Gathering of Elders Aasivik - Fire and Ice Ceremony 2008
In an Encampment near the Icecap at Kangerlussuaq Kalaallit Nunaat - Greenland July 18-20, 2008
I. Introduction
Greenland is becoming a central place of the world because of what we have done to Mother Earth. The Icecap defines the North and is a living body born in another time long, long ago. To the people on the Top of the World, the Big Ice - the Grandfather - carries the ancient wisdom of the earth. It is symbolic. Symbolic of the endurance and power of the natural world. Symbolic of humankind’s ability to alter the delicate balance of that Earth. Deliberately or inadvertently, we are the blunt instrument of our ignorance, our arrogance, and our disregard for the consequences of our actions. Actions that have altered earth’s balance, symbolized most dramatically by the melting of the ice.
The traditional Native leaders from North America look with alarm at world conditions - environmental degradation and abuse, and human relationships clouded by barriers of inequality, race, gender and ethnicity. The human species has become the most voracious and abusive consumer of earth’s resources. We are tipping the balance of life against our children, and endangering our future as a species. There must be reconciliation between peoples and the natural world. Leaders must step forward and take responsibility for a paradigm change in the direction of current lifestyles and materialistic societies. Responsible and courageous actions must be taken to realign ourselves with the great laws of nature. We must meet this crisis now.
Toward that end, traditional Native leadership from Indian country will unite with members of the Elders’ Federation of Greenland, other traditional Elders from across the Far North – Alaska, Northern Canada, and Greenland, and people from around the world - in a camp near the Icecap on July 18-20, 2008. The Fire and Ice Ceremony for the Earth will be held in recognition of our common humanity and need to develop common perspectives raised by the melting of the Big Ice and global climate change.
This unprecedented gathering will be a cross-cultural event for Elders and traditional people from across the Far North to come together with the brightest minds and most influential and forward looking people of the world. The gathering will consist of ceremony in connection with the Big Ice and the return of the sacred fire to the North, deliberations concerning global climate change, and celebration of our common humanity.
To have the deepest, most forward thinking minds from mainstream society together with the most respected indigenous leaders discussing the current and potential impact of global climate change in the shadow of its most dramatic instance, the Icecap, could have a major effect in bringing the world’s focused attention to its most pressing problem, and ultimately to the paradigm change that is called for. This event, as an indigenous catalyst for the growing movement of global awareness of our relationship to the earth, will contribute to changing the course of human history at this critical moment in time.
II. Background
The Ice is Speaking
In the deep of winter of 1963 two young Eskimo men heading out to hunt stopped at the Big Wall of the Icecap to make their prayers. They returned to their Elders empty-handed and spoke of a strange phenomenon: though the temperature was -30 degrees, water was trickling down the sheer face of the Icecap. Nothing is supposed to flow when it is that cold. This was the first sign of the melting of the ice in the North. The first sign that something was going wrong - not at home - but in the world.
Today that trickle has grown to roaring rivers of water pouring out of the ice mountain into the Atlantic Ocean. Since that first trickle was noticed the average depth of the Icecap has shrunk from five kilometers to three, and the melt is accelerating. Today there are hundreds of roaring rivers coming off the Icecap year round. In geologic terms the rapidity of ice melt in Greenland is instantaneous.
The melting Icecap is the most dramatic evidence of accelerating global climate change. Greenland is our miner’s canary. The validity of various theories about global climate change remains to be seen but the certainty is that our world is changing, and those changes will alter our lifeways at best, and essentially destroy them at worst. To be confronted with the changes in Greenland is to have that reality brought home dramatically.
We have ignored the prophets, scientists and wise ones who have told us that our society is like a child playing with fire. The ultimate arrogance is that no matter what the consequences might be we think we can shape them to our advantage. The ice is our silent rebuke.
