdom that is able still to branch out far and wide to co-create with a wide-ranging network of diverse belief systems. Like the vast seas of mycelium networks co-mingling under all healthy forests, we must travel well, listen deeply, be bold enough to change when necessary, and humble enough to admit when we are wrong. Read Gregory’s Substack at Hiraeth: Post-Activism in the Anthropocene. To learn more about Panya Forest visit panyaforest.com. Gregory can be contacted at [email protected] Note: This article has been published in the backdrop of the ongoing Ladakhi movement for constitutional safeguards for the culture, environment and economy of the region. Since at least 2023, Ladakhis have been demanding statehood and inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India that would grant them autonomy in governing the region in tune with its unique cultural and ecological conditions, and ensure they get dignified livelihoods. Here are some resources to learn more about the Ladakhis struggle for justice, safeguard and protection of their lands, culture and ecology- Ladakh violence: How government inaction on its promises on autonomy has fuelled frustration Ladakh’s battle for identity and autonomy ‘Ladakh Situation Symbolic of Larger Environmental and Social Crisis in Himalaya’: Leading Activists Teaser image credit: Author supplied.
