Thursday, December 23, 2010
Harper says 'Canada shone' in 2010
Sunday, December 05, 2010
The day a Slain yachtsman's daughter [who is] 'pretty tough' made the news
Commenters!, What exactly is the problem here? It is a news story that happened. Done with , victims and crimnals. A fact of life on this world. Why judge the two sides? Let the Creator settle justice in his/her time. Let us take care of the survivor, mourn the dead, and let the proper authorities capture the perpertrators,. If that is humanly impossible, for what ever reason, let it be. If we truly search to understand the Great Mystery of Life, we would work hard, help others, and judge no more. That is why we have the sytem today. Our imperfect human form of life, justice and death, but that is allwe have, and we all pick sides, right or wrong.
Good luck in your argumentative state, but do you feel better where it counts or in an instant physical emotional gratification from trying to beat down a way of thinking that is not your own? Take care
Saturday, December 04, 2010
wasted resources spent on Cariboo grow-ops targeted by B.C. RCMP
Sounds like he is talking about the capitalist expansionists who are ravaging this land. Sounds like he is talking about Canadian society and what they did to this land after contact
The plant is part of the Creator's garden, it is the white system that is criminalizing a part of the Creator's garden, why should we believe an ideological based law that is not part of the Creator's will?
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/12/03/bc-rcmp-grow-op-crackdown.html#ixzz17A0xBiNK
Friday, December 03, 2010
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2010/12/02/sk-foster-care-reserve-1011.html
Canadian farmer writes: "If the tribal councils don't care how the kids are doing, why should we?"
That is not what the news story mentions you opinionated person. Quit putting words in the mouths of our leaders. As a survivor of the fostering system, I say after provincial social agencies created a genocidal pattern of abuse in the foster homes of non-native people who used the system as an adoption wheel to bring in extra money, and abusing our children, why in the world would we let our children with you people again?
We have a right to take care of our own children, and all you Naysayers can keep your stinky euro-centric Canadian nose out of it!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
CBC closes commenting on the WikiLeaks stories
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Shaking Our Artistic Hands with the Devil
From Alumni SFU Inter-disciplinary Indigenous Métis Artist: Donald Morin, BA
Re: SFU Visual Arts & Goldcorp: "Framing Cultural Capital
Attention: Jeff Derksen, Ian Angus, Alexandra Henao, Cecily Nicholson, Irwin Oostindie, Jayce Salloum, Carole Taylor, and all other interested individuals and colleagues
Dear Associated Colleagues of SFU and Salish Territory now know as the lower mainland of British Columbia
As a SFU graduate and artist who has studied two semesters of visual arts along with my performing arts and the SFU film program, I raise my hands up to all of you who help create this upcoming dialogue forum regarding Goldcorps 10 mil donation. Miigweech.
I personally find it deplorable that SFU has accepted this buy off donation from Godcorps.
What is more incredulous is the trilateral position already taken by the university:
• the immediate designation of naming the SFU downtown campus to the Goldcorps Centre for the Arts,
• half of the funds going towards the capital costs of running the facilities,
• and the endowment created to support programs aimed at community engagement in the DTES
Without even asking the downtown eastside community for some input in how such a donation can help the community before accepting the money.
Considering, the whole notion of Goldcorps past history in its mining developments, I am ashamed of being part of SFU's history for their immediate acceptance of this sellout donation without proper consideration of the more urgent needs of the residents of the Downtown East, the lack of cultural protocol with respect to the first people of Salish Territory, and the lack on including a Salish First Nations Artist to this important dialogue event.
As a first nations man who spent close to thirty years on Salish Territory and many years in the downtown eastside as an activist/artist and community member, I learned much about cultural respect and my self worth as an "Indian" man who moved to Vancouver 1980 from Edmonton to realize my potential in life. Where at that time, society's expectation of native people then were only seeing us as drunks, in jail or dead. Moving back to Edmonton Dec 2009, it is sad to still see the judicial system still stereotyping native people in the same light, and certain members of Canadian society still have systemic racist views of Canada's first people.
It is good to see that people are concerned about this donation, but are they the right concerns? Will this dialogue event be seen as a lame afterthought, when it comes to the lateness of the press release, because suddenly people hear about this donation are of concern, and SFU organizers realize they do not have proper community discussions and involvement when Goldcorps first put the money on the table?
And then there is the issue of cultural protocol. Considering the sad and sordid history of the Downtown Eastside Missing women and the strong percentage of aboriginal people in the area, where do these people fit in with this donation?
An artist paints a picture of a missing woman, a dying native on the street, and we all done our part in helping less fortunate people through our work as artists?
I see this late release as a case of poor insight and planning to be sending this press release out now considering the date of this event. I can only assume that there may be a limited crowd of people involved due to this later publication of this event.
What will the result of this event be? Considering the language of the press release, I see it as a rather pretentious event of artists, moderators, and intellectuals complaining about the ethics of such a donation to real people with real concerns, but still the money has been taken, plans have been initiated and discussed, and we can all go away thinking that we are doing some good for the community talking about it.
Meanwhile the residents of the DTES are struggling to survive, eat, maintain a roof and wean themselves of the substances some have fallen into, while the old timers in the area area sit in their rooms they have and will never see the benefits of this sellout donation.
My critics will say, well, there are already many social agencies out there helping these people, and I am missing the point of this donation and discussion. But I would refute that argument, by saying that the university can go against the status quo of community relations, and use that money in a context that will take all your departmental disciplines in consideration, and use that capital to build and improve the current housing conditions for the residents, create all types of employment for the residents, invest in improving the health, body and mind of the residents, and use that endowment fund to help all the people of the DTES instead of just the artists and their subjects.
Any further real concrete action for the university and this discussion panel to do is to tell the university to give back that money to Goldcorps and instruct the corporation to go into the downtown eastside community, and create real change for the residents without any sort of public acknowledgment or recognition.
