Native Ceremonies to Open Connection with Mother Earth
American Indians will be Honored as the First Environmentalists at the Second Annual American Indian Heritage Month Celebration in Los Angeles in November 2007
Red Nation Celebration presents THE SECOND ANNUAL AMERICAN INDIAN HERITAGE MONTH in the City of Los Angeles
There is a living strain in American Indian culture that does not attempt to dominate the Earth or other peoples. Inclusion is an attitude passed down through the generations.
“Our indigenous peoples had traditions that sustained their cultures for thousands of years. When we reframe the way we think about American Indians, we also give our own relationship to the environment a higher priority.
Our Heritage Month events remind people that we need to consider our grandchildren’s grandchildren in every one of our decisions.”
"We ask that each American family plant a tree on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22, 2007 to acknowledge and begin this national healing of our relationship to the sacredness of all Life.”
Red Nation Celebration
LOS ANGELES – October 11, 2007 –
American Indian tribes from all over Turtle Island (North America) are
invited to Los Angeles this November to be honored as our nation’s
first environmentalists. Highlighting the month-long tribute is a parade on
Saturday, November 10 from the City’s historic El Pueblo district to the new downtown Los Angeles State Historic Park, where a two-day Pau Wau and Indian Market will be held. The events are part of the Second Annual
American Indian Heritage Month in the City of Los Angeles.
With nineteen local tribes and an estimated 75,000 people of native
blood, Los Angeles is home to the largest urban American Indian
population in the world. Approximately 350,000 American Indians reside
in California, according to Joanelle Romero, the creative mastermind
behind American Indian Heritage Month in Los Angeles,
“Our indigenous peoples had traditions that sustained their cultures for thousands of years. When we reframe the way we think about American Indians, we also give our own relationship to the environment a higher priority. Our Heritage Month events remind people that we need to consider our grandchildren’s grandchildren in every one of our decisions.”
Opening Water Ceremony
Heritage Month events begin at sunrise on November 1 with a water
blessing ceremony at the Los Angeles River. “Water is the bloodline
to Mother Earth. In our ceremony, we cup the water in our hands and
receive its blessing. We then whisper our intention over the water, including healing for contaminated waters around the globe. In this way, we will dedicate all Heritage Month events to the healing and harmony of all people,” states Romero, who is founder of Red Nation Celebration, the
nonprofit organization producing this and thirteen other City-wide
Heritage Month events.
Environmental Youth Summit
On Day Two of Heritage Month, Red Nation is coordinating a HELP THE
EARTH, Environmental Youth Empowerment Summit involving eleven area
middle schools. Five hundred youth will speak out for the Earth and all
her living systems in session topics that include: Global Warming,
Water, Air, Energy, Animals and Social Justice. Held in conjunction
with ten LAUSD schools, the youth summit will take place at Calmont School at Cottontail Ranch, Calabasas.
Tribute to Veterans
Red Nation partners with the United Nations Association-USA Pacific/LA
Chapter to recognize American Indian Veterans, in a tribute to be held
Thursday, November 8, downtown L.A.
Parade and Pau Wau
On November 10, an honor guard from the Rancheria Tachi tribe of Santa
Rosa will lead the first Red Nation Parade in Los Angeles. Retracing
the steps of generations who have entered the City, the Parade will travel
from the historical El Pueblo on Olvera Street up Main to Alameda to
the new Los Angeles State Historic Park. Mixing traditional and current
native themes, the parade will consist of floats with Pow Wow princes
and princesses, dancers and children in regalia, mounted riders, native
low-rider car clubs, singers, veterans, tribal elders and prominent
members of the American Indian community. The Parade will also include
a contingent of American Indian supporters, including City and government officials, celebrities, community organizations and socially responsible businesses.
Immediately following the Parade, the first annual Red Nation American
Indian Heritage Month Pau Wau and Indian Market will unfold with two
days of ceremonial dance, music, trading, sharing, story-telling and
inter-tribal foods in an Indian Village setting.
While some contemporary Pow Wows award six-figure prize monies to dancers, the Red Nation event will be a “Pow Wow beyond the bling,” harkening back to the time of the Ancestors when diverse tribal nations gathered in sacred space to express pride and good fortune through dance and to vision new possibilities together. (The term Pau Wau, from the Algonquin tribe, means to vision.)
There is a living strain in American Indian culture that does not attempt to dominate the Earth or other peoples. Inclusion is an attitude passed down through the generations. In creating a village in the State Park, the peoples of the Red Nations are also inviting non-Natives to participate in sacred talking circles and to join in various dance circles. “Inter-tribal neighborhoods” that
surround the State Park are invited to provide their “tribe’s” foods, including breads and pastries from Homeboy Industries, soups from Chinatown and noodles from Little Tokyo.
Native crafts and teachings about the Medicine Wheel will further
augment the inclusive attitude and environmental theme of the Pau Wau.
“The Medicine Wheel symbol has been adopted by many tribes as a key
to survival. Adaptability, Balance and Connection among all living beings
is its medicine. To re-tune the damaged balance on Mother Earth, the
Pau Wau will close with a human Medicine Wheel and this understanding:
Whatever place on Earth we may have come from, now this land, this
place surrounding us right here, Los Angeles, is our shared land. The invitation to this profoundly inclusive awareness, extended from the
native to the non-native peoples of Turtle Island, will be carried by
the living Medicine Wheel to radically transform our relationships to
each other, to Mother Earth and all of life,” according to humanitarian Romero, who carries the lineage of the Apache warrior Geronimo as well as Cheyenne blood.
