EAS 3102 - Sustainable Relations

Kayapo people threatened by "development" - Damn dams!

2012-02-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

“The chief Raoni cries when he learns that Brazilian president Dilma released the beginning of construction of the hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte, even after tens of thousands of letters and emails addressed to her and which were ignored as the more than 600 000 signatures. That is, the death sentence of the peoples of Great Bend of the Xingu river is enacted. Belo Monte will inundate at least 400,000 hectares of forest, an area bigger than the Panama Canal, thus expelling 40,000 indigenous and local populations and destroying habitat valuable for many species - all to produce electricity at a high social, economic and environmental cost, which could easily be generated with greater investments in energy efficiency.”

Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam!

We've already delivered half a million signatures to Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, but we're just getting started. Help us stop the Belo Monte Dam by signing the petition here!

Stop GM Alfalfa

2012-02-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

"Celebrating Humanity's Unity in Diversity"

2012-02-08T07:22:00.000-08:00

"Celebrating Humanity's Unity in Diversity" (A Family Fundraising Event)

Public Event for Capital Region Global Celebration Birth 2012 · By Lindsay Mc Rae.

Saturday.

17:00 until 20:00.

347 Richmond Rd., All United Church, Westboro

Heart & Soul Light Centre and Spiritual Frontiers Canada
INVITES YOU TO
!!!A Celebration of Humanity's Unity in Diversity!!!
Birth 2012
Share the Light
Oneness
Global Celebration (a family event)

Drumming
Singing
Dancing
Pot Luck
4 Guest Speakers on Local, National, and Global Peace Initiatives
Performances by traditional and Folk Singers/Songwriters

Suggested Heart Offering of 10$ each as well as potluck sharing

Proceeds go to Global Celebration of
Humanity’s Rebirth 2012 on
December 22 at the Grand Hall of the
Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Contact judith.matheson@bell.net for more info "

Advance registration is suggested because attendance is limited to 80 people.

http://www.facebook.com/events/188266007938052/

Occupy Talks: Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement

2012-01-30T19:46:00.001-08:00

What does it mean to ‘Occupy already occupied lands?’. How does Occupy relate to 500 years of resistance on Turtle Island? Please join speakers Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Clayton Thomas-Muller and Leanne Simpson to explore and discuss these dynamics of the Occupymovement.

Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street
When: January, 23rd, 7 pm

Tom B.K. Goldtooth is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), headquartered at Bemidji, Minnesota. A social change activist within the Native American community for over 30 years, he has become an environmental and economic justiceleader, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Tom co-produced an award winning documentary film, Drumbeat For Mother Earth, which addresses the affects of bio-accumulative chemicals on indigenous peoples, and is active with many environmentaland social justice organizations besides IEN. Tom is a policy advisor on environmental protection, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Tom co-authored the REDD Booklet on the risks of REDD within indigenous territories and a member of the International IndigenousPeoples Forum on Climate Change -- the indigenous caucus within the UNFCCC.

Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. With his roots in the inner city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Clayton began hiswork as a community organizer, working with Aboriginal youth. Over the years Clayton’s work has taken him to five continents across our Mother Earth. Based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of aninclusive movement for energy and climate justice. He serves on the board of the Global Justice Ecology Project and Canadian based Raven Trust. Recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009”by Yes Magazine, Clayton is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for the Indigenous Environmental Network. He works across Canada, Alaska and the lower 48 states with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the sprawling infrastructure that includespipelines, refineries and extraction associated with the tar sands, the largest and most destructive industrial project in the history of mankind.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a writer, activist, and scholar of Michi Saagiik Nishnaabeg ancestry and is a band member of Alderville First Nation. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, is an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Studies at Trent Universityand an instructor at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge, Athabasca University. She has also lectured at Ryerson University, the University of Victoria, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Winnipeg. Leanne has worked with Indigenous communitiesand organizations across Canada and internationally over the past 15 years on environmental, governance and political issues. She has published three edited volumes including Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence and Protection of IndigenousNations (2008, Arbeiter Ring), and This is An Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Barricades (with Kiera Ladner, 2010, Arbeiter Ring). Leanne has published over thirty scholarly articles and raised over one million dollars for community-based research projectsover her career. She has written fiction and non-fiction pieces for Now Magazine, Spirit Magazine, the Globe and Mail, Anishinabek News, the Link, and Canadian Art Magazine.
Event is FREE, donations welcomed.

Important note: Beit Zatoun is accessible for the lecture, however its washrooms are not. Accommodations will be made with local restaurants to provide accessible washrooms.

Sponsors: Canadian Auto Workers, Canadian Labour Council, Ryerson University, Environmental Justice Toronto, Indigenous Environmental Network

Media Sponsor: rabble.ca

For the next 7 generations

2012-01-30T08:03:00.000-08:00

Please read below the video too!

For The Next 7 Generations Trailer from Laughing Willow on Vimeo.

Good morning,

The ISA has been approached with an exciting opportunity for a film screening this March 26th right here at OttawaU. It is entitled: "For the Next seven Generations"

Please see the following link to view the trailer and the website which contains the bios of the Grandmothers, past screenings:

www.forthenext7generations.com

As well as the screening, on of the Grandmothers will be here and we are hoping to have a facilitated discussion after the screening.

Also we are seeking interested students/staff to help volunteer and plan for this exciting event.

(taken from the website)

About

Synopsis:

In 2004, thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers from all four corners, moved by their concern for our planet, came together at a historic gathering, where they decided to form an alliance: The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. This is their story. Four years in-the-making and shot on location in the Amazon rainforest, the mountains of Mexico, North America, and at a private meeting with the Dalai Lama in India, For the Next 7 Generations follows what happens when these wise women unite. Facing a world in crisis, they share with us their visions of healing and a call for change now, before it's too late. This film documents their unparalleled journey and timely perspectives on a timeless wisdom.

Grandmother's Mission Statement:

"We, the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come. We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light the way through an uncertain future. We look to further our vision through the realization of projects that protect our diverse cultures: lands, medicines, language and ceremonial ways of prayer and through projects that educate and nurture our children."

We are planning to hold a meeting next week to start discussing the details and planning for the screening.

Conversation on women with Lynn Gehl

2012-01-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

Clicking on this image will bring you to a Facebook page

First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS) and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN)

2012-01-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

Greets to you all!

Sylvia Smith here from Project of Heart. Happy Thursday evening!

I have some bad news and some good news....

The bad news is that I just got word (a couple of hours ago) that the powers-that-be changed the site of the Federal Court to hear the Appeal yet again!!

But the good news is two-fold: 1) They have promised a change in venue will NOT happen again, and 2) The site of the Federal Court to hear the Appeal has been changed BACK to the Supreme Court location at 301 Wellington Street.

If you are a teacher and your students' bookings have been deleted, you will need to input the data once again to save your space in the court room. If you are a teacher and have not yet reserved a space, please do so as quickly as possible, as it is "first come, first serve". There are 75 seats available for all 6 sessions.

For your information, the Have a Heart activities that are being led by elementary school children will still take place on Parliament Hill from 10:30 to 11:30. The rally in support of the children will take place there as well.

Once again, I'm so sorry about all the changes and the confusion/frustration that is the result of this. It will all be worth it. As a gesture of reconciliation, let us let the Government of Canada know, through our presence at the Federal Court on Feb. 13 to 15, that First Nations children deserve the same benefits as all other Canadians! We Are the Change!

I hope you are all looking forward to a wonderful weekend!

Best,

Sylvia

P.S.
There is a cafeteria in the Supreme Court for those of you will want something over the noon break. As well, the Families of Sisters in Spirit will be holding their rally over the noon hour on Parliament Hill, so your support in their cause (awareness and action for the families of the Aboriginal women and girls who have gone missing or have been murdered) would be very appreciated as well.

--------------------------------------------------------

To all "Have a Heart" for First Nations Children supporters,

A quick note to inform you that:

1) Unfortunately, the site of the HR Tribunal Appeal has changed from the Federal Court in the Supreme Court, to the Federal Court located on the 10th floor at 90 Sparks Street.

If you decide you are not attending the court, please take your name off the scheduling plan (doodle). The present court has room for 20 to 30 people only (over-flow room pending).

2) The "Have a Heart" activities that were scheduled to take place on the lawn outside the Supreme Court have been moved to Parliament Hill.

- 10:30 Welcome to the youth (elementary and high school students)
- 10:40 to 11:20 Students read their letters/poems to government officials, then put them in mailbox
- 11:20 to 11:30 Students sing "Diamonds in the Snow" (dedicated to Shannen Koustachin from Attawapiskat)

Come out and support these children and youth in their desire to see First Nations children and youth have the same opportunities as all other Canadians enjoy. It is time to see equity become reality!

Updates will be provided.

Events and actions - Be able to respond!

2012-01-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

Green Week activities - Activités de la Semaine verte
http://www.facebook.com/events/241769825898823/

National Day of Action! Wednesday, 1st February 2012, MRT terrasse, 10:30
With the sustainable development crew!

Journée nationale d'action! Mercredi, 1er février 2012, MRT terrasse 10h30
Avec la gang de développment durable!

Confronting UNsustainability! A panel about Austerity in a Time of
Ecological Crisis, Wednesday, February 1st
Alumni Auditorium (University Center of the University of Ottawa) at 7pm

L’austérité en temps de crise écologique : une discussion, Mercredi, 1er février
Auditorium des anciens (Centre universitaire de l'Université d'Ottawa) à 19h

Aboriginal perspectives on environmental issues Monday, February 6th
90 University Lounge at 6pm

Perspectives autochtones sur les questions environnementales
Lundi, 6 février
Salon du 90 Université à 18h

Farmers' Market Wednesday, February 8, 2012
University Centre, main floor, 9am to 4pm

Marché des fermiers Mercredi 8 février 2012Centre Universitaire, plancher principal, 9h à 16h

Let’s Get Some (direct) Action Workshop
Wednesday, February 8th at UCU 206, 1pm
In collaboration with the International Development Week

Atelier d'action directe dans un temps de crise environnementaleMercredi 8 février au UCU 206 à 13h,
En collaboration avec la Semaine du Développement Internationale

Where’s our Tuition Going? Workshop with the Just Investment Coalition
Thursday, February 9 at MRT 250, 2:30pm
In collaboration with the International Development Week

Où vont nos frais de scolarité ? Atelier avec CIJIC sur l'investissement juste
Jeudi 9 février au MRT 250 à 14h30
En collaboration avec la Semaine du Développement Internationale

Movie screenings coming up!

2012-01-23T06:51:00.001-08:00

IPSMO to present "Kinàmàgawin: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom" and "Reel
Injun" at OPIRG Ottawa Film Festival

On Wednesday, January 25, 2012, the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement
Ottawa (IPSMO) will present the following films as part of the OPIRG Ottawa
Film Festival:

2:00 PM: Kinàmàgawin: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom
A film by Canadian Studies MA student Melissa Santoro Greyeyes-Brant and
filmmaker/Carleton University alumnus Howard Adler, "Kinamagawin: Aboriginal
Issues in the Classroom" examines the difficulties and challenges in
discussing Aboriginal issues in post-secondary classrooms. See the trailer
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vjQgpEryVM
Q&A with the filmmakers after the screening

8:00 PM: Reel Injun
(Presented in partnership with the Aboriginal Studies Program of the
University of Ottawa)
³Reel Injun² takes an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood
Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through the
history of cinema. Travelling through the heartland of America, Cree
filmmaker Neil Diamond looks at how the myth of ³the Injun² has influenced
the world¹s understanding and misunderstanding of Natives.

Location: University of Ottawa, University Centre Agora
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/128135853972830/

Support the Algonquins of Barriere Lake

2012-01-22T10:10:00.001-08:00

Tuesday, Jan. 24

Support the Algonquins of Barriere Lake -

Demand Canada Remove Their Indian Act Band Council & Recognize Barriere Lake's Customary Government

In April 2010, the Minister of Indian Affairs imposed a foreign system of governance (Indian Act electoral system) on the Algonquin First Nation of Barriere Lake to avoid honouring the signed agreements and recognizing legitimate leadership.

At 10 am, on Tuesday, Jan. 24 as the Crown and First Nations leaderships gathered at the old Ottawa City Hall, come out to join Barriere Lake Algonquins at a rally in front of the meeting place to show your solidarity and demand OUR government:

REVOKE SECTION 74 OF INDIAN ACT!

RECOGNIZE BARRIERE LAKE's CUSTOMARY CHIEF AND COUNCIL!

RESPECT BARRIERE LAKE'S SOVEREIGNTY AND SELF-DETERMINATION!

10 am

Old City Hall, 111 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, unceded Algonquin Territory.

Map & Directions:http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/cus/och-eng.asp

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/239530732789598/

Bring creative signs and banners!

Harper has nothing to teach us about democracy!

For a good background video on Section 74 and the Barriere Lake struggle, see this short 4-minute film: http://vimeo.com/23103527

For more detailed information: http://ipsmo.wordpress.com/barriere-lake-posts/ or http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.org.

11th Annual New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts

2012-01-22T10:09:00.000-08:00

11th Annual
New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts:
RECONFIGURED REALITIES

Saturday, March 3, 2012, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Room 5050, 5th Floor, Minto Centre, Carleton University

Featuring:

KC Adams
Multimedia visual artist and photographer

Christine Welsh
Documentary film maker and educator

John Kim Bell
Arts producer, composer, conductor

Skawennati
New media artist

Stephen Leafloor and BluePrintForLife
“Social work through HipHop”
featuring
DJ Creeasian andthroat singer Evie Mark

Elder Jim Albert in attendance

Registration: Students $45; non-students $65 (HST included)
Includes a gourmet luncheon of Native cuisine and a performance by BluePrintforLife

• Limited seating • Pre-registration STRONGLY advised •
• Parking: $2 for the day • OC Transpo nearby •
To register, call 613-520-2600, ext. 4035, or e-mail allan_ryan@carleton.ca

For a registration form and more information visit www.trickstershift.com <http://www.trickstershift.com>

A free screening of the films Finding Dawnand Arctic HipHop
will take place in Carleton’s Bell Theatre on Sunday, March 4, 1-5 pm.

Luncheon Menu:

                                    • Bannock bread with maple butter and cloud berry compote
                                    • Roasted corn and bacon soup
                                    • Pickled root vegetable salad
                                    • Mixed salad with sweet and bitter greens and saskatoon berries
                                    • Seven grain rice casserole with little neck clams
                                    • Sweet roasted squash
• Smoked duck ragout with celery root, winter vegetables and wild mushrooms
                                    • Spicy pumpkin seed-crusted salmon fillet
                                    • Corn and maple pudding with edible bush berries

Presenter Biographies

KC Adams

KC Adams is a Winnipeg-based artist who works in a variety of media -- sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, ceramics, printmaking and kinetic art. She has had several solo exhibitions, most recently Legacyat the Parramatta Artists Studios, in Parramatta, Australia, and has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including: Anthem: Perspectives on Home and NativeLand at the Carleton University Art Gallery, Circuit Cityat My Winnipeg, at la maison rouge gallery in Paris, The Language of Intercessionat the Oboro Gallery in Montreal, and Cyborg Hybrids at Photoquai: Biennaledes images du monde in Paris. She has done residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown, National Museum of the American Indian in New York and a Canada Council International residency in Parramatta, Australia. KC has receivedgrants and awards from the Winnipeg Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Twenty pieces from her Cyborg Hybrid seriesare in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada. She has an extensive background in arts administration in Winnipeg, serving as Administrative Coordinator at Plug IN ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), Board President at the artist-run centre,aceartinc, and Director of the Urban Shaman Gallery. She has also taught art to children at Art City, Learning Through the Arts, and the Manitoba Arts Council's Artist in the Schools program. KC is a graduate of Concordia University and holds a BFA in studioarts.

www.kcadams.com <http://www.kcadams.com>

Christine Welsh

Christine Welsh is a producer, writer and film director known for her strong commitment to documenting the experience of Indigenous women in Canada. Her films include Womenin the Shadows, a one-hour documentary about her search for her Métis grandmothers. The film won the Best Documentary award at the 1992 Vancouver International FilmFestival and was nominated for a Gemini award for Best Documentary. Keepers of the Fire,a tribute to Aboriginal women’s resistance, earned her the honour of being named co-recipient of the first Alanis Obomsawin Award for outstanding achievement in the Canadian Aboriginal film industry. Her most recent film is the feature-length NFB documentaryFinding Dawn which profiles three of the estimated 500 Native women whohave been murdered or gone missing in Canada over the past thirty years. Christine is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria where she teaches courses in Indigenous Women's Studies and Indigenous Cinema.

John Kim Bell

John Kim Bell is a pianist, composer, conductor, music producer, arts administrator, and was the first person of aboriginal heritage to become a symphony conductor. Born in Kahnawake, he began conducting for the Broadway stage in New York at the age of eighteen. He has composed music for film and television and is the founder of the Canadian Native Arts Foundation, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. Over a period of twenty years, he built the Foundation intoCanada’s largest Aboriginal charity. He is a recipient of the Order of Canada, holds six honorary doctorates and, amongst other honours, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 2007. His proposal to establish a loan guaranteeprogram for First Nations was successful with Ontario announcing a $250 million loan guarantee program in March 2009. Mr. Bell is currently taking an active role in the development of energy projects involving First Nations. He recently established the EnbridgeSchool Plus Program which awards $1 million to First
Nations schools in Western Canada. Mr. Bell is President of Bell & Bernard Limited, a management consulting firm specializing in First Nations economic development and energy.

