My episode of "Heart of a Poet" is now available through Title House e-Distribution. It was filmed in my community at Cape Croker Reserve, Neyaashiinigming with a special performance at the ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Art Bar in Toronto. Look for special guest appearances by Santee Smith and Raven Kanatakta Polson-Lahache!

Heart of a Poet introduces poets and their writing through interviews, spontaneous recitations in and around their communities, readings at various locations in Toronto and the many experiences both large and small that fill their days and help shape their poems. The series host seaon 1 was Angela Rawlings.

"It's a hip show that takes viewers inside the poetry community in all its various forms, alternate incarnations and unfettered diversity."

"Heart of a Poet is that rare thing, a new and funky literary series." John Doyle, The Globe and Mail Television

episode 107 Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, poet, spoken-word artist and founder of the all-indigenous publishing company Kegadonce Press, shakes up aboriginal culture with poems based on the oral history of the Anishnaabe people.

You can order it from me by emailing kateri@kegedonce.com or through Title House e-Distribution at http://www.titlehousedistribution.com/item.php?product_id=194 or Toll Free: 1-800.997.9881

Megwetch!

Kateri

"Waking Hour" & "Speak My Name"

Lead Vocals - Laura Crema www.lauracrema.com

Lyrics - Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm

from the Album "Doc Ramone and Corduroy Kid Present DIRTY BOTTOM" Shawn Hall, Brennan Saul, Langston Raymond

Alootook Ipellie

1951 - 2007

I say these to you my friends/Of different races of many places.

I speak as one and speak for many/Who are Inuit of many faces.

For I am one – an Inuk, living/my dreams with high hopes of success.

I am no different than any,/I change with the changing

Arctic world.

Friend, writer, graphic artist, cartoonist, photographer, and Inuktitut translator Alootook Ipellie was born in 1951 in the small hunting camp of Nuvuqquq on ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Baffin Island and attended school in Iqaluit. In 1973 Alootook moved to Ottawa. From 1973-1982 he was principle writer, artist, designer, photographer, translator, cartoonist, and then editor of Inuit Today magazine (Inuit Tapirisat). He was also editor of Inuit, the magazine of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and Nunavut Newsletter, a land claims organization of the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut. His book of twenty short stories with pen and ink drawings, Arctic Dreams and Nightmares, was published in 1993. Alootook spent many years working as a freelance writer, artist, and cartoonist, and was working on an autobiographical book about growing up in Iqualuit, Iqalummiut, the People of Iqaluit, and an epic poem entitled "Contemplating Life as a Nomad Wearing Civilized Clothes."

Alootook's artwork was exhibited in March 2007 at Gallery 7A in Ottawa to great reviews. The review in the Ottawa Citizen said this: "Exhibitions of drawings – good drawings, drawings as superb as Alootook Ipellie's – are rare in Ottawa. Alootook Ipellie knows how to draw and what to draw. His technical skills are unbeatable. The pen-and-ink images, although minimal, carry a wallop."

A dear friend to many, Alootook, his artwork and writing, his smile and sense of humour also carried a wallop. He will be greatly missed.  

www.ipellie.com

http://www.cbc.ca/allinaday/listenagain.html

Massive Violation of Human Rights of the Aboriginal People in the Northern Territories

Ahnee Friends,

Read the article below and take whatever action you can. We're trying to organize an event. News is that Aboriginal Australians are marching on their parliament this Saturday. Protest marches in support are also being held by Maori people in Wellington and Auckland Aotearoa/New Zealand.

This is a blatant violation of basic human rights. Howard's polls have been sliding so he's taking this action now even though the report he's basing it on is, apparently, TEN YEARS OLD! Also, there are reports that the government is using this as an excuse to alter Aboriginal land rights - so basically it's a land grab aimed at gaining political points for the Howard government. Troops have already been moved into the Territories! Very disturbing to say the least.

