Since my earliest memory, (which is quite young I might add) I can remember being barefoot. I have never really liked socks or shoes for that matter. Both take away from feeling the ground beneath me. Wether its a hardwood floor, the feel of moist dirt, or a cool stream or river underfoot. Feeling those things with your bare skin brings a connection to that place.
I was not raised fully immersed in tribal culture. I was more like a person meandering through a zoo looking at all the exhibits. My adopted family was Alaska Natives and we did spend Summers in the village of Rampart, Alaska. But as I recall, I never paid much attention to village life. To the importance of cleaning fish and cutting it up for different uses, which included making fish strips to hang in smoke houses for dried fish. Something I didn't care for as a child, but thoroughly enjoy now.
So I saw my Grandma, Aunts and Uncles doing things in the village but never really grasped why? And I never thought to ask why? I just figured it was grownup stuff and not really my concern. I think I learned more from a Native Summer Camp than spending Summers in the village. I remember learning to work with raw materials like wood and soapstone. I made a little whale with my piece of soapstone which I don't have anymore and never got a picture. We learned about the Native Olympics and the different tests of strength and endurance. And even learned how to make Eskimo ice cream which I think is an acquired taste.
You're probably asking what all this has to do with being barefoot in the world. Well Indigenous have always had a connection with their surroundings, with the land and waters. Even though I was raised mainly as a "white" kid that connection with Nature has always been within me. The need to feel the world around me, to listen to the sway of the trees, the sound of snow falling around me, the feel of cool waters around my feet.
When was the last time you paid attention to the way the carpet or floor feels on your feet? Focused on the world around you as it envelops all your senses? Have you ever felt the bark of a tree? The cold crisp sensation of walking on snow with your barefeet.
I may not know all things tribal, know how to speak my Athabaskan language or the proper way to dry meat. But my connection with the world has always been there. The same connection my Indigenous ancestors had.
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