using film to shape thought

A friend recently put a poem to music as part of a fundraising album to support First Nation assertions of rights and title over their lands. I decided to put some simple video images to the words in order to submit it to our regional Skeena Wild Film Fest - in which hundreds of people watched it on the big screen - and was voted 3rd best short film.

I find this poem to inspire a pattern of thought that transcends the pro-capitalist growth-industry vs. enviro-sustainability dichotomy by inviting the listener/viewer to examine their own assumptions and biases - as evidenced by the material waste accrued by our lifestyles that witness our continued behavioral choices.

if this is all to wordy for you, watch the video for yourself.

storied food

stories become prayerswhen we eat the storied food

and know the garden that the beets are from
the hands that planted the seed and
those that saved the seed

and know the fish's stories of nets and hooks
the deer's fate and the tired hands that brought it home

...

it's only since industrialization
that we've become isolated and our prayers necessarily anonymized
to give thanks to those who've prepared this food is to forget those people

so let's define local in social and spiritual terms - of experience -
so that our prayers can be expressed as stories once more

as we know our food we become more able to know the land
and with that embodied knowledge we become more ready
for our own death, knowing that throughout our embodied life
we consume the land
and in death, the land consumes these bodies

Hide Tanning in New Hazelton B.C.

where I'm from

We are each from places
We are all part of families that connect us to the beginning.

We are also alive in geographies
Though the sustenance of our living may be more widespread as
the food that I eat is from Hazelton, Saskatchewan, California,
the clothes I wear from new zealand wool, woven in the united states
natural gas from alberta heats my house
electricity from ... bakes my potatoes and powers this computer...

I am largely ignorant of the places and people that sustain my life

I honour the living places of my life and accept the responsibilities to worship the earth through my living. I feel a praise/grief in my living relations - for this is where I'm from - and this may be more significant than tracing one's heritage.

It's time we deepen into relationship with the actual stuff of our lives so as to exhibit what others will describe as culture, emerging from the ways that we relate with life

Michale Stone suggests this as a deepening materialism in this short ted talk.

on co-creating history

There are many histories from many times, people, and places
But
I want to bring our attention to the history of our living, NOW.
On the ways our stories combine into 'his-story'
and not the stories that we tell ourselves, but the ways our stories shape the land that sustains our lives - for this is the measurement of the ways we conduct ourselves.
Will our grandchildren's children drink this water, eat these plants, harvest these salmon...

I live in a place(time) where there is pressure to (1) crack the earth open to release gas (2) move this gas through pipes to the coast requiring pressurizing every 100km (3) Liquifying this gas by dropping the temperature to -160, requiring amounts of energy equvalent to burning 30% of the gas shipped by supertankers to (4) travel across the ocean and (5) be consumed in the production processes to create things that nobody probably needed in the first place.

Our living history could benefit from new goals. This short video frames this well.

So (1) this gas is not for local consumption, and there are serious ecological and social problems that have resulted from these processes. (2) these pipelines require 100m swaths of forest cleared (and kept clear) raising serious concerns about increased animal predation, erosion, and destabalizing steep coastal terrain. (3) the energy required to move this gas is astronomical, or a big number. the proposed cite c dam would be inadequate to power a single LNG plant. (4)(5) and for what? I'm not sure.

'Natural Gas' is a misnomer just as the 'Liberal Party' is not liberal by definition, amenable to progress or reform.

Let's get to Know our History, the one we're living, not the ones we're told to believe.

For deeper analysis of the BC energy economy I suggest the Common Sense Canadian

how to farm worms

Small scale compost can be really dreamy.

my parents had bought this funny, what i thought gimmicky, composter that rolls in a stand.

The ease of turning the compost over increases the air flow and with a balance of nitrogen (kitchen scraps) and carbon (leaves, paper, coconut husk, etc..) this was supposed to be a quick turn around from scraps to soil. 

finished compost is harvested out of the inner core of the barrel accessed through a cap visible on the end of the drum.

as it turned out, I threw in a handful of worms from the garden

and Voila! fragrant, beautiful, soil. and about 100 000 000 worms in about 67 days.

this was a couple of years ago and the composter continues to go strong. this is in temperate vancouver island and does not go below freezing year round.

very fantastic, very fun,

it is very possible that this little system, or a system like it, could produce casting and worms for many gardens. 

