January 4, 2013
Akwesasne Border Blockade 'Idle No More' Jan 5, 2013
UPDATE WATCH VIDEO of Jan. 5, 2012 Cornwall Akwesasne Border Action!
Dine' Arlene Bowman 'Salmoncrates' Magic of salmon
Salmonocrates
Navajo filmmaker Arlene Bowman reflects on the mystery and magic of salmon in Vancouver, BC
Journal and photo by Arlene Bowman, Dine'
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Salmonocrates
Almost six weeks
now since I saw first saw the salmons swim to their homeland to spawn in a
small stream close by at Hyland Creek, Surrey BC. A
few sockeye swam in the pools. December 19th
I saw a red male salmon swim alone in his pool, the only salmon left, but on
December 21, 2012, Friday I saw him with a female salmon partner. Today is
January 5, 2013. I wondered last Tuesday, what will happen to this male
salmon? No female to spawn with unless
the other females return who swam fast away. I do not know where she came from
but it happened. Maybe she is one of those who returned.
Visited often. I
wrote a journal about the salmons in the streams I viewed and checked; also I
took still photos and videotaped the salmons.
This is the first time ever I saw big fish swim in small streams: the
sockeye salmon. I am not a fish or
salmon expert. Now hardly any salmon exist in the small pools in the stream
except the pair near the tree root since November 25, 2012. Now she has gone, too.
To read-view
documentaries about salmon is one thing, but to view live salmons is another.
Sometimes these salmons, their heads, eyes, fins, tails, green olive skins with
black spots showed halfway as they rested or below the water level. Sometimes
to evade they dived deeper. In twilight the white stripe that runs across the
top of their bodies, worn out scales swayed in a long S letter. Red male salmons
and females swished and wiggled their bodies fast, splish, splash across smooth
slippery rocks in thin streams. Once in a lifetime, I never experienced this
among living things, except for kittens being born.
I looked at a
map, which illustrates tributaries in Surrey.
My partner and I assessed the Serpentine River might be the only
possible route the salmons followed to reach the nearby small stream. Imagine long ago many, many, many salmons
returned. The local news reported the salmons’ return in BC Canada lessened a
lot in the last five years. A couple expressed in November 2012 to my partner
at the local small park, the salmon’s return five years ago in 2007 was huge
compared to now. To have seen that. To have viewed salmons in the earliest
times!
My interest in
cats motivated me to volunteer and care for household cats at a local SPCA
shelter for a few years in Surrey BC. I have a black female cat. Read about the
tigers in India. Tigers will be extinct
in the future. So sad. Man is the main predator. Man develops land, populates
and spreads over land where the tigers and lions populate and once roamed far
distances. The big cats need huge space to move. People, who chop and get rid
of the jungle for lumber and other resources, eliminate the areas where tigers
and lions travel. I read tigers are killed for parts by certain peoples of the
world.
Salmons’ dilemma
is similar. Some developers of land are
not aware or ignore the salmons’ habitat, the way they live and spawn. These
developers take away the trees and ferns where salmons swim and hide for
protection. Salmon swim in cold water
rather than warm water or they die. In
the U.S. most of the dams built eliminated the salmon routes in their return to
spawning grounds. Now the climate has started to change to a warmer
temperature, which will cause natural elimination.
Once eagles were
an endangered species in North America, but they rebounded. So glad they
revived, but other birds, animals and living things in this world are not as
recoverable.
In my November -
December 2012 observation of the salmon return, I noticed the streams nearby
are polluted; yet the salmon swims and drinks in them. Wish I could test the
waters and salmon bodies by obtaining samples from the water and salmon bodies
to find out what is in the water and salmon bodies, but I do not have contact
with equipment to test.