Skawennati
Skawennati is a Montreal-based artist and independent curator who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Graduate Diploma of Institutional Administration from ConcordiaUniversity. Recipient of the 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, she is recognized as a pioneering New Media artist. Her art, addressing history,the future, and change, has been widely exhibited across Canada, the United States and Australia. She created the Aboriginally-determined, on-line gallery and chat space, CyberPowWowin 1996, followed by Imagining Indians in the 25th Century,a web-based paper doll/time-travel journal which has been presented across North America, most notably in Artrain USA’s three-year, coast-to-coast tour of the show NativeViews: Influences of Modern Culture. Her current production, TimeTraveller™,is a multi-platform project featuring a machinima series. Its website, www.TimeTravellerTM.com,won imagineNative’s 2009 Best New Media Award. Additional projects include Artist for the Ethical Treatment of Humans,a subvertising response to an exploitive PETA campaign, and 80Minutes, 80 Movies, 80s Music, an ongoing series of one-minute music videos. Skawennati is Co-Director of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace, a networkof artists, academics and technologists investigating, creating and critiquing Aboriginal virtual environments. AbTeC’s Otsì:!<--ESFSECEV-TY3013-----> , a video game mod created with students from the Kahnawake Survival School, won imagineNative’s 2010 Best New Media Award.

www.skawennati.com <http://www.skawennati.com>

Stephen Leafloor

Stephen Leafloor is the founder of BluePrintForLife, which utilizes HipHop as both a community development tool and a model for alternative education. He has over27 years experience as a social worker in the areas of probation, wilderness programs, street work with youth at risk, residential group homes, child protection and community outreach. Stephen has been active in HipHop culture as a dancer since 1982 and in1986 completed his Master of Social Work degree at Carleton University with a thesis on HipHop culture and its importance for educators and social workers. He is the founder of the Ottawa-based Canadian Floor Masters -- Canada’s oldest professional Breakdancing/Bboycrew. BluePrintForLife offers dynamic, culturally appropriate programs designed for First Nations and Inuit youth that are founded on HipHop, rooted in traditional culture, and focussed on community needs. Exploring the positive elements of HipHop becomesa survival toolkit for youth while celebrating traditional culture and leadership. In 2010 BluePrintForLife was the first organization from North America ever to be selected as a top finalist in the Freedomto Create awards, the world’s most prestigious award for outreach through the arts.

www.blueprintforlife.ca <http://www.blueprintforlife.ca>

Matthew Wood aka Creeasian

Matthew Wood's Bboy name, Creeasian, is a blend that reflects his Cree and Vietnamese ancestry. He is a senior youth facilitator with BluePrintForLife and an accomplisheddancer, DJ, and BeatBoxer (creating drum beats with his mouth). He has been working with youth for the past eleven years and strongly believes in empowerment through music and dance. In 2011 Creeasian won the Rockstar energy drink DJ battle, and the 2011Redbull DJ battle in Edmonton.

Evie Mark

Evie Mark is from the small Inuit community of Ivujivik in northern Quebec. An accomplished throat singer and skilled translator, she often travels with the BluePrintForLifeteam helping to integrate traditional Inuit culture into their workshops. Evie is also active in film production and has worked in every facet of this medium from camera work and acting to editing and directing. Her film work focuses on the issues affectingall aspects of life in the north. One of her films was featured at the very first New Sun Conference in 2002.

Mixed Blood teachings

2012-01-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

[Thanks to Caro for sharing this]

Mixed blood, why do you wonder where you belong?
You have entered the world a child of many races
Giving the peoples of the world a chance to see itself as one, through you.
But you, you have given the Indian people a special gift.

Because you were born with the right to choose any path,
And you choose to pray in the way of our old ones
You honour this land where you were born,
And your prayers give strength to all of your relatives here.

The Grandfathers and Grandmothers are happy that you speak to them,
And we are happy when you remember us
Among all of the Spirits that walk with you,
And we listen to your special prayers for peace and a good life.

Be patient with your Red relatives.
They too grew up in a racist society, and
It is hard for some to find Spirit when they only see faces.
They forget that some of the Grandmothers and Grandfathers were hidden and
forgotten.

Mixed blood, when you walk the way of the people,
You show them that you have not forgotten.

Help them to let go of the shame, help them to remember the teachings
Of the time that was to come, when all of the races came together as one.
It is said that a Nation of Rainbow Warriors would come
And lead the way for Mother Earth to heal from near destruction

Mixed blood, why do you wonder where you belong?

Willi Nolan, 2000

Mamihlapinatapai

2012-01-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

The word mamihlapinatapai is one of the hardest words to translate!

The word comes from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, located at the tip of South America. The islands are divided between Chilean and Argentinean rule. The land is largely protected as national parks and reserves.

The Yaghan people are few and many of them are mestizos. The word mamihlapinatapai landed a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word.”

Roughly translated, the idea of the word refers to “a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other will offer something that they both desire but are unwilling to suggest or offer themselves.”I’d say it’s a pretty loaded word!

How do you pronounce it?

It is pronounce mah-mee-lah-pin-yah-tah-pie

Third World Canada

2012-01-16T13:31:00.001-08:00

As part of the Aboriginal Awareness Week, the Aboriginal Health Interest Group at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine, invites you to attend the following events at Roger Guindon Hall, located at 451 Smith Road, behind the General Hospital.

Monday, January 16 at 12:30 - Room 2005 - Presentations by Patrick Laflèche and Jonathan Ferrier on Traditional Medicine
Tuesday, January 17, at 4:30 - Room 3248 - Sabrina Squires and Renée Vachon, Aboriginal students in their second year of Medicine will talk about their experience working in remote Aboriginal communities.
Tuesday, January 17, at 5:30 - Room 3248 - Throat Singing Workshop with Lynda Brown
Wednesday, January 18, at 1:30 - Room 2149 - Showing of Andrée Cazabon's documentary film "Third World Canada" depicting the plight of many First Nations by focusing on the isolated and poverty-stricken community of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (K.I.) in Ontario.
Thursday, January 19, at 5:30 - Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada<http://www.fncaringsociety.com/> (FNCFC), who has been one of the country's most committed activists for First Nations children.

For more information, please contact: ottawaahig@gmail.com

Thank You. Che Meegwitch.

All the Dirt

2012-01-16T08:28:00.001-08:00

All the Dirt

Reflections on Successful, Cooperative Organic Farming
A Free Reading and Discussion with Farmer Robin Tunnicliffe

Monday, January 23, 7:00 p.m.
Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch (120 Metcalfe St.)

Free Admission

Come meet Robin Tunnicliffe – Farmer, USC Canada Board Member, a founder of Saanich Organics, and author of the brand new book, All the Dirt.

Join Robin as she reads from her book and relates the experiences of three young women following their dreams to become successful organic farmers and business partners. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

This is a free event, co-sponsored by USC Canada and Just Food. For further information, please contact Kate by email or by phone 613.234.6827 x228.

Please forward this message to anyone who might be interested.

We Hope to See You There!

Koch Cash Influence

2012-01-16T08:01:00.001-08:00

Kochtopus: Koch Cash Influence on Prezi

Leonard Peltier

2012-01-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

Leonard Peltier, Activist

Official website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/theman.htm

Leonard Peltier -- a great-grandfather, artist, writer, & indigenous rights activist -- is a citizen of the Anishinabe and Dakota/Lakota Nations who has been unjustly imprisoned since 1976.
A participant in the American Indian Movement, he went to assist the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the mid-70s where a tragic shoot-out occurred on June 26, 1975. Accused of the murder of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Peltier fled to Canada believing he would never receive a fair trial in the United States.
On February 6, 1976, Peltier was apprehended. The FBI knowingly presented the Canadian court with fraudulent affidavits, and Peltier was returned to the U.S. for trial.
Key witnesses were banned from testifying about FBI misconduct & testimony about the conditions and atmosphere on the Pine Ridge Reservation at the time of the shoot-out was severely restricted. Important evidence, such as conflicting ballistics reports, was ruled inadmissible. Still, the U.S. Prosecutor failed to produce a single witness who could identify Peltier as the shooter. Instead, the government tied a bullet casing found near the bodies of their agents to the alleged murder weapon, arguing that this gun had been the only one of its kind used during the shootout, and that it had belonged to Peltier.
Later, Mr. Peltier’s attorneys uncovered, in the FBI’s own documents, that more than one weapon of the type attributed to Peltier had been present at the scene and the FBI had intentionally concealed a ballistics report that showed the shell casing could not have come from the alleged murder weapon. Other troubling information emerged: the agents undoubtedly followed a red pickup truck onto the land where the shoot-out took place, not the red and white van driven by Peltier; and compelling evidence against several other suspects existed and was concealed.
At the time, however, the jury was unaware of these facts. Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. He is currently imprisoned at the U.S. Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

Monsanto's Biopiracy

2012-01-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

By Vandana Shiva
April 27, 2004
Zmag

Wheat the Golden grain, is called "Kanak" in North Western India. It is the staple of a large majority. Wheat diversity has been evolved by Indian farmers over millennia for taste, for nutrition, for ecological adaptation to cold climates and hot climates, dry regions and wet regions.
Barely four years after starting work, in December 1909, the book entitled "wheat in India" was published. By 1924 no fewer than thirty one papers exclusively on wheat had appeared. A survey of work was presented to the Royal Society of Arts in 1920.
In 1916-1920 indigenous Indian varieties won prizes in International Grain Exhibitions. Indian Wheat was so important a crop for the British Empire that an important Resolution of the Government of India no. I - 39-50 of March 17th, 1877 was passed on the wheat question requiring the Governor General to provide all information on Indian wheat including "local names for the varieties of wheat cultivated and three description in English". More than 1000 wheat samples in bags of 2 pounds each were sent to the India office, examined by Forbes Watson, and a detailed report provided to the Secretary of the State.
Sir Albert Howard, the founder of Modern Organic Farming and his wife G.L.C. Howard started to document and systematize India's wheat diversity. They identified 37 separate botanical varieties of wheat belonging to 10 sub-species.
The Ghoni, Kanku, Rodi, Mundli, Retti, Kunjhari, Sindhi, Kalhia, Sambhergehna, Sambhau, Kamla, Laila, Dandi, Gangajali, Pissia, Ujaria, Surlek, Manipuri, Anokhla, Tamra, Mihirta, Munia, Gajia, Mundia, Merdha, Dudhia, Lurkia, Jamali, Lalka, Harahwa, Galphulia¬Ö.
An amazing diversity of indigenous wheat was evolved by farmers through their indigenous innovation and knowledge. In 1906, the Howards began to select and systematize Indian wheat in Pusa (Bihar) and Lyallpur in Punjab (now Pakistan) and made Indian wheat known worldwide. Howard's work on wheat paid full tribute to the genius of Indian peasants. As he wrote in his plan to study and improve Indian wheat.
"The present condition of Indian agriculture is the heritage of experience handed down from time immemorial by a people little affected by the many changes in the government of the country. The present agricultural practices of India are worthy of respect, however strange and primitive they may appear to Western ideas. The attempt to improve Indian agriculture on Western lines appears to be a fundamental mistake. What is wanted is rather the application of Western scientific methods to the local conditions so as to improve Indian agriculture on its own lines."
Millennia of breeding by millions of Indian farmers is however now being hijacked by Monsanto which is claiming to have "invented" the unique low-elasticity, low gluten properties of an indigenous Indian wheat, rice lines derived from such wheat and all flours, batters, biscuits and edible products made from such wheat.
On 21st May, 2003, the European Patent Office in Munich granted a patent to Monsanto with the number EP 445929, with the simple title "plants", even though plants are not patentable in European Law. The patent covers wheat exhibiting a special baking quality, derived from native Indian wheat. With the patent, Monsanto holds a monopoly on the farming, breeding, and processing of a range of wheat varieties with low elasticity. Earlier in a patent (EP 518577) filed in 1998 Unilever and Monsanto have claimed "invention" of an exclusive claims to the use of flour to make traditional kinds of Indian bread such as "chapattis".
And it is not just in Europe that Monsanto has filed and obtained patents based on the biopiracy of Indian wheat. In the U.S on May 3, 1994 patent number 5,308,635 was given for low elasticity wheat flour blends, on June 9, 1998 patent number 5,763,741 was given for wheat which produce dough with low elasticity, and on January 12, 1999, patent number 5,859,315 another patent was granted for wheats which produce dough with low elasticity.
Through these global patents based on biopiracy, Monsanto is literally seeking to control our daily bread. The wheat variety which has been pirated from India, has been recorded as NapHal in the gene banks from which Monsanto got the wheat and in Monsanto's patent claims. The name NapHal is not the name of an Indian variety. Indian varieties were fully documented by Howard in Wheats of India. NapHal means "no seeds", and is not, and cannot be an indigenous seed variety because farmers bred seed to produce seed.
They did not breed "Terminator seeds" for which the Indian name could be "NapHal". This is clearly a distortion that has crept into the gene bank records because the original variety was stolen, not collected. NapHal is the name given by W.Koelz, USDA. However Koelz clearly did not make the collections himself, but was handed over the varieties, since the locations are inaccurate. The altitudes and longitude / latitudes do not match. According to our search, W.Koelz made the following collections :
Date of Collection Locality

a.. 10.4.48 Marcha, Uttar Pradesh, India Elevation - 3050 meters Latitude - 28o mm N Longitude - 80o mm E

a.. 10.7.48 Subu Uttar Pradesh, India Elevation - 3050 meters Latitude - 28o mm N Longitude - 80o mm E

a.. 19.7.48 Nabi, Uttar Pradesh, India Elevation - 2745 meters Latitude - 29.50o mm N Longitude - 79.30o mm E

a.. 21.7.48 Saro, Nepal Elevation - Not given Latitude - 28o mm N Longitude - 84o mm E
The latitude 28o N and longitude 80o E lies in the plains near Shajahanpur. The elevation here is clearly not 3000 meters. This altitude is in the higher Himalayan ranges with different latitude and longitude. In any case Marcha is not the name of the village but a sub tribal category of the Bhotias who are Tibetans speaking Buddhist living in the upper regions of the Himalayas. The terms Bhotia came from Bo which is the native Tibetan word for Tibet.
The discrepancy in the location and in the name indicate that the variety referred to as NapHal was pirated, not collected. Probably the name is a distortion of Nepal, since one sample was from Nepal and indigenous varieties names Nepal are in the NBPGR collection.

We have challenged Monsanto wheat biopiracy both in the Indian Supreme Court and in the European Patent Office in Munich with Greenpeace. As our challenge submitted to the EPO on 17th February, 2004, stated,
"The patent is a blatant example of biopiracy as it is tantamount to the theft of the results of endeavours in cultivation made by Indian farmers. In the countries of the southern hemisphere, it is frequently the small farmers who make a decisive contribution to agricultural diversity and secure sufficient food supplies by freely swapping seeds and breeding regionally modified forms of crops.
Monsanto is now unscrupulously exploiting the fruits of their labour. The company is able to restrict not only the farming and processing of crops, but also trade in them, in the countries for which the patent has been granted. At the same time it can block the free exchange of the seed, thus preventing other growers and farmers from working with the patented seeds.
The wheat exhibiting these special baking qualities is the result of the labours of cultivators and farmers in India who originally grew these plants for their own regional requirements, growing them to bake traditional Indian bread (chapatis). As it is natural for these farmers to freely swap seeds, it comes as no surprise that this wheat seed has been stored in various international gene banks outside India for many years.
Thus, samples of the seed can be found in the collections held by the US agricultural administration as well as in Japan and Europe. The patent owner uses these features to achieve his own business goals in a way which can only be regarded as indecent.
Unilever and Monsanto also have unrestricted access to these seed banks. They took the wheat to their laboratories, where they searched for the genes responsible for the special baking qualities. And, indeed, they were able to find the gene sequences which they had been looking for in the plant. In this connection, they were aided by the research results of various scientists as the corresponding gene regions had been undergoing examination for quite some time. It is this natural combination of genes which has now been patented by Monsanto as an "invention"."

This patent needs to be challenged on the following grounds :
The traits of low elasticity, low gluten which are being patented are not an invention, but derived from an Indian variety. The crossing with a soft milling variety is an obvious step to any breeder. The patent is based on piracy, not on non-obvious novelty, and hence needs to be challenged to stop legal precedence being created on false claims to invention.
The broad scope of the patent covering products made with Indian wheat robs Indian food processes and biscuit manufacturers of their legitimate export market and could in future affect our domestic food sovereignty. The Governments 2020 vision refers to making India a "global food factory".