Cotton mills

1802

Those first cities found orphaned children

Kept them in poor houses of London

Only a little more than 2oo years ago

Those children were moved up stream to the cotton mills – fuel of industrialization.

Where I’m from

It was those boys

9 years old, younger

12 hour days

6 inches from the ground

Little fingers sorting

Tying - Trying to be human in

The laboring heart of an inhuman

Industrial way of being.

I wonder if Gandhi knew this

When he spoke of home spun

a century later.

non-cooperation

swadeshi boycott of foreign goods

Non-violence

Khadi – home spun thread

Home made clothe - the old way.

Despite the cost of time

in comparison to British clothe

Swadeshi

non-violence

non-cooperation

Did he know that

Where I’m from

It was the boys

9 years old, younger

the one’s who needed to be loved most

12 hour days

little fingers

tying

and for the first time

wearing clothes made by

strangers

Swadeshi

Non-cooperation

To make these clothes for my

Family, with my son playing at

My loom is

Swadeshi

Non-violence

“and like a slave

her feeble helpless pow’rs

are doom’d to work

at least for thirteen hours”

it was 1802 when

those doctors said

“wait”

it took them 17 years

To legislate a work day from

5am through 9pm with

1½  hours for meals

5am through 9pm

Except if

there was drought

or the mill broke –

And they had to catch up on

the orders.

By 1835 there was some

1 000 cotton mills in England

135 in Scotland

29 in Ireland

237 000 people they estimated

½ were women older than 13

13.2% were children younger than that

“and like a slave,

her feeble helpless pow’rs

are doom’d to work at least

for thirteen hours”

Did Africa know then

That bundles of used clothes

Would dress a continent

Out pricing those hand made

Fabrics

Hand died fabrics

Colors of home

Where I’m from

They used to work those kids

To the bone

“and like a slave,

her feeble helpless pow’rs

are doom’d to work at least

for thirteen hours”

No wonder my people bet their lives

By getting on those boats to

Reach a shore only to discover

People wearing royal buckskin clothes

Because where I’m from

The kings family owned the

Forest and the deer

1785

King George the third

“No man henceforth shall be in possession of …”

“Imprisoned a year and a day…”

“And after that expires

He shall abjure the realm of England”

While we worked 5 – 9

Fed tea

And fish and chips

From oceans already become

Thread bare.

Between 1755 and 1773

2 601 152 lbs of deerskin

were shipped to England from

savannah, Georgia

“and like a slave,

her feeble helpless pow’rs

are doom’d to work at least

for thirteen hours”

The children who needed love the most

Were trapped in the heart of an

Industrial machine

Abused by a society lost to

Itself –

And those boys became fathers

And those girls became mothers

Of generations of cultural orphans

Spiritually lost within

A machine driven world

Where god became an idea

Packaged by religion

And the machine keeps

Chugging along

…

Inform yourself from

A time when the most

In need were nurtured

Identify with a time

When your people

Acted from love

Towards each other

And the planet

Nov. 25^th, 2012

Fire broke out in a Bangladeshi factory killing 112 workers who couldn’t escape as there was no fire escapes.

The clothes we wear today are not much different than 200 years ago.

Speak to the silence in the weave of our clothes.

We may think that

200 years looks differently

but is it not just a wolf in sheep’s clothes?

Find the time when Your people Acted from love towards each other and the planet, own that history, we’ve been fighting all along.


...  ...  ...

here's a rare color video of
1927 London england

participate

It's a recent thing
the choice to participate in
one's own life

it used to just be 'the way'

...

now,
we have false choices.

we can eat at a resteraunt where somebody we never meet cooks vegetables and meat we've never known, served to us by somebody we've just met all powered with energy from a damned river we've never heard of with spices from places we've never been.
and it's normal.

to participate is to engage with the seeds that remember how to grow when we plant them in earth that becomes our body as we realize it is the infinite mystery of soil and sun that sustains our life.
how humbling.

we can drive thousands of kilometres in vehicles hewn from seams of minerals held by the earth, tooled precisely to perform the exact function of 3000 rpm's that propel the vehicle through the explosion of a fuel made from the decay of an ancient past.

life is amazing!
though

we are external to the majority of our lives.
to become sensitive to life
is the path by which we become
better able to know ourselves

it also happens to be the way
that we can collectively govern
these greedy brains with
our hearts that are able to
clearly see
that we are home in this world
and we need to love her as
we need to love ourselves.

keep the seeds alive

Imagine archeologists finding clay pots of seeds saved by your ancestors.

