Beginning in 2012, the ECV will offer programs within a framework much like a wisdom school. We call this framework pathways of indigenous technologies, a cycle of learning reflected by the Dagara medicine wheel and other indigenous ways of learning which moves participants deeper and deeper into the wisdom of the Dagara as taught by Malidoma Somé.
Launched on March 22, 2005, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the 10-year period of 2005–2015, as the UN International Decade for Action Water for Life.
It has been noticed that in the modern world, water is an element that has fallen in reverence. Instead, it has descended into a mere consumable product, often taken for granted in developed countries such as Europe and North America. For many peoples and cultures across the world, however, water is still held as sacred. Traditional knowledge alerts us to the fact that water is not merely a commodity.
In many religions and beliefs, water plays a central role: as a source of life, water represents birth and regeneration. Water cleanses the body and, by extension, purifies it. These two qualities confer a highly symbolic – even sacred – value to water, which is a key element in many ceremonies and religious rites.
The East Coast Village is located in the town of Berlin, Rensselaer County, NY. Though the entire county runs the Poesten Kill, a creek which flows westerly from its source at Dyken Pond in the town of Berlin to its mouth at the Hudson River in the city of Troy.
