Enchanted by Squirrel-Corn

It has become my habit over the last few years, to take the third week of May as a holiday.  It is the week of my birthday and May is my favourite month.  I love to watch the leaves emerge on the trees, to plant vegetables and to get onto my hands and knees and see which perennials have survived the winter.  And so the week is my birthday gift to myself.

This year, my friend gave me the perfect book-present to go along with my self-present.  The Enchanted Life: Unlocking the Magic of Everyday by Sharon Blackie has been a delight to read, as well as a kind of a map back to a place of wonder.

I haven’t finished the book yet, as it is one to savour and live and there is no whodunnit revealed at the end to speed me along.  It is all about the journey. And I wanted to share a part of that journey with you.

Blackie believes “that the state of enchantment has four major components:

1.   It is founded upon a sense of fully participating in a living world – a feeling of belonging rather than separation.

2.   It incorporates feelings of wonder, and curiosity.  To be enchanted is to be comfortable with the fact that not everything can be explained; to tolerate, even welcome, the presence of mystery.

3.   Enchantment is not all in the head.  It is very much a function of our lived, embodied experience in the world.

4.   Echantment is the emanation of the mythic imagination, and is founded on an acknowledgement of myth and story as living principles in the world.” (p. 38)

After reading this section, I went for a walk in the woods.  A hardwood bush in the spring in Ontario is the perfect remedy for a long winter.  It is like a spring tonic for the spirit and if you can’t find enchantment there, then you are in serious trouble.

Thinking of Blackie’s words, I tried to get out of my head and feel a part of the forest.  I bent over newly emerging plants to see more clearly and tried to feel with my whole body, the feeling of different plants.  

The forest floor was blanketed with white trilliums and the occasional purple and pink ones as well.  Little points of white light, they were like forest floor stars that mostly pointed south towards the arc of the sun. They seemed to twinkle and I could feel an excitement growing inside of me at this abundance that had emerged from beneath the fallen leaves of last autumn.  Where everything seemed dead, suddenly there was an explosion of light and life.

Then in the midst of the sea of white flowers I spied some tiny pink flowers with purple stripes.  After searching my wildflower book later, I discovered they were called Carolina Spring Beauties which seemed an apt name that made me smile.

Looking for patterns in the areas of green, I detected the umbrella shapes of the may apples, the single leaves of wild leeks, the fuzzy heart-shaped leaves of wild ginger and the spotted greens of trout lilies.  It was like meeting old friends after a period of separation.  I welcomed them back and they welcomed me.  Just like Sharon Blackie said, I experienced a feeling of belonging.  I picked one violet leaf, brushed it off and ate it.  Violet leaves are edible as are the flowers and full of vitamin C. It is one of my spring rituals, welcoming new growth and health into my body.

A few days later, my partner and I, on the way to delivering a finished 

instrument, stopped at a provincial park near Mono Mills, Ontario.  We found a forest trail and followed it into another hardwood bush.  Looking for our friends, we found them; violets with purple, mauve, yellow and white flowers, may apples, a few trilliums, trout lilies and wild ginger.  As well got closer to the stream flowing at the bottom of a ravine, we walked through a beautiful grove of blue cohosh. 

They were everywhere with their blue green scalloped leaves.  I tried to feel their presence with my body and a wave of calm, like water, flowed over me.  

Traditionally, the root of this plant was used to begin labour or as an antispasmodic to ease menstrual pains as well as for anti-inflammatory uses.  The plants felt calming to me as I stood surrounded by them.  Later in the week when I felt anxious, I returned in my mind to that blue cohosh glade and the experience of a calm body, and the anxiety and it’s chemical cascade was interrupted.

We followed the path through the forest and came to some stairs up the side of the ravine.  I was carefully watching the stairs and my feet when I suddenly noticed a leaf I had never seen before.  It was elegantly sculpted like an art deco design, like a rounded fern edge but not a fern.  I stopped to look at it and my partner noticed the same plant flowering a little higher on the hill.  

Scrabbling up the muddy slope I came face to face with delicate heart-shaped white flowers suspended over the delicate leaves.  Of course I had forgotten to bring my camera, so I had to try to memorize the shape of the flowers and the leaves.  I felt a curiosity about the name of this plant, a sense of wonder about the exquisite leaves and in short, I a was enchanted.

