EARTH DAY 2020 - A Message from Elder Nii Gaani Aki (Leading Earth Man) - Dr. David Courchene of Turtle Lodge, Canada

Mother Earth is giving birth to a new life. 

Reason and rhyme: meet Rebecca Thomas, Halifax’s poet laureate. Article here.

Rebecca Lea Thomas - I Am Honoured - Canadian Festival of Spoken Word 2015

Etuaptmumk: Two-Eyed Seeing | Rebecca Thomas | TEDxNSCCWaterfront

Etuaptmumk - Two-Eyed Seeing is explained by saying it refers to learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing ... and learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all. Spoken word artist, current Halifax Slam Master and recently appointed Poet Laureate for the Halifax Regional Municipality, Rebecca Thomas also holds the position of Coordinator of Aboriginal Student Services at the Nova Scotia Community College. Coming from an indigenous background whose family has been greatly impacted by residential schools, Ms. Thomas has come to recognize the lack of prominence given to First Nations perspectives within the history of Halifax. As a Mi’kmaw woman, she embraces the opportunity to bring her cultural voice to the broader public discussion through the Poet Laureate position, and believes that the arts and poetry can help people heal in ways beyond traditional therapies. “Poetry can give a voice to the voiceless. Poetry can make a powerless person feel powerful. This is why I speak,” said Ms. Thomas.

Wellness, two-eyed seeing and system change: Dr. Evan Adams at TEDxPowellRiver

http://tedxpowellriver.com/ Award-winning Canadian actor, playwright and medical doctor, Evan Tlesla Adams is a member of the Tla'amin (Sliammon) First Nations from the Upper Sunshine Coast. As an actor, Evans has performed in the Emmy-winning television move, Lost in the Barrens and in Miramax's Smoke Signals in which he won a 1999 Independent Spirit Award. Dr. Adams graduated from the medical school at University of Calgary in 2002 and was chief resident in the Aboriginal Family Practice program at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, BC. In 2005 Adams won the Murray Stalker Award form the College of Family Physicians of Canada Research and Education Foundation. He is the past-president of Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, and is currently the Director of the Division of Aboriginal Peoples' Health, UBC Department of Family Practice.

Excerpt

“…during our times of trauma you know we know and believe that the Great Spirithas given us a way on how to how to receive the help that we need when it comes to to dealing with the mental emotional physical or spiritual help that we need and it has been the way of our people to always approach healing from a holistic sense…like that but we're going to see more and more natural occurrences that are hopefully are going to try to wake us up from this insanity and this nightmare that we're living…”

A DREAM: Get Ready - Received by Nii Gaani Aki Inini,Leading Earth Man (Dave Courchene) Sep 25, 2018 posted by The Turtle Lodge. 

“…I even wondered what did the grandfathers mean the change is very close now and there was no time to waste I knew that it hadto be something natural was it the weather was it the elements of life fire the wind the earthquakes the tornadoes the hurricanes droughts will the economycrash would it be something similar to the depression and the terrors but more severe when we reflect on the current world conditions there is no doubt of a need for a major change the need tochange our current attitudes to values that support life a change is needed to be more kind more compassionate more giving and sharing…”

9.28.2018 at The City Club of Cleveland, Ohio. 

N. Scott Momaday, a writer, teacher, artist and storyteller, has devoted much of his life to safeguarding oral tradition and other aspects of Native American culture. Author of 13 books, Momday won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969 for House Made of Dawn, which is considered the first novel of the Native American Renaissance. In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Momaday the National Medal of Arts. This year, he will be honored with the 2018 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. N. Scott Momaday discusses his career.

When you think about it, does your coursework perpetuate stories of paternalistic dominance by a few? Do you teach how and what you learned? Given our other many responsibilities, do you find it easiest to choose the same books year after year, rather than explore other possibilities? Is your campus facing criticism by students of color that their voices are not being heard? Do you wonder how sustainability might relate to your course? Finally, do you wonder how the previous questions are connected? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will find this webinar valuable.

Several years ago, I realized I was using textbooks written by older white men of American/European descent who have a particular viewpoint. As examples, many business strategy books use militaristic terms to describe successful tactics to compete in the marketplace and the accounting textbook I use is a newer edition of the same one I used in my studies almost 30 years ago. In this webinar, I share examples of how I now continually rethink my class material and now explore it from two perspectives: what is and what is possible if we question current paradigms. This approach allows me to cover what my colleagues believe must be covered and creates opportunities to offer a more inclusive and broader perspective. You will have the opportunity to brainstorm with others to identify resources and ways to expand coverage in your courses.

AASHE Webinar took place June 6, 2018. More information here.

Surviving Disappearance, Re-Imagining & Humanizing Native Peoples: Matika Wilbur

Matika Wilbur, one of the Pacific Northwest's leading photographers, has exhibited extensively in regional, national, and international venues such as the Seattle Art Museum, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, The Tacoma Art Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Nantes Museum of Fine Arts in France. She studied photography at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Montana and received a bachelor's degree from Brooks Institute of Photography in California.

Her Project 562 is a multi-year national photography project dedicated to photographing over 562 federally recognized tribes in The United States.

Her work led her to becoming a certified teacher at Tulalip Heritage High School, providing inspiration for the youth of her own indigenous community. Matika, a Native American woman of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes (Washington), is unique as an artist and social documentarian in Indian Country. The insight, depth, and passion with which she explores the contemporary Native identity and experience are communicated through the impeccable artistry of each of her silver gelating photographs.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.