Does the university have to be involved at all? No, I see this as a public relations ploy by this corporation and my former university, and now with all you colleagues being involved, everyone is grandstanding themselves around this donation because, it is a news worthy item and we can all get something out of this fiasco, and the residents get nothing but what is offered later, much later, once the money is implemented in the system and the infra structure develops and everyone gets their piece of the pie, and the status quo remains the same.
In closing, while I accept and give credit to the organizers of this event for creating dialogue in [demanding] " a more active role in shaping [their] position at the university and [their] relationship to the community, nothing is really going to change for the residents of the community outside of the artists who will utilize the downtown SFU Centre for the Arts.
I apologize of I have offended anyone in this dialogue, but what is our role as artists in contemporary society if we do not address immediate basic issues of survival for our fellow humans accepting nothing in return. Miigweech, Gila Kesla, O’Siem, Hy hy, all my relations
Miigweech Donald Morin, BA
http://www.isuma.tv/dammedia http://myspace.com/donaldmorin
http://www.google.com/profiles/donaldmorin http://www.youtube.com/Willy2Frencheater
Thursday, November 04, 2010
DAM Comments on CBC story of U.S. pornographer targets Winnipeg aboriginals
DAM COM
Regardless of accusers’ talk of victims taking substances, who has not sinned and is able to judge these victims? We as aboriginal people were taken from a language, a land, family, extended families and place in horrible homes where the adoption parents used the cheques on themselves and left the children to struggle and struggle trying to be the assimilated person like the euro-Canadian immigrants, and travelers who came here and stole what was not theirs. THE assimilators stole our true Identity, our mother tongue. An identity as a people which goes back to the days of Jesus among us, and the Great Spirit who made you and I writing here. Grow up you zealots of the new century, the time has come to separate the left from the right, the light from the dark, and we will see who judges who!!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Supreme Court to hear case over Quebec’s controversial ethics and religion class
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/supreme-court-to-hear-case-over-quebecs-controversial-ethics-and-religion-class/article1767535/
The security of our children is paramount. Ideologically, and physically. It is an important debate. How do we help children to understand the different religions, and cultures of this world? It is not as simplistic as teaching a westernized curriculum of mosaic or multicultural values of who we are as Canadians, Americans, indigenous, class or people of diverse cultures.
Parents want to choose? Is that a form of protectionism? How do we look at ourselves and understand a family's interpretation of another culture, religion and history? I.e. stereotyping, propaganda, church values, family history, generational history, it is a complex issue.
All we can do is each pray to the Creator in their own words, thoughts, and prayers, and perhaps we can find what is best for our children and not directed by state ideological apparatuses bent on form control and mass order.
Clinton tackled for oilsands comments
The Creator will take that arrogance of man and humble us to our knees, as we slowly devour ourselves to survive. Life's Windigo's is here there and everywhere, If I can quote an old pop songs from way back lore.
We must stop this pipeline, stop our dependency on what is suppose to stay in the ground to keep the world balanced We are slowly dying driving faster to nowhere. Clinton is a realist as she knows the system will not change and the cost of our freedom is climate change, pollution, less resources and a human race who can not see their own demise every morning we go to work or play. Our polluted bodies die, our soul goes where it will go, free of oil, but still the human race can not change, because we are living in the end of days. Aho all my relations I am, that I am! And it will be down.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Alta. child welfare system needs to change: report
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
All 33 Minors rescued in Chile! Rescuers remaining!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Prostitution laws struck down by Ont. court
God gave us that choice, and we deal with the consequences when the physical body is returned to our Creator. It is written that we must treat our body like a temple for our Creator, keep it clean and pure. Yet. the reality here on earth is vastly different than what we all ideally would like if we were free of our urges, senses, and idealization of whom we are as a body and how we live our lives. Morally or immorally, but then who is the judge of our bodies, our choice in private, and what people do not see.
Trudeau mentioned something about keeping the state out of the bedrooms of the nation? Does that apply here? Perhaps, for sex between two beings can happen anywhere if we were animals. but we are not, and we must protect our body, spirit and mind from falling into the primal instincts of our nature. Prostitution will not go away, as long as we have immoral people, who have lost respect for the human body, and replace love with lust. Yes, protect the vulnerable from exploitation in this sexual trade of relations, but as well protect our woman without prejudice, malice or judgment and do the right action, without bowing down to fundamentalist or the religiosity of institutions, and organized political fronts of conservatism.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Edmonton hospital asks homeless for advice
It is good that such institutions are look at other ways of helping less fortunate people than ourselves. Instead of judging the homeless, the street bums, why not go out and buy them a coffee, sandwich, and ask how they are? Do they need to know where to go to need help, is life that busy and fast that we forget about the founding values of Canadian society? Bad apples in every crowd, so do not judge all people on the street with the same brushes. I was looking for work downtown Edmonton & saw a native man bandaged over his left eye, He was weak and softly asking for $. No passerby could hear him, did not care, & didn’t pay attention to this poor soul. I gave him a smoke, told him I was not working and sat near him as I waited for the bus. It was sad to see all these people walk by, as this man held his cap out and tried to survive. I dug in my pocket and gave him the two quarters, but felt bad because I still had a loonie. Late Chief Dan George's son Len George told me once that if you see someone who needs help, dug in your pocket and give what you have in change. It is the right thing to do. Today I see signs saying give to social agencies instead of to the people on the street, Why do we follow the rules of society when it comes to helping the less fortunate, instead of trusting the teachings of your/our Creator totally by helping the less fortunate regardless of ones judgment and assumption of their background, ulterior motives, or the degree of their empty stomach or brain; if you consider the ones who have bad motives regarding charity like the woman who faked cancer and defrauded many as a result of their good grace and charity? People on the street are our equal, Help them, karma exists be on the left hand or right hand? U decide.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Friday, August 06, 2010