Once we returned to the car where I had my book on wildflowers, I combed through the book until I found the plant.  It is called Wild Bleeding Heart which makes sense but it’s other name is Squirrel-Corn.  That made my partner and I burst into laughter as we have fed corn to squirrels in the yard in the fall.  The name comes from the tuber of the plant which looks like a kernel of corn.  The plant conjured up a story and we were delighted that the forest had shared this wondrous gift with us. Later in the week as we were faced with things that were frustrating or sad, we would just say Squirrel-Corn and we felt like children again.  And now, this plant has become part of our story.

Returning to the forest today, only a few days after the stunning trillium display, the beech leaves had emerged fully.  It was raining lightly and the day was dull, so the colour of the leaves was saturated and wonderful.  I felt bathed in this bright green spring light and felt totally alive.  My week is nearly over now and I feel rejuvenated and connected.  I had some other adventures which I will write about in a future blog.  For now I feel I have reconnected with "the enchanted life" and that is something I want to keep for the year to come.

Sharon Blackie (2018) The Enchanted Life: Unlocking the Magic of the Everyday. Toronto: House of Anansi Press.

Bob Bossin Sings “We Don’t Want Your Pipeline”

An email from Coast Protectors gives an update on resistance to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline.  It reads in part:

“Kinder Morgan's Annual General Meeting is in Houston, Texas next week and local Indigenous leaders are making an emergency trip there to remind them that without Indigenous consent, the Trans Mountain pipeline will never be built. Tomorrow on Burnaby Mountain, we're making a joyful noise to send them on their way.

After weeks of resistance an impromptu choir has sprung up on the mountain. Song powers the movement and the May 5th event featured choirs and beautiful songs of praise and resistance.”

photo: Coast Protectors coastprotectors.ca

Songs are an ancient way of telling a story.  Here is one of the new songs that has been created.  You can check out “Pipeline” performed by Bob Bossin and Stringband written by Robin and Linda Williams with new lyrics by Bob Bossin here:

Reconciling Promises and Reality: Clean Drinking Water for First Nations

When the federal Liberals formed the government in Nov. 2015 they pledged to provide safe drinking water for the First Nations in Canada.  More than 100 communities have gone without safe drinking water for years or even decades.

The David Suzuki Foundation in partnership with the Council for Canadians have been studying the government’s progress in this area.  They first reported their findings in February 2017 in Glass Half Empty? Year 1 Progress towards Resolving Drinking Water Advisories in Nine First Nations in Ontario.  

This first report concluded that although the work to end Drinking Water Advisories (DWA) had begun, the federal government was “not on track to fulfill its commitment made to end long-term drinking water advisories in First Nations across Canada within five years.”

A year later, The David Suzuki Foundation has now published their second annual report, Reconciling Promises and Reality: Clean Water for First Nations which assesses “the government’s progress along a set of 14 indicators, developed from the recommendations in the previous report.” (Davic Suzuki Foundation website).  Since Nov. 2015, 40 Drinking Water Advisories (DWA) have been lifted while 26 have been added.

This report which you can read here, also features stories of First Nations that are showing leadership in the resolution of the drinking water crisis.

In the Atlantic, Canada’s first water authority that is constructed, owned and operated by First Nations is being developed, led by the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat.  This is one of the activities of the First Nations Clean Water Initiative.  This Water Authority will be a legal not-for-profit corporation that will seek to ensure among other things that each community has an equal say in how the water authority is governed.

The new Mobile Water Treatment Pilot Plant on Lytton First Nation

In BC, Lytton First Nation has partnered with universities to design water treatment solutions that fit the communities instead of the government one size fits all approach.  This innovative Community Circle of Trust places the community water treatment operators at the centre so that their experience informs the design.

“ I want to restore the faith in tap water in my
own community first,  and then travel out and
restore the tap water quality in other communities.”
Eric Vautour Water First Internship Program  

In Ontario, “the Water First internship was started last year in partnership with the United Chiefs and Councils of Mnidoo Mnising, the Union of Ontario Indians and Wikwemikoong Unceded Indian Reserve” on Manitoulin Island.  The Water First internship is to empower Indigenous youth so that they can play a role in securing clean drinking water for their communities.  Working with water has also connected the youth with their roots and traditional teachings.

