News & Invitations from Wisdom of the Elders
Wednesday February 25, 2015
Wednesday February 25, 2015
Discovering Our Story TV Anniversary:
We are inviting the public to join us at 12:30pm on Sunday, April 5, 2015 as we prepare for our fifth anniversary of Discovering Our Story Television Program, broadcast live from the studios of Portland Community Media (2766 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd).
A few tickets are available for guests to join us at PCM in Studio A. Visit dostv.bpt.me to reserve your seat in our studio audience. Our audience can also watch the program at 1PM on Comcast Channel 11. Rebroadcasts are on Tuesday April 7th at 10PM on Comcast Channel 22, and Friday April 10th at 9AM on Comcast Channel 23.
Hosts Bill Ray (Klamath) and Nico Wind (Assiniboine) will welcome our special guest Ciarra Greene and share the stories of Native Americans, a traditional practice that provides a vehicle for learning. Ender Bay, Wisdom’s Media Intern and a volunteer on the TV production team said, “I really like this show because it is helping to reawaken us to our own story, and see the difficult journey that causes some Native people to become lost along the way. In these Discovering Our Story TV interviews, our storytellers reveal how they experienced being lost, and how they eventually returned to a meaningful life as community leaders.”
It is important to take into account the centuries of America’s westward expansion, and the historical trauma experienced by generations of American Indians. For the past five years, Discovering Our Story TV has provided a platform to discuss these issues for the purpose of healing. We hope you will join us as we celebrate in April!
Discovering Our Story’s next live broadcast is on Sunday March 1st at 1PM on Comcast Channel 11. Rebroadcast will be Tuesday March 3 at 10PM on Comcast Channel 22, and Friday March 6 at 9AM on Comcast Channel 23. Visit the Discovering Our Story TV website to view past programs.
An Evening with Wisdom of the Elders:
An Evening with Wisdom of the Elders will take place on Friday, June 19th 2015, at the Melody Ballroom (614 SE Alder St, Portland, OR 97214). This gathering will include a special keynote address, cultural arts presentations, salmon dinner and silent auction. Save the date! This is Wisdom’s fourth annual cultural event and we look forward to seeing you there! For more information or to purchase tickets, visit An Evening with Wisdom of the Elders.
Take advantage of the special Dinner for Two for $85 offer ($15 savings!), expiring March 31, 2015.
Wisdom Releases Fourth Radio Series:
Wisdom’s radio production team recently completed production of the first two one-hour radio programs in its fourth series.
Wisdom of the Elders Radio Program: Series Four features stories, songs and indigenous science from indigenous elders and cultural leaders of Inupiat and Athabascan peoples of Alaska and their response to unprecedented environmental and climate issues. Many climate scientists recognize that Native and indigenous peoples are the first and most severely impacted by a changing climate. The resilience and resourcefulness shown by these two Alaska Native groups, along with contemporary and traditional ecological knowledge and rich cultural arts, will be showcased and the focus of the series.
We are contacting Koahnic Broadcasting whose Native Voice One distribution service provides distribution for the program to more than 50 Native American radio programs around the country.
Three prior radio series have aired on Native American, public, and community radio stations nationwide since 2002, and are available at our website, also funded by National Endowment for the Arts and other funders.
We will keep followers updated on our progress with regular updates as we distribute the series to local and national audiences.
Wisdom Climate Films featured at Tribal Climate Summit:
The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians will air Wisdom’s newest film production in March at their upcoming Tribal Leaders Summit on Climate Change. ATNI’s Climate Change Project Coordinator Don Sampson is convening the region’s tribal leaders in Portland to discuss strategies, plans, and policy on climate change impacting Northwest tribes and discussing an opportunity to develop a NW Tribal Action Plan on Climate Change.
The Cutting Edge: Climate and the People of the Caribou will be introduced by Wisdom’s board president, Ga-lo Vann (Cherokee) as part of the conference program. Executive Producer Rose High Bear will be showing Wisdom’s two films at the 2015 Alaska Native Studies Conference at University of Alaska Fairbanks at that same time.
Wisdom’s 25-minute film features Alaska’s Athabascan people and their response to climate issues, which are not a new experience in Alaska. Alaska Native peoples have been experiencing a number of climate issues for over 50 years. In addition to the film on Alaskan Athabascans, Wisdom has produced The Cutting Edge: Climate and the People of the Whale featuring the Inupiaq peoples, their rich cultural arts and unprecedented climate issues.
You can read Science Journalist Terri Crawford Hansen’s story at Indian Country Today Media Network about Wisdom of the Elders climate reporting in Alaska, in which Rose High Bear and team produced two films featuring interviews with Indigenous Elders on climatic changes, changes to their subsistence way of life, and their resilience, which links to a preview of one of the films at The Cutting Edge: Climate and the People of the Caribou.
Wisdom travelled to Alaska in 2012 and 2013 to record several dozen Alaska Native elders, cultural leaders and scientists for their film and radio series and have been producing the films and radio programs since that time. Wisdom will hold film screenings in the Portland area in 2015 and submit the films to film festivals around the country. Announcements will be made in March for events being planned for the local community.
Wisdom pilot at Highland Park STEM Middle School:
Wisdom’s Discovering Yidong Xinag* has been discovered by Highland Park STEM Middle School Principal, David Nieslanik, who has requested that Wisdom provide our culturally tailored multimedia curriculum to 270 STEM* 8th graders in April. (*Yidong Xinag means “the old wisdom” in the Deg Xinag dialect of Alaskan Athabascan; *STEM means science, technology, engineering, and math).
Thanks to the guidance of Louise Wilmes (Otoe-Missourian), Title VII Indian Education Coordinator for Beaverton Schools, we are planning the pilot project for 2015, including two additional years of instruction for eighth grade students.
Our curriculum is interesting to educators in the way that it integrates Native American traditional ecological knowledge and cultural arts into best practices STEM lesson plans. With the addition of arts, we call it STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, ARTS, and math)! We will update you on our progress in future issues of our newsletter.
We are inviting new Friends of Wisdom to dinner in April:
Rose High Bear is inviting those making contributions in February and March to dinner at Wisdom’s offices where Wisdom Gardens is located. Funding support of Friends of Wisdom helps us fulfill our mission and vision, and we have been enjoying these small dinners with our guests. Consider making a donation today or become a sustaining member at wisdomoftheelders.org/friends-of-wisdom so you can join us for dinner in April.
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