MY PERSONAL REPLY TO CBC WEB ARTICLE: Oka developer met with protests
Ducharme says he has the rights and deeds for the land on behalf of a financial institution, and implies the Mohawks committed heresies. Having finished my first feature film in 2004 based on the incident of Oka, 1990, After years of study, research, and travel to the Mohawk territory in my younger days, I have met the late Joe David, As well as members of the Gabriel family. Wonderful people who spoke the truth regardless of the stereotyping and racism that is steeped deep in Canadian History, Alanis Obamsowin's film Kanasatake 200 years of resistance is also a great film to understand the history of the area, which is the results of this current valid form of resistance. The Whiteman’s malaise. The title deeds are worthless when it comes to broken treaties, manipulating priest from the Oka area and its history, and how the euro centric ancestors of that territory's history stole the land from the Mohawks. Duchames sounds like that guy from Pale Rider who shows Clint Easton’s character his piece of paper saying he owns the land. White devils again manipulating the media and council people
See the article at: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/08/06/que-oka-conflict.html#socialcomments
Donald Morin, BA
seen and heard at
http://www.isuma.tv/dammedia
www.myspace.com/moredammusic
http://www.reverbnation.com/#/donaldmorin,
http://www.google.com/profiles/donaldmorin,
http://www.youtube.com/Willy2Frencheater,
http://myspace.com/donaldmorin
Monday, July 26, 2010
DAM T5H3K8 and The Indigenous Hawaii Resistance | IsumaTV
DAM T5H3K8 and The Indigenous Hawaii Resistance | IsumaTV
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Drunks force Winnipeg business to close: owner
The implication of this CBC news article is that the people who move in & around this location are always 1st nation’s people who are extremely intoxicated, & that "...the ...aboriginal leaders need to step up and do more to address addiction problems among First Nations people..." The article also mentions the MLCC fining the hotels that sell liquor to the " disadvantaged people who wind up drinking...illegally in public places..." While I empathize with the business owner, I would ask, is only 1st nation people who are causing the problems, or a combination of euro-Canadian & native people, along with some of our multicultural friends, who are being disrespectful to others in public places? The historical conditions that helped define the pathos of these people is entrenched with the endless dreams of fame and fortune, growing up in a society that endure two world wars, endless conflict, & the lose of land, language, & culture as a result of colonial practices, immigrational distanciation, & the development of life in a new country, new environment and a new sense of values and shortcomings. Sadly 2 say Canadian history is full of successes and failures when it comes to the conduct of the self in relation to the other. Is it a question of race, genes, destiny, stupidity, or simple series of bad luck situations and the lack of will to do better in life? How long do we strive to reach our potential in life, instead of just settling with life? We all have choices in life, and ultimately The Great Spirit allows us 2 success or failure in according each day's progression of life and death. This world creates vices for us all, but it is the ones on the street that shows the true mirror of who we are, if we judge & condemn others B4 our Creator.
Sage for Our Warriors and Elders from Turtle Island to Hawaii | IsumaTV
103 meg repro of First rough edit and early start of Donald Morin's Experimental film depicting an unique approach to Indigenous Resistance and Hawaiian Indigenous Sovereignty Issues. More work has to be done on translations, text notes and the Hawaiian One Law government March and rally.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Response to Elder criticizes native omission from summit and native protest comments on CBC news story about Natives protesting peacefully
Some people have 2 understand the fiduciary relationship of Canada & her 1st people 2 the original treaties & why there is a lack of treaties & broken treaties which exist. We can thank Cabot, Champlain, Cartier & others who were looking 4 a passage to India. Cabot thru the King’s Letter of Patent, set sail & the rest is history. The new immigrants, traders took advantage of our ancestors because they had the best resources. 2day we still struggle with this historical embedded racism yet some people will never understand why we must fight for our rights & benefits, because those treaties are law which last for generations 2 come. Treaties were signed because of the land that we lost. Dead or no deed that is old world written literacy thinking that has no argument here today. The cultural , political, economic apparatuses of this country romantized the 1st. people’s history The dime novels of the time, the melodrama forms & newspapers of the Wild West defined our relationship to each other since the modernist period 2 the literacy of your local papers & media 2day. The historical real, the spectacle real, & the erotic real has defined your coveting of who we are as a people due to this modernist period, I write about, but as well to the romanticist period, with novels like Ferdinand Cooper’s Last of The Mohicans, or the story of John Smith & Pocahontas romanticized our relations to each other. This ideological condition developed out of the progression of North American Pop Culture as the masses bought into the desires of a material capitalist culture. From how your grandparent’s great great Grandparents, the “Indian” was painted in the derogatory light then, as it is 2day. Why? Because of the lack of correct education about the history of the 1st people.
That is why there was no Elder at SUmmit, because these politicians are not properly educated about Indigenous history with the moonyass!
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/g20streetlevel/2010/06/elder-criticizes-native-omission-from-summit.html#socialcomments-submit
Monday, June 21, 2010
The Lies of Aboriginal Day
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Response to CBC article: G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets
Practicing to shoot first to justify their over-priced weapons of death and authoritative control shows how the current ultra right conservatives do not care about people. People who want to change the status quo for he care and betterment of Mother Earth and her children. To spend the excessive money they have on security, so they can practice using guns is unacceptable. Cancel the G20, recall this current government and fire all these security personnel.