However if Monsanto has the patent based on piracy of Indian wheat, India's "food factory" will be controlled by Monsanto, not Indian food processors and producers. The governments policy if it has to be successful, must have the Monsanto patent revoked in order to bring market benefits for our unique food products to the country's producers - both farmers and food processors.
With an estimated annual turnover of US$ 1.5 billion, the baking industry in India is one of the largest manufacturing sectors in India, production of which has been increasing steadily in the country. The two major bakery industries, viz. Bread and biscuit account for about 82 percent of the total bakery products. With overall annual growth estimated at 6.9%. According to ASSOCHAM India, a business support services firm, there are almost 85,000 bakeries in the country. Approximately 75,000 of these operate in the unorganised sector, which has a 60% market share. The remaining 1,000 bakeries operate in the organised sector, which has a 40% market share.
Packaged Food in India, a recently released report from Euromonitor, recorded year 2000 volume sales of the organised biscuit sector at 500,000 MT, or approximately US$492 million in value terms. The unorganised sector, which supplies 60% of total production, has an annual turnover of nearly US$718 million. If combined, the two sectors would bring overall biscuit sales to more than US$ 1.2 billion annually, or 1.3 MMT, making India the world's second largest biscuit manufacturer and consumer behind the US.
Further, the patent covers not just biscuits but all edible products and flours with low elasticity. India Chapatis are in effect covered by the patent.
If such biopiracy based patents are not challenged, and crop lines and products based on unique properties evolved through indigenous breeding become the monopoly of MNC's, in future we will be paying royalties for our innovations especially in light of the Patent Cooperation Treat and upward harmonization of patent law.
Monsanto's wheat biopiracy patent should be a wake up call to citizens and governments of the world. It is yet another example of why the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) of W.T.O needs to be changed, and why traditional knowledge and community rights need to be legally recognized and protected.

The Role of Patents in the Rise of Globalization

2012-01-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

Interview with Vandana Shiva
The Role of Patents in the Rise of Globalization

“The recovery of economic democracy is at the heart of recovery of democracy itself.”

New Delhi, India


	Vandana Shiva at a press conference with other leaders of an anti-WTO march in New Delhi, August 27, 2003 . All photos by Nic Paget-Clarke.

	Marching with former Indian prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda and also two other former primer ministers V.P. Singh and I.K. Gujral.

	A soldier of the Indian Army provides security for the former prime ministers marching in the anti-WTO rally in New Delhi.

	On the march in New Delhi.

	On the stage at the rally against WTO..

	At the rally.
	More photos.
	In Motion Magazine Recommends Water Wars: Privatization, Poll… Vandana Shiva (Paperback - Feb 2… $10.20 Protect or Plunder?: Understan… Vandana Shiva (Paperback - Feb 9,… $20.95 Biopiracy: The Plunder of Natur… Vandana Shiva (Paperback - Jul 1, … $9.24 Privacy

Dr. Vandana Shiva is founder of both the Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology, an independent public industry research group, and Navdanya a grassroots conservation movement in India. This interview was conducted by Nic Paget-Clarke on August 27, 2003 for In Motion Magazine in New Delhi, India.

A twist in the history of patents
In Motion Magazine: I think sometimes people’s eyes glaze over when hearing about patents and legal matters, but in your book “Protect or Plunder – Understanding Intellectual Property Rights” you describe some interesting history, about how originally patents were used to spread technology but now they have been turned into their opposite. Could you outline how that twist happened?
Vandana Shiva: In the early days, the word patent was used for two things. In the case of getting hold of territory, what were issued by kings and queens were letters-patent, which were open letters. Anyone could know that Columbus had been given a right by Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand to conquer and take over any territory on their behalf.
But the second meaning, defined around the same time by the Venetian laws on patent, which were the first patent laws, was that a master craftsman could be brought (to a country), because technology at that time was craft technology, and if a country could not make glass they would give to the master craftsman apprentices and say, “Train our people in this art.” “Train our people to make glass.” “Train our people to make steel.” “Train our people to make textiles”, and we will give you an exclusive right (to make these products) for seven years while you are training people.
The period of the patent was seven years because it took seven years to learn a craft. After that seven years was over, the master craftsman went back to wherever he belonged and you had all the apprentices available in the country to spread that technology as a free public good. This was the pattern throughout the early use of patent law.
Then you get slow shifts with the rise of industrialism. As big industry became a major economic interest, they started to use technology as an instrument of monopoly. Patents became the way to say, “Only we will use this technology”.
The way they expanded this power was, on the one hand, extending the life of patents. It went from seven years to fourteen. Now, under WTO (World Trade Organization), for the first time it is twenty years -- extendible in a period where technologies are becoming so obsolete that if you have that kind of monopoly for twenty years you are totally controlling the technology.
And the second thing is constantly increasing the domain over which patents will apply. For example, in India’s patent law agriculture could not be touched. Agriculture was free of monopolies. And in medicine you could not have a product monopoly. You could not monopolize a medicine but you could monopolize a method of making a medicine. But, medicine has been brought into monopolies. Seed has been brought into monopolies. Cells have brought into monopolies. Genes have been brought into monopolies. Animals have been brought into monopolies.
Basically, the ’80s saw a twist in this and a lot of it had to do with the rise of the big industry and their convergence into one set of giants, which are the health giants, the pharmaceutical giants, the gene giants controlling all life.
Control of the technology
In Motion Magazine: You’ve also said that with the rise of other countries in the world, with their own manufacturing systems, markets started to slip away but the developed countries still had control of the technology?
Vandana Shiva: The thing was that when we were living in a world based on crafts, transferring technology was the objective. But as the world got industrialized, as developing countries shed the colonial burden, imperialistic patent law started to develop.
For example, again India, under a 1970 law, developed a very strong medical sector. And I think if WTO had not come on the horizon, India would be providing cheap medicine to American citizens. It’s capable of doing that. But the American citizens, and the African citizens, and the Brazilian citizens, and in the future the India citizens are being told, “You will only buy from these monopolies.” It was a way to de-industrialize Southern countries who had started to build capacity, technological capacity for themselves.
The role of patents
In Motion Magazine: So patents have had a very specific role in the latest version of imperialism, in this globalization phase?
Vandana Shiva: If you want to have one tool for imperialistic control, it’s patent law under the WTO agreement. It’s in my view the worst of the WTO agreements. It is a totally coercive tool. It has only a negative function: to prevent others from doing their own thing; to prevent people from having food; to prevent people from having medicine; to prevent countries from having technological capacity. It is a negative tool for creating underdevelopment.
It’s the privatization of knowledge. I have called it the enclosure, the ultimate enclosure. We had enclosures of land. Now, we are seeing enclosures of biodiversity, life itself. In my book “Biopiracy”, I’ve talked about how this is the last colony. It is the spaces within our minds -- for knowledge. The spaces within life forms for reproduction. A seed cannot reproduce without permission of the patent holder and the company. Knowledge cannot be transmitted without permission and license collection. It’s rent collection from life. It’s rent collection from being human, and thinking, and knowing.
Globalization of U.S. patent laws
In Motion Magazine: How has the WTO been a forum for the globalization of U.S. patent laws?
Vandana Shiva: The WTO has an agreement called Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPs), which basically is nothing more than globalization of U.S.-style laws. And its globalization of U.S.-style laws both in content and in process. In terms of content, in the late ’80s when this law was drafted, the United States was the only country that granted patents on life forms. This precedent was set in a 1980 decision on a genetically-engineered micro-organism, subsequent to which was the rise of the biotech industry. The granting of life patents was seen as an imperative both by the industry as well as the government. The U.S. government actually encouraged life patenting. The decision-making was set by the courts, rather than by Congress, never with a public debate, never with a public policy decision on the ethical implications, ecological implications, economic implications of what life patents mean.
The second way in which this is a globalization of U.S. law is the fact that it was really U.S. companies which got together, drafted the law, took it to the U.S. administration, then took it to the secretariat of the at-that-time General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), which was the precursor of WTO, and as Monsanto, which was one of the companies in the intellectual property coalition admitted in drafting this law, “We achieved something unprecedented. We were the patient, the diagnostician, and the physician all in one.
Patents regulate life
With the broadening of patents to life forms, patents do not just regulate technology they regulate life. They regulate economy. They regulate basic needs. A patent is an exclusive right to make, produce, distribute, or sell the patented product. So, if a patent is granted, for example, on seed it means a farmer who grows a seed cannot save seed from the harvested crop because that is constituted as making the seed and the exclusive right to the seed belongs to the company. It means seed-saving by farmers is now defined as intellectual property theft. Many farmers in the United States have been sued by the corporations for doing something normal in farming, which is saving their seed.
Exchanging seed with your neighbor, which is called brown-bagging -- it was not a commercial exercise; it was a mutual give-and-take in society; a social act of exchange for non-profit activity -- has also been defined as an infringement because now distributing is covered by a patent, even if it is not commercial, because the companies interpret that by exchanging seed you are taking the market away from them.
Medicine: from healing to profits
Also, patents can be given for medicine. For example, in the case of medicine, if there is no patent we can treat people with AIDS with $200 expenditure per year. Indian companies can make it for that cost because they can make them as generic drugs. They are not piracy drugs, which is the way the U.S. pharmaceutical industry talks about them. They are generic in the sense that different processes have been used. The same medicine, the same retroviral, costs $20,000 in the United States because of patenting -- that is the only difference. Which means something which is being made for $200 is being sold to consumers for not just ten times but a hundred times the price. As our prime minister said, the big companies are trying to turn the matter of disease from healing into a matter of profits.
There was an attempt made, at the beginning of the TRIPs negotiations, to make it look like the lower-cost production that could happen in the absence of monopolies was piracy. The industry managed to define piracy as absence of monopolies. We want to define monopoly as monopoly and recognize that things like seeds should be accessible to farmers, things like medicine should be accessible to those who are dying of AIDS, and no regime in the world can put profits above people’s lives.
In Motion Magazine: Are the same corporations controlling food and health?
Vandana Shiva: It’s the same companies. The industry that used to be the chemical industry is also the pharmaceutical industry, is also the seed industry, is also the biotech industry. There is no separation -- and agro-chemical industry. It is all one.
Ecology and equity
In Motion Magazine:You made the statement in your book on patents that there’s always a connection between ecology and equity. Can you talk about that?
Vandana Shiva: Ecology is about interactions in the natural world, sustainability of resources. Whether you look at water, you look at biodiversity, you look at anything, conservation happens. Environmental sustainability takes place when people have a stake and a share in the rewards of the conserved resource. If people have the ability to drink water from a well, and look after that well, and will suffer the consequences of contamination, they will not contaminate that well. People who pollute a well or a river are the ones who don’t have to drink from it.
Similarly, when it comes to monopolies on intellectual property, conservation is what is sacrificed. It’s the small peasants of the world who have conserved biodiversity. If they have to continue conserving biodiversity, they need to have their rights defended. They need to be able to know that when they plant basmati rice it will be their reward to harvest that basmati. They will not be treated as pieces of RiceTec property. And they need to have a market for their produce.
Intellectual property destabilizes both, and in fact, starts to become an incentive for destruction of biodiversity by pressures of the industry for monocultures, on the one hand, but also by not giving people a chance to protect the resources from which they make a living because they are no more their resources.
That is why ecology goes hand-in-hand with equity.
From theoretical physicist to advocate for biodiversity
In Motion Magazine: Could you go over how you started in the field of physics and then ended up where you are today and how that relates to your organizing?
Vandana Shiva: I chose to be a physicist. I loved physics from an age when I didn’t even know what the content was but I knew I wanted to figure out how nature works. Einstein was my hero. This is what inspired me.
I lived through life training to be a physicist, initially training to be a nuclear physicist and then realizing there’s a dark side to it. I left that to become a theoretical physicist. I worked in foundations of quantum theory.
As is typical, I was doing my Ph.D. in Canada and everyone who goes from the South as a scientist stays on and becomes a university professor and I could see, “That’s what I will become.” I wanted to become that. But I said, “I’m not informed enough about how my society works. There is a question in my mind. We have the third biggest scientific community in the world. We are among the poorest of countries. Science and technology is supposed to create growth, remove poverty. Where is the gap? Why is science and technology not removing poverty?” I wanted to answer that question to myself.
I said, “I will take off three years. Look at science policy issues. Be a little more educated, socially, and then go back to physics.” That was my chosen life path. I was, in any way, involved in forest protection in the Himalayas, my home, before I went for a Ph.D. I constantly volunteered with a movement of women called Chipko .
But when I started to work on science and technology issues, I realized very quickly that they are about resource control. They are not about efficiency. A big trawler in the sea is not more efficient than a small boat. It controls more resources. And denies the small boat.
Green Revolution farming is not more efficient. It takes more water and leaves other areas deprived of financial investment, water inputs, everything else. What you really see is technology acting as, what I called in that period, a polarizer of resource access. Very quickly I started to realize that technology issues, ecology issues, social inequality issues, were actually very intimately connected. I did a lot of analysis/writing at that point and I was invited by the United Nations to carry these issues further.
Meantime, the Ministry of Environment, seeing some of my reports, commissioned me to look at mining in my valley. I had just had my son, the 21-year-old boy who is walking around (in the office where this interview took place), and I said “perfect”. I had lost my mother at that time, so I said “I will go back, look at this mining, make a break in my science policy, also make a short break from my return to physics. Do the study. He’ll be a little older. But I will also do more work on ecology and the grassroots movement. Did the study. We stopped the mine.
Agriculture and violence
I started to do the United Nations work and a huge world unfolded. The Punjab crisis burst which forced me to look at agriculture, ecology issues of agriculture, but also the rise of terrorism linked to unequal development. I wrote my book called “The Violence of the Green Revolution”.
1984 was the year I started to look very, very closely at those issues because we’d had genocide in Punjab. We’d lost our prime minister in that terrorism, which eventually killed 30,000 people. And it was the year of Bhopal. As a result of that gas leak from a pesticide plant, 30,000 people more have died.
So, I was just surrounded by these mega-violent epidemics all linked to agriculture and agriculture that was supposed to be progressive. In 1984, I decided that something was wrong and I needed to go to the roots of it. Why has agriculture gone so violent? Why are we so dependent on pesticides -- weapons of mass destruction? The real weapons of mass destruction because they did move from the war industry into agriculture.
Focus on biotechnology and patenting
After three of four years of looking more closely at agriculture issues, I started to get called into biotechnology seminars because it was the next step. In ’87, at one of these seminars, the industry laid out its grand dream of controlling the world. They talked about needing genetic engineering so that there’s a technology that they have that peasants can’t use so that they can have a monopoly through technology. Patents. Because without it they cannot consolidate power.
That was said by Sandoz. Sandoz merged later with Ceiber-Geigy. Sandoz and Ceiber-Geigy became Novartis. Novartis merged with AstroZeneca, which was anyway two independent companies, earlier. All of them merged to become Syngenta. What they had said at that time was, “By the turn of the century we will be five.” In ’87, I said, “I don’t want to live in a world where five giant companies control our health and our food.”
I dropped everything else. I left my work on dams and forests and mines. I was doing very broad-scale work on the environment movement then. Dropped everything else. Handed it over to the next generation -- and they were brilliant activists in India -- and moved into a focus on two things: biotechnology and patenting.
I tracked the whole TRIPs negotiations through and have followed the biotech industry from the day it wanted to become a giant industry. I have tried to do my best to defend the freedom of people; create seed banks so that farmers have free seed; nature has freedom of diversity; and these monopolies are restrained.
Since 1987 to now, which is 16 years, I have had a single pointed attention to prevent imperialism over life itself.
The influence of Gandhi
In Motion Magazine: When you are working with the various farmers’ organizations, various mass organizations, specifically in India do people consciously learn from what Gandhi had to say? (See photo of Gandhi's working room, the Harijan Ashram by the Sabarmati River, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.) Vandana Shiva: Definitely. People very, very much learn from what Gandhi had said. When I brought the TRIPs issues for the first time to farmers’ organizations in India, in ’91 when the first draft of the WTO texts were ready, it was called the Dunkel draft text, I started to tell people what this would imply. It took no time: by ’92, ’93, we had giant farmer rallies. And the title (of the movement) was the Seed Satyagraha -- the non-violent, non-cooperation with laws that create seed monopolies, inspired totally by Gandhi walking to the Dandi Beach and picking the salt and saying, “You can’t monopolize this which we need for life.”
On the non-cooperation side we were very inspired by Gandhi. But also on the constructive side, the other side of our work with farmers and farm groups is the creative side of saving seeds, doing agriculture without corporate dependence -- without chemicals, without their seed. All this is talked about in the language that Gandhi left us as a legacy.
We work with three key concepts. (One) Swadeshi -- which means the capacity to do your own thing -- produce your own food, produce your own goods.
(Two) Swaraj -- to govern yourself. And we fight on three fronts -- water, food, and seed. JalSwaraj -- JalSwaraj is water independence -- water freedom and water sovereignty. Anna Swaraj is food freedom, food sovereignty. And Bija Swaraj is seed freedom and seed sovereignty.
(In regard to these fronts) Swa means self -- that which rises from the self and is very, very much a deep notion of freedom. I believe that these concepts, which are deep, deep, deep in Indian civilization, Gandhi resurrected them to fight for freedom. They are very important for today’s world because so far what we’ve had is centralized state rule, giving way now to centralized corporate control, and we need a third alternate. That third alternate is, in part, citizens being able to tell their states, “This is what your function is. This is what your obligations are,” and being able to have their states act on corporations to say, “This is something you cannot do.”
The third component is Satyagraha, non-cooperation, basically saying, “We will do our thing and any law that tries to say that us being free is illegal we will have to not cooperate with it. We will defend our freedoms to have access to water, access to seed, access to food, access to medicine.”
The death of economic democracy
In Motion Magazine: Last time we spoke, you were talking about how to make democracy more viable and you were saying that it comes down to individual participation at an economic level. How would that function?
Vandana Shiva: Well, actually any real, true democracy is one in which people can determine the conditions of their living -- their food, their health, their jobs, their livelihoods. These are defined as economic issues. They used to be covered by democratic governance of the representative kind to the extent that before globalization, if you voted someone to power you could put demands on that representative to say, “We need a school in this community, and if you promise you get us a school we are with you.” By and large, it was possible for politicians to come back and deliver their promise because it was within the national sovereign space.
But globalization has meant the erosion of national sovereign space. For example, under the agreement on agriculture nobody can guarantee a price to a farmer. Governments cannot go to farmers and say, “We will make sure you get a living price for your farm commodities.” They cannot go to a community and say, “We will defend your jobs and prevent them from being undermined and companies running off to some cheap overseas site.” They cannot offer guarantees on education, they cannot offer healthcare -- the typical things democracy was made of.
What we’ve seen is a split of democracy. It’s been emptied out of its economic content, been left with a representative shell of electoral theatrics -- literally.
Economic decisions have moved out of the hands of citizens and even of the hands of countries and moved into organizations controlled by corporations like the WTO, and the World Bank, the IMF (International Monetary Fund), and the corporations themselves. What we have is economic dictatorship combined with representative democracy. But representative democracy under economic dictatorship is not able to counter that dictatorship and act as an economic democratic force. (Rather it) moves and leans increasingly into winning votes by polarizing society and dividing society along lines of race, gender, religion, ethnicity. That is why over the ’90s, as globalization has deepened its reach in our communities and countries, fundamentalism, communalism, religious hatred have seen a rise. Because religious fundamentalism, I believe, is a child of the death of economic democracy.
In Motion Magazine: Because?
Vandana Shiva: Because people without economic rights are left insecure. There is joblessness. They can’t understand the processes leading to it. Ordinary farmers can’t really understand why prices are going down.
If you can say, “The prices are going down because some other farmer in some other state is doing something to you;” or, “Your water is disappearing because some other state is doing something;” or, “Your jobs are going because the Moslems are breeding too much;” or in Europe, “The immigrants are coming too fast; or in the United States, “The Mexicans are crossing the border;” it takes no time before the economic insecurity left as a result of globalization mutates into a ready-made ground for political interests to say, “Your job has been taken away by so and so.” “Your security has been robbed by so and so.” That’s the rhetoric that has filled the space as economic insecurity has grown.
The recovery of economic democracy
In Motion Magazine: How can a farmer, for example, economically become involved?
Vandana Shiva: I think the recovery of economic democracy is at the heart of recovery of democracy itself. And it doesn’t stop at that. It goes further into the creation of peace. In a way, we really have three combined challenges, just now. We’ve got the threat of war and violence. We’ve got the threat of economic insecurity, loss of jobs, loss of livelihoods, loss of incomes for farmers. And thirdly, we’ve got this whole situation that our leaders are not representing our will -- the collapse of democracy.