800 years they tell you.

Imagine taking those seeds and planting them, the grief/joy of letting go, as all farmers experience when we release the past so that a future may be born.

And those plants come alive, strong.

...

plant the seeds, the fertile teachings, into your life so that they will grow into vibrant plants, ways of being, worthy of harvest.

May your descendants celebrate in another 800 years as the seeds continue to grow strong bearing delicious fruit.

the fall sun

they would ask her for healing, and if it were spring time they would help her plant the garden. Summer time they would help tend the crops. During the fall the beans would need shucking, the dry corn, the squash.

During the winter they would speak while sharing meals and keeping warm.

The most significant things we can accomplish are also the most simple, in a way.
The beans, the corn, the seeds.

rattlesnake pole beans

The seeds are also the most complex. Plant's memory. Plant's language.

Just as he spent those years on the trapline to meet himself again after those years of school. After being taken apart. These simple tasks become complex when we allow our whole selves to become a part of the task - a part of the experience.

To resensitize to what it means to be alive.

Cultivate these opportunities in your life so that you become larger, growing out of your body into the water, soil and air. into the plants and animals, into the sun

one day, I pray, we will look at the sun together and see ourselves..

barley left - oats right

Many hands reveal
that the work of making cloth
the ways we use our days
is as much about doing as being

creating cloth with
the hide of an animal
we shared an experience where we
each journeyed our own paths
through this shared experience
connecting with our selves

how to make yogurt without a thermometer

making yogurt is a good thing to do when you're already in the kitchen working on other projects. Last night I was making cookies and dinner, so I put milk on to warm up to the point where my (clean) finger can't stay submerged. There's probably a temperature number you can get from another resource, but it needs to be hotter than you can handle, and the surface tension changes, with minute bubbles appearing.

Take it off the heat then!!
NO boiling, NO scalding..

from the pot (right) pour into cooling container (center) until milk cools to warm ie. comfy to the touch but still hot. Then mix 2 cups milk with either 1) one package yogurt starter (far left) OR 2) a couple of spoons of your last batch of yogurt that was super tasty.

incubate in an insulated container. I found the one pictured in a salvation army thrift store en route tree planting through northern alberta. Made in the 70's, first used in 2011! The 2cups of milk/starter (right) is frothy from being stirred a number of times as it sits (5 minutes) before adding the rest of the hot milk. then the insulated lid (left) fits on top of the insulated bottom to keep the milk/yogurt essentially at/near temperature for 12-24 hours. You don't need to purchase a fancy styrofoam contraption like this one, a good blanket packed tight around a pot might do the trick, who knows?

just remember, heat escapes through the top and the bottom.

happy fermenting

Follow THIS LINK to a great 30 second video showing the dance of hot and cold across the globe over the last 131 years.

Andrew Frank

Original Document


Prime Minister’s Office Tries to Silence Pipeline Critics; Labels Environmental Group “Enemy of the Government of Canada” and “Enemy of the people of Canada.”

A Whistleblower’s Open Letter to the Citizens of Canada

My name is Andrew Frank. I grew up in a small town in the Okanagan valley of British Columbia. My granddad taught me how to fish. My father was a well‐respected lawyer known for his unwavering integrity, and my mother was a favourite kindergarten teacher. Both have always impressed upon me the importance of telling the truth.

Today, I am taking the extraordinary step of risking my career, my reputation and my personal friendships, to act as a whistleblower and expose the undemocratic and potentially illegal pressure the Harper government has apparently applied to silence critics of the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil tanker/pipeline plan.

As I have detailed in a sworn affidavit, no less than three senior managers with Tides Canada and ForestEthics (a charitable project of Tides Canada), have informed me, as the Senior Communications Manager for ForestEthics, that Tides Canada CEO, Ross McMillan, was informed by the Prime Minister’s Office, that ForestEthics is considered an “Enemy of the Government of Canada,” and an “Enemy of the people of Canada.”