CBC artile at: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/06/18/arwen-weapon-summits.html#socialcomments-submit
Friday, June 18, 2010
A response to commenters on a CBC article Renew Aboriginal Healing Foundation: MPs, See link below for Comments by dumb people
To see comments and CBC article go to: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/06/17/aboriginal-healing-commons-report.html#socialcomments-submit
Thursday, June 17, 2010
In response to CBC story of Boy, 11, slams residential schools legacy
From self destructive patterning due to not liking myself, acting crazy , impulsive and always being intense, I was determined not to end up dead or in jail because this where society stereo typified us to be or end up in. Leaving racist systemic Alberta at 24 was my only choice as nothing was gong to change in redneck Alberta, and sadly after returning to Alberta 29 years later, nothing has changed in this city. Native people are still shunned, looked down upon and treated badly by the police, peace officers, and the courts of the justice system.
Moving to Salish Territory 1980 was a turning point for me 2 realizes my potential in life instead of just settling with the status quo. After a film & performing arts degree, I did what I had to do to survive. Under qualified, over-qualified, getting work was still problematic due to the racism in the film & television industry even when I got a job at CBC news, one producer during the production meeting, says, well, the Injuns are at it again, and this was a white middle class educated woman. 2010, we still have much work 2 do 2 eliminate racism in Canada.
See story at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/06/16/man-truh-reconcilation-commission-foster-care.html#socialcomments-submit
Friday, May 28, 2010
Start of Human rights complaint against MasDonald's restaurant
After I was outside, I asked Morley what happened. Morley told me he was going to the washroom doing number two and praying to God in his private room, when the MacDonald Manager peered over the bathrrom stall and invaded Morley's privacy, MOrely said , What are doing? What;s wrong with you, After he cleaned himslef, he opened the bathroom door and went to talk to him.
He spoked to the manager and said what's wrong with you, Manager said he going to phone the police, Morley said go ahead. Morley thought why did the man want to peek over, of all people, what's wrong with him. why?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
A critique of Canada’s desire to change legislation of the Pardon me: Forgive me ( Inresponse to CBC story of May 12, 2010
A critique of Canada's desire to change legislation of the Pardon me: Forgive me ( Inresponse to CBC story of May 12, 2010
For a Christian society which invaded, conquered, assimilated, and exterminated Canada's First People on the basis of changing the infidel and heathens to Christianity, forgiveness was a major factor in accepting the first people as part of the euro-centric family, society and state. Forgiving ones evil ways is a Christian fundamental and major component of the Christian mission, mandate, and future direction. How can we go on as a good Christian democratic society if we as a country do not forgive others? If we as a people elected this government then we must stop this misdirected legislation as it will only stigmatize sincere people who want to move forward in life and cannot remove their pardon due to the lack of compassion and understanding required in order to forgive others so we can move forward as a whole, not fragmented as Canada is today due to the self righteousness of others who think that we should just leave all people convicted of a crime to lose opportunities to change and lead a productive life. While I empathize with victims of serious crimes, we still must understand that this physical life we have is not the end of life or seeing our loved ones, our dead family members, or people we care about and love. The afterlife is another component of Christianity, and victims should not forget that component of our lives. Staying in the present is important in life in moving forward and time s does removed past grief. Seeing our perpetrators receive forgiveness may bring up anger, resentment, but all negative emotions and feelings created moments which we may regret in this life and after. If we are really Christians and care for our fellow human, forgiveness is a must .The government and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews must retract his words
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/05/11/f-background-pardons.html#socialcomments-submit#ixzz0nizIIRUh
Thursday, May 06, 2010
A remnder of what we must do to change the status qo, reprinted
Sunday, April 25, 2010
CBC News - North - Yukoner's cell 'not habitable,' inquest hears
The RCMP is a racist institution who hire racist people, who have no regard for Canad'a first people due to ther cultural, political and educational and economic upbringing,. What does that say for Canada as a society? THE RCMP should be dissolved and these people charged with criminal charges. Back me up and pass this around. It si time now to bring some accountablility to the actions of this Racist organization
CBC News - North - Yukoner's cell 'not habitable,' inquest hears
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Film, Video, Media transference and Convergence, From Analogue to Digital to Podcasts
CHAPTER ONE:
30 years of Learning about Film, Video, Media transference and Convergence, From Analogue to Digital to Podcasts, My Observations. Based on my current Web stream of Take It Easy When You Talk About Me"
Sometime ago, an artist approached me about web streams and pod casts, and the availability of them on the Internet. Digital filmmaking since 1992, I have seen many changes in filmmaking, digital media, and I know I have still so much more to learn. Digital Media is a complex web of variations, formats, and converging technologies to create the moving image. Capturing the digital or analogue sound and image varies in according to the technology and capital available to create moving pictures; but more so depends on the creative applications of the filmmaker, visual artist, or amateur working with such technologies.
I prefer Arriflex 16mm camera, but today the digital camera surpasses the availability of such technology, and the immediacy of seeing and using moving pictures surpasses the desire to use "film " today. However upon using film ; how does one transfer 16mm images off the celluloid and 1/4 inch sound off the niagra sound recorder in sync or non-sync applications?. (That is another problem I will mention later.)
The filmic way in my younger days at the SFU Film Workshop consisted of re-photographing the image off walls, bed sheets in makeshift studios, or special front screen re-photography screens based at the SFU mountain basement library studio. It may not exist anymore, an old 3/4 TV studio in the basement of the library building at SFU mountain in Burnaby, BC. That was where we (Peter Webb and I) filmed the 16mm Re-photography scenes of "Take It Easy When You Talk about Me". See the slightly altered version of "Take It Easy When You Talk about Me" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKhycWMXScM; my 3rd year 16mm film collaboration with former alumni of those classes. Directed by Peter Webb,
It was learning collaborative on my part as I did not agree with some of his choices on audio usage, but overall, I enjoyed co-creating this short dual screen narrative because of the collaborative script based on the Native Scientist and his petrogyphs experiences. Important was learning about cultural protocol with actor (Buffalo child) and other research in first nation's cultural history. We created two 16mm reels and one 16mm audio track.
