Declaration of Alliance
Recognizing that we Yinka whet’enne have a common ancestry, language, land, way of life and Bahl’ats system. Acknowledging that our ancestors saw it wise to organize and conduct our personal, family, cultural, political and legal relationships through our Bahl’ats system.
We, the Yinka whet’enne, put our hearts and minds together and for the future of our people say:
- We acknowledge Yoodughi, The Creator.
- We remember our Ancestors and acknowledge their love for us.
- We see the faces of the generations of our people not yet born and we pass our love to them.
- We respect and love our Land and know that, as our Mother, it has provided for us; and according to our Teachings we will stand as one to respect and protect our Land and all life on it.
- Our elders and young are important, for the elders hold the knowledge of our people’s past and the young hold our hope for the future; we will work together to teach our young about Yoodughi, our Land, Languages, Teachings, and our Bahl’ats so that they will pass it on to their children and to future generations.
- Our Bahl’ats system is sacred to us; in it we stand as one in times of great loss and in times of great celebration.
- We will carry our ways and our business with respect, care and love for each other and we will create stability and confidence in ourselves and our young to ensure our people and our ways will survive in the future.
- Where we have differences we will talk to each other with great respect, care and love and work out our differences to ensure harmony and balance in our own life, families and communities.
- And as long as the sun shines and our rivers flow we will stand with each other, support each other and do all we can to lift up each other’s heart and spirit.
- With this we welcome the newcomers to our Land and we will share with them our Vision of who we are and knowledge about our Land; and we will live with them in a spirit of friendship and harmony.
- We agree that the Leaders of our people will carry out talks in our Bahl’ats system with the newcomer’s governments as a means of negotiating a fair, just and lasting agreement about our Land.
Et Ndohoneh