Sunday 31 July 2011

Peace Camp at Berry Point

Benefit to be held in Vancouver BC

 Compelling oral record of the traditional use of the land and the development of the current conflict:  May 2011

  CLFN by Louiseclaire

“This land holds historical and spiritual significance for the Dene Suline people. This is the area where we hold ceremony, where we gather berries and traditional medicines, it holds the grave sites of my ancestors and archaeological artefacts that date back over 4,000 years. That is worth far more than an RV park,” said Dene Suline and peace camp member Carrie Lawrence. “We have erected this peace camp to ensure we can continue to practice our spiritual, cultural and treaty rights. Right’s are more important than RV’s. ...
“We call on the Government of Alberta to respect the rights and requests of the Dene Suline people,” asserted Lawrence. “Many of us are willing to risk arrest to peacefully protect our traditional territory and the rights of the Dene Suline people but we wish the government would just listen to reason and put this RV camp somewhere else.”
~ Cold Lake Occupation: All Eyes on Dene Suline Peace Camp, June 2011, ndn media
The contested campground has existed since the 1950s, but the provincial government began work on expanding and redeveloping the area in 2006. The original redevelopment was stopped soon after it began, when historical artifacts were found.  

The redevelopment was on hold until earlier this year, when Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation got the go-ahead to continue.

“This is the area where we hold ceremony, where we gather berries and traditional medicines, it holds the grave sites of my ancestors. That is worth far more than an RV park,” Lawrence said.

                                                  ~ June 2011, Global TV Edmonton

~ Vancouver Media Co-op
 ~

W2TV: A Night in Solidarity with the Dene Suline


 
The video: Recorded onsite at Rhizome with Zoom Q3 and edited by Sid Tan with AVS Editor on HP Pavilion dv6622 laptop also used to upload. Added by Sid Tan

Visit W2TV online

Friday 15 July 2011

The Life Celebration of E. Pauline Johnson


multilingual poetry performance


performances & presentations by
Joanne Arnott


World Poetry community of poets/performers
Aboriginal Writers Collective West Coast community of writers/performers


Poems by Pauline Johnson were translated by World Poetry volunteers into 
Korean, Hungarian, Farsi, Romanian, German & French,
& performed in these languages as well as in the original English.



Monday 11 July 2011

Salish Seas ~ Opening Night Readings + How to Buy the Book

Larry Nicholson, mc

 
Kat Norris

Russell Wallace

Garry Thomas Morse

Gregory Coyes + Renae Morriseau

Theo Campbell

Wanda John Kehewin

Joanne Arnott

Young Women's Drum Group with Cease Wyss

I found these beautifully crafted shorts posted by thegallerygachet on youtube. I hope to acknowledge all the volunteers involved in production, but for now I share them with you, and give thanks for
The Gallery Gachet community of artists!

The Gallery Gachet



Salish Seas: An Anthology of Text + Image
can now be purchased online:

Core Learning Resources
Building Strong Nations Together!

Sunday 10 July 2011

be the world!

Some mornings you get up and the sun is so faint...
I had some tea, you know, I always do. But when I sit in the shadowy sunlight I feel like I can be the world.
~ Harper Campbell, Harpertown Cafe

Harper on Hornby Island



Your brother wanted to mount a parade, to sing out to all of our waiting neighbours: a child is born.  
 A community gives birth to itself, and we rest in its arms.

~ from Homebirth, Joanne Arnott


Elijah Harper & (baby) Harper Campbell*

The night was beautiful. There were these things in the sea called "phospheresences" that glowed and sparkled if you agitated the water. And the sky was so filled with stars! At around one I walked back with my co-worker who I had come to know better over the course of the night. It is so beautiful, to walk in silence in the depth of night, tall sillhouettes of trees and expansive darkness.
~ Birthday, Hornby



Katimavik Crew @ Juniper Ridge BC, 2009

I am tired - work is hard! And I did not sleep well last night. you know. So, pictures of days gone by.

Hot kitchens
You work, you work, chop chop
Eight'o'clock collapse.
~ Untitled, Hornby

*With Elijah Harper at the Mission Pow Wow: photo by Brian Campbell.