This language was apparently part of a threat by the Prime Minister’s Office to challenge the charitable status of Tides Canada if it did not agree to stop funding ForestEthics, specifically its work opposing oilsands expansion and construction of oilsands tanker/pipeline routes in Canada.

This is especially concerning because ForestEthics is a legally registered intervenor in the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel process, currently examining the Enbridge oil tanker/pipeline proposal. By attempting to silence a registered participant in the review, I fear the Harper government may have permanently damaged the integrity of this process.

After waiting more than two weeks for Tides Canada to go public with this story, it has become clear to me that the organization is too afraid of reprisals from the government to act. Tides is responsible for the employment of hundreds of Canadians and dozens of crucial environmental projects like the Great Bear Rainforest, and has been understandably paralyzed in challenging the Prime Minister’s Office on this matter. I on the other hand, am speaking out as a private citizen because I feel that the rights and civil liberties of my fellow Canadian citizens, including freedom of expression and freedom of speech, are at risk.

There was a look of fear and disbelief on my fellow staff members’ faces the day they were told our own government had labelled them enemies of the state. Our administration coordinator had tears in her eyes. In the days that followed, our employees couldn’t sleep well. They lost their appetites, and they began to fear for their own personal safety and civil liberties, and those of their families and loved ones. They began looking over their shoulder, out of fear and paranoia, because their own government might be watching them.

The language of anti‐terrorism, when applied to Canadian citizens who legitimately question the wisdom of an unsustainable oil tanker/pipeline plan, is an affront to the rights of all Canadians. It is the language of bullying. It is language that is violent and above the law, and harkens to previous examples of RCMP surveillance of Canadians for political rather than legal purposes, including Tommy Douglas. The casual use of such loaded language at the top of our government is immoral, unethical and probably illegal.

A strongly opposed oil tanker/pipeline plan is now the least of this government’s worries. In its heavy‐handed attempt to override public opposition, the government has breached the public’s trust.

I now invite Canadians, including the media and members of the House of Commons, to challenge the unacceptable behaviour described in this letter and sworn in my affidavit.

Approximately three weeks from now, Mr. Harper will visit China on an official state visit. In China, Amnesty International asserts that a half‐million “enemies of the government” are held in prisons without charge.

If the argument in favour of the Enbridge pipeline is that Canada stands to make billions selling oil to an oppressive Chinese government, then my answer is “no thank you.” That’s not “ethical oil,” especially when profiting from this oil wealth requires repressive tactics against critical citizens ‐ tactics we would normally associate with the Chinese state, not Canada.

The events of the last month have ensured that I will never take my rights as a Canadian citizen for granted again. That is both sad and encouraging. Sad that I ever had to question them, and encouraging because I have been reminded of another lesson taught to me by my parents: the best way to stop a bully is to stand up to him.

I invite you to join me in expressing your voice on what is perhaps the most pressing moral crisis facing our nation today. Together we can hold this government to account and prevent the dismantling of Canadian civil society and the further erosion of citizens’ rights.

Andrew Frank is a Canadian citizen, and the former Senior Communications Manager with ForestEthics Canada. He is also an instructor in the Environmental Protection Technology program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, in Surrey, British Columbia.

Comment by ForestEthics

Comments by Huffington Post

"Development" and "jobs"

Let's be clear.
A pipeline is about a pipeline. moving chemicals and bitumen over 1000 rivers.
Job rates.
Employment.
The ability of people to exchange their time for money to pay a mortgage and buy food IS ANOTHER THING that is full of structural problems.

Let's think about this as we continue to watch the debate about the northern gateway pipeline proposal.

where's the money coming from? where's it going to?
fishing. oil. forestry. leisure.

The most employment, if there is money for it, will be in CLEANUP!!

socially local

as an idea, 'local' is meaningless. 

infact 'local' may be one of the most global ideas applied universally wherever one may be, whereas Prince George, Neklazli, Terrace, ... describe actual places.

But beyond geography, social meaning fills the idea of 'local' with meaning.

"We're eating one of Joe's lambs tonight."

"Laura planted these carrots in june..."

"My mom made these placemats for us last christmas..."

Meaning. Marx refers to this as historical materialism I believe.

Why is social locality significant? well I like to believe that when we know a person, or when we are known by others, we behave differently than in an anonymous system. When I am held socially accountable in a way that affects my decisions to include others, land, water, time, myself, ... in respectful ways, we all benefit. 