The Ancient Prophesy
The Old Ones say that long ago, so long that no one knows the time anymore, there were trees standing tall in Greenland, and the sacred fires of the people burned brightly within their circles. Then the deep cold came, lasting a long time, and out of that was built a very large ice on the land. As the big ice grew, the people moved following the beach of that ice and reached far distances to places they never had seen before. And then as the ice started to retreat, they followed her back and came home again to their land. And when they came home, they realized that the trees no longer stood, that they were now lying on the ground.
And thus the Old Ones say, the sacred fire never came back. But the ancient prophesy says that one day, when the people need it the most, the sacred fire will return to the North. The people have been waiting a very long time for that Fire to come home, never knowing how it might happen or when.
Today, after lying down all these years, the ancient trees in Greenland are now starting to stand up once more. This was the sign to the Elders that the time has come. Last year they sent an Eskimo Runner from their land to the Everglades where a gathering of traditional Indian Elders and youth was being hosted by the Independent Traditional Seminole Nation. The runner brought a message and a request:
"We the people of the Far North are in great need of the support of the traditional leaders from the Four Directions to help us regain our spiritual strength in the face of rapidly changing times. The Elders of the North ask that you send a delegation of your Elders to our country to unite with us as a fulfillment of the ancient prophesies that one day the sacred fire will come home."
A consensus was reached by the Elders: that a collection of ashes from the sacred fires, and there are many sacred fires within the nations of Indian people living in North America, would be made and put in a basket; then, in a prayerful, ceremonial manner, they would be given to the people on the Top of the World so that they themselves can put them down in a fire pit near the Ice Cap. And out of the ashes of the sacred fires from the Four Directions, the people of the Far North would light the fire - and when they do, the sacred fire will come home.
III. 2008 Fire and Ice Ceremony for the Earth
The doorway through which indigenous people can communicate their ancient wisdom is the very doorway to which the world is now looking.
The Fire and Ice Ceremony for the Earth will be a powerful three-day cross-cultural gathering of deliberation, ceremony, and celebration, the objective of which touches the welfare of the world. A principal objective is the return of the sacred fire in fulfillment of prophetic tradition. For the first time in memory the sacred fire will be home. The ceremony will revolve around the physical fire but the most important
element will be the spiritual fire, the spirit of which the physical fire is a symbol. It is a symbol of countless generations of indigenous people who have met around it to consider how to live well on the land given to them and how to relate well to the Creator and to one another. The lessons of the ice will also be prominent, both in helping us all recognize our common humanity, and in developing common perspectives raised by the melting ice and global climate change.
Union of Indigenous People The Fire and Ice Ceremony will be an historic occasion, uniting for the first time the spiritual leaders of North America with their counterparts from the Far North – thus completing the spiritual circle of Native people. The Ceremony will help northern indigenous people to meet challenges of survival that are closing in on them, challenges that were met by their southern counterparts generations ago but that continue to threaten all indigenous people and the wisdom that they bring to the world.
The Ceremony will bring indigenous people from the four directions together to reinforce each other and to develop a solid front in the struggle to save the heritage and pass it along to coming generations. That heritage includes values which have sustained indigenous people over eons of time, and which are increasingly threatened in the modern world. The sustaining values - faith, thankfulness, love, and respect for all Creation - are what the sacred fire brings home to the heart.
Cross-Cultural Union
Forward thinking and influential members of world societies are invited to participate in the Fire and Ice Ceremony for the Earth. It will serve as an important function in bringing attention to the impact of global climate change, as well as new recognition and respect for indigenous people and their perspectives. The Ceremony will add the traditional indigenous voice to the dialogue on global climate change and care of the earth in general, providing a dimension that has been missing and desperately needed.
To have leading mainstream citizens together with indigenous leaders discussing both the current and potential impact of global climate change, and coming together in a spiritual way to consider required paradigm changes, all in the shadow of the Icecap, will have a major effect in bringing the world’s attention to its most pressing problem. Evaluations of the consequences of climate change range from momentous to catastrophic. But in spite of considerable media coverage in recent months the public has not yet grasped its reality, in part because political voices have downplayed it. Because of its unique elements, The Fire and Ice Ceremony in Greenland will have an important effect on world opinion.
