Sharing stories from his life on St. Paul Island, Indigenous elder Ilarion ‘Kuuyux’ Merculieff reflects on freedom, community, and the resilience of Mother Earth.
This time on The Four Sacred Gifts, Anita and Ilarion chat about:
- Learning how to be present as a core feature of Ilarion’s island upbringing
- Taking in the power of nature and silently integrating all deep experiences before discussing them aloud
- Being raised by a village, spiritual mentorship, and learning how to revere nature, wildlife, and all things
- Trusting the innate wisdom we are all born with—especially the natural intuition of children
- How Ilarion learned from sea birds and developed a deep relationship with the natural world
- The importance of feminine energy and the gift of feeling deeply
- Ilarion’s experience of being treated as a slave by the United States government
- Reclaiming freedom, moving to traditional teachings and a consensus-based way of governance
- The illusion of individualism and how we can exist fully in community
- The resilience of Mother Earth and our responsibility to purify ourselves and the world around us
“When you have something that hits you so wonderfully in your heart, you don’t voice it out. You integrate it in yourself. Voicing it out will lose its power. The power of nature is to be taken in first and you use few words. Words are considered superfluous or even dangerous by my people.” – Ilarion ‘Kuuyux’ Merculieff
About Kuuyux (Ilarion) Merkelieff:
Kuuyux (Ilarion) Merkelieff was raised in a traditional Unangan (Aleut) way on St. Paul Island. At age 18, he started his career in modern western society, both as an advocate for his tribe, and representing Native-American students at the University of Washington. Then, went on to head up many boards, councils, and organizations and visited and shared with many Indigenous cultures world-wide. Kuuyux is the founder of GCILL: Global Center for Indigenous Leadership. He dropped out of his establishment roles and ever since then he has been living the legacy of his traditional name and role—Kuuyux, which is given to one person in each lifetime, meaning: a carrier of ancient knowledge into modern times, a messenger. His present work revolves much around the council of Elders he co-founded, called the Wisdom Weavers of the World, to bring the messages of Elders from throughout the world to global attention. Kuuyux can be reached by email at [email protected]
“The thing that saved us was we went back to traditional teachings and discarded all the western ways which includes one man one vote. We went to consensus and respecting each other. We understood that process is more important than goal.” – Ilarion ‘Kuuyux’ Merculieff