[Indigsol] IPSMO newsletter: National Aboriginal Day

[ipsmo at riseup.net]

'Remembering William Commanda on National Aboriginal Day'
is an article published today on rabble in honour of the
Algonquin spiritual elder who passed away last summer.
It includes his vision for Asinabka
- the Sacred Chaudiere Falls and Victoria Island,
to have an International Indigenous Centre there.
We've included the full article at the end of this email,
or you can see it online:
http://rabble.ca/news/2012/06/remembering-william-commanda-national-aboriginal-day

Also, over at Media Indigena is a piece,
'National Aboriginal Day: Friend or Foe' by Sarah Hunt
http://www.mediaindigena.com/sarah-hunt/issues-and-politics/national-aboriginal-day-friend-or-foe

And in honour of today, here is some storytelling:
Jani Lauzon, at the Democratic Dialogue via the Arts
earlier this month at the University of Ottawa
- video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwRUXCEqZlE
- podcast:
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/needs-no-introduction/2012/06/storytelling-and-indigenous-body-lecture-jani-lauzon


UPCOMING EVENTS

The Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival
continues through till Sunday,
with events each evening at different locations
http://www.asinabkafestival.org/asinabkafestival/Schedule.html

Included in the Asinabka lineup is this Friday,
a special edition of Electric Pow Wow
with A Tribe Called Red, and
featuring comedian Ryan McMahon aka Clarence Two-Toes.
At Babylon Night Club 317 Bank St, doors at 9:30pm ($15)
- and if you haven't already,
you can download ATCR's album at no cost or for a donation,
at: http://electricpowwow.com

And the Summer Solstice Aboriginal Arts Festival
& International Competion Pow Wow
is on now through Sunday at Vincent Massey Park
http://nadottawa.wordpress.com/



and now, THE ARTICLE:


Remembering William Commanda on National Aboriginal Day
By Romola Trebilcock
June 21, 2012 | rabble.ca

One year ago today, June 21, 2011, was the date of Grandfather William
Commanda's last physical visit to Asinabka, Victoria Island.

The renowned Indigneous leader, Sacred Wampum Belt Carrier, Officer of the
Order of Canada, recipient of the Lifetime National Aboriginal Achievement
Award, holder of the Key to the City of Ottawa and two honorary doctorate
degrees, died on August 3, 2011.

It was rather a miracle that he was at Asinabka at all. He had survived
some excruciating days of pain and illness, complications incurred in
hospital during the latter stages of his battle with kidney disease, and
only the night before had seemed to be on the doorstep of death. But, the
97-year-old was incredibly perky on the morning of the summer solstice,
entertaining no less than 15 visitors in his hospital room before being
discharged to head to his home in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Quebec - via
Asinabka, Victoria Island, Ontario.

* A sacred meeting place *

Well over 100 people were already there for the annual Circle of All
Nations Pipe Ceremony that he had hosted for over a decade: to honour the
summer solstice, National Aboriginal Day and the vision for the Asinabka
National Indigenous Centre - a healing and peace-building centre he had
worked hard to see established at the ancient sacred meeting place of his
Indigenous ancestors.

Asinabka is the site of the Sacred Chaudiere Falls, the circular
waterfalls where the most ancient rocks of the world took the shape of the
bowl of the pipe and the rising vapours were a reflection of the fire and
smoke of prayers rising to the Great Mystery on the wings of the wind -
and at no time was the ancient spiritual ritual of smoking the pipe more
important than at this period that marked the longest day and the shortest
night.

So, year after year, Grandfather Commanda, several pipe carriers, elders
honouring fire and water and drummers would gather to conduct the special
ceremony, sitting dauntless on the inhospitable gravel driveway - the spot
identified for the central fire of the proposed Indigenous Centre - facing
the east and the blazing sun, praying an ancient prayer for Mother Earth,
and the other key elements, the fire, the waters and the wind, the four
cardinal directions, and all else incorporated in the Law of Nature: a
prayer for Ginawaydaganuc - All My Relations.