Two other special events will take place during Pau Wau.
A Native Women in Music concert series will be held on the Pau Wau grounds from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the first evening. Participants will experience the power of the original music of this land, as interpreted by native women’s voices. Women, rhythm and song all offer powerful medicine.
Proceeds from this section of the program will benefit Red Nation
Wellness Circle, Women Are Sacred and Stop Violence Against Indigenous Women.
On Sunday, a Red Nation Art Exhibition will open with a reception for the artists from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The art work will be on view the entire month of November at North Hill Gallery in downtown Los Angeles.
Film Festival
The Fourth Annual Los Angeles Red Nation Film Festival will offer alook at life through the lenses of native youth and native women. The
Festival will open on November 16 with screenings of films directed and
produced by native youth. Shown in partnership with the American Indian Film Institute Tribal Touring Program, the youth films will be shown at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument in sessions from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Students attending the Environmental Youth Summit will also have an opportunity to view the films.
Evening events on Day One of the Festival focus on American Indian
Women on Prime Time Television and will be held at the Beverly Hills Fine
Arts Theatre. The Screening Series Group will showcase Red Nation Television Channel, by presenting “Home, Home on the Rez,” episode one of the first American Indian television drama series. A question and answer session follows the screening and includes a vibrant panel discussion
concerning bringing the sensitivity and inner tradition of ecology into public
awareness by featuring American Indian women in leading roles on
primetime network television--portraying native women actors as spokeswomen for the environment as lawyers, judges, neighbors. The winner of the Red Nation Channel Student Filmmaker Competition, a contest open to all native women students at the undergraduate and graduate level, will also be announced.
Days Two and Three of the Film Festival celebrate Native Women in Film
& Television. In American Indian culture, women were honored as the
life-givers, visionaries and healers--the original storytellers who
carried the tribe’s history. Yet this is the first time a film festival has been dedicated to native women filmmakers. To date only four contemporary American Indian women’s stories have been produced in all of feature film history. Native Women in Film & Television was born to acknowledge these pioneers and to inspire the next generation of native women filmmakers to create their stories. The red carpet opening night feature film event includes talks with filmmakers.
Tribute to Life
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the International Indigenous Sacred Women’s Council in conjunction with Red Nation Celebration “will publicly plant trees for our ancestors murdered in what was clearly an American holocaust,” states Romero. “We--the women--are the life-givers. In our Tribute to Life Ceremony, we do not forget the past injustices done to American Indians, but for the sake of everyone’s grandchildren, we share our strongest medicine, the integrity of love and respect for Mother Earth and all her peoples. We, the life-givers, ask people to deepen their care about the environment and begin to see the sacredness shining through all forms of life. This means freeing ourselves from trying to dominate, destroy or dismiss Mother Earth or ‘other people.’
"We ask that each American family plant a tree on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22, 2007 to acknowledge and begin this national healing of our relationship to the sacredness of all Life.”
Comedy Night
Native Stand-up Comedy Night on November 27 unveils the medicine of
laughter from the indigenous world. The American Indian trickster
exposes cultural unmentionables, so new viewpoints can be considered.
He’s sure to have us asking for that all-native sitcom. Comedy Night
takes place at Casa de Sousa, 634 North Main St. in downtown Los
Angeles, and will feature scheduled and open mike segments as well as
some acoustic native music making.
Heritage Ball
The Second Annual Los Angeles Red Nation Gala Heritage Ball on November 29 is an invitation-only event where native women leaders in
philanthropy, media and the environment will be honored. Heritage Month
sponsors will also be recognized.
Closing Water Ceremony
As the sun sets over the ocean on the last day of November, American
Indian Heritage Month comes to a close. “In a ceremony on Venice
beach, we will gather once again to align with the element of water, our
bloodline to Mother Earth,” she continues, “We will offer thanks
for all the blessings, new connections and understandings we have received
during the month.”
“The Earth, air, water and celebration belong to all peoples, and
Turtle Island needs us all,” states Romero. “As Los Angeles is the
urban home of the ‘first environmentalists,’ it is also home to the most
diverse set of communities on Earth. Our City is also the media voice
of the world, so that the meaning and power behind our Heritage Month
invitation to share the wisdom of our land and heritage can spread
beyond our borders to inspire citizens of the world to find their
connectedness across their diversity.
We are the ‘village on the hill’ that can convey the healing medicine of the Pau Wau to a planet in crisis.”
“As one tribe now, we, Angelenos, cup the water in our hands, imbibe
it with our blessing and transmit our vision across the sea.”
Red Nation Celebration presents THE SECOND ANNUAL AMERCIAN INDIAN HERITAGE MONTH in the City of Los Angeles
Our principal sponsors for Heritage Month 2007 include:
New Los Angeles State Historic Park,
James Irvine Foundation,
Metropolitan Water District,
City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs,
LA Inc./Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau,
Pacific, LA, Pasadena Foothills Chapters of the UN Association,
KPFK 90.7,
Unity Foundation,
Red Nation Holdings, Inc,
International Indigenous Sacred Women’s Council,
Red Nation Television Channel
Red Nation Radio; to name a few.
Special thanks to Andre Crambilt
Special thanks to Dorinda Moreno for sharing this as well.
Contents
October 2007 Reports
Last updated on October 28, 2007