The educational resources below were created by students, artists and collaborators in the CNE Catalyst Program

A Forest called Amazon PDF

Children’s book written by Chief Ninawa Huni Kui

Forest Walk Invitations PDF

Guided forest walks created by Azul Duke, Kyra Royo Fay and Nakoda Hunter

Hoodwinked in the Hothouse PDF

This collection of articles about false solutions to the CNE was put together by the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Created by GTDF, design by Kyra Royo Fay: 55 cards, 4 suits

The cards can be printed to order here.

Step back from your self-image to decenter yourself and center the issue at hand (this is not about you)
Step back from your generational cohort to see how other generations may have different interpretations of, and stakes in, the challenges at hand
Step back from the universalization of your social, cultural and economic parameters of normality to see your privilege as a loss of perspective, experience, insight and ways of relating
Step back from your immediate context and time to see wider patterns of change in social, cultural and ecological systems across different timescales
Step back from familiar patterns of relationship-building and problem-solving that you have been socialized into, in order to tap into already viable, but still unimaginable, possibilities
Step back from the normalized pattern of separating humans from the rest of nature, and take into account the harm we have inflicted by elevating humanity above other species
Step back from the impulse to find quick fixes and expand your capacity to face and navigate uncertainty, complexity and complicity without feeling overwhelmed or immobilized

Step forward/aside with honesty and courage … to see what you don’t want to see: commit to expanding your capacity to sit with what is real, difficult and painful
Step forward/aside with humility … to find strength in openness and vulnerability: to let go of your arrogance, sense of merit, status and self-importance
Step forward/aside with self-reflexivity … to observe where you are coming from and how what you are doing is being interpreted by and affecting those around you
Step forward/aside with self-discipline … to do the work on yourself so that you don’t become work for other people
Step forward/aside with maturity… to do what is needed rather than only what you want to do and commit to becoming a good elder and ancestor for the next generations of life
Step forward/aside with discernment and attention… as you navigate the traps and tensions of undoing harmful patterns within and around you
Step forward/aside with adaptability, agility and stamina for the long haul … and learn to find joy in the struggle itself – rather than in the expectation of an imagined prize at the end

Let go of “the script”, the familiar linear single story that simplifies complexity, gives us a false sense of security and severely restricts our imagination
Let go of “the ruler”, the desire for feeling right and righteous that gives you a false sense of certainty and self-importance and prevents you from decentering yourself and being present
Let go of “the bubble wrap”, the desire to please those you want validation from and the tendency to go along to get along to achieve harmony and placate conflict
Let go of “the steering wheel”, the fantasy that you can control the uncontrollable, placate uncertainty, plan flawlessly and achieve predictability
Let go of “the filtered selfie” (ego), the attachment to the carefully curated profile you crafted for yourself, which turns you away from what is difficult and uncomfortable
Let go of “the dictionary”, the expectation that meanings will be fixed, universal and stable, open up to the ambivalence, ambiguity, movement, and fluidity of language
Let go of the “flattened identity card”, the fantasy that you are self-transparent, objective and coherent, that you are in complete control of who you are and who you will become: embrace the mystery of our existence.