In stark contrast to wal mart, an employer of 1 600 000 employees (in America) that sells 92% Made in China, there is little relationship between the stuff of our lives and the people involved in the production.

When we meet our needs in ways that are governed by the intuitive senses of our bodies we are more likely to make decisions that honour ourselves and others, including animals, minerals, water, ecosystems, and the land.

This does not mean that we do not take. As humans we are indebted to the unfathomable life that nurtures us. We need plants, plants don't necessarily need us. As we become involved intimately with the stuff of our lives the better positioned we are to live into meaningfilled human relations, in the largest sense.

slow down.

enjoy.

proper hide storage

So if you're interested in storing a hide for the spring weather to warm before tanning your hide, I suggest skinning the animal properly first. ie. it should not look like this.

Below (white) is the hide. We want to get muscle/fat off so that it is a nice smooth white colour before we salt it.

So in reference to 'proper skinning'.
If you plan on using the hide to make fabric, think about your cuts that will maximize usable sections of fabric. below is an example of a bunch of wasted extraneous hide that I removed due to this.

*note about skinning
When skinning an animal, cut the edges (ie. back of hind, belly, chest, neck and then PUT DOWN YOUR KNIFE AND PULL OFF THE HIDE WITH YOUR HANDS leaving all muscle on the animal so that you eat it! Knifing a hide off is a waste of everybody's time. however coyote appreciates a hide to chew on now and then.

click any picture for larger view

Notice the heavy salting. salt is cheap. use it liberally.

Allow the salt to draw moisture from the hide for 12 - 24 hours. keep the hide on a slight incline to facilitate drain/run off. Once this is done apply more salt if you like, fold the edges in and roll. store in plastic bag, rubbermaid etc. the idea is that the salt binds all the moisture so rot can't set in. We also don't want the hide to dry out. bad news.

this will store long term, as far as I know, as long as animals don't get in...

I prefer to process a hide into rawhide that I then dry and store inside. it becomes smaller, more portable and much more stable (animals aside)

It is with great concern that I write this letter.

The "New Prosperity Mine" proposal clearly intends to use nearby Little Fish Lake as a toxic dump site, and then drain down into Fish Lake eventually polluting that lake as well.
In a time of impending economic turmoil we can not further compromise our ability to meet our own needs. I'm talking about world class, delicious, rainbow trout! The proposed replacement lake would also result in a massive loss of fish habitat, and would require constant maintenance of spawning channels and ongoing stocking of the lake by governments. It would be a complete waste of taxpayers' money to spend another year studying this highly destructive project.
I support the Tsilhqot'in Nation who strongly opposes the "New Prosperity Mine" proposal.

Please reject the "New Prosperity Mine" proposal without further review.


Yours in human solidarity,

Benjamin Laurie

CLICK HERE to send your own letter

Canadian Farmer on Hunger Strike (one month already)

dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org


Honourable Dalton McGuinty

I am concerned by the centralization of our canadian, and ontarian, food production. With the closure of the last soft fruit packing plant, the aging farming population and ever intense ecosystem strain of intensive livestock operations I urge the government to think systemically about our food webs. 

As we globally celebrate the 7 billionth human being born let us explore the idea of resiliency. Jane Jacobs, well respected urban planner and social critic, talks about planned redundancy as part of a resilient system. This means many smaller operations performing similar, if not the same, task for different populations. If one changes or fails, the system as a whole doesn't suffer, functions simply shift. 

The continued plight of small producers against your government is counter intuitive if we are working towards a system that works for people. I appreciate a response to these thoughts,

In the utmost urgency

Ben Laurie

A pledge to sign can be found HERE

Food Labelling Input requested

Hi All

I have sent the following letter to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency

I hope this is incentive to see how easy it is for YOU to weigh in :)
love ben

...


Hello and thank you!

I very much appreciate the work that you do as a government to regulate food labels. There is nothing more pertinent then to understand what we are eating and to be able to make informed choices. This is how the market best functions. In this way, I hope that genetically engineered and modified foods be mandatorily labeled in Canada so that people may continue to make informed choices.
Thanks for your time and attention.

Best,
Ben
click HERE to submit your thoughts