	Making chipatis in Old Delhi.

	Making saris.

	Sacks of peppers in Old Delhi.

	Spices for sale in Old Delhi.

	Busy market area in Old Delhi.

	Looking into the courtyard of a 400-year -old building.

Ordinary farmers have to get involved, can get involved, by engaging in a recovery of economic democracy as an everyday practice meaning, as we do here, with seed Swaraj, with Anna Swaraj, saving seeds, growing your own seed, not going to Monsanto in every season and having your seed collapse. I was just told, yesterday, that 41 billion rupees of losses have been faced by farmers in one state who were sold Monsanto corn. We did a calculation that farmers of Bt cotton, the genetically-engineered cotton, lost a billion rupees in one season.
If farmers are saving the seed, growing their crop, they are making reclamation of their economic space. They are giving up chemicals and the pesticides that have contaminated all sources of water in this country, including the soft drinks now. They are not just saving money. They are saving their lives and they are saving public health.
By reaching out to consumers and setting up alternate marketing systems, as we do with the Dilli Haat where we have our direct marketing stall, we in Navdanya, my organization, which is the main outlet for organic growers in this country, we bring the produce directly from farmers, and it’s literally their marketing platform. The flow of wealth from South to North
In Motion Magazine: The contradiction between knowledge, as a collective process, and patents being the opposite of that … do you think that is related to the fact that wealth has been flowing from one half of the world to the other? Vandana Shiva: North-South inequality is very clearly a result of imperialistic structures being put in place that suck wealth out of the South, put it in the North. That’s exactly why the North looks rich and the South looks poor. Not because human beings in the South don’t know how to create wealth. Everyone knows how to make things, create things. Every one is creative. But when the results of your creativity, productivity are not yours to hold and the results of your labor and creativity are transferred somewhere else the one who takes it becomes rich and the one who’s left without it is the one who stays poor.
During colonial rule, this extraction was done through ownership over land. The British came to India to a country, which was richer than England at that time, and every record tells you that. They used to exchange pepper with bags of gold. A sack of pepper used to be equal to a sack of gold. Then they came in as traders, established themselves as rulers. First as the East India Company, which was thrown out in the 1857 Rebellion and War of Independence, then, as the crown which took over the role of the Company and continued to rule. The regions that were the richest, such as Bengal, became the poorest. In 1942, two million people died of famine in the land where there was no shortage of wheat. Amartya Sen got a Nobel prize for saying something so basic, that people did not die because there was not enough food. They died because they had been robbed of their entitlement. That was the basis of his Nobel prize. That is also the basis of noticing inequality.
We (Navdanya) have two books on the history of food and farming and we have tracked in them what the wealth of Indian peasants was being used for. Schools were being built in England. Mental asylums were being run by the transfer of peasant wealth into England. That’s why the colonizing empire constantly grew. That’s what land ownership did at that time, which the British institutionalized in this country. Before that we had land use. We had use-of-it right. Not private property in land.
The British turned the revenue collectors into landowners and created what they called the permanent settlement and Zamidari system through which wealth would flow to them. The revenue collectors were left as landowners. The original cultivators were left as the dispossessed peasants.

From ownership of land to ownership of biodiversity
What ownership over land, a very distorted ownership of a land, did to indigenous communities at that time of colonialism, ownership over biodiversity, seeds, genes, medicine is doing in today’s world. The biodiversity is in what is called the poorer part of the world. We are biodiversity rich but every year, annually, $60 billion worth of wealth-transfer is taking place because the control over the products is in the hands of the North. Monopolies of patents are in their hands. Monopolies on trade are in their hands.
Coffee -- trade jumped from $40 billion to $70 billion over the last few years so there was literally a doubling of trade. One would have imagined a doubling of trade would have left a doubling of incomes in the hands of those who grew the coffee. The incomes of the coffee producers dropped from $9 billion to $5 billion and some of the most dispossessed people of the world today are the coffee growers, as also every other commodity grower.
These are amazing mechanisms -- the trade arrangements, trade treaties, intellectual property rights patent treaties. They are doing, once again, in a deeper way what colonialism did and the projections are that 70% of American wealth will be through rent collection, through patents, because the U.S government is not designing America as a society where people are involved in making things. It has dismantled manufacture. It has gone off to China. Pick up anything in a supermarket -- it is made in China. But America would still like to collect returns and that is through intellectual property. So, while people’s jobs are disappearing, the corporate wealth is increasing and then, of course, all the details of the rest of it carry on.
There are all these mechanisms of taking wealth from those who work, those who create, to those who control through extremely coercive instruments of power.
War is globalization by other means
In Motion Magazine: Which is now further enforced by invading other people’s countries?
Vandana Shiva: I have said that war is another name for globalization because if you really look at Iraq it wasn’t liberated. American soldiers didn’t come out winning. More of them have died since the so-called war got over. But one thing did happen and that was that corporate America got to enter Iraq and use American tax money in the process. Bechtel got a big contract. Halliburton got a big contract. That is where the whole so-called reconstruction went. This is exactly what globalization does – (for example) put the water of the world in the hands of Bechtel, Suez (Lyonnaise des Eaux), Vivendi (Environment). Globalization is war by other means and war is globalization by other means.
In Motion Magazine: It depends on the policy of the leaders of the U.S. at the time?
Vandana Shiva: At this point it so happens America is the empire. But one thing we learned with the British Empire is that empires rise and empires sink.
Published in In Motion Magazine March 28, 2004

Occupy Talks: Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement

2012-01-13T10:43:00.001-08:00

What does it mean to ‘Occupy already occupied lands?’. How does Occupy relate to 500 years of resistance on Turtle Island? Please join speakers Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Clayton Thomas-Muller and Leanne Simpson to explore and discuss these dynamics of the Occupy movement.Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham StreetWhen: January, 23rd, 7 pmTom B.K. Goldtooth is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), headquartered at Bemidji, Minnesota. A social change activist within the Native American community for over 30 years, he has become an environmental and economic justice leader, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Tom co-produced an award winning documentary film, Drumbeat For Mother Earth, which addresses the affects of bio-accumulative chemicals on indigenous peoples, and is active with many environmental and social justice organizations besides IEN. Tom is a policy advisor on environmental protection, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Tom co-authored the REDD Booklet on the risks of REDD within indigenous territories and a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change -- the indigenous caucus within the UNFCCC.Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. With his roots in the inner city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Clayton began his work as a community organizer, working with Aboriginal youth. Over the years Clayton’s work has taken him to five continents across our Mother Earth. Based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of an inclusive movement for energy and climate justice. He serves on the board of the Global Justice Ecology Project and Canadian based Raven Trust. Recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine, Clayton is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for the Indigenous Environmental Network. He works across Canada, Alaska and the lower 48 states with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the sprawling infrastructure that includes pipelines, refineries and extraction associated with the tar sands, the largest and most destructive industrial project in the history of mankind.Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a writer, activist, and scholar of Michi Saagiik Nishnaabeg ancestry and is a band member of Alderville First Nation. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, is an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Studies at Trent University and an instructor at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge, Athabasca University. She has also lectured at Ryerson University, the University of Victoria, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Winnipeg. Leanne has worked with Indigenous communities and organizations across Canada and internationally over the past 15 years on environmental, governance and political issues. She has published three edited volumes including Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence and Protection of Indigenous Nations (2008, Arbeiter Ring), and This is An Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Barricades (with Kiera Ladner, 2010, Arbeiter Ring). Leanne has published over thirty scholarly articles and raised over one million dollars for community-based research projects over her career. She has written fiction and non-fiction pieces for Now Magazine, Spirit Magazine, the Globe and Mail, Anishinabek News, the Link, and Canadian Art Magazine.Event is FREE, donations welcomed.Important note: Beit Zatoun is accessible for the lecture, however its washrooms are not. Accommodations will be made with local restaurants to provide accessible washrooms.Sponsors: Canadian Auto Workers, Canadian Labour Council, Ryerson University, Environmental Justice Toronto, Indigenous Environmental Network

The Great Bell Chant

2012-01-10T05:16:00.000-08:00

Maximize your screen to better enjoy this video!

Your personal bundle/mandala

2012-01-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

By Marcelo Saavedra-Vargas

Andean Chakana

A personal bundle/mandala

Bundles/Mandalas are sacred symbols we are all exposed to and are capable of creating. There are some straightforward guidelines that will allow you to creatively design your bundle/mandala, based on the teachings you acquire by reading the assigned material, attending class lectures and, more importantly, allowing yourself the proper psychological and transformational space. You are supposed to thoroughly enjoy the process of contemplating your existence in the cosmos, while doing your bundle/mandala. This is a very healing exercise.

A Bolivian Quechua bundle with aguayo (tissue)

Getting in touch with our Ancestors

Bundles/Mandalas were designed by our Ancestors, either deliberately, unconsciously or naturally, and we can find them in a host of mature civilizations, as Gary Snyder used to call indigenous peoples. Bundle/Mandalas are ethnotext or metatext. They go beyond the written medium and do not rely on mnemonics (the ability to rationally remember and reproduce) but rather ignite your intuitive perception and interpretation capabilities. In this sense this internal conversation you hold with yourself, by doing your mandala or bundle, is sacred.

Once you begin your process of reflecting and actually doing your bundle or mandala you will find you get mysteriously drawn to this process. This is not surprising. This is a visit you pay to yourself! Enjoy it, fully engage and become an indigenous to this planet.

Past experience and painting talent are not prerequisites to making meaningful bundles/mandalas. They can be quite direct and down-to-earth or very abstract. You just need to open your heart and let flow your intuition.

A Bolivian bundle (quep'i)

Some tips to get going with designing your bundle/mandala:

· You have to be relaxed and calm. This is why I suggest you give yourself time to do this.

· Connecting: Perhaps this is the most crucial part of the process. You need to find a suitable psychological space/time and calm your rational mind. Let go past and future events. Inhabit the present. This should express in a relaxed body and creative mind. Imagine yourself or sense yourself (breathing is the best vehicle to go around you). Once you are in touch with yourself gently reflect about what has brought you up to ‘here’ and what is holding and supporting you so you can continue your cosmic journey;

· Sense the colors that express yourself;

· Sense the elements that explain you and what you want to become;

· Sense any patterns, geometric figures or specific objects (if you are drawing, sense the symbols that represent those objects);

· Sense your surroundings past, present and those to come. Include them gently in your bundle/mandala.

· Include any other element that would make sense to you.

These are your ‘raw’ materials. Now you can proceed to creating your bundle/mandala.

Creating your personal bundle/mandala

A healing circle (mandala)

Since a mandala is a circle (in Sanskrit) I suggest you complete a departing circle (large or small), acknowledging Pachamama, Taqpacha, all other nations, your own nation, your ancestors, your future generations, the sacredness of your relations, and the beauty of your own self. You can then draw the complementary piece of the already drawn circle (inwards or outwards, depending on your pre-disposition). You can also draw a square. Circles and squares reflect the parity relations of all things, the opposite but complementary forces everything is made of.

If you are doing a bundle, it is meant to be like the womb of your mother, circular (spherical) in nature. Like with the mandala, be careful in complementing it with the content. The tissue (if you have chosen to have a tissue) is the form and the elements that you put in it are the content. They both complement and complete each other perfectly in a parity relationship. There cannot be a form without content and vice versa.

Now you can start including (drawing, painting, pasting, collating) the elements that you had reflected upon in the previous step. Remember that blank or empty spaces are also very meaningful.

A mandala

Bring to your mind the readings you have been doing and the teachings you have been acquiring. For this specific exercise, you have to include these elements in your mandala/bundle. Gain serenity, lose fear and become truly humble. It is your life; it is your symbolism you are creating. You are safe and peaceful.

Enjoy it!

Paschi!

Jallalla!

Joint course between Geography and Aboriginal Studies - Fall 2011

2011-07-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

ENV4112 / EAS4364: Indigenous Environmental Knowledge

What is "traditional knowledge"? What is its source? Its value? How does it differ from "scientific knowledge"? Why is it discounted, yet sought after? Why has it become the subject of international controversy? This course explores these questions, emphasizing both Indigenous and environmental aspects. It requires students to personally engage their minds in another worldview to discover how traditional knowledge has practical importance for future survival. Both Canadian and international contexts are addressed.

This course will be led by Sonia Wesche and Rarihowkats (Haudnosaane nation).

Kokomville Academy with Natasha, Brigette, Camila, Iana and Marcelo

2011-07-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend we (Tasha, Brigette, Iana, Camila and –driver- Marcelo) will be going to Kokomville Academy to receive some Anishinaabe teachings from Elder Jacob Wawatie (Mowegan).

Kokomville Academy is a small School situated within the Wild life Reserve of La Verendrye in the Province of Quebec, Canada. The spirit of Kokomville Academy emerges from Mother Nature a study to learn the traditional Educational values of a family base within the boreal forest of North America. The “university of nature” is well grounded: to coexist in the Natural Environment following the teachings of Anishinaabe territory from Elder Jacob Wawatie.

This is a deliberate choice to integrate into our lives the indigenous perspectives of the territory in which we are welcome to live, to deploy our lives and to build our communities. Our sacred relations must be organized following the traditions of proud Algonquin people.

Because of the cosmic law of complementarity we want to contribute to the Kokomville Academy and we want to bring with us a laptop that can be used for a variety of purposes.

Would anyone be able to donate a working laptop or sell it at a solidarity price? We would really appreciate this gesture that will be transmitted to all those that will go through the awakening experience of Kokomville Academy in the days/months to come.

Please contact: maqexx@gmail.com

Chi meegweetch!

The Sustainable Relations course goes on!

