Poet and singer-songwriter Lyla June Johnston shares a conversation with Melanie Moser about finding beauty in our own lineage, as well as others. Lyla also explores the unique struggles and blessings that women encounter along their spiritual paths.
Lyla June is a nationally and internationally renowned public speaker, poet, hip-hop artist and acoustic singer-songwriter of Diné (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) lineages. Her music and message centers around intergenerational and inter-ethnic healing, as well as an articulation of Indigenous Philosophy. Her life story of addiction, abuse, discrimination and eventually overcoming these battles gives her a powerful vantage point from which to share a message of love, unification and healing. Lyla’s urgent, vibrant stage presence and ability to convey paths forward for indigenous liberation have brought her to universities, school assemblies, conferences, music festivals, and community centers across the United States and over ten nations around the world.
All Of My Relatives
Melanie and Lyla June talk about the Lakota prayer of Mitakuye Oyasin and how it was eventually appropriated by outside cultures. They discuss the complex issue of indigenous cultures being adopted by the outsiders and former aggressors.
“Mitakuye Oyasin is a prayer for all your relatives. Obviously, in the Lakota worldview our relatives are not just our brother and sister or our grandma or grandpa. It extends to the trees as our relatives, the buffalo, the mycelium as our relative. Even the rain and stars are our relatives. It is really a universal prayer for everything.” – Lyla June Johnston
Discover lessons of peace, equanimity and divine purpose from the Muscogee Native American tradition with Tom Bluewolf in Ep. 221 of the Mindrolling Podcast
Deep Beauty (15:00)
Lyla speaks about the tendency for disaffected Europeans to look towards other cultures for value and substance. She and Melanie look at how these seekers can find beauty and wisdom deep in their own lineage.
“Yes, let us learn from Native American cultures, from Indian cultures, let us learn from South American cultures and lets never forget that we have beauty too. It is part of our duty to research that beauty.” – Lyla June Johnston
A Woman’s Covenant (29:55)
We look at how spiritual practice is different for men and women in the Lakota culture. Lyla shares an inspirational reflection on how sisters of all culture can recover and move forward after experiencing sexual trauma.
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