Quick note from Amazing Global Indigenous meeting!

Wednesday, July 2

There is a temporary delay in our regularly scheduled programming...   Rachael and I went straight from the Global Council meeting in Santa Clara, where it was a balmy 80*, to the first truly global meeting of the URI’s Global Indigenous Initiative outside Middletown, where it has been a lovely 102* in the shade.

We are at Four Springs retreat center which, although rustic, has been fine for our needs… except for the weather and the huge fires the next mountain range over which we all have been tracking.  (http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Pope-Valley-Fire-in-Napa-County-at-3200-Acres-30-Contained-265532711.html)  Internet connections are spotty, so I haven’t been able to keep up with the reports.  This is just a quick note to say that the meetings have been fantastic!  Rachael and I will post more when we are able, but you can see what we have been doing by checking out Mikuak’s great pics and videos at the GII Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/globalindigenousinitiative

Rachael and GII coordinators and URI Trustees Audri Scott Williams and Alejandrino Quispe have assembled a truly amazing group of people practicing living indigenous traditions:

AFRICA

* Dr. Erick Gbodossou – Senegal

* Nana Akomfohene Korantemaa Ayeboafo – Ghana

* Nana Ohemaa Agyiriwa II – Ghana

* Yacine Badian Kouyate – Mali

* Dr. Sekagya Yahaya – Uganda

ASIA

* Rev. Kalyan Kumar Kisku – East India

* Dr. Samuel Nellikkadu  -- South India

EUROPE

* Alessandra Belloni – South Italy

* Zoya Slavina – Altai, Siberia, Russia

* Galina Ermolina – Russia

LATIN AMRICA

* Alejandrino Quispe Mejia – Quechua / Peru

* Raul Mamani – Kolla / Argentina

* Sofia Painiqueo – Mapuche / Chile

* Fany Avila – Kuna / Panama

“MULTIREGION”

* Audri Scott Williams – West African, Cherokee, and Seminole / USA

* Elder Don Frew – Wiccan / USA

* Elder Rachael Watcher – Wiccan / USA

* Grandfather Tom Blue Wolf – Creek / USA

NORTH AMERICA

* Angaangaq Angakkorsuag – Eskimo-Kalaallit / Greenland

* Grandmother Mona Polacca – Hopi, Havasupai, Tewa / USA

* Ta’Kaiya Blaney (and her parents, since she is 13 years old!) – Sliammon / Canada

* Diane Longboat, Kahontakwas – Mohawk / Canada

* Cindy White, Kawennanoron – Mohawk / Canada

* Chief Phil Lane, Jr. – Yankton Dakota and Chicasaw / USA

* Philip “Tiger” Lane (Brown Bear) – Yankton Dakota and Chicasaw / USA

SOUTHEAST ASIA and the PACIFIC

* Ms. Salam Tangol – Maranao / the Philippines

* Genevieve Kupang – Kankana-ye / the Philippines

* Wanegan, Glenis Grogan – North Australia

* Bununda, Coralie Wason – North Australia

Plus a bunch of translators and a superb kitchen and support staff consisting of a friend of mine and most of Rachael’s coven.

I’ll write up more after I can get home and get a shower.  Seriously, check out the Facebook page.  This has been an amazing and historic meeting.

Blessed Be,

Don Frew