2011-06-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

This is what BEING RESPONSIBLE to our Future Generations looks like.

Brigette, you make us very proud and this is one of the greatest teachings you could have shown us, with courage, determination and responsibility.

Jallalla Brigette!

ROLL WITH THE DECLARATION – THE LAND, OUR LIFE

2011-05-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164532860277728

~~ Please spread the word ! ~~

ROLL WITH THE DECLARATION – “THE LAND, OUR LIFE”
Participatory Indigenous Solidarity Workshop with KAIROS, IPSMO - Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective and FAMILIES OF SISTERS IN SPIRIT

We will be making BANNERS!

1 pm – 5 pm
Saturday, June 4 2011
PSAC boardroom, 233 Gilmour St. Ottawa
Unceded and Unsurrendered Algonquin Territory

This workshop is open to everyone! Refreshment and snack will be provided.

Please R.S.V.P!

Special guests: Ed Bianchi, Kristen Gilchrist, Bridget Tolley, Tillis Wawatie Keye and Marcelo Saavedra-Vargas!

Come and learn about the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Mitchikanibikok Inik (the Algonquins of Barriere Lake) and Violence against Indigenous Women in Canada. As a part of the discussions, we will do a powerful exercise that explores the experience and impacts of colonization – the BLANKET exercise.

In the 2nd part of the workshop, we will collectively make banners to express our solidarity with the Algonquins of Barriere Lake and Indigenous Women in this country. These banners are a way to urge Canada to get to work on implementing this historic international agreement – UNDRIP – the minimum standard for the governments to fulfill their obligations for the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination. These banners will then join other banners from across the country in a demonstration and march on June 20 Day of Action organized by KARIOS.

** We will ask for donations to cover the costs of materials for this event.

For more info:

Mitchikanibikok Inik (the Algonquins of Barriere Lake): http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.org/,
Violence against Indigenous Women in Canada: http://www.amnesty.ca/campaigns/sisters_overview.php,
Families of Sisters in Spirit: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_126522944087041&ap=1,
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa: http://www.ipsmo.org/,
KAIROS: http://www.kairoscanada.org/, and
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/drip.html

Algonquin Sharing Day

2011-05-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Algonquin Sharing Day with Bob Lovelace, Lynn Gehl, Paula Sherman, and Bonita Lawrence - Saturday, June 25, 2011
Oshkabaywis Lynn Gehl

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101553219933546&notif_t=event_invite

THREE LITTLE BIRDS w/ Heather Black @ AlphaSoul Café

2011-05-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

Time: Saturday, May 21 · 7:00pm - 11:00pm
Location: Alpha Soul Cafe; 1015 Wellington St. West; Ottawa, Ontario

WANTED: NOT DEAD, BUT DEFINITELY NOT ALIVE.
Stephen Harper.

Now that we've got your attention, let me tell you a story. Two young girls were born upon a blue-moon. They spent their days wreaking havoc upon the civilians of their small town - through endless ukulele playing and the incessant squawk of oboes in the night. One day, a young dragon happened upon their path. With her locks of gold, her magical fairy box and the ability ...to spit fire, she (along with the other two) could now defeat the Blue Ice Man.

Under the creep of Conservatism, they were shooed from one establishment to the next as cold, blue ice began to cover the land (and ruin the arts. Not to mention slashing funding for woman's rights organizations, or aboriginal-led organizations for missing and murdered women). They ran further and further south taking shelter in crumbling mansions and decrepit taverns until the three BANDits fell upon their next underground.

The Alpha Soul Cafe!

Come out for a night of entertainment, a cup of coffee, or to satisfy your craving for artistic uprising. This is not something to be missed. Opening will be the smooth, vocal styling of local singer - songwriter Heather Black.

Doors a 7pm, show starts at 7:30.

10$

www.myspace.com/threelittlebirdstheband

www.myspace.com/sitablack

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=153473554719536

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Three-Little-Birds/125760494113916

The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill

2011-05-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Written by Nick Buxton

Source: Yes Magazine

Indigenous and campesino (small-scale farmer) movements in the Andean nation of Bolivia are on the verge of pushing through one of the most radical environmental bills in global history. The "Mother Earth" law under debate in Bolivia's legislature will almost certainly be approved, as it has already been agreed to by the majority governing party, Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS).

The law draws deeply on indigenous concepts that view nature as a sacred home, the Pachamama (Mother Earth) on which we intimately depend. As the law states, “Mother Earth is a living dynamic system made up of the undivided community of all living beings, who are all interconnected, interdependent and complementary, sharing a common destiny.”

The law would give nature legal rights, specifically the rights to life and regeneration, biodiversity, water, clean air, balance, and restoration. Bolivia's law mandates a fundamental ecological reorientation of Bolivia's economy and society, requiring all existing and future laws to adapt to the Mother Earth law and accept the ecological limits set by nature. It calls for public policy to be guided by Sumaj Kawsay (an indigenous concept meaning “living well,” or living in harmony with nature and people), rather than the current focus on producing more goods and stimulating consumption.

In practical terms, the law requires the government to transition from non-renewable to renewable energy; to develop new economic indicators that will assess the ecological impact of all economic activity; to carry out ecological audits of all private and state companies; to regulate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; to develop policies of food and renewable energy sovereignty; to research and invest resources in energy efficiency, ecological practices, and organic agriculture; and to require all companies and individuals to be accountable for environmental contamination with a duty to restore damaged environments.

The law will be backed up by a new Ministry of Mother Earth, an inter-Ministry Advisory Council, and an Ombudsman. Undarico Pinto, leader of the 3.5 million-strong campesino movement CSUTCB, which helped draft the law, believes this legislation represents a turning point in Bolivian law: "Existing laws are not strong enough. This will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional, and local levels."

However, there is also strong awareness among Bolivia's social movements—in particular for the Pacto de Unidad (Unity Pact), a coalition of the country's five largest social movements and a key force behind the law—that the existence of a new law will not be enough to prompt real change in environmental practices.

A major obstacle is the fact that Bolivia is structurally dependent on extractive industries. Since the discovery of silver by the Spanish in the 16th Century, Bolivia's history has been tied to ruthless exploitation of its people and its environment in order to transfer wealth to the richest countries; poet and historian Eduardo Galeano’s famous book Open Veins draws largely on the brutal story of how Bolivia's exploitation fuelled the industrial expansion of Europe. In 2010, 70 percent of Bolivia's exports were still in the form of minerals, gas, and oil. This structural dependence will be very difficult to unravel.

Moreover, there is a great deal of opposition from powerful sectors, particularly mining and agro-industrial enterprises, to any ecological laws that would threaten profits. The main organization of soya producers, which claimed that the law “will make the productive sector inviable,” is one of many powerful groups who have already come out against the law. Within the government, there are many ministries and officials that would also like the law to remain nothing more than a visionary but ultimately meaningless statement.

Raul Prada, one of the advisors to Pacto de Unidad, explained that the Mother Earth law was developed by Bolivia's largest social movements in response to their perceived exclusion from policy-making by the MAS government, led by indigenous President Evo Morales. They have generally supported MAS since its resounding election victory in 2005, but were frustrated by what they saw as a lack of progress. Rather than merely expressing their concern, these movements—comprised mainly of indigenous and farming communities—are pro-actively developing a series of new laws. Their first priority was the passage of the Mother Earth Law, based on a commitment made at the historic global Peoples Conference on Climate Change held in Bolivia in April 2010. To some surprise, the diverse movements soon developed a consensual agreement that was supported by MAS legislators.

Raul Prada notes that, even with significant pressure from social movements, transitioning to an economy based on the concept Vivir Bien will not be easy. “It is going to be difficult to transit from an extractive economy. We clearly can't close mines straight away, but we can develop a model where this economy has less and less weight. It will need policies developed in participation with movements, particularly in areas such as food sovereignty. It will need redirection of investment and policies towards different ecological models of development. It will need the cooperation of the international community to develop regional economies that complement each other.”

Ultimately, though, this is a challenge far bigger than Bolivia, says Prada: “Our ecological and social crisis is not just a problem for Bolivia or Ecuador; it is a problem for all of us. We need to pull together peoples, researchers, and communities to develop real concrete alternatives so that the dominant systems of exploitation don't just continue by default. This is not an easy task, but I believe with international solidarity, we can and must succeed.”

Nick Buxton wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. He spent four years in Bolivia learning from movements fighting for social and environmental justice

Native American Activist, Author Winona LaDuke on "The Militarization of Indian Country" and Obama Admin’s "Lip Service" to Indigenous Rights

2011-05-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

Mining Injustice - In Toronto

2011-05-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

Mining Injustice Solidarity Network is pleased to invite you to the third conference on the impact of Canadian mining on local communities throughout the world, which will take place the 6th - 8th of May of 2011, in Toronto.

FOR COMPLETE CONFERENCE SCHEDULE PLEASE VISIT: http://www.solidarityresponse.net/mining-injustice-conference/conference-agenda-2011/

This conference reflects the collective effort of several organizations and grass roots groups in Toronto, in collaboration with peoples, communities and organizations facing and resisting the entrance of corporate mining mega-projects into their territories.

****************************************************
Friday May 6th, 7 pm: Conference 'soft-launch' - meet and greet with affected community members and activists at Beit Zatoun (612 Markham Street)
RSVP here so we know how much food to bring!: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180292898686837

****************************************************
Saturday May 7th, 1:15 pm: keynote speaker Winona LaDuke and concurrent sessions as well as workshops and caucuses! (Sidney Smith Hall)

Official conference launch, 8 pm - 2 am: dance party (193 Dowling Street @ Queen Street West)

********************************************************
Sunday May 8th, 10 am: concurrent sessions as well as workshops and caucuses (cont.!) (Sidney Smith Hall)

********************************************************
Particular themes that will be discussed this year include:
• Gendered violence, inequity and feminist perspectives
• Militarization and forced displacement
• Indigenous knowledge and spirituality as forms of resistance
• Labour rights and the rhetoric of development
• Criminalization of dissent and protest
• Environmental contamination effects and health
• Food security and water rights
• The cycle of supply and demand of uranium in the North
• Tar sands and the petroleum industry in the North and South

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Stay tuned for a list of speakers or visit our website at www.solidarityresponse.net

Endorsed by: AccentsBookstore, Barrio Nuevo, Bayan Canada, Canadians Against Mining in El Salvador, Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, Common Frontiers, CUPE 4400, CUPE 3903, Environmental Justice Toronto, First Continental Encounter of the Peoples of the Abya Yala-Ecuador, First Nations Solidarity Working Group, Guatemala Community Network – Toronto Kitchener-Waterloo Mayan Project – Tzijolaj-Ottawa, Health for All, Indigenous Environmental Network, Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, Latin American Trade Union Coalition, Migrante, MiningWatch Canada, Munk OUT of UofT, NooneisIllegal, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Opirg Toronto, Osgoode Environmental Law Society, Philippines Solidarity Network of Canada, ProtestBarrick, Rights Action, Science for Peace, Students for a Free Tibet, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity, Todos por Guatemala, Workers Assembly.

If you would like to endorse this event please email Mining Injustice Solidarity Network at miconference2011@gmail.com

World Digital Library

2011-04-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

FREE World Digital Library

CLC resolutions on Barriere Lake

2011-04-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Justice for First Nations 6.Resolutions GR-62, GR-109, GR-162 and ESP-82: The Committee recommends concurrence in the following composite resolution: The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will

continue to demonstrate its support for justice for First Nations through the following activities: lobbying the federal government to enact June 21, National Aboriginal Day, as a `statutory holiday;
calling on the federal government to establish a public enquiry into the cases of missing First Nations women across Canada, and the widespread violence perpetrated against First Nations women;
continuing to work to build relationships with aboriginal and other women’s groups and lobby the federal, provincial and territorial governments and ensure that proper support and long term funding is applied to address Canada’s murdered and missing women; demanding the federal government declare that all First Nations children have an equal right to high-quality and culturally-relevant education. This requires more federal funding to ensure equitable class sizes, educational resources, staff salaries, special education services and indigenous language instruction;
supporting the inherent right of customary self-government for First Nations, and opposing efforts by the federal government to impose an
Indian Act election system on a First Nations community; and renewing our commitment to lobby governments to ensure First Nation treaty rights are respected;

Because First Nations in almost every measure are the most marginalized group in Canadian society; Because the voice of First Nations is among the least heard when governments discuss social policy; Because the CLC supports the self-determination of First Nations, and measures to acknowledge the historic and ongoing discrimination they have faced. Because this resolution is priority 6 of the General resolutions Commitee it should be passed

Barrière Lake 14.Resolutions ESP-14 and ESP-148: The Committee recommends concurrence in the following composite resolution:
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will work with affiliates and Federations of Labour to recognize and support the Algonquins of Barrière Lake's inherent right to customary self-government and call upon the Government of Canada to immediately reverse its imposition of an Indian Act election system, and take action to honour the 1991 Trilateral Agreement with the Algonquins of Barrière Lake; The CLC will also continue to support to the Lubicon Cree in their efforts to achieve a just land rights agreement and demand the federal government take meaningful steps to resolve all outstanding land rights claims; Because the Algonquins of Barrière Lake have been living sustainably on their land for thousands of years; Because they have operated for countless generations under a traditional governance system connected to their use of the land; Because the Government of Canada is using section 74 of the Indian Act to abolish Barrière Lake's traditional governance system and impose a colonial electoral system; Because the Government of Canada has not honoured the signed 1991 Trilateral Agreement for environmental management/protection; Because the acclaimed Chief in the imposed section 74 election refused the position; Because Canada has a dismal record in resolving First Nations' land claim disputes; Because in 1990, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Canada had violated the human rights of the Lubicon Cree and yet a just settlement with the Lubicon remains outstanding; Because these are but a few examples of the need for federal action to resolve First Nations' land rights disputes.
Since this resolution in #14 in the economic and social policy report it may not be passed on the floor but will be supsequently passed at a CLC Executive COuncil meeting

Looking for Urban Aboriginal Adults (18+) to Participate in Research on Culture, Identity and Place in Ottawa

2011-04-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

Title of Research Project: Community is Where I Find It:
Place-Making, Culture, and Identity Among Urban Aboriginal People in Ottawa,
Ontario

I am looking for research participants:

People who self-identify as Aboriginal (First Nations
Status or non-Status Indian, Metis, Inuit, or mixed Aboriginal heritage)
Aboriginal adults 18+, male and female
Must reside in Ottawa

Research participants will participate in a 60 to 120 minute video or audio
recorded interview. Video recorded interviews will not provide anonymity
but audio recorded interviews will be anonymous. The topic of the interview
will be on your thoughts and experiences of urban Aboriginal culture and
identity as a resident of Ottawa, Ontario. One of the main purposes of the
research is to produce a short film on urban Aboriginal culture and identity
in Ottawa, Ontario and to show the vibrancy of urban Aboriginal life.

A gift/honourarium will be provided to participants with a value of
approximately $10. As transportation and child care can be barriers to
participation I can provide bus tickets as well as offer to pay for
childcare costs at the standard hourly rate for parents with children who do
not have access to childcare.

If you are interested in participating or would like any more information
please feel free to contact me, Cheryl Matthew at the Department of
Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, B753 Loeb Building, Phone:
(613) 899-3530 or by email cmatthew@connect.carleton.ca

This project has been reviewed and cleared by the Carleton University
Research Ethics Board 613-520-2517 or ethics@carleton.ca.

Cochabamba + 1 in Montreal! This coming weekend. Check it out!

2011-04-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.alternatives.ca/en/agenda/cochabamba1-climate-justice-and-ecological-alternatives

Please click on the link to be brought to the Alternatives website and take a look at the program.

Jallalla!

Permaculture activities coming up.

2011-04-06T17:58:00.001-07:00

The Permaculture Project GTA - Spring 2011 Conference
April 9 & 10
358 Dufferin St., Toronto

Tentative Schedule
Saturday, April 9

10am Sign in opens
11am Ancestors invited - First nations ceremony by T a i a i a k o ' n H i s t o r i c a l P r e s e r v a t i o n S o c i e t y
1130am Brief History of Toronto and Meet the community (meet and greet). Displays by Transition Toronto, Taiaiako'n Historical Preservation Society (High Park Burial Mounds), EcoEdge Designs, Heritage Canada, Whole Village (Caledon), Local Artist...and more!
2pm Lets Rebuild Toronto CANVAS art live painting of green pontoon and design facilitated by Alaska B
3pm Concert by Maracatu Baque do Mangue
330pm Break - FOOD
345pm Welcome note by TPPGTA Founder & Director Toyin Coker, with Douglas Barnes and Puck on Signing bowl
4pm Permaculture Principles in Community Organizing - Workshop by Bonita Ford
445pm Seed Saving 101 with Rosy
5pm Dumpstering / foraging workshop (Rapid Analysis)
515pm Designing with compromise by Douglas J E Barnes
6pm Check in and Check Out

Sunday, April 10

3pm Permaculture Curriculum planning & Visioning session with Jane Hayes & Douglas Barnes
4pm Community review - Project critic (review of current projects in GTA)
6pm Hands On! - everyone makes seed balls. New Product Demo by Hala Chaoui. BioChar Demo by Lloyd Heferty.
730pm TPPGTA announcements and call out - all upcoming projects and opportunities

Cost: $70 - includes registration and food
Contact: tppgta@gmail.com

____________________________

Liberation Permaculture: A Panel Discussion
Thursday, April 21, 7:30pm-10:00pm
Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Ave, Room 221 - Ottawa

How can ecological design confront oppression and foster social justice?

