Sep012010

6 Foot Square Project

6FootProject

Debajehmujig is excited to be able to invite you to participate in The 6’ Project, a project that is meant to daylight, celebrate and bring together the many diverse relationships that Islanders have with this land that we share. So if you’re a farmer, fisher, painter, writer, teacher, mechanic; if you’re in Wiky, Gore Bay, Sheshegwaning, all the way out to Meldrum Bay, in town or out in the bush; if you’re 83, 42 or 7; if you’re a man, woman, youth or child who loves this land, Manitoulin Island, please share this love. Take part in The 6’Project!

Here are your instructions for love – I mean – participation:

1. Choose a 6’x6’ piece of land that you have regular access to, permission to be on, and a personal connection to.

2. REGISTER yourself and your location with project co-ordinator Elisha Sidlar (she doesn’t bite). She can be reached by phone at 859-1171 or at the6footproject@hotmail.com or through Facebook (Elisha Sidlar) – and join the group The 6 Foot Project; Conversations with the Land. Registration is important as all participants will be shown in a community exhibition and festival taking place NOVEMBER 5, 6, 7 of this year.

3. Make art there. It should be something that reflects your relationship to this land. Document it. You could … create a sculpture and document it, record the audio of that place (which is documenting it), take pictures of that place (also documented), write letters to that space (the letters would act as documentation) sit there every day and write a story (documentation), paint a particular flower’s life cycle (painting=documentation), erect some sort of shelter, be it tipi, mudhouse or sugarshack and live there, but just make sure you document it with like, a video camera or something.

4. Did I mention you need to document it? Documentation may take the form, but is not limited to, photos, video recording, audio recording, drawings, writings, songs and any other way you can think of. The actual pieces will take place out on the land. We need the documentation to be able to come together and share our experiences come festival time. Don’t feel limited if you don’t have some state of the art camera. Be creative.

5. All documentation must be submitted to Elisha by OCTOBER 22, 2010. Contact her for further information. All of this work will then be assembled into a community exhibition. Sa-weet! We are so jazzed by the thought of bringing together all the different ways that us Islanders relate and connect to this land. Artistically, historically, agriculturally, traditionally, reflectively, respectfully; this is an opportunity for us to come together and honour our relationships to the land and to each other, past present, and future.

6. Yay! Come to the Exhibition/Festival NOVEMBER 5, 6, 7, 2010 to be held at the Debajehmujig Creation Centre. Workshops! Music! Food! See old friends, make new ones. See everybody’s work. Talk. Laugh. Learn. Are you coming?

Please feel free to contact Elisha at 859-1171 or the6footproject@hotmail.com with any questions that may arise. One last gentle note; please show your love for the land by always treating her with respect. Have fun!

Love,
Debaj

Mar132010

Democracy vs. capitalism, local vs. factory food

Michael Moore’s latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, has just been released on DVD, and thanks to Maja Mielonen, we now have a copy on the Island. Maja will be showing it as one of our ‘movies that matter’ nights (and to celebrate the equinox) on Sunday, March 21. Moore’s ironic style has never been stronger, or deeper, presenting the whole sweep of American history as a struggle between capitalism and democracy – and showing how democracy can still win, despite the hijacking of the federal government by Wall Street.

Though Moore’s film is American to the core, the struggle between capitalism and democracy (or people vs. corporations) is a global one. A recent victory for democracy is covered by the excellent Yes! Magazine website in Iceland Busts the Banksters.

Yes! Magazine online is an excellent resource for resilience, and you can subscribe there (also for free) to a weekly highlights email. The current print version of Yes! also features an interview with Elinor Ostrom, a summer visitor to Manitoulin, who recently won the Nobel Prize in economics for her lifelong work on cooperation and common property.

farmersalatin_resizedAnother new DVD resource has been acquired by Chuc and Linda Willson, who are among the most active promoters of local food on Manitoulin: Food Inc. is a devastating exposé of the corporate food industry in the U.S., with a particular focus on meat production, including health issues and unfair labor practices, on Monsanto and its domination of soybean production, and on political issues in the U.S. such as labeling of GMO products. It also shows the viable (and more resilient) alternatives of organic, free-range and local food production. One of the film’s most articulate spokesmen for alternative farming is Joel Salatin, pictured here. Local and organic food advocate Michael Pollan is also featured, as he is in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the extra features on the new Michael Moore DVD. Food Inc.is well researched and powerfully delivered. Despite its focus on the U.S., the tight integration of North American food systems means that it’s relevant to Canada as well. It’s a welcome addition to earlier films on food issues, King Corn and The Future of Food (which are included in the Honora Bay Resource Library).

