About Us

Standing on the Shoulders of our Ancestors

Nature’s Garden for Victory and Peace is a Black Indigenous community focused on self-reliance, innovation, and working with the “head, hands and heart.” Our work is inspired by George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington.

Ancestor George Washington Carver, scientist, artist, inventor

Ancestor Booker T. Washington

A Village Re-Imagined: How we live at NGVP

Our community is dialogic, experiential, innovative, and spirited —A Village Re-Imagined which incorporates our highest ideals. We promote positive and more evolved ways of thinking and being at the human, organizational, societal and cosmic level. We strengthen internal cohesiveness and organizational culture. We promote sustainability through the process of critical knowledge acquisition in the interest of the vision, mission and goals of NGVP. We create better minds, stronger bodies and highly evolved people equipped to meet the world with sustainable solutions capable of fostering a new reality for Black–Indigenous people.

Preserving Land, Cultivating Health, Growing Peace Together

NGVP VISION

The vision of Nature’s Garden for Victory and Peace is to cultivate land that is preserved and built upon to evoke health, social wellbeing, victory and peace in members of the community.

NGVP MISSION

The mission of NGVP to use land as a healing tool, and a cultural asset in the development of a Holistic Community Model in thae delivery of relevant programs and services to members of the community. This is achieved through the work of the Transformative Intentional Learning Community and a shared value system which supports governance.

NGVP PHILOSOPHY

The NGVP framework for restoration and healing is built upon a universal philosophy found in Nature-Culture, a holistic development concept which seeks to develop a way of life that promotes positive transformation into a sustainable lifestyle for its participants. A Nature-Culture project synthesises an integration of spiritual, intellectual and natural earth concepts. By combining multiple holistic activities, disciplines and environment, brain function is enhanced, the body cells are renewed and people are propelled to greater awareness of “self.”

Nature-Culture

As we align the body, mind and soul with nature, we create what we call “Nature Culture.” We learn new habits by doing new things, acting new ways, eating new foods and communicating new thoughts.

Nature-Culture is a holistic form of community development. It builds and strengthens the capacity and skills of individuals and organizations to effectively participate in acquiring and managing natural resources that directly support their community. The creation of Nature-Culture communities is our vision for fostering environments where cohesive coalitions of spiritually inclined, holistic practitioners can create sustainable lifestyles for themselves and their families.

ADINKRAHENE

Represents essential characteristics of good leadership

SANKOFA

Symbolizes a call to action, volunteerism

The Four Pillars of NGVP are informed by “Nature-Culture” which requires active participation that stimulates new thoughts and behaviors:

A return to Natural Living—Holistic healing where the mind-body-spirit-soul is continually nourished and renewed by the growing awareness of an awe-inspiring web of life.

Engagement in Meaningful Activities or Occupations—Productive use of time, i.e., work, study, play/leisure, spiritual practice, celebrations, social participation, non-extractive economic development, entrepreneurial-ship, the Arts & Sciences, the Trades, the Healing Arts and last but certainly primary and central, Agriculture.

Intergenerational Collaboration and Power Sharing—Innovation and wisdom; we honour both youth and elders each bring their unique perspective of the world. Through patience, deliberative dialogue and traditional wisdom we seek “common ground”.

Transformative Intentional Learning—Growing, Changing, Evolving; supports governance, promotes critical self-reflection, collective decision making, shared values, unity, victory and peace in members of the NGVP community.

NGVP Values

Unity: Unity is the way of the universe; it has been said “… as so above… as so In there’s power and in power there’s opportunity everywhere. We learn to embrace a universal occurrence of balancing what appears to be an opposite.
Self-Care (mind-body-spirit-soul): Self-Care occurs on all spheres of human existence, the mind-body-spirit-soul, and as a unique interconnected whole we learn to care for all parts with knowledge, wisdom and mastery. Healing is the result of authentic self-care; we promote positive and more evolved ways of thinking and being at the human, organisational and societal level.

Active Participation: Building and sustaining a community requires engagement and active participation from community members. Our democratic participatory model is defined and managed by the community based on best practices found in indigenous cultures, emergent strategies and evolving practices found in “transformative learning and change” literature.
Cooperative Economics & Mutual Aid: Our Mutual Aid Fund provides a structure for our collective effort to support each other as a community financially, through trading/bartering of goods and services. We collect, manage, and distribute funds with transparency to ensure community members can access funds and additional support as needed. We create cooperative business models to build self-reliance and to eliminate dependence on an exploitative economic system.
Creativity & Sustainability: Our community engages in a creative process that is dialogic, experiential, innovative and healing. Like the Creator we are in the image of him/her/us/they and are creative by nature. Creativity is used to uplift humanity to its fullest and highest expression. We create better minds, stronger bodies and highly evolved people equipped to meet the world with sustainable solutions capable of fostering a new and sustainable reality. We promote sustainability through the process of critical knowledge acquisition in the interest of the vision, mission and goals of Nature’s Garden for Victory and Peace.
Ancestral Remembrance: We remember our ancestors both in thought and in actions. It has been said that every time a baby is born an ancestor is returning. If this is true, then, we are our ancestors. One customary practice of remembrance is “pouring libations.”