The audio track was synced to the right screen of the scientist working in the field when he encounters something strange. We then bring in the left screen with the accompanying narrative to the story. Sound was synced up on an old Steinbeck Editing table. I remember many "B" roll excursions thru Vancouver to film what we needed and as well helping record one "Native" protest of the time for the film, that sound recording involved Michael Playfair recording a protest against Fletcher Challenger Corporation and he recorded words from the protest speech by the late Joe Mathias which the director included in the film. I cannot remember if I was there for the recording, I think I was, someone will have to remind me, who was there. It was a protest at the Canada Place Hotel Complex on the waterfront.
Nevertheless, Getting TIEWYTAM to YouTube today was different to what we had to do to get TIEWYTAM on video side by side. After we graduated I remember Peter and I booked time with the SFU Video Communications Lab, where he had friends. We brought our finished edited work print films to the techies and they telecined each edited film roll it to ¾ video tape. Telecine is a method of projecting the film image through a prism device apparatuses to record the image onto video. Frame ratio was a problem as film was 24 frames a second and video was 30 frames a second. Flickering was problematic and today such problems are resolved with existing technologies.
Onward, we had the techies as well transferred the audio to video and then we used a TV switcher to compose the two video images side by side, inserted and synced up the audio track to the sync beep and voila! Peter gave me a ½ inch vhs copy of the film of which some of the VHS was creased, so I edited it out; that is why the ending of the film is slightly off. The VHS copy sat in my library for years as a personal record of my work, I showed it to old friends like Lenard Fisher (pictured far right) but it was not till 2005, when Wendy Nahanee asked if I could show some work at the 2005 Heart of the City Festival aboriginal film night that I digitize the 16mm dual screen narrative short.
After years of desktop video editing thru my old Amiga 2000 Commodore computer and S-VHS equipment, I accumulated miles of S-VHS, Hi-8 and VHS footage for my film 7 Fires 4 U...Kitchi Manitou, I haven't even shot any 16mm film yet. I finally had funds release in 2000 and I filmed 16mm footage out of the "timely" script. I had the 2000 16mm footage telecined to video. Darryl Bird offered to edit a promo of the shot 16mm footage and existing video archives of the 7 Fires project. His promo is now at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHnY1e-uV8s
With the completion of the promo, I re-applied to Canada Council for the arts for further funding. 2,001, I received further funding to shoot the 7 fires project. After discussions with fellow artists, computer consultants, I upgraded my desktop video system to digital media. I secured a windows system with Adobe Premiere editing software, Matrox video hardware, and other video editing software. I remember sitting at the computer for at least a month trying o figure out how digital filmmaking worked.
Connecting the wires was not a problem, RCA composite connectors, S-Vhs connectors and BNC connectors all fine, it was the compression rate, or no compression, but as well as usage of the fire wire. Getting the Hi-8, VHS, and S-VHS footage into to the computer at the proper compression ratio was problematic and involved trial and error methods of operation. I settled on combining old and new technologies together to achieve my own sense of satisfaction. I connected my Analogue video technologies to the video/audio input of a mini-DV Camera and went thru the menu section to output the video data coming thru the RCA v/a connectors and S-VHS connector thru the fire wire to the Adobe Premiere Capture window.
Upon capture the video data thru the fire at a rate acceptable to me I saved my film and clicked on the captured data in the browser window. Sound and Image show up in a separate window and I clicked play. Seeing the "film" image on the computer was amazing.
After setting in and out points, I dragged the avi file to the timeline, adjusted in and out points to fade in and outs, added smpte countdown, black video and exported the file as a "movie" file in DV avi. Upon completion of export, I opened up the file in QuickTime Pro and exported the avi file for 'web". Finished exports involved formats for podcasts and webcasts. 3GPP audio/video and Mp4 video for webcasts and pod casts. Ready for mass distribution on the net thru zshare, YouTube, Digital Drum or MySpace.
Closing this chapter, I recently recaptured the VHS copy of TIEWYTAM and the "Dazzle " Capture device practically eliminated those creases in the capture, so that was great, and I will have the new version of "Take It Easy When You Talk About Me". On the net soon. Thanks for visiting!
Donald Morin, BA Filmmaker/Digital Artist
Friday, April 09, 2010
CBC News - World - U.S. woman returns adopted son to Russia#socialcomments-submit#socialcomments-submit
"Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tenn: You are a disgusting person who will be punished severely for your callous actions to this poor vulnerable child. IT is absolutely awful to see that there are people like you in this world. I hope your punishment after t his life is so serve that the evil minions punishing you will yell at you, swear at you, and pull your hair for eternity."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/09/russia-adoption-tennessee.html#socialcomments#ixzz0keLQBPvA
I was angry, Very Sad, but God Bless that littel boy Artyom Savelyev; HAng in there young fellow, I was like you, but trusting God, he saved my very soul. See you soon in life
Donald:
FOR Artyom Savelyev:
I apologize for being so judgmental. I was angry, I saw the picture of the child, I was adopted as a foster child, and had a tormentious existence from child to man. Demons have haunted me, my vices, and my own self damnation for who I was, who I am, and who I can be today. I could have taken my way out if it was not for our Creator. After finding out about my sixteen foster homes of hell from age 1 to 4, then systemic colonial ideals as a child growing up in redneck Alberta, I moved to Salish territory at 24 because here in AB, they expected NDNs to remain in jail or dead. 29 years later I am back to Cree territory, and nothing has changed when it comes to how people treat people or children, and we are the losers of the grand picture of life. God forgive all of us in these days of judgments’, and God help this child, and the child in all of us, so we can start each day without shame. As I am ashamed today. Yes, the woman did wrong, but who I am to judge without knowing all the facts, I read the letter, I was an unstable child, screwed up for years, but through the patience of my last foster parents, I found some tracks to follow. Yet, I know I have so much more work to do, B4 I sleep, miles to go B4 I wake, remembering Robert Frost.