Feb142010

YOGA-THON FUNDRAISER March 7

MAYoga

Kagawong Park Centre
Sunday March 7, 2010

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Details:

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM:         POWERFLOW YOGA
A Dynamic sequence of yoga postures, challenging and energizing. This class moves at a pretty fast pace, and is best for people who have some experience.

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM:         BREAK

11:40 AM – 11:55 AM:         THAI MASSAGE PART I
Brenda Zuela from Jaguar Spirit in Gore Bay will give a ‘prone’ thai massage demonstration.

12:00PM – 1:30 PM:         HATHA YOGA
A series of yoga postures designed to strengthen, tone and loosen the muscles, while calming the mind and reducing stress. All levels, great for anyone wanting to try a yoga class for the first time.

1:30 PM – 2:00 PM:         BREAK

1:40 PM – 1:55 PM:         THAI MASSAGE PART II
Brenda Zuela from Jaguar Spirit in Gore Bay will give a ’supine’ thai massage demonstration.

2:00 PM – 3:30 PM:         YIN YOGA / RELAXATION / MEDITATION
This gentle approach is used to peel away layers of tension and stress, mostly floor postures. Please bring a blanket and pillows for comfort. Followed by deep relaxation and a short meditation. All levels.

3:30 PM – 4:00 PM CLOSING: questions, chat, (belly)dance, replenish etc.

Minimum of $50 in donations required to the Manitoulin Food Bank (pledge sheets are available, see contact info below) for each participant. Come for the whole day, 1 or 2 classes, or to get information on yoga, meditation, and thai massage.

Bring a yoga mat, blanket, water and wear loose, comfortable clothing. If you are staying for more than one class you might want to bring a light snack and/or energy drinks.

To prepare for this event, yoga classes are held on Monday and Wednesday nights, and Saturday mornings in Honora Bay (contact Melissa), Wednesdays in Evansville (contact Julia Winder at: julia.winder@gmail.com).

Contact Melissa Arp at: 705-368-2597 or via email at: manitoulinyoga@gmail.com, for pledge sheets and more information.

PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ENTERED TO WIN A GIFT CERTIFICATE FOR 1 HOUR THAI MASSAGE AND 2 YOGA CLASSES!

If you are unable to attend, but would like to sponsor, you can send cheques directly to the Manitoulin Family Resources: PO Box 181, Mindemoya, ON P0P 1S0. Please make a note that it is for the Yoga Thon.

Feb122010

Movie review: Home

HomeNew DVD at the Honora Bay Resource Library:

Home, a 2009 feature film shot by noted aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is a visual spectacular in the tradition of Koyanisqaatsi and the rest of Godfrey Reggio’s trilogy. Like those earlier films, it aims to show us humans how we are changing life on this planet. But there the resemblance ends. The Reggio trilogy, and similar films like Ron Fricke’s Baraka, let the images speak for themselves. Home on the other hand is dominated by its script, a powerful sermon aimed at changing our relationship with the biosphere.

Although it delivers its message mostly in scientific rather than religious terms, i call it a ‘sermon’ because it is aimed directly at our moral and spiritual sensibilities. The scope of it, beginning with the advent of life on Earth 4 billion years ago, matches the magnificent sweep of the visuals. Having given us in the first hour an overview (in every sense!) of where we come from, the second hour of the film draws our attention directly to climate change and the rest of the planetary crisis caused by our collective habits. The final few minutes show us how various communities have actually changed their habits in ways that help to head off disaster. The central focus is on overconsumption – which is entirely appropriate, given that the 20% of humans who consume 80% of the Earth’s resources are the likely audience for this film, although the impoverished majority have a starring role in it.