Some people care
a lot, while others do not care what happens to the animals that live now not
endangered and endangered. What makes people think birds, animals and living
things last forever? Such as in the beginning in the United States, the
colonizers nearly killed off the buffalo. From another point-of-view the
colonizers figured, get rid of the buffalo will get rid of Indigenous people; a
starvation technique used by the U.S. military. When I first heard about this
technique, I had doubts. However, the more I thought about it, the more
plausible it became. Why do people kill
animals and use parts of them? What makes
people create pipelines for gas or oil in BC such as the Northern Gateway
Pipeline and assume the pipes will not leak on the land when they leak, which
destroys the salmon, other animals’ habitats and pollute water? Arrogance,
ignorance and greed affect the living things in the environment where the
animals, endangered species and humans live. In 1971, Marvin Gaye wrote and
sang in “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” fish, whales and animals get mercury, carcinogens
from oil, gas or whatever poisons the ocean and land. When miners mine uranium, miners receive
cancer from exposure to radioactivity unless the mining companies resolved the
problem. Among the few uranium-mining companies who wanted to mine uranium in
the Grand Canyon in 2011 was a Canadian uranium mining company. Two First
Nations live in the Grand Canyon of Arizona and use the Colorado River water.
In fact, everyone in the U.S. west uses Colorado water. A twenty year ban was
enacted upon uranium mining by the Obama Administration in the Grand Canyon, January
2012. United States and Canada are not innocent countries.
My point-of-view:
Much of the world public is unaware about the environment, living things and
endangered species in the world as well as other issues: racism, sexism,
ignorance about Indigenous people in the Americas and other peoples of color in
the world. In past history the world contained many abundant animals, salmons
and other living things than now. To
educate people early on is the answer in elementary and secondary schools about
information: living things and world issues. Who teaches the daughters and sons
to be so well adjusted, informed, misinformed and prejudiced? Parents. Some
parents raise their children well. I have met them. Also, I have met the
opposite. Some teenagers at sixteen with
value systems develop and hardened into a warped reality. Almost too late.
North American colonization, Manifest Destiny attitude in U.S. plays a huge
part. I am a Dine’ filmmaker. My way is to change the information about the
world: to write, produce create films and videos via drama, documentary or
animation, write songs, poems and stories about the endangered species, sexism
and racism and reverse the frozen stereotyped images of Indigenous people,
especially about Indigenous women. As
far I am concerned, very little has changed.
This is 2013?! Cannot give up.
Resist. Educate. Seeing the
salmon swim up the stream to spawn, big fish in little streams further changed
my life this November 25 - December 25, 2012.
Dine' filmmaker Arlene Bowman, originally from Greasewood, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, grew up in Phoenix. She now lives in Vancouver. Her films have shown on PBS and in international film festivals.
Arlene Bowman completed her master's degree in film at the University of California
at Los Angeles. An independent producer concentrating on Native themes,
Arlene has produced, directed, and edited the award-winning "Navajo
Talking Picture" (1986) and co-produced and co-directed "Drugs in the
90s: Coward Hunter". As media curator and instructor, Bowman programmed
"The Native American Film and Video Festival" (1989, UCLA Film and
Television Archive) and "Native Images Festival" (1990, Los Angeles) and
has taught film production at California State University, Long Beach.
(09/09)
 
Navajo Talking Picture
A film by Arlene Bowman, 1986, 40 min., Color In NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE film student Arlene Bowman (Navajo) travels to the Reservation to document the traditional ways of her grandmother.
Song Journey
A film by Arlene Bowman and Jeanine Moret, 1994, 57 min., Color SONG JOURNEY takes Arlene Bowman (Navajo) on the pow-wow circuit in the hope of reviving her connection to traditional Native culture. |
Grand Chief Clearsky's letter to Obama
Grand Chief Murray Clearsky's letter to President Obama
President Barak Obama
United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
RE: Idle No More – Canadian Indian Democratic movement
As the Grand Chief of the Southern Chiefs Organization in Manitoba, Canada, it is my honor to extend to you our heartfelt congratulations on your successful re-election as President of the United States of America. You have become a role model and a source of inspiration for our people and especially for our youth.
