WILD12 Delegate Spotlight: Lewis Cardinal

“As the Elders say, the most difficult road that we’ll travel is between the heart and the mind and then back to the heart again. And that’s where we really should be leading ourselves instead of working from the mind only, otherwise we’re going to miss these very important tangible elements of our humanity. They really connect us together, as human beings.”

Lewis Cardinal is Woodland Cree from Northern Alberta in Treaty 8 territory, and has worked for many years in cross-cultural and Indigenous communications and for development of First Nations spaces and education. His most recent achievement of an urban Indigenous ceremony grounds in Edmonton is the first of its kind in Canada, and opens access to many native individuals and families who had previously struggled to leave the city to practice ceremony. On an international scale, Lewis is also chair of Global Indigenous Dialogue, one of whose focuses is the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. He explains that the lack of progress towards said goals has moved him to bring Indigenous perspectives to sustainability development on a global platform, and spirituality is an inherent part of this. Bringing us back to traditional ceremonies, he says, is the key to restoring this balance.

“If we build from the heart, that is where love rests. That is where your spirit rests. So when you start to build from that standpoint, then the walls and the things that we create in the mind can easily be taken down. And then change is inevitable because you’re working from the very core of your very being.”