July 29, 2021
Note: what follows is a somewhat whimsical presentation of some thoughts on the next leg of our journey to windward. The development of social software is similar to the development of any other form of software. You write up some code, compile it and then see how it runs. The next step involves keeping the parts that work as you focus on what didn't work to your satisfaction. Then you recompile the next version of the code, and see how that runs. Windward's in the process of compiling version 5.0 of its organizational software.
Casting Call for Season 5 of Alone Together
The quest for a viable alternative to patriarchy continues.
| The Prize: | a 126 acre self-reliant village complete with gardens, animals, workshops, and forest. |
| The Challenge: | adapt the three-clan model of a Haudenosaunee village to create a sustainable, self-reliant dynamic in which women and men share power. |
| The Location: | the eastern edge of the Cascadian wilderness, twenty miles north of the Columbia River. |
| The Timing: | Phase 1 of Season 5 launches in the fall of 2021 |
During the first four seasons of Alone Together, Windward's adventurers have explored the question of how to establish an alternative to the status quo. Much has been learned and accomplished as we created a 126 acre research facility and established a more self-reliant life on the edge of the Cascadian wilderness.
But, there is challenging work still to be done. The plan for Season 5 is to build on the organizational structure and practices that enabled the five nations of the Haudenosaunee to create a strong and stable alliance. That alliance lasted for five centuries, served as a model for the US Constitution, and inspired the Women's movement.
Each Haudenosaunee village was home to three matrilocal clans, each of which was led by a Clan Mother. These clans controlled the production of food, clothes, and housing, and oversaw life within the village. The Clan Mothers would select peace chiefs to represent the village in tribal and national gatherings, but retained the authority to remove any chief who overstepped his authority.
Season 5 will bring together up to half a dozen ninawauke to explore ways to recreate the balanced dynamic which enabled the matrilocal Haudenosaunee to become the largest alliance in North America long before the Europeans arrived.
Ninawauke is the term the Blackfoot used to describe women who had proven themselves to be aggressive, independent, ambitious, sexual, and bold. Season 5 is dedicated to the belief that a critical mass of ninawauke can come together to do something old in a new way, something new in an old way, and thereby win themselves a home.
If you're a ninawauke who's eager to build a working model of a better way, contact us at alonetogetherseason5@gmail.com and tell us about yourself.
Tell me more!
Is it actually possible for unrelated women and men to come together to create a sustainable village in which they share power? The herstory of the Haudenosaunee and the Oneida Community says that it is.
Benjamin Franklin started out as a printer who made his fortune recording and then marketing the deliberations of the Haudenosaunee councils. Europeans were eager to read about a powerful society that operated without a king, and Franklin's books were best sellers.
Later, when a correspondent questioned whether a society of sovereign individuals could work, Franklin responded, "It would be a very strange thing, if six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union, and be able to execute it in such a manner, as that it has subsisted ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union should be impractical for ten or a dozen English colonies." We believe that the same challenge applies to us; surely we can recreate what worked so well for so long.
The Oneida Community built on the example of the Oneida Nation (one of the five original nations of the Haudenosaunee) to create a community which empowered women to such a degree that laws were passed making it a felony to send information about Oneida through the mail.
Season 5's challenge will be to see if a half-dozen gutsy, determined women, aided and abetted by men they respect and value, can use self-reliant skills to recreate what the women of the Haudenosaunee and the Oneida Community were able to achieve a century and a half ago.
If you're up for a grand adventure, please get in touch.