The name Sixth Sun Ridaz is a union of an Indigenous (Mexican) description of the “Sixth Sun” or New Time Cycle and “Ridah” which is contemporary street slang roughly comparable in context to the indigenous term “Warrior.” It captures the spirit of this project great in that , while it embraces the traditional, it is expressed in a very practical and street level way.
This site was started in 2012 with the intention to bring freshness to what we felt was a stagnant state of mostly regurgitated Indigenous thought, literature, and misrepresented Indigenous Mexican teachings on the internet. Most of the Mexica online education websites seem to (still) be centered in western paradigms of thinking and lacking a spiritual balance. And on the other hand there are many spiritual type sites that do a lot of preaching but negate Practical Application for the common persons.
These “Mexica Teachings” are contemporary expressions of Indigenous concepts. Our traditions and history are not static but very much alive. We are not passive receivers of a traditions that is given and final. We all have to do our part to understand and apply these ancient principles of our ancestors into our own life and find an educated meaning that makes sense to us and that will be of benefit to our future generations.
It is said that you cannot love anyone you don’t know and I think it’s a fair to say that, collectively, our Mexican/Central American people, especially in the United States, are in a destitute state of self-knowledge. Most of our Brown people identify themselves by labels centered in European identity or oppression, such as Hispanic, Latino, immigrant, etc. Lack of knowledge of self and our true history results in us not understanding how and why our people are where we are— socially, psychologically, spiritually, economically, and so on. When we don’t understand this it can lead us to think we are somehow inferior and that white people and their ways are superior.
Couple that with the fact that society rewards whiteness in all facets of this society— visual appearances, clothing, history, architecture, worldview, religion, economies, education, etc. Anything authentically lifting Indigenous truth is marginalized. Whether they admit it or not, due to that lack of true self knowledge and history, many of our people subscribe to some degree of believing that our collective, unfavorable social situations are of our own making. This has manifested generations of self-hate (internalized racism) towards ourselves exemplified in such behaviors as gang violence, misogyny, and aspiring to be white or anything other than our true, beautiful Indigenous selves.
This is no way for us to live. This is no way for our children and future generations to understand themselves. We seek to remedy this.
Many sites share academic information on history and “how things were” but very rarely do these sites or organizations share knowledge of Ways to Live applicable to today’s scenarios and dynamics. Anyone can learn Indigenous History from a book, wear Native clothing, and Act the part but being Indigenous is more that just mimicking aesthetics and posturing as a warrior. Rather, it is more defined by the spirit in which we walk, our worldview, practices, our relationship with the land and other Earth relatives. Just because one has accumulated many Indigenous stone blocks doesn’t mean they have the wisdom to architect the sacred temples. We seek to restore our Indigineity beyond just the superficial cultural representation.