Bonita will be one of the panelists for this evening. Come out and connect with the growing permaculture community in Ottawa.

Pay what you want
Permaculture Project Ottawa & Common Cause Ontario
Refreshments provided by the G-Spot

Contact: permaculture.project.ottawa@gmail.com

____________________________

Ecological Design and Gardening: Intro to Permaculture
April 29 to May 1

This course is completely full.

Please stay tuned for the Introduction Course and the full Permaculture Design Course in fall 2011 offered by the Permaculture Institute of Eastern Ontario. More details to come.

____________________________

Permaculture, Poetry & Revolution

June 11 & 12

A weekend workshop retreat including theory, practice and live spoken-word and musical performance

Using lectures, videos, art, on-the-ground observation and hands-on group projects and discussions, you will learn about:
~> Permaculture Ethics & Principles ~> Design Concepts, Priorities & Patterning ~> Waste Management & Water Harvesting ~> Food Forest Concepts ~> Appropriate Siting & Materials for Natural Building ~> Art & Activism ~> Economic Permaculture ~> Social
Justice, Community Organizing, Eco-Villages & Land Trusts

EARLY BIRD RATE (Available until May 21st): $150
Cost: $200 (Includes accommodations, food & artist fees)

WHERE: An environmental retreat centre with accommodations, inground pool (weather permitting), indoor/outdoor fireplaces & more
apx. 30 min. east of downtown Ottawa.

Contact: Graeme at 819-351-6113 or at graeme.j.ofarrell@gmail.comC

____________________________

Permaculture Convergence
Saturday, June 25 - all day
Ottawa East

Online registration/guest list will be open shortly. Stay tuned for more details. Please save the date!

1-day permaculture convergence in Ottawa, gathering the permaculture community in Eastern Ontario.

· Presentations by permaculture teachers & students in the morning.
· “Open Space Technology” to discuss next steps in the afternoon.

By donation to support local projects & permaculture education.
Sponsored by the Permaculture Institute of Eastern Ontario

Nuclear explosions since 1945

2011-03-30T15:15:00.001-07:00

Bob Thomson's lecture in class - listen online!

2011-03-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

Click the media player below to listen to Bob's lecture for our course Sustainable Relations: a vision of indigenous peoples.

Mandala

2011-03-22T11:13:00.001-07:00

Our common Mandala

The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.

A mandala is...
An integrated structure
organized around a
unifying center
Longchenpa

"The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose."
(From Mandala: Journey to the Center, by Bailey Cunningham)

creating unity Creating a group mandala is a unifying experience in which people can express themselves individually within a unified structure.

The Mandala Project workshops for children include the creation of a group mandala quilt. The students enjoy creating individual mandalas that are incorporated into a larger work of art. Creating a group mandala can be an enjoyable activity with friends. It can also provide an excellent closure to an event or workshop.

These photos of a beach rock mandala were taken by Mary Ann Rolfe. The mandala was made at the culmination of a week long workshop in August 1998 at Findhorn in the Northern part of Scotland.

Mary Ann writes about the experience:"We all brainstormed to decide on a closing project to celebrate the week and the wonderful connections we had made with people from all over the world, the Findhorn Foundation and with ourselves. "At this lovely North Sea beach, instead of sand we found incredible washed stones of every size and color. So, we began this impromptu creation knowing that part of the beauty would be in its temporary nature as the tides washed it away." See Mary Ann's personal mandala.

More examples of group mandalas:
Miguel Tomas' art classes in Spain
Regina Drummond's workshop in Costa Rica

cross-cultural patterns
The mandala pattern is used in many religious traditions. Hildegard von Bingen, a Christian nun in the 12th century, created many beautiful mandalas to express her visions and beliefs.

In the Americas, Indians have created medicine wheels and sand mandalas. The circular Aztec calendar was both a timekeeping device and a religious expression of ancient Aztecs.

In Asia, the Taoist "yin-yang" symbol represents opposition as well as interdependence. Tibetan mandalas are often highly intricate illustrations of religious significance that are used for meditation.

different cultures, similar expressions
Both Navajo Indians and Tibetan monks create sand mandalas to demonstrate the impermanence of life.

In ancient Tibet, as part of a spiritual practice, monks created intricate mandalas with colored sand made of crushed semiprecious stones. The tradition continues to this day as the monks travel to different cultures around the world to create sand mandalas and educate people about the culture of Tibet.

The creation of a sand mandala requires many hours and days to complete. Each mandala contains many symbols that must be perfectly reproduced each time the mandala is created. When finished, the monks gather in a colorful ceremony, chanting in deep tones as they sweep their mandala into a jar and empty it into a nearby body of water as a blessing. This action also symbolizes symbolizes the cycle of life.

A world away, the American Navajo people also create impermanent sand paintings which are used in spiritual rituals–in much the same way as as they are used by Tibetans. A Navajo sandpainting ritual may last from five to nine days and range in size from three to fifteen feet or more.

Learn more about Tibetan art and culture
Learn more about Navajo Sand Paintings

mandalas in architecture
From Buddhist stupas to Muslim mosques and Christian cathedrals, the principle of a structure built around a center is a common theme in architecture.

Native American teepees are conical shapes built around a pole that represents the "axis mundi" or world axis.

Buckminster Fuller expanded on the dome design with his famous geodesic dome structures. The dome structure has the highest ratio of enclosed area to external surface area, and all structural members contribute equally to the whole--a great structural representation of a mandala!

micro to macro
Representing the universe itself, a mandala is both the microcosm and the macrocosm, and we are all part of its intricate design. The mandala is more than an image seen with our eyes; it is an actual moment in time. It can be can be used as a vehicle to explore art, science, religion and life itself. The mandala contains an encyclopedia of the finite and a road map to infinity.

Carl Jung said that a mandala symbolizes "a safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness." It is "a synthesis of distinctive elements in a unified scheme representing the basic nature of existence." Jung used the mandala for his own personal growth and wrote about his experiences.

It is said by Tibetan Buddhists that a mandala consists of five "excellencies":
The teacher • The message • The audience • The site • The time

An audience or "viewer" is necessary to create a mandala. Where there is no you, there is no mandala. (from: You Are the Eyes of the World, by Longchenpa, translated by Lipman and Peterson).

Taken from: The Mandala Project (http://www.mandalaproject.org/Index.html). In this site you can view hundreds of mandalas.

Permaculture principles

2011-03-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

Please click here to download principles of permaculture

Brewster Kneen's lecture to Sustainable Relations students - listen online!

2011-03-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Permaculture principles

2011-03-18T17:08:00.001-07:00

First film footage of remote Amazon rainforest tribe

2011-03-15T19:01:00.001-07:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12360013

Alternative Latin American Folk Music in OTTAWA

2011-03-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our guest speaker: Bob Thomson

2011-03-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

Author Bob Thomson will be our guest speaker this Monday March 14 for our course EAS "Sustainable Relations". He knows about Suma Qamaña (this is in Aymara, in Quechua it is Sumak Kausay) and his latest article about Degrowth and the Pachakut'i can be found here: http://bit.ly/gpIZCK . Please read his article to be well prepared for his visit.

This is a very concise biography about Bob Thomson:

From 1994 to 2000, Bob Thomson was the founder and Managing Director of TransFair Canada, Canadian affiliate of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), a 17 nation certification body promoting a fair trade label for coffee and other foods/commodities.

He was Co-ordinator of the Ottawa Food Security Council (now Just Food) in 2003/2004 and the Facilitator of the Export Credit Agency Watch network in Paris from 2005 to 2008. Bob has a degree in Civil Engineering (U of T 1968) and an M.A. in International Affairs (Carleton 1983).

He has lived and worked in Peru, the Caribbean, France and Canada and has extensive experience with NGO programme and project evaluations, fair trade producer support, non-profit governance, housing co-operatives, computer assisted communications for civil society, and finance and the environment. He is currently involved in organizing an international conference on convivial degrowth in Montreal at the end of May 2012 and now calls himself a Slowcialist.

Visit his web site at http://slowcialism.wordpress.com.

Drake equation

2011-03-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

This is the equation Frank Drake wrote on the blackboard in 1961:

N = R f_p n_e f_l f_i f_c L

Each term to the right of the equals sign represents one of the questions we asked earlier:
R is the rate of star formation within the Galaxy, expressed in stars per year (approx.: 100 billion);
f_p is the fraction of stars that form planets (approx.: 20% to 50%);
n_e is the average number of planets each such star possesses, which are capable of supporting life (from 1 to 5);
f_l is the fraction of those planets where life actually occurs (from 100% -resilience of life- to 0%);
f_i is the fraction of life-bearing planets where intelligence arises (from 100% to 0%, depending on your assumptions);
f_c is the fraction of intelligent life-bearing planets where intelligent beings develop the ability to communicate beyond their own world; and
L is the length of time, in years, that such communications remain detectable.

By estimating values for each of these terms and multiplying them together, one arrives at:

N, the estimated number of detectable civilizations.

TO CALCULATE 'N' follow this link: Drake equation calculator

Our guest: Brewster Kneen

2011-03-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

Brewster Kneen was born in Ohio and studied economics and theology in the U.S. and the U.K. before moving to Toronto in 1965. There he produced public affairs programs for CBC Radio, and worked as a consultant to the churches on issues of social and economic justice. In 1971, with his wife Cathleen and their children Jamie and Rebecca, he moved to Nova Scotia, where they farmed until 1986, starting with a cow-calf operation and then developing a large commercial sheep farm.
For many years Brewster was secretary of the Sheep Producers Association of Nova Scotia and in the early 1980s he organized the Northumberland Lamb Marketing Co-operative (Northumberlamb) and the Brookside Abattoir Co-operative, both farmer owned and operated. In 1980, the Kneens started publishing The Ram's Horn.
In 1986 the Kneens returned to Toronto and Brewster began his career of writing and lecturing on the food system, with increasing attention to biotechnology. He received two grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council as an Independent Scholar for research into 'technological determinism' and in 1994-5 he was a Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Brewster was also a founding member of the Toronto Food Policy Council. During this time he wrote his first four books.
The Kneens lived in British Columbia from 1995 to 2006, first in Mission in the Fraser Valley and then at Left Fields (the farm operated by Rebecca Kneen and Brian MacIsaac) in Sorrento in the Shuswap. During this period Brewster wrote Farmageddon and Invisible Giant, 2nd edition, and engaged in public education and organizing, helping form the BC Biotechnology Circle and the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN). In 2006 the Kneens moved east to a more accessible location, Ottawa, where a bicycle replaces the automobile much of the time.
Much of his current focus is on the cultural and ideological underpinnings of public and political life. His latest book, The Tyranny of Rights, was published in 2009.

Happy international Women's Day!

2011-03-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

The World Social Forum, Egypt, and Transformation

2011-02-28T06:31:00.000-08:00

Commentary No. 299, Feb. 15, 2011
The World Social Forum (WSF) is alive and well. It just met in Dakar, Senegal from Feb. 6-11. By unforeseen coincidence, this was the week of the Egyptian people’s successful dethroning of Hosni Mubarak, which finally succeeded just as the WSF was in its closing session. The WSF spent the week cheering the Egyptians on – and discussing the meaning of the Tunisian/Egyptian revolutions for their program of transformation, for achieving another world that is possible – possible, not certain.
Somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 people attended the Forum, which is in itself a remarkable number. To hold such an event, the WSF requires strong local social movements (which exist in Senegal) and a government that at least tolerates the holding of the Forum. The Senegalese government of Abdoulaye Wade was ready to “tolerate” the holding of the WSF, although already a few months ago it reneged on its promised financial assistance by three-quarters.
But then came the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, and the government got cold feet. What if the presence of the WSF inspired a similar uprising in Senegal? The government couldn’t cancel the affair, not with Lula of Brazil, Morales of Bolivia, and numerous African presidents coming. So it did the next best thing. It tried to sabotage the Forum. It did this by firing the Rector of the principal university where the Forum was being held, four days before the opening, and installing a new Rector, who promptly reversed the decision of the previous Rector to suspend classes during the WSF so that meeting rooms be available.
The result was organizational chaos for at least the first two days. In the end, the new Rector permitted the use of 40 of the more than 170 rooms needed. The organizers imaginatively set up tents across the campus, and the meeting proceeded despite the sabotage.
Was the Senegalese government right to be so frightened of the WSF? The WSF itself debated how relevant it was to popular uprisings in the Arab world and elsewhere, undertaken by people who had probably never heard of the WSF? The answer given by those in attendance reflected the long-standing division in its ranks. There were those who felt that ten years of WSF meetings had contributed significantly to the undermining of the legitimacy of neoliberal globalization, and that the message had seeped down everywhere. And there were those who felt that the uprisings showed that transformational politics lay elsewhere than in the WSF.
I myself found two striking things about the Dakar meeting. The first was that hardly anyone even mentioned the World Economic Forum at Davos. When the WSF was founded in 2001, it was founded as the anti-Davos. By 2011, Davos seemed so unimportant politically to those present that it was simply ignored.
The second was the degree to which everyone present noted the interconnection of all issues under discussion. In 2001, the WSF was primarily concerned with the negative economic consequences of neoliberalism. But at each meeting thereafter the WSF added other concerns – gender, environment (and particularly climate change), racism, health, the rights of indigenous peoples, labor struggles, human rights, access to water, food and energy availability. And suddenly at Dakar, no matter what was the theme of the session, its connections with the other concerns came to the fore. This it seems to me has been the great achievement of the WSF – to embrace more and more concerns and get everyone to see their intimate interconnections.
There was nonetheless one underlying complaint among those in attendance. People said correctly we all know what we’re against, but we should be laying out more clearly what it is we are for. This is what we can contribute to the Egyptian revolution and to the others that are going to come everywhere.
The problem is that there remains one unresolved difference among those who want another world. There are those who believe that what the world needs is more development, more modernization, and thereby the possibility of more equal distribution of resources. And there are those who believe that development and modernization are the civilizational curse of capitalism and that we need to rethink the basic cultural premises of a future world, which they call civilizational change.
Those who call for civilizational change do it under various umbrellas. There are the indigenous movements of the Americas (and elsewhere) who say they want a world based on what the Latin Americans call “buen vivir” – essentially a world based on good values, one that requires the slowing down of unlimited economic growth which, they say, the planet is too small to sustain.
If the indigenous movements center their demands around autonomy in order to control land rights in their communities, there are urban movements in other parts of the world who emphasize the ways in which unlimited growth is leading to climate disaster and new pandemics. And there are feminist movements who are underlining the link between the demands for unlimited growth and the maintenance of patriarchy.
This debate about a “civilizational crisis” has great implications for the kind of political action one endorses and the kind of role left parties seeking state power would play in the world transformation under discussion. It will not be easily resolved. But it is the crucial debate of the coming decade. If the left cannot resolve its differences on this key issue, then the collapse of the capitalist world-economy could well lead to a triumph of the world right and the construction of a new world-system worse even than the existing one.
For the moment, all eyes are on the Arab world and the degree to which the heroic efforts of the Egyptian people will transform politics throughout the Arab world. But the tinder for such uprisings exists everywhere, even in the wealthier regions of the world. As of the moment, we are justified in being semi-optimistic.

There you go!

2011-02-23T14:34:00.001-08:00

There You Go

View more documents from SurvivalInternational

Video about the forest in Beaver Pond

2011-02-21T14:34:00.001-08:00

Things upside down!

2011-02-16T16:56:00.001-08:00

Mid-term EAS3102

2011-02-16T06:37:00.000-08:00

Thanks for your support. Hearing your perspective on the world is really helping me develop my own understanding of myself and my relationship to the things around me. I am looking forward to writing the midterm tomorrow, which is an unusual feeling!

A.

Student in course EAS3102-2011

----
N.E.: The bold is mine

HOME

2011-02-15T14:23:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU&hd=1

Crucial indigenous responsibilities

2011-02-14T15:16:00.001-08:00

By Marcelo Saavedra-Vargas

The following notes were prepared as the basis for the opening address at the teach-in Lessons from Bolivia: Building a Global Movement for Climate Justice in Toronto on Saturday, November 13.

WE ARE PACHA MAMA

We must recognize the fact that we are all expressions of Mother Earth, of Pacha Mama. We must acknowledge and honour this fact. This is not a metaphor or a poetic exercise.

I am going to put it in the way traditional Mik’maq Elder Stephen Augustin explained it to me, very elegantly and sincerely: “we peel off Mother Earth,” he told me.

We belong to the mysterious circle of life and we have our place on the circle where we establish horizontal and sacred relations with others – even though the current system tries to make us forget this.