In Whitefish River First Nation in Ontario, youth involved in the Water First internship have been working on a First Nations-led source water protection plan that aims at protecting the rivers, lakes and streams around their community.  This is complicated because these water sources can be outside of the First Nation territory and are therefore under the jurisdiction of the province.

In BC, the First Nations Health Authority which is the largest Indigenous-led health authority in Canada is also taking steps to ensure safe drinking water.  The Drinking Water Safety program works with communities to regularly test water and make sure it meet federal and provincial standards.  They are also educating communities so that they can take control over the quality of their water more effectively.

In summary, this second report finds that while some steps are being taken by the federal government, they are still falling short of what is needed if they are to reach their own goals.  In addition, source water protection needs to be addressed.  Preventing the contamination of water before it is treated is the first line of defense as well as being critical to protecting water into the future.  In addition, legislation to set enforceable regulations for safe drinking water in First Nation communities still needs to be passed.

You can read the whole report here.

All Along the Watchtower All Over the World

All Along the Watchtower written by Bob Dylan, but made famous by Jimi Hendrix  is performed by musicians around the world in this youtube video from Playing for Change.  Music is the language that tells the story of our connections. So take a listen and feel the story.

Playing for Change founder Mark Johnson describes how he envisioned this project:

I remember having a daydream about the opening acoustic guitar part of 

“All Along The Watchtower” ending with a Native American scream and a big native drum on the downbeat. That was the spark to assemble one of our biggest and deepest Songs Around The World. From Beirut to New Orleans to the Lakota Nation musicians play and sing like a musical army determined to stop suffering and greed all over the world. As a society we need to get back to our roots and connect deeper with our ancestors and native people in general so we can find the wisdom we need to move forward as a human race. 

As Jimi Hendrix once said, “If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.”

All Along the Watchtower is one of the 12 songs on the new album Listen to the Music that Playing for Change has just released.  You can learn more about the album here.

A Whale in the Door

I was recently travelling through the interior of British Columbia with two of my grown children.  I like to read local authors when I travel so I visited a few bookstores.  In Grizzly Book and Serendipity Shop in Revelstoke, my kids helped me search the shelves and one of them found Pauline Le Bel’s A Whale in the Door: A Community Unites to Protect BC’s Howe Sound.

Howe Sound is the body of water that connects Vancouver and communities all the way to Squamish and back again to Gibsons, to the Pacific Ocean.  Le Bel relates the history of mining, forestry, pulp and paper mills and how Howe Sound became “dead” due to pollution.  Her lovely book describes the countless community groups and First Nations who have worked together to bring life back to this amazing ecosystem.  She also describes how the recovery is still fragile and is now being threatened by a Liquid Natural Gas plant.

Her narrative at times includes the voice of Howe Sound or as it is known in the Squamish language Atl’Kitsem.  She weaves the history of colonialism and the impact it has had on the Indigenous people who have lived there for thousands of years as well as on the land and the sea.  She interviews scientists, Indigenous elders, social activists, citizen scientists and industrialists, weaving the voices of the people that are part of the community that is on the traditional territory of the Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish).

Le Bel has some interesting things to say about story, about narrative that shed light on this new story of ours.  “The way you name something, a person, a tree or a mountain, is how you start to tell a story about it, a story that has a deep connection to that place or person.  The name becomes a container for the stories, the things that happened.” (p 18) 

Dealing with another kind of narrative, Le Bel relates the idea of the hero’s journey in which “the hero/heroine is given a challenge, leaves on a quest, learns from mentors, vanquishes the monsters/bad guys, and returns to the community as a saviour.” (p 127)  This is the plot behind most popular movies and stories.

Le Bel quotes mythologist Joseph Campbell who  believed that the hero’s journey “served as a useful story to empower adolescents and to inspire them to take on their role in the community.  Le Bel suggests that “it’s time to move on, to grow up, to leave the hero myth behind as a quaint and perhaps useful artifact of the past. The tasks that are facing us now demand grown-up narratives – narratives that empower communities of people to come together and transform their world.  Communities are not out there to slay dragons; they’re there to build something new.  Together.  No single person can imagine what this will look like, but a community of dedicated people can dream together and design a desirable future.” (p 127)

Le Bel quotes “Margaret Wheatley, who has written many books on community and leadership, [and] believes the world doesn’t change one person at a time, in spite of the ads and slogans.  The world changes ‘as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible.  ‘Rather than worry about critical mass, she says, our work is to foster critical connections.’”