The script makes excellent use of factual information, along with the visual feast, to ‘go for the gut’ and inspire an informed response. The delivery is not perfect – the voice-over by Glenn Close includes some minor but annoying blunders, especially when she says ‘climactic’ when the word should be ‘climatic’. There are also moments when the you don’t know what you’re seeing on the screen, and the narrative doesn’t tell you. However there’s little point in quibbling with details, either of fact or pronunciation, when the main message comes across so clearly. Home is the kind of wake-up call we will continue to need until we manage to shake off our wastefully consumptive habits.

Jan312010

Manitoulin singing and baking! Feb. 5 and 6

Cider and Song
Friday, February 5 at 7:30 at the United Church in Gore Bay

Tickets at the door, $10 each or $20 family. Come and enjoy an evening of song with complimentary cider and cookies at intermission. Songs include some old time favourites like Blue Skies and My Favourite Things as well as some celtic folk songs, original songs by Director Jane Best and a Stephen Foster medley.

Baking with whole-grain flours
Saturday February 6, 9am–2pm at Café in the Woods, Honora Bay

This will be an informative and tasty learning experience, offering new ideas and some hands-on experience of baking breads using whole flours. Many people have asked about adjusting recipes using the LoonSong flour (which includes the bran and germ and has slightly different baking characteristics than commercial flours). Others have said: “I don’t bake!” Well, this is an opportunity to learn and try, and get encouragement and inspiration!!

We will have the pleasure of working with Ilsa Giselman and Maja Mielonen, two of Manitoulin’s best-loved bakers. We will go through three to four different recipes, using different flours: wheat, rye, white, and also using added seeds and goodies. We will observe and listen, and also get a try at mixing and kneading, feeling the consistencies and textures of different doughs. The various recipes will include traditional techniques of kneading, as well as alternative methods, such as using a bread-maker, and electric mixer.

While the breads rise, Paul Salanki will speak about growing organic grains here on Manitoulin, the various steps in processing and milling the flour and the nutrition of different grains and flours – there will be lots of opportunity for questions and sharing of recipes and ideas.

We will have a potluck lunch, and taste all the breads that we make that day. Breads and flours will also be available for sale. Everyone will take home some recipes, along with inspirations for winter baking and eating!!

Fee for the workshop is $20. Register with us at LoonSong at loonsong@vianet.ca. Pre-registration recommended, space is limited.

Jan312010

Vegetarian Grand Opening in Gore Bay

Last summer, The Island Chill opened in Kagawong with its vegetarian menu, as noted on our other Manitoulin blog. Now an expanded year-round version is open in Gore Bay, just down the street from the Island Pantry health food store. It’s currently ‘take-out’ only, but that will change in early February. They are planning a Grand Opening for Sunday, February 14th, with a special menu and live entertainment, from 5 to 8 pm. If you want to be there, you can make a reservation – 282-8215 – the new diner seats up to 20.

Regular Sunday hours are 10 am – 7pm, and the restaurant will be open (for brunch and lunch) before the grand opening. Anyone interested can call Kris at the number above.

Jan312010

Landscape Art Explorations Workshop

Friday eve. February 12, through Saturday, February 13th
at LoonSong Garden/McLean’s Mountain.

This is the second seasonal landscape art workshop organized by 4elements Living Arts on Manitoulin: this time a winter session!!

We will explore approaches to creating artwork and “sculptures” that are from the land and go back to the land, using just what is found on-site–snow, ice, grasses, leaves, wind, light, etc….

In October, participants explored and created artworks around the environment in Sheguiandah and Rockville, and this session will take place at LoonSong and on McLean’s Mountain. Rachel Ellaway of Sudbury will facilitate, and a brainstorming about future landart workshop ideas will happen on Saturday.

Introductory discussion and slide presentation with potluck Friday evening 6-9pm, Saturday creation of works approximately 9-5, including discussions and shared lunch (times maybe adjusted depending on weather).

Lots of tea and cocoa, and space for warming up, available throughout the day!!

Sliding scale fees for this workshop $30-$60.

For full details, or to register, contact Heather at email address above, or phone 368-0460 or 368-1855.

Nov192009

Wind farm worries?

The Manitoulin Coalition for Safe Energy Alternatives now have their own blog – the place to go if you have questions about the impact of the proposed wind farm in Northeastern Manitoulin.

