Aanii/BooZhoo to everyone! I come bringing great news on all fronts here at the KICC!
Our letter of determination arrived last week and we are hard at work putting it to use in every way that we can. I received notice from the Guidestar website that we will receive our listing come Monday, September 12th, at which time we can complete our registrations with Amazon Smiles, Paypal Charities, and Facebook Charities! Yay!!
Our next announcement is for our online Silent Charity Auction Event October 8th, for Indigenous People's Day!
We have a public facebook event page all set up for you to gather in if you choose and we will be posting preview photos and details there too. We ask everyone to please direct your questions or donation offers to the link above at our facebook event page. Chi Miigwetch!
And finally, an explanation for why our website is in dire need of updates and I have been MIA for so long. At the end of August the hubby & I did the only living history event we agreed to do this year. We have been so busy with the KICC there just wasn't time to do both all season. After that dreadful exhibit at the Manitowoc Public Library at the beginning of August, I was haunted by the memory of it, which made me angry.
"Be the change you want to see" echoed in my head endlessly, so I acted on it. With hubby's help I built an exhibit of my own, FIXING what the library exhibit got so wrong. I added context and told our story... through pictures and information found for free on the internet.
The reactions were intense.
This is a video clip, the only one we had time to capture while there. It was a long weekend full of rain, thunder, and lightning, so we spent a lot of time together with just our groups as the campers sought shelter from the weather. In this video is my friend Buffalo Big Mountain and his daughter Sage. They are always a hard sell so they were my real test as to how my fellow Natives may react to this display. I have watched this video many times, focusing on my friend's face, and the emotions that play out there as he looks at the photos while I visited with Sage behind him. Buffalo is a tribal elder I hold dear. He stands as an example to me of what our Native men can be, always reminds me of how our ancestors were before first contact... free and set in their ways, culture in every breath of every day, and all of the beauty I see in that. Chi Miigwetch to Buffalo & Sage for allowing me to share this moment with everyone here.
Because of the weather and how busy I was tending to the many people who came to see this exhibit, I wasn't able to capture it in any detail during the weekend. Hubby to the rescue yet again, as he helped me to set it up in the yard at home so I could do a walk through video for everyone here at the KICC online.
This turned into 2 videos as I had to use hubby's cell phone due to lighting issues. I am still not a cell phone person so when it turned selfie mode on for me, I was caught by surprise. I had to stop the video and ask hubby to fix it before continuing, afraid to touch anything on it as I held it through the rest of this video. Enjoy!
Because of the response this exhibit has received thus far I have been inspired to expand it, so we are putting together a larger display in the coming weeks. We are hoping to have it ready by the beginning of November, at which time I will be calling the library that hosted that awful display in August, and asking/expecting them to allow us the opportunity to now tell our own story. Our way. I promise to do my best not to tell anyone we fixed it for them, but that is what Spirit is whispering in my ear as I type. My goal is not to insult anyone, but rather to correct a wrong that continues to be repeated over and over with no end in sight. We DESERVE the right to tell our own story and to let the world know we are STILL HERE!!
I have been inspired, when this particular exhibit is complete, to begin working on the next 2 just like it, to continue to grow this display as we go forward. This display explains why the KICC exists and is so desperately needed! After our initial story will come another, the true story of frybread and it's history, and then another, devoted to our water protectors, and the history through to present as it pertains to all things water. It is time for the silence to end, time to make some noise. This is our story and we are quite capable of telling it. As it should be. As our ancestors left it for us, passing it down through our generations since the very beginning of time. This is the time of the 7th fire and we are the dreams of our ancestors that were never supposed to be. As the prophecies clearly teach, we are not our ancestors, though they have taught us well. The KICC is proud to step up and at long last, claim our place in this society built around us and over us, while still not recognizing we are still here.
We look forward to seeing you all on October 8th at 2pm Central Time. Be safe. Be happy. Be kind.
- Dawn