In indigenous legends, myths, ceremonies, prophecies throughout the planet, we find this same ontological notion of all being part of a continuous process of creation and recreation. In fact, our Others, the animal nation, the plants nation, the tree nation , have convened that we humans be the guardians of the sacredness of these set of relationships. We are the guardians of maintaining the equilibrium so that life will happen on our planet.

We live on a very particular planet; it is both our home and the source of our existences. Some say, this is a Rare Earth, because of all the particular incidents that had to happen for our planet, and our existences, to form. Things like being at the precise distance from our sun, not too close so our atmosphere would not evaporate because of the heat nor too far so our water wouldn’t freeze everywhere. Our sun is just the proper size and our planet just the just size to be orbiting its sun at the proper speed. We are even so lucky that in the formation of our planet, a twin planet to ours, Theia, collided with our vessel so our core could be enriched with iron and create not only the proper gravitational force to hold our atmosphere but also form a magnetic shield that protects us from celestial harmful rays. The debris from this collision, as if we were not lucky enough, provided for our moon to form like a stabilizer body that regulates our seasons and our path as we revolve around our sun, and our solar system revolves around the center of our galaxy. On top of things, we also have Jupiter, a true guardian, whose massive gravitational pull, keeps many potentially lethal bodies from hitting our home. One of these bodies hit our vessel 65 million years ago. That incident wiped out a species that had roamed the planet for about 150 million years, the dinosaurs. It opened the way to a new dominant kind of beings, the mammals, and among them, our own species. We are truly lucky for having such a resilient mother, such a loving Mother.

We find references to these facts in a number of myths, legends and prophecies of our indigenous peoples.

DEFENDING THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN BOLIVIA

The Cultural Revolution in Bolivia opens up crucial spaces for debate, for empowering the visions of indigenous peoples, for re-establishing forgotten equilibriums. As indigenous peoples, we are truly defenders of this process because it is a set of possibilities for us to give to humanity the richness of our cultures, indigenous cultures. The cultural revolution taking place in my home country, Bolivia, is not only inspiring for indigenous peoples across the planet but a powerful example of the way history is shaped by people who are in close contact with their inner selves, their true selves.

And it is as the product of that process of change, of cultural revolutionary change, that the Cochabamba Accord came into being. This accord demands and challenges the international system of nation states to acknowledge the rights of Mother Earth, without compromising the rights previously established universally. Acknowledging these rights signifies recognizing we are all part of the sacred and mysterious circle of life and that, for the time being, we are using modern instruments to protect the only support system we will ever have, our planet, our Mother Earth, our Pacha Mama. Is this a figment of indigenous imagination? Is this an Indian nonsensical hallucination?

WHO IS INDIGENOUS?

Well, let me first discuss who is indigenous.

Am I talking here only about those who have a different culture as compared to Western and modern cultures? Am I talking about those who have arranged their societies following a close understanding of Mother Nature’s cycles, like the Aymara, Guarani, Hopi, Haudenosuane, Anishinaabe, the San? Am I excluding those that are living other ways of arranging their societies, following other principles, like the Western modern human being?

In my belief, we are all indigenous to this planet. So far I have not met anyone who was born outside this planet, whether be in a space station, or the moon, or Mars. We are all indigenous to planet Earth. Furthermore, we are all a physical expression of the elements that Mother Earth generously provides for us, way beyond the arbitrary “free-market” price system.

If you would manage to chemically and physically analyze yourself, very closely, you would find that your organism is but a complex set of relations of the four sacred elements: water, air, fire and earth. It is not a romantic or poetic endeavour. We are not trying to be fashionable or politically-correct back-to-the-landers in the year 2010! We just want to acknowledge who we were, we are and we will always be dirt, sky, water and photosynthesis. We are still homo sapiens, we still need land, crops, animals, weather, oceans, atmosphere, and so on.

In that sense, we are still the same naked bipedal upright folk that started wandering about 200,000 year ago, as our foremothers and forefathers. Really, we never left the land, we never abandoned the planet. None of us. Yet, we are forgetting these sacred relations. We have been living through a process of inversion that is bringing our species to the verge of extinction.

Some people argue that our planet is in peril of a catastrophe, that she is going to perish. Pacha Mama is very resilient, she is a survivor. She’s gone through five massive extinctions and it took her just some millions of years to regain life everywhere on her territory. In fact it is a result of these massive extinction episodes that we came to be a dominant species on the planet. What a great responsibility we bear towards ourselves, our future generations and all other beings on our planet!

FEAR & ARROGANCE

The imposition of an arbitrary system, that of capitalism, colonialism/imperialism, and most of all, patriarchy has resulted in a peculiar process of inversion and the pervasive feeling of fear and arrogance on the part of this particular civilization project.

Modern society is living in a state of low-level, subtle, toxic, all-pervading fear. This fear gets readily transformed into arrogance and a false sense of superiority over all things around us, especially what we term the wildlife. We assume this wildlife (the natural world) to be out there, where, in reality, it is in us, here in our hearts. We are the territory, we are the geography. It is not that the territory can belong to us. No, we belong to it; we are part of Mother Earth.

HUMILITY

Let’s be humble, truly humble.

It only took our universe 13.75 billion years to get to the point of you being here. Sitting here and now was preceded by a wild sequence of events, going against all probabilities, with the result that you, that beautiful you, are here, now, with us, as we dream together.

Just imagine the probabilities of you coming to life... 1,050,000,000 (more than one billion) spermatozoids at the time of your conception and only 1 – that is 0.000000017% – probability (for scientific and all other practical purposes, that is zero), that that one would be the exact one to give birth to the specific you. Isn’t that magic? According to the law of probabilities, you were not meant to be here, yet, here you are, wholesome, total, and committed to change our planet! If that is not magic, then what is it? And that one, you, inhabiting this incredibly beautiful planet, our mother, revolving around an unimportant star that is itself revolving around the center of another unimportant galaxy, the Milky Way – just a speck in the grand order of things. Yet, I see you, I feel the strong spirits you embody. We all resonate with each other.

We need to stop living in arrogance, having the false presumption that we are the summit of the evolutionary journey of all species. Acknowledging and, furthermore, honouring the rights of our planet, is an act of humility and courage. It means that we would not have fear in our hearts, but rather, with love, humility and courage we can acknowledge our belonging to this planet, to this land, to this territory.

When Europeans settlers came to the Abya-Yala (otherwise known as the Americas), our ancestors received them with open arms. They taught them how to hunt, how to use plants and vegetables; they shared their stories, legends and ceremonies with them. Our ancestors showed them how harmoniously and freely Anishinaabe, Aymara, Mohawk, Wendat, or Mississauga people could live with Mother Earth, on Turtle Island, in the Abya-Yala. The prophecy of the re-encounter of the Eagle and the Condor (and other prophecies of our indigenous peoples, like the Anishinaabe prophecy of the Seven Fires or the Mayan calendars) announced a time in which we, meaning human beings, would have to choose which way we should be heading. Clearly, the Western, capitalist, colonial and patriarchal way has failed. We need to renew our initial covenant with our Mother, our land. We need to choose responsibly. We need urgently to be responsible. Responsible is being able to respond, have response ability. That is why we are here.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES.

But what kind of responsibility? The responsibility to be truly free in an indigenous sense. You are free only if you can take on your responsibility, if you can be true to your responsibilities, honour your obligations towards the small circle you belong to and to the extended circle your community is part of. At the end, it is also a matter of honouring those that came before you (your ancestors) and those that are still in the spirit realm waiting to become human beings through you, your next generations up to the seventh skin. That is the sacredness of your circle. You also have to be in terms with your inner self, your most precious and sacred circle, being true to your nature in this cosmic journey we call life.

A SENSE OF BELONGING

Anthropologist Margaret Mead argued that during 99% of our journey as a species we lived under the invisible and unspoken covenant with Mother Earth by which we were going to respect and honour it. In all the myths of indigenous peoples, we see that other beings on this planet, animals, forests, rivers, lakes, plants, got together in a circle and decided to give us the responsibility of being the beholders of intelligence, guardians of time, and keepers of fire. That was the grand plan, that was the guardianship we are beholders of, as designated by the other beings on this planet.

This has being betrayed, especially for the past 200 years and even more so since privatization took a grip on everything that is part of this planet: especially the Commons.

Painting by Savin Thanda, one of my students in the Program of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Ottawa, March 2010

For far too long, things have been inverted. We are living a particular time of anomaly. This came as a warning from several indigenous Elders when they noticed small changes in their surroundings. As I have already affirmed, indigenous peoples are their territories; we cannot put them apart as peoples on one side and the territories on the other. John Amagoalik, an Inuk Elder, stated that “we don’t look at land as something to be owned, something to be given away or sold. It’s a heritage. It’s something inside you”. We are the geographies; we have keen chorographic knowledge and wisdom of which we are, that is, our lands and territories. Chorography is like geography; it studies the Earth, its lands, rivers, inhabitants and so on, but on a specific level, locally. For instance Anishinaabe people have unparalleled chorographic knowledge of the land where we are having this meeting right now, because they are that territory. This transient, episodic and anomalous time has made us believe that we can own the land, the territory, where for most of our existence, the opposite has been true. We belong to the land, to our true Mother, to our Pacha Mama.

It is our obligation to restore this sacred and vital relationship to its proper form.

* * *

I am deeply honoured to have shared this time with you and having been able to reflect your feelings and been in spiritual communion with you.

Thank you
Gracias
Meegweetch
Paschi
Jallalla!

Message from Elder Bob Lovelace regarding greed taking a toll at Beaver Pond

2011-02-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

It is hard to see the clear-cutting of the Beaver Pond Forest in Ottawa. It is hard because so many good people have tried their best to prevent it. It is hard because this forest has a spirit. The Life in the Forest called out to those good people to help save the trees, the forest life, and the ancestral connection that it has with the Algonquin people.

But it is being clear-cut. Men, for wages, are felling the trees with dispassionate machines, piling the trees for processing, insuring that every last morsel is committed to profit. And then the ground itself will be pushed into piles, scraped into roads, excavated for foundations and sewers. This old growth forest, the archeological story it holds and the serenity it offered will be gone soon. But we have not lost this struggle.

We have not lost the struggle. The struggle to save the Beaver Pond Forest has united heroic people who understand their common concerns for mother earth. This struggle has educated us to the complexities of the battle to save the earth and as we learn we become stronger. Now is the time to renew and extend our efforts to change the culture of greed and exploitation to a culture of mutual respect for human needs and non-interference with the replenishing mechanisms and cycles of the earth.

Those who opposed us in this struggle did so out of greed, arrogance and political cowardice. Too many times, single-minded developers have taken our common heritage and turned it into market commodities, killed the natural spirit of the land, and created landscapes of self-interest, conspicuous consumption and unsustainable depreciation. Too many times, politicians promise to extend the power of the people but simply acquiesce to the power of money. Throughout this battle the real heroic people have stood together against this kind of tyranny and they will continue to work together to create change and real democracy. It is time to take back the commons from those who have corrupted both our lands and governance.

As we watch the destruction of this beautiful Forest we owe it to each other to continue to fight for every piece of mother earth. Refuse to surrender another inch.

Restore the land, its natural functions and the creatures that abide by its natural laws. Restore your own relationship with the land in how you live, where you live, what you eat, how you use energy and in your relationships with one another. And when we struggle together in the face of greed, arrogance and cowardice: heal yourself from the harm, heal others in a good way and pick yourself up and struggle again. “We shall overcome”.

Robert Lovelace

February 13, 2011

Queen’s Park

Toronto, Ontario

Evo Morales: 10 Commandments To Save the Planet

2011-02-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

October 20, 2008
“If we want to save the planet earth to save life and humanity, we are obliged to end the capitalist system”

By Evo Morales Ayma
president of the Republic of Bolivia
Message to the Continental Gathering of Solidarity with Bolivia in Guatemala City

October 9, 2008 — Sisters and brothers, on behalf of the Bolivian people, I greet the social movements of this continent present in this act of continental solidarity with Bolivia.

We have just suffered the violence of the oligarchy, whose most brutal expression was the massacre in Panda, a deed that teaches us that an attempt at power based on money and weapons in order to oppress the people is not sustainable. It is easily knocked down, if it is not based on a program and the consciousness of the people.

We see that the re-founding of Bolivia affects the underhanded interests of a few families of large landholders, who reject as an aggression the measures enacted to favour the people such as a more balanced distribution of the resources of natural gas for our grandfathers and grandmothers, as well as the distribution of lands, the campaigns for health and literacy, and others.

To protect their power and privileges and to evade the process of change, the ruling elite of large landholders of the so-called Half Moon (Media Luna) clothe themselves in the movements for departmental autonomies and the rupture of national unity, lending themselves to the yankee interests of ending the re-founding of Bolivia.

However, in the revocation referendum of August 10, we just received the mandate of two-thirds of the Bolivian people to consolidate this process of change, in order to continue advancing in the recovery of our natural resources, and to insure the well being of all Bolivians, to unite the distinct sectors of society of the countryside and the city, of the east and the west.

Sisters and brothers, what happened with this revocation referendum in Bolivia is something that is not only important for Bolivians but for all Latin Americans. We dedicate it to the Latin American revolutionaries and those throughout the world, reaffirming the struggle for all processes of change.

I was going to express the way to recover the life ways of our peoples, called Live Well (el Buen Vivir), to recover our vision of the Mother Earth, that for us is life, because it is not possible for the capitalist model to convert Mother Earth into a commodity. Once again we see the profound correlations between the indigenous movement and the organisations of the social movements, which also throw in their lot in order to Live Well. We greet them so that together we can seek a certain balance in the world.

10 commandments to save the planet

Along these lines, I want to share and propose for debate some 10 commandments to save the planet, for humanity and for life, not only at this level but also to debate among our communities, and our organisations.

First, if we want to save the planet earth to save life and humanity, we are obliged to end the capitalist system. The grave effects of climate change, of the energy, food and financial crises, are not a product of human beings in general, but rather of the capitalist system at it is, inhuman, with its idea of unlimited industrial development.
Second, to renounce war, because the people do not win in war, but only the imperial powers; the nations do not win, but rather the transnational corporations. Wars benefit a small group of families and not the people. The trillions of millions of dollars used for war should be directed to repair and cure Mother Earth wounded by climate change.
Third proposal for debate: a world without imperialism nor colonialism. Our relationships should be oriented to the principle of complementarity, and to take into account the profound asymmetries that exist family to family, country to country, and continent to continent.
And the fourth point is oriented to the issue of water, which ought to be guaranteed as a human right to avoid its privatisation into few hands, given that water is life.
As the fifth point, I would like to say that we need to end the energy debacle. In 100 years we are using up fossil energies created during millions of years. As some presidents are setting aside lands for luxury automobiles and not for human beings, we need to implement policies to impede the use of agro-fuels and in this way to avoid the hunger and misery for our peoples.
As a sixth point: in relationship to the Mother Earth, the capitalist system treats the Mother Earth as a raw material, but the Earth cannot be understood as a commodity; who could privatise, rent or lease their own mother? I propose that we organise an international movement in defence of Mother Nature, in order to recover the health of Mother Earth and re-establish a harmonious and responsible life with her.
A central theme as the seventh point for debate is that basic services, whether they be water, electricity, education or health, need to be taken into account as human rights.
As the eighth point, to consume what is needed, prioritise what we produce and consume locally, end consumerism, decadence and luxury. We need to prioritise local production for local consumption, stimulating self-reliance and the sovereignty of the communities within the limits that the health and remaining resources the planet permits.
As the next to last point, to promote the diversity of cultures and economies. To live in unity respecting our differences, no only physical, but also economic, through economies managed by the communities and their associations.
Sisters and brothers, as the tenth point, we propose to Live Well, not live better at the expense of another, a Live Well based on the lifestyle of our peoples, the riches of our communities, fertile lands, water and clean air. Socialism is talked about a lot, but we need to improve this socialism, improve the proposals for socialism in the XXI century, building a communitarian socialism, or simply Live Well, in harmony with Mother Earth, respecting the shared life ways of the community.
Finally, sisters and brothers, certainly you are following up on the problems that exist. I have reached the conclusion that there will always be problems, but I want to tell you that I am very content, not disappointed or worried because these groups who permanently enslaved our families during the colonial time, the time of the republic and this period of neoliberalism, they continue as family groups, resisting us.

It is our struggle to confront these groups who live in luxury and who do not wish to lose their luxury, or lose their lands. This is a historic struggle and this struggle lives on.
Sisters and brothers, in the hope that the Continental Gathering of the Social Forum of the Americas culminates with strong bonds of unity among you and a strong action plan in favour of the people of Bolivia and of our peoples, I repeat my fraternal greeting.

Day of Justice: Rally for Sisters in Spirit

2011-02-13T13:02:00.001-08:00

Monday, Feb. 14
Parliament Hill
Noon

Come out and show support for the survival of the Native Women's Association of Canada's (NWAC) unprecedented Sisters in Spirit campaign (SIS), which, since it's inception in 2004, has worked to raise awareness about violence against Native women and girls in Canada--namely, those who have gone missing or been murdered.

