I was listening to The Current on CBC Radio this morning and I caught an interview with Marlene Brant-Castellano on the newly announced Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools (hear the interview here). Back in the mid 1980s when I was at Trent University, Marlene was a professor in the Native Studies Department. She was a beautiful teacher – quiet and inviting and embodying tremendous dignity and powerful conviction all at the same time. I connected with her quite deeply as I began to explore questions of culture and community. It was in her classes …
This is refreshing. Michael Bryant, the Ontario Mininster of ABoriginal Affairs was up in Caledonia last week talking to non-native people about what is going on with the dispute there. He sort of live blogged his learning on YouTube, a nice candid set of relfections, although he stammers a fair bit. Would be good too if he spoke to some Haudonasaunee people as well, BUT kudos for him putting his thoughts out there like this. I think that makes for good accountability, especially if some of the folks he talked to weigh in in the comments section if they need …
Last week in New Mexico we were making all the predictable jokes about making this wrong turn at Albuquerque, and indeed on our way to Shiprock, we did make a wrong turn. My usually reliable wetware GPS software (in other words my traditionally infalliable sense of direction) completely abandoned me last week. The worst however was saved for the trip home. While I came home on United via Denver, the harried ticket agent at the the counter somehow checked my bags to Denver and then on to San Francisco and Incheon, South Korea. Under the name Ji …
Here is a great description of Open Space as used at the Agile Open Northwest Conference. This is a simple, inviting description of the process. Well done ANW folks!
Navajo people call human beings “five-fingered” people. This refers to the way that Navajos relate their clan connections using the fingers of their hands. The thumb is “shay”, myself. And each one is imprinted with a unique spiral pattern. This spiral pattern is said to emerge when a child has spirit blown into it be the ye’i – the ancestors, who also produce the spiral of hair on the top of each person’s head. The spiral gives life. From there, each person can recite their clan heritage through the remaining four fingers, their father and mother, their father’s mother and …