Nov092009

Gathering on the hill: Ways of Connecting

On Sunday, November 15, the Resilient Manitoulin group will gather at the ski hill near Honora Bay (also known as the Café in the Woods) at 2 p.m. As in previous gatherings, we will report on progress made, lessons learned and projects under way. Everyone is welcome to take part.

The potluck this time will be at the end of the gathering, around 5 p.m. (and it’s optional). We hope to maintain the traditions of local food and zero waste, or as close to those ideals as we can get.

webdew

We take turns convening these gatherings, and that includes choosing a theme. My choice for this one is Ways of Connecting. The idea is that all our specific projects and practices are inspired by a deep sense that Everything is connected, as it was expressed in the film Fierce Light (as i’ve mentioned on this blog before). Or looking at it from the other side, most of the bad habits we see in the global consumer culture are symptoms of disconnection from the larger systems around us – either people from human communities, or humanity from the ecosystems within which we live (or both). So building resilience has a lot to do with reconnecting.

When we invest our efforts in on-the-ground ‘practical’ projects, the results don’t always turn out as wanted or expected, and this can put a strain on the very sense of connection which inspired the effort in the first place. This is natural, because working toward any specific goal requires us to focus on a partial purpose – which means losing our sense of connection with the greater whole, and forgetting how much lies beyond that limited focus. So we need some kind of ‘spiritual’ practice – i put that in quotation marks because some folks don’t like the word, but i don’t have a better one – to renew or maintain our deeper sense of connection.

I call these ways of connecting, in the plural, because there’s no one practice that works for everyone. And although it’s often hard to express these practices in words, i think we can bear witness to them, and hear the testimony of others, in ways that benefit all of us. This in turn could make a difference to the practical projects we take on, and give us a different perspective on various things going on around us as well.

That’s my basic idea, anyway, and i’ll bring some resources that might clarify it. We’ll see what happens.

Gary Fuhrman

Nov042009

Resilience is Connection

sunflowerTrying to create a more resilient way of life is not easy. We are sure to make mistakes, and we are likely to get discouraged unless we can draw upon a deep source of spiritual energy – a ‘soul-force’ or ‘fierce light’ that comes from within. Recently a small group of us shared a viewing of Fierce Light, which i wrote about in a previous posting here on the blog, and afterwards we talked about the deep sense of connection which the film explores in relation to social activism. The following is one person’s reflections coming out of that conversation.

Resilient Manitoulin is a growing network of Manitoulin Island residents which came together because some of us shared a sense of living on a planet in crisis. The more we looked into ecological, economic and energy trends, the more we realized that human survival depends on changing our deeply self-destructive habits and unsustainable systems. For example, the North American food system on which we’ve become dependent is already stretched close to collapse. The same goes for global economic system, although the major powers who profit from it are scrambling to assure us that the ‘meltdown’ of 2008 was just a temporary setback, a ‘recession’ …

Anyway, we set to work trying to develop our own local systems that would enable us to survive major breakdowns in the old systems. But the hope that holds us together is much more positive than that. We do want to survive the possible collapse of the power grid or the food-distribution system, but more important, we want to live better lives than dependence on the old systems allows. Again, food is a good example: we prefer local food because it’s healthier, it makes more ecological sense, we know the producers personally, and it tastes better than the industrial agribusiness product.

In short, our purpose is not merely reacting to the crisis we see coming at us, but actively creating a better way of life, one that is more connected to the real sources of life. That purpose in turn connects us immediately with everyone who shares it, on Manitoulin and elsewhere on this island Earth. We try to support each other even though we don’t all share the same skills, beliefs, practices or priorities. We all affirm, in our various ways, our deep connection with everything – even with those engaged in tearing apart those connections, the warmakers and wasters of the earth. We can’t improve our situation by making somebody else’s worse. Our common enemy is addiction to destructive practices – a habit we humans have to kick together, by healing our sense of connection.

We knew from the start that our little network would have to grow, because everybody who lives on Manitoulin is in the same boat. This blog is just one way of letting other Islanders know that we’re here for the sake of connecting us all with the place where we live, and not for political power or profit or any such petty purpose. We’re here to put our hearts and heads together, and get our hands dirty with good clean Manitoulin dirt.

That’s how i see it, anyway. I’d love to hear from others.