Zamir Dhanji relates his experience at the 4th annual International Indigenous Leadership Gathering in Lilloet, Canada. We sit in silence in the pit-house, our eyes dancing with crackling flames as we await more offerings of tobacco, sweet grass and cedar, infused with prayers to be smoke-signaled to the spirit world. For the last two nights...
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers. -Aristotle” In the last 18 months we have seen millions of people around the world stand up for what they believe in streets, parks and plazas around the world. In some countries the results have been fatal, up to 20,000 people...
Two months ago, a painting titled “The Scream”, by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, was sold at a sothebys auction for a whopping $120,000,000( I have included the zero’s just to give an effect of the magnitude of the price-tag). The painting comes with a hand-painted frame with a poem on it written by the artist. In...
True non-attachment is an intimacy with life. Buddhist teacher and yogi Michael Stone shares his perspective on how to live an engaged life. More about Michael Stone Michael Stone leader of Centre of Gravity, is a psychotherapist, Yoga teacher, author and activist, committed to the integration of traditional teachings with contemporary psychological and philosophical understanding....
If you’ve ever met Stephen Jenkinson, who Griefwalker documentarian, Tim Wilson describes as, “part medicine man, part sage, part bard”, it’s not really news to you when I say that after spending a rainy afternoon on Salt Spring Island talking with him, I’m filled with the disquiet of having everything I already know confirmed to...
Inspired by Jeremie Battaglia’s gorgeous black and white film on the Casseroles uprising in Quebec, I shot this solidarity march in Vancouver with a pots and pans revolt of our own. My experience of the march, and I hope what it conveys above, is simple joy. And most of all wonder. This mirrors the reports...
We have reached a time, the end of time, where a new line begins. The line in the sand has been drawn, but both sides are still sand. There is no 99% and 1%, these are still separating humanity, we are one species. What does it mean to be rich? Let’s redefine it: To...
On Saturday, Trout Lake was the scene of an amazing celebration of the beauty, ecological and spiritual importance of the Great Bear Rainforest. People came together with the best that they have to raise both money and consciousness for the defense of this pristine wilderness. In amongst the celebration, you may have noticed a table...
Zamir Dhanji delivered these opening words to the community at The Great Bear Rainforest celebration and fundraiser this weekend in Vancouver at the Trout Lake Community Center. Dear community, I address you with an open heart. I honour our ancestors, the four-legged ones, the winged ones, the swimming ones, the standing ones. I honour this...
“If your revolution is revolution of love, if your process is one of creating more love in the world, instead of waiting until you succeed… you cannot lose.” Watch this articulate interview with filmmaker Velcrow Ripper, on the love thread that has permeated the Occupy movement from day one, and why the mainstream media has...
The latest edition of RAP NEWS is out, this time focusing on the battle between Wikileaks and Newscorp, cleverly portrayed as Julian Assange and Rupert Murdoch duking it out. From Rap News: It is a time of corporate war; deprived of a reliable media the people of Planet Earth are kept misinformed and in a...
This post was inspired by Sunset Labs amazing list of 2012 festivals upcoming on the West Coast. Pablo Picasso once said: “art washes the soul of the dust from everyday life”. His insight into the power of art to cleanse the soul sheds light on the battle for the arts that is being waged in...
