{"id":3357,"date":"2011-08-03T08:33:55","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T16:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=3357"},"modified":"2011-08-08T08:35:24","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T16:35:24","slug":"remembering-william-commanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/remembering-william-commanda\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering William Commanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"&quot;http:\/\/aptn.ca\/pages\/news\/2011\/08\/03\/algonquin-elder-commanda-left-his-mark-on-the-world\"><\/a>William Commanda, an important Elder from Kitigan Zibi near Maniwaki, Quebec died this morning.<\/p>\n<p>I first met William in 1988 when I was doing some research at the Assembly of First Nations offices in Ottawa.  He had come into the office to give a teaching on one of the wampum belts that he had in his possession.  A large crowd of staff gathered around him and he spoke quietly and deliberately about the nature of the relationship between peoples on the continent.  He was a powerful teacher, and could hold a room spellbound as he expounded on his teachings.  He was fierce in communicating what he knew.  He was warm too, and patient with people.  I think he wanted to make sure that you truly and deeply understood what he was telling you.<\/p>\n<p>In my life I have met some incredible Elders and teachers in my life and travels.  People like Jake Thomas, Fred Wheatley, Manny Boyce, Albert Lightning, Edna Manitowabi, Umeek, Jake Swamp, Pualani Kanahele Kanaka&#8217;ole, Peter O&#8217;Chiese, Eddie Benton-Banai, Ernie Benedict, Bruce Elijah, and of course Grandfather William.  Every moment I spent with these people is indelibly written into my memory.  They are important keepers of human culture, and when we lose one, something important always dies with them.<\/p>\n<p>My condolences to William Commanda&#8217;s family and friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William Commanda, an important Elder from Kitigan Zibi near Maniwaki, Quebec died this morning. I first met William in 1988 when I was doing some research at the Assembly of First Nations offices in Ottawa. He had come into the office to give a teaching on one of the wampum belts that he had in his possession. A large crowd of staff gathered around him and he spoke quietly and deliberately about the nature of the relationship between peoples on the continent. He was a powerful teacher, and could hold a room spellbound as he expounded on his teachings. He &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-nations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-S9","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3365,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3357\/revisions\/3365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}