CBC News - World - U.S. woman returns adopted son to Russia#socialcomments-submit#socialcomments-submit
Saturday, February 20, 2010
My take on “Telefilm wants U.S. stars in Canadian movies”
See my script below CBC article:
Telefilm wants U.S. stars in Canadian movies
Last Updated: Saturday, February 20, 2010 | 9:43 AM ET CBC News
Comments119Recommend30
Michel Roy, the head of Canada's federal film agency Telefilm, is urging the government to ease restrictions on allowing foreign stars to appear in publicly-funded movies.
Current tax rules require that the lead actor or the second lead be Canadian.
Michel Roy says he believes including more U.S. movie stars would help Canadian movies at the box office, especially the ones from English Canada, which accounted for only one per cent of box office receipts in the country last year.
"We just can't go on this way," Roy told CBC News, noting the industry in Quebec tends to be more dynamic while attracting a local audience, too.
"We need to make changes — in order to make those changes we will have to dare to do new things that at times might shock some people."
Roy understands some Canadians may question why their dollars are underwriting films with American stars but if the movies do well, they also give the Canadian talent more exposure.
Changes could be announced in weeks
Roy says Telefilm - which has plowed nearly a billion dollars into the domestic industry over the past decade - has been holding discussions with officials at Heritage Canada about relaxing restrictions on foreign stars.
Telefilm also wants to alter other guidelines to boost the number of co-productions, which have dropped dramatically in the past five years.
The changes could be announced in "a matter of weeks," Roy said.
"We're so advanced in these discussions and the reception has been very favourable."
Roy won't discuss the details of Telefilm's proposals and the minister of Heritage, James Moore, wasn't available to comment.
My reply to this story below:
Thursday, February 18, 2010
At the end of the day, cultural appropriation is still evident
My response to Globe and Mail article below
"School board urges end to native-themed mascots
'Mock Indian' symbols trivialize aboriginal culture, Vancouver trustee says" from article at link below http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/school-board-urges-end-to-native-themed-mascots/article1469260/
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
The New Age of Indigenous Manufactured Consent
Eric Grey, TV producer and traditional artist sent out this news story from Zoe Blunt, a free lance journalist on Vancouver Island. My comments are after the published article:
VANCOUVER—It looked like the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee had everything sewn up tight: new venues built to order, ads from corporate sponsors, bylaws against ambush marketing, and smiling Indigenous people welcoming the world.
Now, the committee must be wondering whether it misjudged its First Nations "partners."
Hard on the heels of Indigenous protests during the Olympic Torch Relay, the Four Host First Nations (FHFN) surprised the province and its international partners with an announcement in January. Chief Bill Williams, chair of the FHFN, declared they will use the power of international media to shame the province into honouring its commitments to economic development.
Thomas Leonard, president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council, fired the first shot. In a letter to BC Forests Minister Pat Bell last December, he wrote, "The fact that your government and its federal partner are spending $3-9+ billion to stage the Winter Olympics is merely exacerbating the frustration and anger felt by our communities as they continue to be told that there is no money in the pot to address their situations, which, as you are fully aware, are of a most desperate nature."
Williams explained the consequences for ignoring the FHFN's ultimatum. "There's going to be some 14,000 media people running around [at the Olympics]," he told the Globe and Mail. "Some of them are already contacting us. They want to know, 'What's it like to be an Indian in today's world? How do you live?' We are going to start letting those reporters know the reality of the poverty we face."
The host nations—the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, and Lil'Wat Nation bands—signed partnership agreements with VANOC years ago, and until now, they've submitted to the demands of the international committee on everything from cutting old-growth forests to wearing faux regalia. Some, like Kwakwaka'wakw activist Gord Hill, have accused the FHFN of selling out, and cheaply.
Raising the price at this late date doesn't make it right, and Hill calls the latest move an "attempted cash grab" by "native sell-outs."
"What is truly hypocritical is for Williams to now raise the issue of Native poverty, or to express concerns about the social conditions for Native people, after several years collaborating with VANOC and the 2010 Olympics," Hill told The Dominion.
Indeed, with the Olympic spectacle upon us, Indigenous leaders have upped the ante. Thomas said, "Our communities are tired of being told there is no new funding available—and that they might have to make do with even less than they already have—and at the same time being told they should be excited about the 2010 Winter Olympics."
Thomas asked the province for an urgent meeting to resolve the issue, and said if steps aren't taken, "The FNFC and its member first nations will reluctantly, but without hesitation, take advantage of the intense international media interest that will be focused on BC before and during the Winter Olympics."
Along with his position as chair of the FHFN, Williams is vice-president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council. He said the province is overdue in funding $6.2 million for developing aboriginal forestry businesses. According to a press statement, similar commitments from Ottawa for $135 million for mountain pine beetle salvage and recovery were pledged years ago but never materialized. A second letter to Federal International Trade Minister Stockwell Day requested a meeting to discuss the long-overdue funding from Ottawa.
Hundreds of reserves across Canada are mired in abject poverty, and thousands make do without safe drinking water, housing, health care, employment and education. Conditions for Indigenous people have only deteriorated since Vancouver and Whistler won the Olympic bid, Hill said. "During this period, hundreds of Natives have been made homeless in Vancouver, subject to police violence and harassment; yet where were Mr. Williams, the Four Host First Nations and their Olympic toad Tewanee Joseph? Kissing the ass of corporations, government and Olympic officials," he charged.
Investing in forestry is a delicate issue for the Squamish and other First Nations who have fought to preserve the forests of their traditional territory from industrial clearcutting. But in many parts of the coast, unprecedented liquidation of old-growth and second-growth forests is underway, and raw log exports are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, unsettled Indigenous land claims languish in limbo.
