Words of Indigenous Media Artist and Performer Donald Morin, Residing on Turtle Island near other humans, animals, and birds.
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/
At the end of the day, cultural appropriation is still evident, as the sound and images in the popular cultural realm of film, television, and sports is inundated with the constant references of idiomatic expressions from the dime novel days of the Modernist period.
`...Bit the dust,...the only good injun is a dead injun,... watch your back,.....once you leave the reservation, there is no turning back...`` etc etc.
I have heard these expressions more than once in my lifetime, and with a bit of research you will see how these expressions came to stay in the North American Lexicon library. To change the stereotyping, the cultural norms of two centuries is going to take more than school board recommendations and passage of levies or school board orders, it is going to take two to three generations of re-educating of the ruling classes children, and the restructuring of the educational, cultural, and political apparatuses of North America and any euro-colonial country affected by colonialism. It is going to take a re-education of the masses who strive on the sports competitions, and the audience participation jingles. It is going to take time and the disruption of sported related industries and the elimination of mascot related sports games and themes. It is going to take a total elimination of two centuries of colonial history and the re-education of the masses. Regardless of the rebuttals against changing the mascot's image or name, these moronic culture opinionators will never see beyond their point of view because of how invisible, the notion of ingrained systemic racism is embedded in the subconscious realm of popular culture literacy and how one sees what is normal or a way of life in this world. Not until we have a total disruption of the North American way of life will we see change or have an understanding of the old world view of colonialism and all its entrapments and entitlements.
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.
A few years later, Riefenstahl shot "Olympia," a movie about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler hoped to show the world his Aryan utopia. There is an ongoing debate about whether the film is a piece of propaganda or a non-partisan work of art. (Let's just assume it was a bit of both).
One of Riefenstahl's most wondrous inventions in "Olympia" -- in addition to filming athletes in slow motion -- was the Olympic torch relay. She concocted the now well-worn ritual for her movie, and VANOC incorporated some of her scenes into its four-minute clip.
Borrowing from a Nazi propagandist -- er, ah, cinematic genius -- is no crime. (Not crediting Riefenstahl's work, which would appear to be the case with VANOC, could be). But where VANOC may run afoul is in the editing applied to "Olympia."
In the original version, a torch runner enters a packed stadium with the flame held aloft. There is martial music playing and, just on the edge of the screen, a handful of individuals flashing the "Heil Hitler" salute. In the edited, made-in-Vancouver version, the Nazi salutes have been blacked out. (Coldplay has also replaced the drums and trumpets).
Had the salute been left alone, there would have been howls of protest, perhaps even a call for a federal inquiry. By blacking them out, VANOC is hiding a historic truth and paddling down a familiar Canadian river called Political Correctness. (Cut Riefenstahl altogether and it is self-censorship). Can anybody say: no-win situation?
VANOC said in an email that they decided to include the controversial footage to maintain the historical accuracy of the video.
"We weighed our choices as to whether to leave the Berlin 1936 relay footage out entirely, to alter it in order to depoliticize it, or to leave it in unaltered; we chose the middle ground, in order to respect the relay¹s history while not highlighting the political environment of the
day," the statement said. "We weighed the decision carefully, as even though the Berlin 1936 Games footage lasts only a few seconds, we wanted to try and do the right thing to reflect the relay's past."
a
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.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Accredited Buskers ? Donald Morin's response to this notion during the Olympics as I have buskered hundreds of times in my life as an artist
Sent to <searchgrads-list@vancouvercommunity.net>, an artist training facility I attended in 2003, which was created by The Vancouver Alliance for art and culture to help artist become self-sufficient and marketable.
Well with Cavelle's wonderful comments, I hope she is fully acknowledged for her fine irony in this reply. As she is a respected artist , I enjoyed my visit with her a couple of years ago as she explored possible work ideas with me at a time in my life when I was searching for work in my career and she invited me over for a chat. A fine artist, who now presents very interesting perspectives on the work we do as artist, and this comment on accredited buskers is another fine example of her use of irony, subtle wit, and a critical perspective of a time on Vancouver's civil life where, entertainment for the masses takes a new low.
Just as Gustave Corbert created works in a duly noted exhibit of his work during a time of commercialization, she should as well create an avenue or venue to work in critical parrellel to the crass ventures out there attempting to cash in on the Olympic beast coming into town during the month of Feb and beyond. Next these cash greedy adventurists can put out a calling for accredited homeless people, who can sing and dance too? Cavelle, good work on pulling out the stops in examining another example of an Olympic scheme designed by "another group" wanting to promote art and culture alongside the belly of the beast.
With a word such as "accredited", the Olympic committee, Vanoc or Van art, whatever these groups or organizations want to call themselves these days, they are putting themselves on a pedestal to idealize the notion of a perfect world, a perfect street, perfect entertainment, perfect athletes and perfect cultural politics and a big lie of being an example of the quintessence of urbanization on a international, national, and local level of cultural consumption for the moronic culture, the masses and anyone else who is caught up in the biggest lie in Vancouver since expo roll into town. Where after that charade, the richest Asian capitalist came in after the expo lie and bought up Salish Territory for a song. Look at that area now. no better than the streets next to it, as it is sandwiched between DTES, China town, main street, and the tracks and streets between the rich and the poor.