Agenda The Fire and Ice Ceremony for the Earth will be held in a tipi and tent encampment on a large lake near the Icecap and 40 kilometers from the town of Kangerlussuaq on the west coast of Greenland. The daily agenda for the gathering follows traditional ceremonial protocol with the focal point of activities being under an arbor with a firepit in the center. The primary endeavors will include the reunion of the Elders, the ceremonial return of the sacred fire, deliberations and prayers revolving around the Ice, the earth and global climate change, as well as feasting and celebration.
The tentative agenda is as follows:
Arrival Day: Welcome Home! Delegates from around the world arrive at camp to greet one another and get acquainted.
Day 1: Fire Ceremony begins. The prophecy of the sacred fire is told. The spiritual Elders speak, followed by all people of the world. Celebration begins: round dance – filling the circle around the fire. Finally, the feast begins, consisting of: musk ox, caribou, char, salmon.
Day 2: Elders from the Far North speak of the Ice. Procession (in silence) to the Ice Cap where the Ice Ceremony occurs. Walk back to camp for feast.
Day 3: Native and non-Native leaders speak about the spiritual implications of global climate change. Small group deliberation sessions. Closing plenary ceremony; closing the fire.
Departure Day: Break camp.
Calling in Unison for a New Paradigm
The indigenous voice emanates from ancient memories and thousands of years of learning what works and doesn’t work toward living in harmony with the natural world. Science can give statistics and projections but only the traditional voice can give moral perspectives that are based on experience that spans millennia. To hear the indigenous voice speaking in the shadow of the great Icecap that is melting at a rate that is beyond anyone’s comprehension will be unprecedented and long overdue. To have the first hand experience spanning millennia paired with the mainstream voice, calling in unison for a new paradigm in our attitude toward care of the earth will bring new perspectives on earth’s most pressing problem.
After the 2008 Ceremony the camp will become a sacred place where people of all races and colors can come for spiritual renewal and to consider the awesome implications of climate change in the shadow of the Icecap.
IV. Outcomes The People of Greenland
The Fire and Ice Ceremony for the Earth will be the fulfillment of an ancient prophetic tradition and will have an affirmative effect. It will validate the integrity and vision of their ancestors and will enhance their sense of pride and gratitude.
The presence of Indian Elders from throughout North America will have a rejuvenating effect on the communities it visits. Because of the power of its spirituality it has a reinforcing effect on those communities in which the spirit is strong, and a renewing effect on those in which it is weaker. The Fire and Ice Ceremony has the potential to bring back ceremonies, songs, dances and cultural integrity that have been buried under the burden of decades of alien influence.
The gathering of international people of vision and power to experience the reality of global climate change in the shadow of its most dramatic example will bring new status and recognition to the people of Greenland. The fact that traditional Elders from Greenland will be central figures in the Fire and Ice Ceremony will in itself bring new recognition and respect.
The World
The Fire and Ice Ceremony will provide opportunities for members of the larger society to interact with traditional indigenous people in their environment and under their conditions. The spiritual events in the camp and on the Icecap as well as the words of the Elders and deliberations within small groups will have a profound effect on participants. The most far-reaching result of the gathering could be the actions taken afterward by participants who have glimpsed a new picture of reality and understood the necessity of a paradigm change in the world.
There is little doubt that global climate change is the greatest threat to our way of life and to our survival. Largely ignored by political and other power structures worldwide, indigenous people of the North live with its reality every day. Participants in the Ceremony will be in a unique position to alert the world in a compelling way. During the event, a dramatic statement from indigenous and non-indigenous leaders regarding the threat of global climate change will be issued to the world, helped by world media.
For more information or to register for the Fire and Ice Ceremony for the Earth, please contact Diane Marshall at Sirmiq Aattuq: phone 905-507-4913, or by email, meltingtheice@sympatico.ca.