Growing nations are desperate for jobs and economic development, and this is the trade-off they face. The Olympics represent development, but at the expense of traditional lands, foods, and wildlife.
Today, neither the province nor the chiefs are speaking to the media—likely because they are attempting to negotiate a truce. The chiefs are certainly aware that when provincial and federal governments are confronted by intractable First Nations threatening action, they often give in to the demands. That's how Indigenous activists have won substantial concessions in the past.
In this case, the FHFN demands are dwarfed by the scale of the Olympic money-pit. The province's $6.2 million debt to First Nations forestry amounts to one-tenth of one per cent of Olympic spending. Ottawa's contribution to pine-beetle salvage in First Nations communities would be a little over two per cent of the budget for the Games. Clearly, the host nations have the position and the leverage to negotiate sweeping changes. But what they stand to win by what some have called "selling out" appears to only be crumbs from the master's table.
Zoe Blunt is a journalism school dropout on Vancouver Island.
My comments
Two wrongs do not make a right Eric. I don't know what to say to this turnaround. Bill and his colleagues no doubt see the frustration we as first people experience, but kept their mouths in the trough long enough to see how dirty their faces were becoming. To save face is one thing, to wipe off the shit inside ones mouth is another matter. These are a sentiment of many a people, I am one of them, as so much money is wasted on these facades of harmony, that the poorest of the poor sink deeper into misery and the ones on top have so much of nothing they cannot take with them.
After this is all done with, will the protests and political posturing actually do anything? Our youth on both sides of the mountain are continuously being harassed by the law, our most sick ones constantly jailed for "being" and our most marginalized preciousness , our women are getting lost on the streets for man's desire. How shameful can we paint Canada, when The Settler mentality is a global sickness, and the indigenous people are seen as a global nuisance getting in the way of progress and humankind's new technological gracing of our Mother Earth. Green Environmental Authentizing industries; created to cut down humankind's carbon dioxide emissions and what is truly indigenous and authentic through the legislative containment of worth and exchange.
If Olympicide continues its manufacturing of consent agenda; in the Capitalization of the Human Spirit through athlete and corporate transformation, then we as a an indigenous people are truly lost as Indigenous people. This is because of how some of our leaders lose their direction as a result of the evangelical meanderings of Corporate managers throwing security certificates at the ones who toe the line in dominant society. Financial buyouts in following a particular order of grace and verisimilitude of who we are as people. Humans in the oneness of the corporate bull next to their Creator. The Oneness carrying the Eye of The Pyramid, and In God We trust. Miigweech, all my relations!
May The Great Spirit guide our leaders to the right grace in these days of parallel worlds and cultures?
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Fight and stand against the illusion they are painting before us
The fine line between fascism and democracy has been unveiled in the propaganda charade Vanoc is portraying in their media campaign. By including and doctoring the historic footage of the Nazi era Olympic newsreels show that the historical real, the spectacle real, and the erotic real of our performance as a global society is being subverted by Vanoc and the Olympic machine to devalue the past experiences of our human condition as irrelevant. So that they can de-politicize our current climate of dissent as a minor occurrence in lieu of their interpretation of the greatest event to ever define the human body this 21st century. The corporate and governmental elite have not changed since the modernist period or the contemporary period of cultural politics. IN this new age I call The Age of Technological authenticity, the mass propaganda machine of these two false entities of absolute evil is authenticating what is democratic and what is fascist in the minds of the populace mind. We as a people must fight and stand against the illusion they are painting before us and strip away the illusionary veils they broadcast on our technological tools! I write this article as a result of the story published in the National Post below
'Saluting' Nazi filmmaker a no-win for VANOC
It has been raining on Cypress Mountain of late, causing some logistical headaches at the Olympic venue, but the latest dark cloud on the horizon appears on the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) website.
"Lights Will Guide You Home" is a four-minute video celebrating the Olympic torch run. It also happens to include the work of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, whose biggest fan was a madman named Adolf Hitler. Riefenstahl was friends with the Nazi leader, and was a sometime propagandist for his National Socialist program. Her film "Triumph of the Will‚" about the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg in 1934, helped put Hitler on the international map.
Walking around Salish territory during the new colonial guard of Olympia
Russell Wallace wrote a great response to articles in the various media outlets on the four host nations who are hosting the Olympics on their territory.
Russell, you will have protection around you from our ancestors, from our peers, and from our children, who will see who the real NDNs are in the next few weeks.
First presented on http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=304031584782&comments=
My Second follow up to Russell writings
Walking around Salish territory yesterday for the brief few hours showed me a small sense of the nightmare unfolding on Vancouver Streets. The schisms between band elected council aboriginals and traditionalists are ever increasing as non-aboriginals paint the line between what is authentic and what is not acceptable in North American society. Everyone favours the flavour of the month, the reality hero, and the all around ethnic talent hired to sooth the wary minds of the travelling masses as they travel from one settler village to another. The Settlers moved into Indigenous territory some year after the revolution down below the US/CDN border, the settler moved around the dominion sometimes after confederation. Both historical developments which changed who was the NDN and who became the NDN across the whole of the Americas. We as a people became the dispossessed and the Settlers became the new NDNs of North America taking our names of territories, lands and rivers and appropriating them as their own. If our leaders complained , they were caricaturized in the political cartoons, ridiculed in the commentaries of the times and always presented as children of the Great white Father in either colonial and imperialistic countries of the USA or Canada. As in the Queen of the Hawaiian people, or Louis Riel of the first provincial government of the now Manitoba territory. If we attempted to assert our sovereignty we were criminalized, killed or imprisoned and locked away, Oka 1990, Gustaferson (95).