SIS not only compiled a data for over 583 cases of missing and murdered Native women in five years time, but also identified key patterns integral to understanding the systemic nature of the violence: media neglect or racial bias, police racism or negligence, victimization of Native women by the Justice system, and governmental apathy and enforcement of cycles of poverty for Native communities, to name a few. In a relatively short period of time, SIS also managed to raise the profile of the issue in the media and in the minds of the population at large, while providing indispensable support to the families of victims and creating a cross-country network.

This October 86 communities organized the 5th annual memorial Sisters in Spirit March and Vigil, including one in Nicaragua.

In spite of this progress, and the ongoing collection of new data (indeed, grassroots groups have put the number of missing and murdered women much closer to 2000), the government has held SIS in funding limbo for the past 8 months, ever since the release of Canada's 2010 budget back in March, when $10 million was promised to "address the issue of missing and murdered Native women." It wasn't until November 2010 that the government finally made the announcement that confirmed the worst fears of many activists, organizers, and even opposition MPs: the money would not go to fund SIS research, but would instead fulfill the government's new idea of safety for women, and include requirements for enhanced police power: amendments to the Criminal Code to allow police to wiretap without warrants in emergencies and obtain multiple warrants on a single
application.
This will not only increase the likelihood of criminalization of women, Native communities, and other vulnerable sectors of the population, but will be expected to operate without the backbone of research and data collection. Add to this the historical and ongoing relationship of distrust between many Native communities and police, who are themselves implicated in a number of documented violent altercations with Native women. Gladys Tolley, for instance, was killed by the Surete du Quebec in 2001 and no one was ever brought to justice. Her daughter Bridget Tolley has pushed for an independent investigation for years and was recently refused.

ENOUGH is ENOUGH!! We will not stand for the continued stripping down of First Nations programs essential to the physical safety and mental and emotional health of Native women and Native communities, as we have seen earlier this same year with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and First Nations University.

RALLY FOR JUSTICE on February 14th. SHOW YOUR LOVE!

The era of responsibilities: an indigenous perspective

2011-02-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

Time: Friday, February 4. 10 am

Speaker: Dr Saavedra-Vargas

Location: UCU 206

In the modern age, national states have been established following a particular interpretation of human interactions and beliefs. Indigenous peoples are challenging the way in which this has been done by tapping into ancestral knowledge of developing respectful and harmonious relationships with all that surrounds us. It is an urgent enterprise we listen to what they have to say and assume our responsibilities, as understood by indigenous peoples throughout the planet.

Along with Las Imillitas, I will be explaining the notion of parity and its expression in human life, the chachawarmi.

You can watch Las Imlllitas below

http://scdi-icdw.ca/?page_id=405

The interaction of modern civilization with the tree nation

2011-01-31T07:55:00.001-08:00

A Pray for the Land event is planned for Sunday, January 30 - between 10 and 4 at Beaver Pond, Kanata.

2011-01-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

An amazing campaign to protect the most ancient of spaces in the Ottawa River Watershed, a precious, irreplaceable eco forest, and site of critically significant archaeological importance, of national relevance and crucial to the telling of the true history of Canada, is underway in Ottawa - amazing, because Grandfather Commanda sees, after almost a hundred years, mainstream settler community members embrace Aboriginal Peoples in a passionate joint effort to protect a piece of Mother Earth that they have become a part of.

These are not all environmental activists, though many are astonishingly knowledgeable about this rich, bio-diverse landscape, or have made it their jobs to become so; and they have the support of all the critical environmental organizations in the area. Most of them are just the people from the hood - they are the folks who live here, and they don't want to see what is really the precious commons ripped off from under their feet. (Of course, this just makes some ponder more seriously Grandfather Commanda's views about land ownership.) They are old, young, athletic types, disabled folk, photographers, teachers, students archaeologists, botanists, public servants. Most of them work; yet, over the past months, and over the entire holiday season, they have worked tirelessly - non-stop - to mount this campaign to protect the South March Highlands. This is not a 9-5 job for them; they have those responsibilities beyond this - and families, and health issues, and isolation, which bring singular challenges. They are joined by folk from afar, who are passionate about environmental stewardship. Activists are adamant that truths be heard and understood.

At the centre, the presence of the Algonquins of the Ottawa River Watershed has grown ever stronger. One group of Algonquin voices has contributed immeasurably to the growing awareness and understanding of the history of the area, and others to the deepening respect for the Indigenous prayer - the Sacred Fire has protected and comforted strangers, tobacco ties bless the trees, drumming haunts the air, and people look with new eyes at the forest. Leadership representative of Algonquins from both sides of the Ottawa River have raised their voices individually and collectively for a thorough archaeological assessment of the area know known as the South March Highlands - The Invisible Nation will be invisible no longer.

The social landscape is shifting in Canada. Federal communications in the area of Citizenship and Immigrations now note the three founding peoples of Canada - Aboriginal, French and British - and advise new Canadians to learn about the Aboriginal Peoples. It was after the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity in November 2010 that Canada, and finally the United States, signed on to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And Grandfather's fans know who the spirit on the Peace Tower in the National Capital Commission's new Sound and Light Show on the history of Canada now is.

The City of Ottawa has already embraced the Indigenous in its presentation of the Key to the City of Ottawa to Elder Commanda in 2005. It has expressed support for Asinabka, National Indigenous Centre. It has seen the Indigenous voice at the heart of its Festival of Peace. As Gandhi said, There go my people, I must hurry to catch up with them. He also said something about the salt of India. And finally, he said, There is no way to peace - peace is the way. (Now you can guess how many times Grandfather made me watch that movie!)

Just today, Grandfather reminisced about unveiling the Human Rights Tribute on Elgin Street with His Holiness the Dalai Lama - (in 1990, when the Prime Minister would not welcome him here - the Elder holding the Three Figure Welcoming Wampum Belt did) - we blessed the stones with the prayer to have the same human rights as them, he said - and yes, this is 21 years later).

But the journey into the future has begun.

As global news illustrates, times are changing, and we all need to find new and creative ways to respond to the demands and priorities of the times. Bureaucracies must remain vital by attuning themselves to environmental and community realities of the times, and policies programs and legislation must serve the people. The regimes that stripped Grandfather of his heritage and the grand natural resources of his homeland must look afresh at history and find new pathways in the forest. It has not been an easy journey thus far, but this can be a win win for all.

We ask you to join the courageous, educational, inspirational and transformative campaign to protect a precious piece of Turtle Island from wherever you are - Send your message of support to encourage creativity, the engagement of the National Capital Commission, joint problem solving, thorough archaeological assessment, and leadership to Protect the Great Forest to the Mayor of the Capital City - jim.watson@ottawa.ca on Monday!

Megwetch!

Take good care,

Romola

South March Highlands

2011-01-27T15:07:00.000-08:00

From: Paul Renaud
Subject: South March Highlands

I am writing to you on behalf of the 14, 500+ persons in the multicultural communities who have come together to protect the South March Highlands from development in west Ottawa – only 20 minutes from Parliament Hill.

This multicultural community includes over 6,500 Algonquin in the First Nation communities of Ottawa, Kitigan-Zibi, Bonnechere, Kinounchpirini, Ardoch, Kichesipirini, and Pasapkedjiwanong who have responded to Grandfather William Commanda’s call for protection (attached). The multicultural communities unified in protecting the South March Highlands also includes another 8,000 Canadians of non-aboriginal heritage as well as many non-Algonquin Metis.

We are asking for your support and influence with both federal and provincial leaders to call for an immediate halt to development and a reassessment of this situation.

The South March Highlands (“SMH”) has been described in official studies as a “wild island” of natural landscape within the City of Ottawa (“City”). Until recently it remained largely in its original natural state because its rugged landscape was unsuitable for agriculture. SMH is the southern end of the Precambrian Canadian Shield outcrop known as the Carp Hills which first emerged from the Champlain Sea 11,000 years ago. Its geology is unique to the National Capital and its wetland-rich land has been described in City studies as “an island of rugged, heavily-glaciated, rocky, Gatineau Hills-like habitat”. The Carp Hills/SMH is the only place in Ottawa where the Canadian Shield is visible on the Ontario side of the great river.

No other major city in the world includes a vigorous old growth forest with endangered species. The closest is perhaps Vancouver’s Stanley Park which is 1/3 the size, contains ½ the variety of vascular plants, and no species-at-risk as compared to the SMH which is refuge for 20 documented species-at-risk of extinction within a small area of only 3 km by 4 km in size.

The SMH is a candidate Provincially Significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (“ANSI”) for both its Life Science value (895 hectares) and for its unique Wetland Complex (114 hectares). It has been valued by scientists as the “most important reservoir of ecological potential” in the City because it has the densest bio-diversity and its 30 eco-types of vegetation provide a wide variety of resources for the renewal of depleted natural areas elsewhere. There are 10 distinct habitats within the SMH and the largest deer wintering yard (925 hectares) in the City.

The SMH is the aquifer for North Kanata and its hydrology is integral to both the Carp River as well as to the federally significant Shirley’s Bay wetland complex in the Greenbelt. The SMH is ecologically unique in the City, supporting over 440 native species of vascular plants and has the highest floristic diversity of any natural area in Ottawa.

This SMH is also home to over 269 species of wildlife, including 170species of birds that are known to breed in this area, twice the number found in Punta Cana’s world famous ecological park. The area is also home to the Monarch Butterfly, another species at risk, however no study of insect or bryophyte (non-vascular plant) species has ever been performed. We have written to the Federal Minister of Justice questioning the lack of authority granted to the City to authorize a mass killing of wildlife but have received no response (attached).

The SMH is also rated by the City as having high potential for archaeological resources. To-date, 3 archaeological sites have been found that present evidence of native occupation of the SMH dating back 500 generations. One of these sites was confirmed by eminent archaeologists but is tied up in a court case because the developer who commissioned the research refused to pay for it. Two of the other sites have been identified but not been properly assessed to-date. An archaeological study done by another one of the developers was reviewed by a former president of the Canadian Archaeology Association who determined it was “fatally flawed” for having not adequately considered pre-European-contact cultural resources. Despite appeals to the Ontario Minister of Culture, nothing has been done about this.

We have also been working with the National Capital Commission to protect this area and in conjunction with the Greenbelt Coalition have made formal submissions which have been accepted by the NCC as part of their Greenbelt Master Planning process. Two MPs, Gordon O’Connor and Paul Dewar have called on the NCC to protect this area, as have Elizabeth May, the Sierra Club of Canada, and the David Suzuki Foundation. However, to-date Madame Lemay has declined to confirm any official NCC support for protecting the area.

This matter is now urgent as one of the developers is already clear cutting in the forest and another is about to start at the end of January. With the support of the Algonquin Chiefs, the Inter-Tribal Medicine Council has established a Sacred Fire last week which has been burning continuously to symbolize that this land is a place of Manitou and is integral to the cultural heritage of all Anishinabe people. The Sacred Fire is currently being maintained around the clock by Fire Keepers representing all the communities that have been unified in this cause.

More information about the South March Highlands and our efforts to protect it can be downloaded from the links below. This includes a couple of short videos that are well worth viewing.

We ask that you assist us in whatever way you can to bring this to the attention of both federal and provincial leaders for immediate action.

Please join us by adding your tobacco to our Sacred Fire to protect this place of Manitou.

Kitchi Megwetch,

Paul Renaud

Coalition to Protect the South March Highlands

Letters sent by First Nations:

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2011-01-09-Kinounchepirini_Algonquin_FirstNation_Letter.jpg

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2011-01-09-SMH_Ottawa_Algonquin_FN_Support.pdf

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2011-01-10-AAFN_letter%20to_Ottawa.pdf

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2011-01-14-Ottawa_Letter_From_Kichesipirini_Algonqiun_FN.pdf

And by Grandfather William Commanda:

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2010-08-24_Circle_of_Nations-South_March_Highlands.pdf

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2010-12-20-GWC_Letter_To_Council.pdf

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2011-01-05-GWC-Message_Regarding_Development_at_South_March_Highlands

And by other Elders:

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2010-08-14-A_plea_for_the_forest-Grandfather_Albert_Dumond.pdf

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2011-01-14-Grandfather_Lovelace_Letter_to_the_Editor_Revelation18.pdf

Motion passed unanimously by City of Ottawa’s Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Subcommittee:

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/2011-01-12-Unanimous_AHCAC_Motion_on_SMH.pdf

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZBcLvtcJBY (4 minute documentary video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhSU5heJl5o (8 minute cultural and natural heritage video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJAezV9Ap6k (6 minute video on Sacred Fire)

Presentations:

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Presentations/2011-01-13-SMH-1-SMH_Overview_v16.pdf

(SMH Overview presentation)

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Presentations/2010-12-07-SMH-2-Stewardship_Plan_Overview_v4.pdf

(Stewardship Plan Overview presentation)

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Presentations/2010-12-07-SMH-3-Advocacy_Overview_v4.pdf

(Open issues overview presentation)

Other Letters of Support may be downloaded from:

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Letters_of_Support/

www.ottawasgreatforest.com (website for the stewardship plan to protect the SMH)

www.southmarchhighlands.ca (website for the coalition to protect the SMH)

http://onnaturemagazine.com/the-race-to-save-the-south-march-highlands.html

(Article in Ontario Nature Magazine)

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Presentations/2010-09-07%20Greenbelt%20Coalition%20Position%20Paper-for%20NCC%20Review.pdf

Greenbelt Coalition Position Paper to NCC on Emerald Necklace

http://www.renaud.ca/public/Presentations/2010-09-07%20Greenbelt%20Coalition%20Position%20Paper%20App5%20-%20SMH.pdf

EAS 3102 - Sustainable Relations

Kayapo people threatened by "development" - Damn dams!

Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam!

We've already delivered half a million signatures to Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, but we're just getting started. Help us stop the Belo Monte Dam by signing the petition here!

Stop GM Alfalfa

"Celebrating Humanity's Unity in Diversity"

Occupy Talks: Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement

For the next 7 generations

Please read below the video too!

For The Next 7 Generations Trailer from Laughing Willow on Vimeo.

Good morning,

www.forthenext7generations.com

Conversation on women with Lynn Gehl

First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS) and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN)

Events and actions - Be able to respond!

Movie screenings coming up!

Support the Algonquins of Barriere Lake

11th Annual New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts

Mixed Blood teachings

Mamihlapinatapai

It is pronounce mah-mee-lah-pin-yah-tah-pie

Third World Canada

All the Dirt

Koch Cash Influence

Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier, Activist

Official website: http://www.leonardpeltier.net/theman.htm

Monsanto's Biopiracy

The Role of Patents in the Rise of Globalization

Occupy Talks: Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement

The Great Bell Chant

Your personal bundle/mandala

A personal bundle/mandala

Getting in touch with our Ancestors

Creating your personal bundle/mandala

Joint course between Geography and Aboriginal Studies - Fall 2011

Kokomville Academy with Natasha, Brigette, Camila, Iana and Marcelo

The Sustainable Relations course goes on!

ROLL WITH THE DECLARATION – THE LAND, OUR LIFE

Algonquin Sharing Day

Algonquin Sharing Day with Bob Lovelace, Lynn Gehl, Paula Sherman, and Bonita Lawrence - Saturday, June 25, 2011Oshkabaywis Lynn Gehl

THREE LITTLE BIRDS w/ Heather Black @ AlphaSoul Café

The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill

Native American Activist, Author Winona LaDuke on "The Militarization of Indian Country" and Obama Admin’s "Lip Service" to Indigenous Rights

Mining Injustice - In Toronto

World Digital Library

CLC resolutions on Barriere Lake

Looking for Urban Aboriginal Adults (18+) to Participate in Research on Culture, Identity and Place in Ottawa

Cochabamba + 1 in Montreal! This coming weekend. Check it out!

Permaculture activities coming up.

Nuclear explosions since 1945

Bob Thomson's lecture in class - listen online!

Mandala

Permaculture principles

Brewster Kneen's lecture to Sustainable Relations students - listen online!

Permaculture principles

First film footage of remote Amazon rainforest tribe

Alternative Latin American Folk Music in OTTAWA

Our guest speaker: Bob Thomson

Drake equation

Our guest: Brewster Kneen

Happy international Women's Day!

The World Social Forum, Egypt, and Transformation

There you go!

Video about the forest in Beaver Pond

Things upside down!

Mid-term EAS3102

HOME

Crucial indigenous responsibilities

By Marcelo Saavedra-Vargas

The following notes were prepared as the basis for the opening address at the teach-in Lessons from Bolivia: Building a Global Movement for Climate Justice in Toronto on Saturday, November 13.

WE ARE PACHA MAMA

DEFENDING THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN BOLIVIA

WHO IS INDIGENOUS?

FEAR & ARROGANCE

HUMILITY

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES.

A SENSE OF BELONGING

Message from Elder Bob Lovelace regarding greed taking a toll at Beaver Pond

Evo Morales: 10 Commandments To Save the Planet

Algonquin Sharing Day with Bob Lovelace, Lynn Gehl, Paula Sherman, and Bonita Lawrence - Saturday, June 25, 2011
Oshkabaywis Lynn Gehl