This prayer embraced nature and people and affirmed the deep
inter-connection between them. It was also a prayer for the healing of
relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. Over the
years, increasing numbers of non-Aboriginal Peoples had been drawn to this
annual activity.

* The importance of language *

This time, last year, William Commanda sat in his car. The people thronged
past him for an hour and a half, and he greeted each of them in turn. One
thing was different - he spoke Algonquin throughout. This was a deep
message about the animation of the ancient language of the land - William
was fully trilingual, and generally offered his prayers and greetings in
Algonquin, then translated himself into English and French, in his
personal version of the bilingualism ideal - this time he was telling his
friends that he would be counting on them to keep his language alive.

Only a few weeks before, the Commissioner of Official Languages had
visited him, the first official acknowledgement of the languages of the
First Peoples. Indigenous languages are complex, and hold many complex
thoughts; as they disappear, so do those complex understandings of life,
and, indeed, of the sacred principles of biodiversity.

This was one of the reasons that he had advocated so hard with the
National Capital Commission (NCC) and all levels of government for the
establishment of the Indigenous Centre. Its core objective is to awaken
Indigenous ideology to advance healing at three fundamental levels:
healing, strengthening and unifying indigenous peoples; healing individual
and collective relationships with Mother Earth; and healing relationships
with all others. The integrated vision, articulated in his book Learning
from a Kindergarten Dropout, thus focuses on the healing, strengthening
and unification of Aboriginal peoples and the sharing of Indigenous
ideology, values and culture with all others, in order to animate a Circle
of All Nations, a Culture of Peace consistent with the message of the
Three Figure Wampum Belt.

Despite years of effort, and eventual endorsement from the City of Ottawa,
the dream remains unfulfilled. In fact, not even portable toilets such as
you see at other NCC parks are yet available in this place identified in
NCC's plans of the past 40 years as the site of Indigenous gathering.

* Official declarations, past and present *

June 21 was declared National Aboriginal Day by former Governor General
Romeo Leblanc in 1996. But it was William Commanda's friend Jules Sioui
who had affirmed it as Indian Day in 1945. He was the activist who had
created the North American Indian Nations Government movement, (William
Commanda remained its Supreme Chief until his death), and they had
advocated at the United Nations level for the engagement of the Indigenous
voice on global issues.

Canada and the United States were the countries that resisted signing the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples until two years ago -
surely its citizens at large should question why?

Certainly over the last few years, issues like the residential school
abuses, health, poverty, education gaps, the housing and water and other
environmental crises in Aboriginal communities have been brought to public
attention regularly. Surely, in an affluent country like Canada, it is a
shame that Third World Canada, a documentary about First Nations suicide
being screened at the Asinabka: Film and Media Arts Festival this very
week, is necessary at all.

* A prayer for Mother Earth *

It is also somewhat ironic that the UN Sustainable Development Conference
RIO+20 is taking place at this precise moment. It was in the 1940s that
Indigenous peoples brought their concerns about the changing climate to
the UN's attention.

It was only in 1991, at the Pre-Rio Earth Summit in France that the world
began to focus its collective attention on this mounting crisis.
Grandfather Commanda himself conducted Pipe Ceremonies there, igniting a
global prayer for the environment. It burst into flame in the voices of
young people and Indigenous peoples at COP 17 in South Africa last
November; undoubtedly the world now realizes it is grappling with the
immense challenges of climate change.

Sadly, the powers governing Grandfather Commanda's homeland do not yet
appear to apprehend the gravity of the crisis. Still, he would conduct
another Pipe Ceremony at Asinabka to make them relations of his Mother
Earth in a way that would move beyond unmitigated exploitation of her
resources, to a relationship focused on stewardship of her gifts for
future generations. Yes, I am sure that would be his prayer for us this
June 21, 2012.

- Romola Trebilcock is co-ordinator of Circle of All Nations.