Kindred World initiatives

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Kindred Media has chronicled the breakthroughs and insights of the Conscious Parenting Movement for over 20 years. Our wisdom archives and oral histories present and preserve this living, consciousness-raising movements efforts, and those of families to thrive despite America's ranking as the "worst place" to raise a child among developed nations.  Kindred Media is a collaboration of over 200 contributors and organizational partners who have collaborated to building a New Story of Childhood, Parenthood, and the Human Family. Discussions around the site’s New Story posts are facilitated by a Mighty Networks platform and a monthly newsletter, as well as multiple media outlets. A New Story Glossary on the website helps the readers discover new language for our New Story.

To tell a New Story, we're going to need new language, new storytellers and new, courageous vision of our human potential. Kindred began as first global eco-parenting magazine in 2002.

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The award-winning science of the Evolved Nest brings the integrated, interdisciplinary fields of usually siloed science together to help academics and politicians understand the innate wellness-driven worldview of parents and caregivers. An educational project spear-headed by the award-winning neuroscience research and books of Darcia Narvaez, PhD. Extensive resources for parents and professionals to discover the baselines for lifelong wellness.

Subscribe to the Evolved Nest monthly newsletter to stay-up-to-date on Darcia Narvaez's science, research, presentations, and posts.

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Check out the Evolved Nest's Self-Directed Learning Center.

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The Book Fairy Pantry Project is a grassroots family literacy movement to support bonding and attachment through reading to babies and children. This is Pam Leo's vision to reach at-risk families. Includes Little Freedom Libraries. A community-based, international initiative. Her book Please Read to Me was the 2021 recipient of a Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation grant. Learn more about how to start your own local family literacy Book Fairy Pantry Project on the initiative's website.

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The Kindred Fellowship Program takes college students on an innovative social justice educational journey to reimagine activism that  transforms the systemic roots of social injustice in childhood - Kindred Activism. This fellowship program began in May 2021. Watch the showcase presentations of fellows and program presenters on the website.

This program ran for three years and ended after the COVID quarantine. Watch the video presentations from instructors and students for the program on our YouTUbe channel here.

TThe moving and inspirational six-minute film illustrates our capacity for breaking our current Cycle of Competitive Detachmentand returning to the pattern of 95% of our human history: a healthy, peaceful Cycle of Cooperative Companionship. Breaking the Cycle is based on the multi-award-winning book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom, by Darcia Narvaez, PhD. 

Breaking the Cycle contrasts the two basic ways societies can function: the optimal approach, which most human societies through time have followed, is the Cycle of Cooperative Companionship where children’s basic needs are met; they grow into well-functioning, cooperative community members (from neurobiology and on up); and as healthy adults, they maintain the cooperative system.  Currently in the USA the opposite pattern is in place: children’s basic needs are not met, illbeing and dysregulation ensue, creating adults who are detached and distracted and keep this Cycle of Competitive Detachment going. The United Nations ranks the USA as 41st out of 41 developed countries for child and adult wellness.

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Take up the Eco Attachment Dance to expand your own ecological attachment/nature connection through a social media challenge. Each day for 28 days an activity will be posted for you to practice that day. Each activity takes about 5 minutes (though you can go longer). Based on the successful lab experiments by Dr. Narvaez and her students at the University of Notre Dame.

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Meet the Wayfinders is an oral history collection of video interviews with nine professionals, parents, and scientists who found ways around breastfeeding advocacy barriers, or just broke them! The series was created at the invitation of La Leche League International in celebration of their 65th Anniversary Conference held October 15-18, 2021. 

The Meet the Wayfinders Oral History Series includes an overview video, where participants learn the five hallmarks of wayfinder advocacy, aka Kindred Activism, and highlights of the nine interviews. The complete interviews are also available on this website. The Meet the Wayfinders Resource Guide in PDF form lists the many references discussed in the collection by presenter and can be found here.