As we are aware, you have an unprecedented relationship with Indigenous people in your country and do consult with them on matters which impact their lives. Due to an awakening of the Indigenous people in Canada, I would like to share with you some thoughts about issues that I feel are of significant importance.
Canada does not provide for the right to property in its Charter of Rights and Freedoms unlike the United States of America, and this ought to be amended so all people including the First Nations of Canada can enjoy the benefits. Canada and the United States have historically been close trading partners and we, the First Nations of Canada, have been marginalized and cannot fully participate and contribute to this economic relationship when being denied our right to property.
The sale of natural resources is a major component of the Canadian economy and First Nations have never ceded their right to these natural resources, rather they have been taken and unilaterally legislated to the provinces by Canada. This is in contravention of the Treaties and it denies the Canadian government’s responsibility to respect our nation-to-nation relationship.
First Nations are the legal indigenous owners of the natural resources of Canada and we are requesting that you and your administration encourage Prime Minister Stephen Harper to establish a relationship where a fair and equitable share of the revenues generated through the sale of natural resources accrues to First Nations. This would allow the First Nations of Canada to exercise a degree of autonomy in economic and institutional development and an opportunity to participate in, and contribute to the growth of, our integrated economies.
The UN declaration affirms the minimum human rights standards necessary for the “survival, dignity and well being of the Indigenous peoples of the world”. These include the right of self-determination, protections from discrimination and genocide, and recognition of rights to lands, territories and resources that are essential to the identity, health and livelihood of Indigenous peoples. This declaration also explicitly requires that all provisions are to be balanced with other rights protections and interpreted in accordance with principles of justice, democracy, non-discrimination, good governance and respect for the human rights of all. Any actions taken by signatories (governments) bound by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must also exercise the provision of and attaining free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous peoples for their traditional territories being impacted by successor state governments.
The Idle No More grassroots movement in Canada is gaining unprecedented momentum and in the past two weeks, there have been rallies held in major cities across the United States and across the world in solidarity with the movement for freedom, equality and future integrity of our lands, resources and water from resource extraction industries which under the recently unilaterally imposed Canadian Bill C-45 will now be symbolically regulated with no legal or regulatory deterrent mechanisms in place to prevent long term negative environmental impacts. The Idle No More movement is supported by an unprecedented number of non-indigenous people globally and this support is growing daily and the message is getting louder.
The United States of America is the largest trading partner with Canada through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and due to the increasing marginalization and complete disregard by the Stephen Harper Conservative government for First Nations rights, the rallies and temporary blockades being implemented and organized now will only increase and future rallies, demonstrations and blockades could have a devastating impact on the very fragile American economy as our economies are so intrinsically intertwined that potential blockades on economic supply routes in Canada may trigger negative economic impacts on the United States of America in both the short and long term.
As Grand Chief of the Southern Chiefs Organizations in southern Manitoba and being the representative voice for 33 First Nations, I am formally requesting that you contact the Stephen Harper government and strongly advise Prime Minister Harper to work in true partnership with Canadian First Nations and repeal Bill C-45 which has grave short and long term threats to indigenous rights and compromises the environmental integrity of our lands.
Mr. President, with your assistance in attaining this long overdue recognition of our nations, preservation of our lands, recognition of our land rights, and with our share of the revenues, we shall significantly improve the lives of all First Nations people across Canada where our people and communities would be healthy and vibrant once again.
Thank you for considering these matters and for your anticipated assistance. Should you wish to further explore First Nations issues in Canada we invite you, and any of your officials, to join us in dialogue at your earliest convenience. Finally, I have been personally encouraged and challenged by your call to a renewed and higher purpose, and I trust that together, we will provide a time of hope, opportunity and a full measure of success for all people. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and all Americans.
Sincerely,
Grand Chief Murray Clearsky
Southern Chiefs Organization
225-530 Century Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
R3H 0Y4
1-204-946-1869
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)