Saturday, July 1, 2017

Carving at the KANATA FESTIVAL!

So if you are like me, you are confused and struggling today with this whole day. I am not going to celebrate colonialism today. That feels so wrong and I had a good long cry in the tub this morning. I wasn't the only one crying, did you see it's raining in Ottawa.

That's the ancestors crying. :(

We did have a lovely time at the Kanata Festival(taking place on the  Unceded Coast Salish Territories) yesterday and I might pop down for a bit today but I will share these photos here. I encourage you all to go to the Kanata Festival and show your support.

#Canada150plus #Canada150+ #KanataFestival

I have to remember what Harold Joe taught me yesterday. He spoke how cedar teaches us patience. He reminded me of how a cedar tree can grow to be 1500 years old..."now that's patience " he said.

Oh how I need patience. I keep thinking everyone is going to wake up and get on board and when they don't it hurts. I am not even the ones that were in residential school and none of my family was but still I have so much empathy. I hurt for them and all the people who suffered from that Residential school legacy and the damage caused by colonialism to these beautiful souls and to the Mother Earth.

I do feel pain though for my great grandma's (Kalapuya, Iroquois, Metis) and great great grandma's (Songhees) because I know they suffered and this is what they call the intergenerational trauma. That trauma is passed through the womb of our mothers, the lifegivers, the matriarchs. The stresses they felt we feel. But I feel contorted because of the settler side too, the Bohemian, Swedish & Portuguese.

So I pray for patience and I need to get some wood so I can carve...carve out all this anxiety and pain and frustration of this day. It's almost over. It's just one day but to think that $500 million was spent. I can not imagine how much money that is...truly...but I can imagine how many people it COULD have helped. 

So I am going to share my photos here and let you see what fun we had. Thank you Harold Joe for your patience and guidance and letting us carve on your house post. Truly grateful!!
O'Siem. I hold my hands up to you!

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

What was neat was the day before we had visited and I had walked into the longhouse, taken a photo of the inside but had missed it from the outside and I wanted to get that photo...then I saw the Kitsilano/Khatsahlano sign and a big bell went off in my head...because that is my neighbourhood and there was the housepost and the carver- who turned out to be Harold Joe- he's from Cowichan.
So that was super special to me. A sign!

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017


Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017

Photography by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita © 2017
Well I will make another post later. I think I will just pop down for a bit.
Kanata Festival
http://kanatafestival.com/ 

Today is the last day, here is the schedule Go to the KANATA FESTIVAL- Free, Fun & Enlightening! https://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2017/06/go-to-kanata-festival-free-fun.html 

Kanata Festival 2017- now til July 1
https://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2017/06/kanata-festival-2017-now-til-july-1.html


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