In Meet the Wayfinders, viewers will discover reasons why cultural change is difficult and how the breastfeeding advocates featured in this oral history collection were successful in breaking, transforming, and maneuvering around barriers in:

• Breaking through the formula company “captured” biomedical field and colonization of populations worldwide: Cecilia Tomori, PhD, Director of Global Health and Community Health, Johns Hopkins University
• Breaking through the siloed-science of academia and research which doesn’t (can’t) support a whole child wellness model: Darcia Narvaez, PhD, Professor of Psychology Emerita, University of Notre Dame; Founder, The Evolved Nest
• Breaking through hospital and medical professional culture’s systemic racism, Kimarie Bugg, DNP, FNP-BC, MPH, FAAN, IBCLC, Founder, Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere
• Breaking through BIPOC colonization created anti-breastfeeding bias, Kimarie Bugg, DNP, Founder, Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere; Wesley Bugg, JD, Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere; and Jasha Lyons Echo-Hawk, Indigenous Milk Medicine Week and Indigenous Milk Medicine Collective, Co-Founder
• Breaking through mainstream media cultural bias, Jamie Grumet, TIME cover breastfeeding mother from May 2012
• Breaking through gender bias to create workplace and gender equity laws, Joan C. Williams, JD, Founder, Center for Worklife Law, University of California at Hastings
• Breaking through gender bias to inclusion of fathers in breastfeeding and birth advocacy, Wesley Bugg, JD, Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere
• Breaking through America's social and public policy policy abandonment of families to creating support networks, Patty Kornwolf, RN-C, Kindred World Founding Director
• Breaking barriers in Theater, Using Performance Arts for internal and external barrier-breaking, Cathleen O’Malley, playwright, MilkDrunk

In this series, the viewer will discover the hallmarks of successful barrier-breaking shared by the wayfinders who answer three questions:

• When were they first exposed to breastfeeding? 
• Were they surprised to discover barriers to breastfeeding, particularly in their field? 
• And how have they overcome, transformed, or moved beyond these barriers?

Through their personal histories, the wayfinders reveal to us a holistic form of breastfeeding advocacy, a strategy that does not wait for external, cultural forces to change and support individual and collective wellness. This new form of activism, that centers childhood and worldview as a sustainable strategy for cultural transformation, is being explored at the Kindred Fellowship Program as Kindred Activism (see more below).

All of our presenters address the opportunities awaiting us in our post-pandemic world and how, with an understanding of the hallmarks of successful barrier-breaking, we too, can answer the call to become a wayfinder, to introduce and integrate a new way forward right where we stand as individuals, and to joyfully gather to build a breastfeeding-friendly culture.

The many resources shared in these oral histories are all captured in the conference PDF here.

Watch the oral history collection.

"As military veterans of war, we have been witness to and experienced war and its destruction on all living things; we inform and educate people about its true nature and impact on the earth.  It is an honor for us to partner with Kindred World View in this project which will help us both individually and organizationally to becoming nature-centered and interconnected partners with other beings that make up the world," said Schnall.

“We are delighted to partner with Veterans For Peace and for the opportunity to work together  to gather their members’ insights and stories,” said Lisa Reagan, Kindred World’s founder and Kindred Magazine’s editor. “Kindred World has focused on bringing worldview literacy to our followers for over a decade. Decades of human consciousness research show the critical need for worldview shifting. Four Arrows’ Worldview Chart and Indigenous Worldview scholarship reveal there are only two essential worldviews: one where Nature is conscious and one where it is not. The WLP can help us discover which world we want to live in.”

Kindred introduced the Worldview Chart by Four Arrows in 2020. The chart has been expanded from 40 to 50 precepts through a collaboration with Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, PhD.  You are welcome to download a color or black and white PDF of the chart here. You can also purchase a poster of the chart here. Your purchase will support our nonprofit work.