Hard to believe twenty years have passed since this pic was taken: the baby in the picture turns 21 today: the quotes & Hornby pic from his 2008 blogs, a pivotal year in morphing from child to man.

Happy b~day!


Update:  Katimavik Crew photo published 12 April 2012, Montreal Gazette: details,
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Katimavik+fate+says+about+Canada/6443383/story.html

Friday 8 July 2011

Youth have a Voice! in Gaza


Team Palestine Parkour:
youth self-help via  parkour, filmmaking & use of social media: inspiring the film:

Free Running Gaza - Artscape - Al Jazeera English wonderful film about the art of engaging with obstacles (more below)*

 
Gaza Youth Break Out
~

Gaza Youth Break Out blog by and about non-violent, unity-focussed Gaza youth activists & journalists.

Gaza Two Years Later brings together blogs by Gaza youth, on Mondoweiss: The War of Ideas in the Middle East.

  ~
 From the source website:
*Free Running Gaza
Filmmakers: George Azar and Mariam Shahin 


In the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, Mohammed and Abdallah have found a way to distract themselves from the overcrowded tenements and squalid alleyways. Both young men have trained for years to become Gaza's leading practitioners of parkour.

As much a life philosophy and an art form as an athletic discipline, parkour is the traversing and scaling of obstacles and barriers through running, jumping and vaulting. Parkour is set apart from political and religious factionalism, from violence and militancy.

For Mohammed, Abdallah and the latest generation of young Palestinians to have grown up in the camp under-educated and unemployed, it is the ultimate means of escape.

The essential definition of parkour is "finding your own way" and Artscape journeys around Gaza in the company of Mohammed and Abdallah to experience what this is like.

"When we practise [parkour] we free ourselves," explains Mohammed. "It is as if we're transported to another world."

Watch onlinehttp://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/artscape/2011/06/2011619123857973866.html
Or: Artscape-- Free Running Gaza on youtube

Sunday 3 July 2011

Gaza Flotilla + Compassion

 
"There is an unwritten rule that Aboriginal people in Canada should not take our grievances with Canada outside of national borders. Most of us have grown up to respect the principle of "keeping it in the family," so to speak. Voluntarily agreeing to not think and act internationally creates boundaries that restrict our own understanding of colonialism and the political mechanics that continue to undermine Aboriginal self-determination. Ignoring the suffering that colonialism brings to others will only prolong our own.

"This month, I will be joining the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, an international fleet of seven ships delivering food, construction and medical supplies to the besieged people of Palestine. I am not going as a representative of my First Nation community or any organization. This was a personal decision after discussion with and support from my family. We recognize that the people of Palestine have been subjected to colonization in the same way that Indigenous people here have lost their relationship with the land. Gaza has become an open-air prison for 1.4 million people. It is the largest "Reserve" in the world. Finding solutions and reconciliation begins by getting involved...."  

Nick Wallwork + Bob Lovelace
From Greece: "This afternoon one of the Ausies and I got a kayak and paddled out of the harbour with a box of medicine toward Gaza. It was an opportunity to test the Harbour police and Coast guard and give the press something to do. There was almost no reaction from the Harbour police but lots of photos for the international press. It is really important for people in Canada and the world to protest the delay of the the Freedom Flotilla."
~ Bob Lovelace, Decolonization Blog

 Photo source: Halifax Media Co-op 
Compassion: An Anthology in Support of the People of Gaza & Occupied Palestine
Extended deadline September 1 2011

You are invited to contribute poems, essays, stories, songs, comix, whatever short form you like, to an anthology gathered in support of the people of Gaza and Occupied Palestine. This project is intended to share information about the situation of the people of Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, both directly and through exploring the parallel situations and experiences of other people and nations.
 
Please send up to three pages of work, in any genre. For longer work, please submit an excerpt of three pages, with a description of the full work including number of pages. An abstract is also acceptable.

Our intent in pursuing this project is to relieve the sense of isolation and neglect that results from the long term and increasingly brutal conduct "for security reasons" that the people of Gaza endure.  

The creation of a new homeland on an existing homeland has parallels in many different lands. We invite you to share work that explores your experiences and responses.


About the editors:

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