To send messages of outrage to the Australian Consulate in Canada:

Australian High Commission ( Australian )
50 O'Connor Street Suite 710, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 6L2
Telephone ..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = SKYPE />              (613)236-0841       
Fax (613) 236-4376

Hard law hard love..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />

Monday, July 2, 2007

The federal government is taking strong steps to curb violence and sexual

abuse in Aboriginal communities. In doing so, John Howard has effectively

taken the powers from the Territory and handed them to his own minister. By

Paul Toohey.

John Howard says there's no politics in his Aboriginal rescue mission. Don't

believe it. The politics run deep. In one decisive manoeuvre, Howard has

simultaneously rescued himself, undoing seven months of bad polls which have

seen him branded out of touch, disconnected and missing from the game.

Howard is back. Not the defensive Howard of late, but the same leader who

changed the gun laws after the ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Port Arthur massacre of 1996; who ordered the

troops to liberate East Timor in 1999. The prime minister agrees his

Northern Territory reforms are of the same weight as those events, his most

profound moral interventions.

"It's sort of in that category, yeah," he tells The Bulletin. "I haven't

preoccupied myself [ranking it]. It's going to be a very tough thing. But

it's an awful story."

This is hard-law and hard-love Howard. It is the cloak he wears best. And he

says it has been one of his most satisfying moments. "Yeah, I think I'm

doing the right thing. I don't want to invest it with ego but I really

believe in it. It's one of those occasions in public life where you feel you

can strike a decisive blow to make things better for a weak and vulnerable

section of the community.

"We haven't changed our policy in relation to land rights generally. But

whatever is needed to be done in the process of establishing a safe society

for indigenous children will be done. That is more important to me than<O:P>

anything else. It's more important than any doctrine or philosophy."

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough likewise believes intervention of

this kind only comes once in a generation. "Clearly, in domestic terms, it's

the largest intervention I can recall ever in my lifetime," he says. "Can't

think of anything else like it. It's the one opportunity to do what people

have been crying out for - to repair the damage of years of failure."

Asked if he would have resigned from politics if he had not been able to win

the radical reforms introduced last week, Brough says: "Ah, I had no

intention of being there for the long haul if I couldn't make a change."

Those changes have seen Chief Minister Clare Martin lose her right to govern

half of the Northern Territory. The feds can do what they like in the

Territory because it is not a fully fledged state; it still hangs to

Canberra's skirt. At a press conference on Thursday, Martin seemed stunned.

She had not been told of what was coming, yet kept saying she would work "in

partnership" with the Commonwealth. She did not get it.

"Yeah, well, I'll let others work that out," says Brough. "I was

exasperated. Why have an elected government that won't act?"

The intervention is not a partnership. The Commonwealth will take full

control of more than 60 communities; abolish the permit system for

communities and the roads leading to and from them; strictly enforce alcohol

restrictions, send in about 70 police from other states, plus federal

police; it will quarantine welfare payments so that money goes to food and

not grog; it will demand that the Territory take control of the squalid town

camps in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, and turn them into places fit for

humans; it will try to ban porn; monitor children's sexual health; force

people on income support to clean their communities; and link school

non-attendance to parents' welfare payments. It is a revolution.

Ahnee,

I was interviewed by CBC Radio's Adrian Harewood on "All in a Day" in Ottawa regarding the National Day of Action, along with a young woman named Jill Buckshot. You can listen to it at

http://www.cbc.ca/allinaday/listenagain.html

Go to June 29 and scroll down to the interview and click on Listen.

Cheers,

Kateri

The photo with the track "Roar" is by my friend Himiona Grace.