In addition to featuring the updated Worldview Chart by Four Arrows, the WLP draws heavily from Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Earth,written by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, PhD, Kindred World’s president and founder of the Evolved Nest Initiative. The Worldview Chart was created by Four Arrows and originally published in The Red Road (chanku luta): Linking Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives to Indigenous​ Worldview, 2020. 

Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, PhD, are Kindred World board members and contributing editors for Kindred Magazine.

Visit the WLP website to discover extensive resources from Kindred Magazine, including interviews, articles, videos, and podcasts with Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez curated for self-study and community learning: www.WorldviewLiteracy.org.

About Four Arrows

Four Arrows (Wahinkpe Topa) aka Dr. Don Trent Jacobs is now core faculty at Antioch University’s online Ed.D. in Educational and Professional Practice. He is proud to be part of the educational team maintaining the progressive legacy of Antioch’s original founder, Horace Mann.

He was formerly with Fielding Graduate University for 24 years, Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota College and tenured Associate Professor at Northern Arizona University. With doctorates in health psychology and in Curriculum and Instruction (with a cognate in Indigenous Worldview) he has authored 21 books and numerous other publications relating to wellness, critical theory, education and Indigenous worldview. His publications have been praised by a number of notable thinkers, including John Pilger, Greg Cajete, Noam Chomsky, Thom Hartman, Henry Giroux, Sam Keen, Bruce Lipton, Dan Millman, Vine Deloris, Jr. and many others.

AERO elected him as one of 27 visionaries for their text, Turning Points, and he is recipient of a number of recognitions for his activism, including the Martin-Springer Institute’s Moral Courage Award.

Read Four Arrows on Kindred.

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Sharing a New Story of the Human Family means having access to media platforms and publishing houses that courageously champion the science, inspired insights, and ancient wisdom needed to help ourselves shift into a new state of consciousness. We look forward to sharing with you our new titles and authors beginning in 2022.

Read about our first book, by beloved author, Pam Leo, published in 2021 and awarded a $25,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, here in our press room. The children's board book, Please Read To Me, is a tool for family literacy and bonding for our Book Fairy Pantry Project initiative.

Read Kindred World's founder's story of how Joe inspired and provided the creation of Kindred World's nonprofit work over two decades ago.

How are Joe's works and insights carried on at Kindred World?

Joseph Chilton Pearce’s work, particularly his exploration of human potential, child development, and the impact of culture on intelligence and creativity, is deeply reflected in the mission and initiatives of Kindred World. Kindred World is a nonprofit organization that builds upon Pearce’s insights, advocating for a more conscious and connected approach to parenting, education, and social systems.

Here are some key ways in which Pearce’s work is reflected in Kindred World's initiatives:

1. The Evolved Nest – This initiative, led by Darcia Narvaez, emphasizes the critical importance of early nurturing environments for optimal human development, aligning with Pearce’s theories on the necessity of a supportive environment for the unfolding of intelligence and creativity.
2. Conscious Parenting and Education – Pearce wrote extensively about how traditional schooling stifles creativity and intrinsic learning. Kindred World promotes alternative educational approaches and parenting strategies that nurture a child’s natural capacities, echoing Pearce’s belief in the importance of secure attachment and authentic learning experiences.
3. Cultural Transformation – Pearce argued that modern culture often works against human potential. Kindred World actively works to reshape cultural narratives, advocating for systemic change in areas like childbirth, family support, and community well-being.
4. The Science of Connection – Pearce emphasized the biological and neurological foundations of love and bonding. Kindred World integrates research in neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology to support policies and practices that foster deeper human connections.

Overall, Kindred World serves as an extension of Pearce’s vision, translating his research and philosophies into real-world initiatives that promote a healthier, more connected, and more compassionate society

Visit the Joseph Chilton Pearce website, our memoriam to Joe and his work, at www.JosephChiltonPearce.org.

Visit www.KindredWorld.org and www.KindredMagazine.org. 

Read essays by and about Joe on Kindred Magazine.