‘Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitments that lead to broad-based change.’  She believes ‘determination, energy and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something.  We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context.’” (p 153)

Howe Sound  photo: Stoic Meditation Vancouver Observer

A Whale in the Door tells the story of these relationships, the practices that are coming out of them and the passion of so many people who understand that humans are a part of the environment, not masters of it.  This story is as ancient as the land and has only been forgotten for four hundred years by the colonizers.  But it is emerging once again and those who never forgot are joining with the descendants of those who forgot who are now remembering.  They are nurturing critical connections.  This book is hopeful, thoughtful and balances our capacity for destruction with our capacity for healing.  

         

Pauline Le Bel (2017) Whale in the Door: A Community Unites to Protect BC’s Howe Sound. Halfmoon Bay, BC: Caitlin Press

The Pipeline Story is Changing

You may have heard about the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline extension in the news recently.  Although the federal government supports the extension of the pipeline and the Alberta provincial government wants it to proceed so that it can sell Alberta oil from the BC coastline, many people in British Columbia are opposed.

First Nations and environmentalists have been fighting against what they see as a potential environmental disaster and they have been joined by the new BC provincial government.

According to an email from RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Views and Environmental Needs) who fundraise for legal challenges to corporations who threaten the environment, “Grand Chief Stewart Philip blockaded Kinder Morgan’s tank farm Saturday April 9.  The company chose not to call the police.  On Sunday, executives in Houston announced they were halting spending on Kinder Morgan Canada’s pipeline and tanker project.”

In the past Philip has been arrested for such actions but this time a new story is being told.  You can hear Philip speaking about this here: 

On the Coast Protectors website which is hosted by the Union of BC Indian 

Chiefs, they call on their friends and allies to stand with them to defend their land, their water and their air from Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tanker project.

The Coast Protectors cite the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).  After nearly thirty years of work, Indigenous peoples from around the world had this declaration presented to the member countries of the United Nations in 2007.  It was adopted by 144 countries.  Eleven countries abstained and four voted against it (United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).  However, in May, 2016 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent Minister Carolyn Bennett to remove Canada’s objector status from this declaration.  If you haven’t read this important document you can get the pdf version here. 

UNDRIP secures Indigenous peoples’ rights to self determination. Here are two quotes from the declaration:

Recognizing the urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their lands, territories and resources.

Article 29 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the conservation and protection of the environment and the productive capacity of their lands or territories and resources. States shall establish and implement assistance programmes for indigenous peoples for such conservation and protection, without discrimination. 2. States shall take effective measures to ensure that no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.

Now that Canada has signed on to this declaration this international standard for the rights of Indigenous peoples has to be taken into account.  This will change the story.  But as we know, it takes work and political will to have these rights respected.

Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything, social activist and filmmaker  was present for this blockade.  You can see her views on how this new story is unfolding here.

  

 “Now is the time to stand beside Indigenous people in support of our timeless struggle to defend Mother Earth.  There is a battle being waged across the globe by Indigenous peoples and their allies demanding a safe, healthy world for future generations.  This is about water versus oil an life versus death, and ultimately, survival versus extinction.”    Grand Chief Stewart Philip

Girl Rising: Where They Are Now

In March 2013 the film Girl Rising was released. It is about the power of educating girls around the world to not only make their lives better but also to change the societies that they live in and indeed the world.  I wrote about this in May 2016 which you can see here. 

To celebrate the film’s fifth anniversary, a new film called Girl Rising: The Fifth Anniversary Edition follows the girls progress and tells the stories of where they are now.

Here are two of the girls stories.  First, Sokha from Cambodia and then Senna from Peru:

These young women will inspire you and give you hope.  If you want to watch the entire film you can purchase it to view on-line here.  You may find yourself agreeing with the slogan "One Girl with Courage IS a Revolution"!