There was standing room only at Seattle University’s Pigott Auditorium, where two of the 13 Grandmothers, shared their insights and their film “For The Next 7 Generations.“
Seattle University hosted the event with the Chief Seattle Club who received all the proceeds from the evenings event.
Jenine Grey, Executive Director, Chief Seattle Club, introduced the two speakers by reading a poem sharing how the Chief Seattle Club is a safe refuge for members of all tribes from across the continent.
The Chief Seattle Club provides Meals, Hygiene facilities,Talking Circles, Financial Services, Arts & Crafts program, Medical and Outreach services, Advocacy and a score of other services. For more information see http://www.chiefseattleclub.org
Rita Pitka Blumenstein
“…The past is not a burden; it is a scaffold which brought us to this day. We are free to be who we are—to create our own life out of our past and out of the present. We are our ancestors. When we can heal ourselves, we also heal our ancestors, our grandmothers, our grandfathers and our children. When we heal ourselves, we heal Mother Earth.
Yup’ik mother, grandmother, great grandmother, wife, aunt, sister,friend, tribal elder. Born on a fishing boat and raised in Tununak, Alaska, Rita attended a Montessori school in Seattle for four years. She raised two children and worked at many hospitals delivering babies as a doctor’s aide in Bethel and Nome. She has traveled and taught basket weaving, song, dance and cultural issue classes world-wide, earning money for Native American Colleges…”
Mona Polacca
“…Indigenous people have come through a time of great struggle, a time of darkness. The way I look at it is like the nature of a butterfly. In the cocoon, a place of darkness, the creature breaks down into a fluid and then a change, a transformation, takes place. When it is ready and in its own time, it begins to move and develop a form that stretches and breaks away from this cocoon and emerges into this world, into life, as a beautiful creature.
We grandmothers, we have emerged from that darkness, see this beauty, see each other and reach out to the world with open arms, with love, hope, compassion, faith and charity.
Mona, a Hopi/Havasupai /Tewa elder, has a Master of Social Work degree. She serves on several United Nations committees on indigenous people’s issues and is a featured author, speaker, and educator on indigenous people’s human rights, aging, mental health, addiction and violence. She is also the President/CEO and faculty of the Turtle Island Project, a non-profit program that promotes a vision of wellness by providing trans-cultural training to individuals, families, and healthcare professionals…”
I was fortunate enough to speak with these two ladies about how they feel they have impacted those who have attended events and listened to their message. Both of them are supremely confidant that the peoples of the world can turn around on the path we are on and change the direction we are headed.
If you get a chance to meet these ladies ask them about the 13 traveling to Rome to secure an apology from the Pope for generations of ill treatment. You will love the story-
Video from the evening can be seen at: http://ireport.cnn.com/people/LetKidsBeKid
For more information on the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers see: http://www.grandmotherscouncil.org/