Today with all the band council chiefs setup by the neo-colonial laws of a settler society built on racism, indifferences, and contempt for anything that was connected to the land or nature before their arrival; Vanoc and the corporations and governments paid for their protocol buy-off with paper money we cannot eat. They turned our images and our history into fantasy pictures of a contented people in a new world where we finally found what we were looking for after years of discontent and protest. Today, the new settler masses are going to eat up the new reality of contentment, and wonder why the aboriginals are complaining again, Nothing has changed except genocide which has changed its tools of persuasion and our children are the losers in this game we call life choices.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
CBC News - World - Global fund created to reintegrate Taliban#socialcomments#socialcomments
What's the saying my former wife said regarding Indigenous people being bought off by the system? Oh ya, "they pay you big money to shut up!" Sad but true as capitalist expansionist systems buy off indigenous people of all disciplines and occupations for a pretty song, meanwhile raping Mother Earth of her resources. NDNs in Canada were the terrorists long B4 911, the Oka Crisis and Gustaferson lake crisis. As long as we maintain our sovereignty over our traditional territory, governments and corporations will label us as saboteurs, provocateurs, terrorists and militant activists. The time is now to smash and destroy the politics of stone everywhere on Turtle Island. Destroy their monuments of excess and everything else will fall. It is no different here than it is over in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bali, Hawaii, America, New Zealand, or Australia. The capitalist pig dogs and fat cats of governments and corporations are everywhere they think can be in the name of progress and democracy. All in the name of controlling the natives. A real settler based form of neo-colonialism control. D. Morin, H. Trask and J. Armstrong are right in all their writings and thinkings!Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/01/28/afghanistan-conference.html#socialcomments#ixzz0dvgS09aX
Monday, January 25, 2010
CBC net story of: Prisoner who died needed help, ex-inmate says
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/01/25/blackwind-inquest-prison.html#socialcomments
sweepy wrote:Posted 2010/01/25
at 2:45 PM ET: Who cares. When are we going to stop making excuses for why people commit deplorable crimes. Once the crime has been committed sentence the criminal and throw all the resources towards the victim. Keep the scum locked up and keep law abiding citizens safe. If the jails fill up, build more. No more excuses. There are alot of people who have been victimized as children and do not go on to commit crimes. STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND GET THESE SCUMBAGS OFF THE STREET.
Sweepy!
You have no excuse for your callousness and black heart; No doubt, you have never experienced the genocidal practice against Canada's first people or a residential school. Everyone is a victim here, and it is our duty as children of our Creator to help the dispossessed, the incarcerated, the sick, and the meek. To turn a blind eye to the hopes of rescuing people from the darkness of this world is a grave sin of which you are guilty of. God help you to get the darkness out of your heart, your eyes and your mind. For it is you who needs help more than anyone these days.
Donald Morin, BA
Saturday, January 23, 2010
An Indigenous Opinion on our Canadian and Albertan Education issues from a First nation Filmmaker/Performer and Educator
(Based on articles published in the Edmonton Journal January 23rd, 2010)
"We see success in our kids" by Sarah O'Donnell
Desperate measures reflect deep problems by Paula Simon
SOUND OFF! Comments by Not the problem, Banana Republic, Sandy, James, Former Student, No friend of NSD, and In the woods
And the editorial comments of Dismissing school board good call:
Today the TRC may have finalized all its appointed hired professionals through an euro-Canadian defined hiring process, but will these white ratified new appointees truly set aside their differences and seek what will address the demons of Canada's residential past or will their euro-Canadian defined education and professionalism get in the way of the common good, (which is the well being of our children, the healing of Canada's first people and the restitution of a people destroyed by a racist systemic country and its people) or will they allow the own sense of superiority and allocation of power be complacently defined by the constructs of the Affirmative Culture and the Status Quo? I await to see how many of the professionals in this country put themselves on a pedestal and use the media positioning of the issues affecting Canada for their own sense of self aggrandizement.
So where do our dear poor children fit in this malaise of discontent and ideological positioning by the writers in this media, popular media and governmental practice of controlling the masses and the normalization of the everyday? Well unfortunately for all parties involved, in the back seat of the hay wagons as the ones who know what's best for the children hum and haw over who is right and who is wrong. Instead of trusting our Creator's plan in the Great Mystery of life and putting all children at the first of the line of value and utilizing the notion of self sacrifice on all our parts as humans; so that we can grown as a one community, one humanity , as one global village under the guidance of the universal order of truth, sacrifice and trust in our heart where in the Great Scheme of life is where the Creator lives, not in our governments, our churches, our homes or our minds, but in our hearts. So we can live each day with honesty humility and respect instead of the capitalist notion of what defines success in dominant society and what defines our failures in society. The loss of our children's ability to realize their potential in life will be our biggest failure as we continue to play the blame game and use outdated colonial, draconian ideals to correct what is wrong with our cultural, educational and political apparatuses of this country and not use common sense to resolve the historical wrongs of this country and change the ideological condition of our society.
A society that continues to create divisions of race and saying we are the root of the problem because of choices and divided notions of place in society. I say again change the diapers of the ruling class which I interpret as change how the ruling class educates their children in how history has defined native and non-native relationships so that the child is not taught by the grandfather, the father and other family members that all native people are drunks and belong in jail or that those native brothers will never amount to anything. That was told to my brother and my late foster mother Ann Bilan of Alberta by a grade one teacher many years ago when we were adopted by the late Mr and Mrs Bilan from the Mundare orphanage. Well today, my twin brother is a prominent and respected criminal lawyer in Alberta helping Non-Native, Native and Métis people who have fallen in their walk on life's path. I have had a successful career as an actor, modern dancer, performer, filmmaker and digital film teacher for native based education organizations, and I have not given up yet even though I joined the class action lawsuit against the Alberta Government for the abuse I experienced in 16 foster homes between 1 and 4 years old and the physical and sexual abuse I experienced as a ward of the crown.