Katie Goes...

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything, a whole lifetime has happened since I last wrote here.  Before I get into that though, one of my best friends just returned from the most incredible life-changing trip in China.  And the project she is creating is truly awe-inspiring: http://www.foursistersfilm.com/2010/10/elevations-alpine-school-and-outreach-program/ more from me soon...

When I got back from Australia, I said I wanted to just pack up my car and drive around showing the film, KANYINI, but that was not practical.  Lack of practicality is usually not a viable reason not to do something though, for me (though fun to say, not always best practice). :)  So, last week, after my last day of work teaching GED students in Asheville, I was lucky enough to have a job catering a women's weekend at a retreat centre deep in the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains.  So much happened there, that I don't even know where to begin... so i won't say anything.  But, I do believe seeds were planted there that will find their fruition sometime in my future.  <3 The morning after I got back, my Mom and I hit the road for Fort Belvoir, Virginia (just outside of DC).  We went to visit my cousin Vinny (and that's the truth), and it was actually fun to stay on the base.  Strange how growing up in the military comes back to you... The real adventure began on Wedne

Date:   Saturday, May 22, 2010 Time:  8pm - Doors at 7pm Location:  The Wild Project  195 E 3rd St ; (212) 228-1195) http://www.thewildproject.com/ Suggested Donation:   $5 - $10 "KANYINI"   written and narrated by UNCLE BOB RANDALL TJILPI  ELDER OF THE YANKUNYTJATJARA ABORIGINAL   NATION           The evening will begin with a traditional Anangu welcome, and feature the film Kanyini , followed by audience dialogue  Plot Synopsis:   This documentary is based on the remarkable life and philosophy of Bob Randall, an elder of the Yankunytjatjara people of Uluru in Central Australia. It explores his idyllic early life, shattered when he is taken from his family as one of the 'Stolen Generation', and his journey since then. 'Uncle Bob' also explores the reasons for the tragic problems in many Australian Aboriginal communities today. While there is sadness and desperation, the film finishes with a sense of hope. Archival footage from the very early days of white c

I.  a heart engaged without a ring scored with measures improbable  when touched by incandescent flame the certain seems impossible a supernova in my chest and unprepared my senses reeled  leaving me bereft  of space to hide in anonymity one touch, one look,  a burning sear  that took my very breath away unwitting your sorcerer's spell has breached my abandoned gateway to infinity. II.   To fall and become For the sake of love,  Yet missing the human connection, Is the woeful gift  Of the girl in woman form  Yet to bloom from her  Mind to her heart.   Denied thus far  The bursting of flame  Through touch more than surface,  Dormant eros congealed   In practicality pumping daily  Unused blood through  Unenlightened muscle.   The smallest prick of  Sharpest gaze becomes  Bewildering flow of feeling,  Unable to be staunched  With usual thought  Gray matter deserter  In war unwinnable.   The dam broken, thank God,  Can never thus be repaired  Gratitu

I had a thought on all the crazy news attention paid to the motivational speaker after the deaths of people in his sweat lodge.  In all the press, I never once saw an interview with a Native American person. It brings up so many important conversations, but mostly how much we Westerners need to un-learn. I had an amazing talk with a wise woman today that was somewhat liberating, and centred on the positive skills of the Colonists.  Now, I have a gut/knee-jerk reaction to the word, "colonization", so this one was hard for me.  It's just as hard as knowing that people of Indigenous descent are capable of being just regular human beings with base and mundane foibles and feelings. So with my paradigms shaken up, I find myself at a unique place, and exactly where I should be.  It's part of the unlearning.  But it's also part of the Four Nations coming back together.  There are rifts deeper than my imagining and historical trauma pervasive in Indigenous communiti

The State of the Union is an address by the President of the United States.  As far as I know, it's not a debate.  Why does the Governor of Virginia get a platform for a "rebuttal"????  Not that I agree with every single thing our President said, but I respect the office, and I was certainly inspired by his passionate oratory that was in excess of an hour. Wouldn't it be so awesome if the American people tried thinking for themselves instead of looking to some news program to think for them?   I guess people would have to watch it in the first place...