Check out more of his incredible photography at

http://www.indiginz.co.nz/

Ahnee my friends,

I was asked to record a poem for CBC Radio to be broadcast on National Aboriginal Day. The poem i chose is called "play". I recorded a modified version on Monday at the CBC studio in Ottawa. Here's a short excerpt:

walking under the starbright sky

laughing under the starquilt with my guy

Don't remind me of Starlight Tours

dark eyed men walking on backroads

frozen like Windjack trying to get home

40 below and miles from Saskatoon

I don't want racist cops on tv news

editorial points of views reports

or recommendations

statistics about rates of incarceration

I don't wanna hear of inquiries

injustice, insensitivity, indifference or hate

racist cops, racist systems, racist policies

being changed too little, too late

today I wanna play

I just wanna play

I hope you can tune in.

Cheers,

Kateri

Moving to different rhythms

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Rubberbandance Group

and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre

At Enwave Theatre

In Toronto on Thursday

Print Edition - Section Front

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The latest DanceWorks double bill is cutting edge contemporary dance. Both Rubberbandance Group and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre have artistic directors who are developing new choreographic languages, and it makes for a compelling concert.

.. /Summary -->

Montreal's Rubberbandance is the new breakout Canadian sweetheart on the international scene. The repertoire is audience friendly because choreographer Victor Quijada cleverly uses urban dance forms like hip hop as the major ingredient in a postmodern/ballet stew pot. Eye-catching is almost too lame a word to describe Quijada's output.

Santee Smith of Kaha:wi is also winning recognition on both sides of the border. A Mohawk by birth, her dance works are firmly anchored in aboriginal sensibility. That being said, her highly charged, traditional/contemporary/ballet fusion eats up the stage.

For A Constellation of Bones, Smith has collaborated with Anishnaabe word artist Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Maori composer Dean Hapeta to produce a powerful work. Her company of dancers is stunning, it includes herself, fellow Canadian Ceinwen Gobert, Colombian John Henry Gerena and American Alex Meraz.

Akiwenzie-Damm's voiceover text, merged with Hapeta's evocative soundtrack fusion that runs the gamut from traditional rhythms, to rap and electronica, is a poetic paean to the mythologies of creation, in which humankind is both at harmony and in conflict with the earth and the sky.

It is a metaphysical dance piece that creates symbolic images that burrow deeply into our primal psyche. The dance raises philosophical questions about our individual roles within human existence as a whole. Within Santee's choreography we recognize actual steps from the Grass Dance, for example, that are then riffed into a whirlwind of movement.

One couple -- Smith and Meraz -- are in conflict with the life force, and their choreography is violent and restless. Dancers Gobert and Gerena are smooth as silk, almost like tango dancers in their symbiosis.

Nonetheless, the negative influence of Smith and Meraz spreads, enveloping the others in their miasma. All four must struggle to find their place as individuals.

The piece is optimistic and pessimistic at the same time, but there is no denying that Smith's pounding footwork, her unpredictable spins, her virtuoso gymnastics and her eloquent hand and arm gestures, all build to a work of strength and beauty.

A Constellation of Bones, a multidisciplinary international Indigenous collaboration by writer/spoken word artist Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Chippewas of Nawash First Nation), choreographer/dancer Santee Smith (Six Nations), and composer/musician Te Kupu (Maori)

Each of us is 'a constellation of bones' with our own unique appearance, our own formation, our own ways of being seen and understood, our own stories.  As human beings, we are connected to each other and to other beings, not only in this realm but in the spiritual, mythical, celestial, and dream worlds.  Like stars in constellations, we can be seen in various groupings, and read in various contexts.  There are ways of reading star patterns, of reading dreams, of reading each other, and of reading the arts.  Each has a symbolic language, a lexicon, a grammar to decipher and share that requires us to reach out to each other across the vast distances that seem to separate us.  As Indigenous artists, we are inspired by the idea that in some traditions, humans are believed to be Beings of light, who, upon their deaths return to the spirit world as stars.  We are also fascinated by the great loyalty and commitment demonstrated in many of our Old Time Stories where people would take on impossible challenges or commit amazing deeds to be with the ones they love.  Such stories contain important lessons about how we envision the world and our place in it.                                                                   Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm