Dear all,
What a month! (Quite apart from everything that's going on in the world…) Chuck and I had the honor of participating in a native solidarity kayaking trip in southern Ontario which was way more mind/heart expanding and inspiring than we could have imagined, then came home to the news that our dear friend from Northern Uganda, Abitimo Odongkara, had just died. It feels like it's taken the rest of the month to give both experiences--and both communities involved--the attention they have called out for.
We are blessed to have both these communities in our lives, and it's good to remember that only when we are willing to know deep sorrow can we experience deep joy. Yet I have to say that I"m hoping for a more tranquil August!
And the good news from the community garden is that the peaches from the tree I planted a couple of years ago are ripe, and delicious.
Love,
Pamela
A good mind
Before we set out on our first day of paddling, we gather in a circle for the traditional Haudenosaunee (Six Nations, Iroquois, People of the Longhouse) thanksgiving address. These are the words that come before all else.
Bruce, an unassuming man in his forties, takes about five minutes to offer these thanks, in a native language that I learn later is Cayuga. With heads uncovered, we follow the theme of thanksgiving as best we can, each in our own way. Then Brooke gives an overview in English, mentioning everything Bruce has given thanks for.
Starting with the responsibility to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things, we give thanks to one another as people. Then we give thanks for the earth mother, the waters, the fish, the plants, the food plants, the medicine plants, the animals, the trees, the birds, the four winds, the thunders, the sun, Grandmother Moon, the stars, the wisdom keepers, and the creator. Having given these thanks, our minds are one.
Then Brooke offers a few words of her own, reminding us of the opportunity to be healed on the water, offering her hope that we will all keep a good mind. A good mind. That phrase comes up over and over again during our five days paddling down the Grand River together to honor the treaties and protect the earth, inspired by the1613 Two Row treaty where whites and natives agreed to live respectfully, side by side.
One evening we listen to Lisa, who felt compelled last fall to respond somehow to the outbreak of suicides on this Six Nations reserve in southern Ontario. Looking to traditional rituals for guidance, she decided to revive the sacred fires of the solstice and equinox. With a few friends, she shared these intentions and gathered a big group of people for a weekend fire at the winter solstice. She said that the summer solstice fire was hard; not so many people came, and keeping it burning from Friday evening through Sunday morning was a challenge. But even if just one person has been healed, she says, it’s worth it.
Since November, Lisa has also been holding a moon circle, a ceremony for women, at every full moon. These are time for sharing, open to any woman in the community. She has noticed that women will share in these settings things they would never reveal to social workers. Individual by individual, she is helping to knit the fabric of the community back together, good mind by good mind.
Suzie tells a compelling story in another evening sharing circle. We have camped at the Caledonia Fairgrounds, just below the bridge. In Caledonia ten years ago, a simmering land dispute between the Six Nations and land developers in town sparked into ugly confrontation. Emotions ran high, and the two peoples were left even more distrustful and separated. Yet they live right across the river from each other; we can see the bridge from where we sit. Suzie, a teacher in the Six Nations, found another teacher in Caledonia who was willing to do a pen-pal project with their students. It was a simple idea, connecting children one by one. They met at the end of the year, and the next year more children—and their families—were involved. Ten years later, 2000 children were pen pals, the celebration caught up whole communities, and the idea had leapfrogged across Canada to Alberta. Now here is a good mind at work!
Shane joined the paddle at the last minute, a stranger to everybody, just knowing somehow that this was where he needed to be. Shane never told a story. It was clear that there was trouble and hardship in his past, but he wasn’t one for words. Still he found his way into the center of the group, with his intimate knowledge of the river, his flashes of humor, and his ever-ready helping hand. At our closing circle, he said that he had never been treated with so much respect in his life, and he would honor the group by working harder to keep a good mind, something he had not done so well in the past.
There are many other ways to describe this journey, many stories that could be told. But it’s the power of this group of people—native and allies, men and women, young and old, friends and strangers—all intent on keeping a good mind as we traveled together down the river, that will stay with me forever.
Haiku on the first evening of our paddle
The First Nations elder
on water:
You have to cry
till your tears taste sweet.
White river guide:
deep native ties,
tales of savagery
still fascinate.
Camp bathroom talk:
Fierce scientist
sampling water to fight
pipeline danger.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
Shared resources
Many people on the Six Nations reserve in southern Ontario remember the community rowboat that was tied up at the river, available to anyone who needed to cross over to the store on the other side.
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
A paired set of victories on the West Coast, where Native communities were able to assert their traditional rights and halt first the Gateway Pacific Coal Port near Seattle and then the Northern Gateway Pipelines project in British Columbia.
http://orcasissues.com/gateway-pacific-coal-port-rejected/
http://ens-newswire.com/2016/07/01/canadian-court-kills-enbridge-northern-gateway-pipeline/
Philadelphia’s water department, that exceeded their five-year clean water targets, creating over 837 greened acres--enough to keep an estimated 1.5 billion gallons of polluted water out of the city’s waterways during a typical year of rainfall.
http://www.phillywatersheds.org/big-news-green-city-clean-waters-blows-past-year-five-targets
A woman from the Six Nations reserve in southern Ontario, who spearheaded an enormously successful movement to build relationships between native and European heritage children.
http://www.penpalproject.ca/gatherings/2016.html
http://www.penpalproject.ca/information/background.html
More than thirty city mayors from fourteen states, who signed onto a letter in June, calling on state legislatures to “affirm the ability of localities to protect the health and quality of life of residents against the widespread expansion of industrial fracking”—indicating the potential for change from local elected officials.
http://celdf.org/2016/07/blog-u-s-mayors-embrace-community-rights-condemn-legalization-corporate-violence/
More resources
Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: https://www.trainingforchange.org/publications/muscle-building-peace-and-justice-nonviolent-workout-routine-21st-century (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Pamela Haines
215-349-9428
To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.
www.pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com
A paired set of victories on the West Coast, where Native communities were able to assert their traditional rights and halt first the Gateway Pacific Coal Port near Seattle and then the Northern Gateway Pipelines project in British Columbia.
http://orcasissues.com/gateway-pacific-coal-port-rejected/
http://ens-newswire.com/2016/07/01/canadian-court-kills-enbridge-northern-gateway-pipeline/
Philadelphia’s water department, that exceeded their five-year clean water targets, creating over 837 greened acres--enough to keep an estimated 1.5 billion gallons of polluted water out of the city’s waterways during a typical year of rainfall.
http://www.phillywatersheds.org/big-news-green-city-clean-waters-blows-past-year-five-targets
A woman from the Six Nations reserve in southern Ontario, who spearheaded an enormously successful movement to build relationships between native and European heritage children.
http://www.penpalproject.ca/gatherings/2016.html
http://www.penpalproject.ca/information/background.html
More than thirty city mayors from fourteen states, who signed onto a letter in June, calling on state legislatures to “affirm the ability of localities to protect the health and quality of life of residents against the widespread expansion of industrial fracking”—indicating the potential for change from local elected officials.
http://celdf.org/2016/07/blog-u-s-mayors-embrace-community-rights-condemn-legalization-corporate-violence/