No wonder Vanoc is scrambling because there is no snow on Cypress, because Karma is coming back on their lies and use of words to spread the illusion of excellence in promoting the human spirit in all its grandeur! (Right next to the homeless, the sick and mentally suffering, and dispossessed shoved in the dark corner of urbanization where no one can see them. We tend to forget that first there was the spirit of the word before anything in this universe that was created. That is why we must choose our words carefully, because it is through the spirit of the word that ideas manifest into being creations of good use and consumption as opposed to be words of lies and accusations, disrespected, demonize and left ethereal in the universe to rot and fester
I am so glad I moved to Edmonton, so I do not have to see the lies and machinations of golden calves shining on the dirty streets of British Columbia for the entire world to see. Some people will see me moving away from this as an example of running away from the problem, but I seen it as moving to be closer to my family members which is where community starts from, and then we can continue on to help bigger communities in a time of great need in the world... Hy Hy, O'Siem, Gila Kesla, Miigweech, all my relations
Filmmaker/Artist
Donald Morin, BA
seen at
http://www.facebook.com/donald.a.morin,
http://www.google.com/profiles/donaldmorin,
http://damorin.multiply.com,
http://spaces.msn.com/members/DAMaNDN4MEDIA4ARTS/,
http://www.youtube.com/Willy2Frencheater,
http://myspace.com/donaldmorin, &
http://d_a_m.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
GET OVER YOUR RACISM AS YOU SAY GET OVER OUR GENOCIDE
This blog is written in response to the comments posted to a CBC article at this link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/01/05/north-ahf-funding.html
So for those 2 say to move on, get over, I would say you R callous, & one-sided in your thinking. If we were really to examine the actions required 2 resolve this historical travesty, this lineage of genocide against us, Canada's 1st people, then we should as "Canadians" bring the Canadian Government and her people 2 trial 4 genocide. Bring the Canadian Government 2 court 2 charge them 4 removing the child, family, community & nations from their land, culture, language, & family. Tribal custom usage based on persons ability 2 connect 2 the land, their language & culture. Once the government removes those variables, U kill a people, destroy their connect 2 their mother tongue & take away their worth through attrition. By forcing them in2 residential schools, orphanages, reform schools, & isolated areas of barren land where disease, dysfunctionality, & abuse growths & festers due 2 the inability of a people 2 support themselves and become productive members of a collective society. With Canada's 1st people, representing a very small percentage of the Canadian population, why do Canada's first people represent over 65 percent of the federal and provincial jai population? Why do the majority of Canadians still see us Native people as drunks, losers, or just in jail? It's a 2 way street here, if these naysayers say that the intergenerational sorrows that continue to destroy us as a people must stop, then I say the intergenerational racist attitudes against us as a people must stop too. Stop recalling the racist attitudes taught to U racists by your parents, your grandparents, & your society's apparatuses of education, culture, & power 2 stop disseminating information that still positions Canada's 1st people below all others in this country. Get over it
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
CBC News - Saskatchewan - Riders GM Tillman won't have criminal record
Ya, I wonder if they would do the same for a First Nations Person in this sick racist society. I am sick of these white thrash homeboys getitng away with crimes of their desire while our people who were victims of genocidal abuse and pursuasion are charged to the full extent of the law! Casterate all these honkies , especially him
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy New Year Worlders
Year here there and everywhere to my enemies, to my friends, to my lovers, to my
haters, to all of our children, let us start the year with honesty, humility,
and respect..HNY2U-All
May all your happiness, love and fortunes arrive at your doorstep, bank account, and in your home
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
#the+music+died?cid=rsstgam
Getting closer to the Beast, part deux
Well, I saw things like this coming as we moved closer to the beastI would say as in my DAM blog, identify the 2010 Olympic sell-outs, shame them for buying out for the big bucks, shame them for forgetting the less fortunate people of the world, of the Downtown Eastside. Tell them to contribute more than the minimal requirements the VANOCKIANS are doing now. [VANOC says one thing, their actions tell another. They say and publicize that they are contributing to the community as they say when they are giving jobs to residents of the Downtown Eastside, but in reality, they pick who they want to use to publicize their so-called good will, and leave the most vulnerable and most desperate ones in the alleys and jails, hypocrites who prophesize good will, but use clandestine secrecy to promote their real agenda, which in my opinion is the aggrandizement of the self and their greedy egos and pocket books.
So, shave off the edge of the capitalist, and use those remnants and your work to help the ones, time forgot, the ones 2010 Olympics use to aggrandize themselves along the edge of media falsidity. Remind the sell-out artist to use the grand stage to shake up the status quo, do not be afraid of VANOC and their propaganda, and remember my quote "Aboriginal art in the Age of Technological Authenticity" as opposed to Walter Benjamin's quote The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. [Where the 21st century world believers of the Olympic beast use technology to authenticate and politicize what is indigenous to nature, and the quintessence of the human body, and whereas the world believers of the 20th. century used art as a means of reproducing a political means.] So this VANOC symphonic proposed lie which was rightly refused by the artist of the Symphony, is another indication that the 2010 Olympics is still caught up in the old world thought of containment and control instead of embracing the Great Spirit's essence of what the human body can be in maintaining the quintessence of the human body and spirit...So, we R getting closer 2 the Beast and it is scary. They will use illusions, transparent idols, and Olympic bric a brac 2 buy u ...off. Like Inuit artist/filmmaker ex-Wife Laila Hansen of Greenland said, they pay you big $ 2 SHUTUP! Good call Vancouver Symphony, you saw through the transparent veil of the 2010 Olympic illusion. O'Seim, Miigweech, Gila Kesla, all my relations!
Respectfully
Donald Morin, baFilmmaker/Performer/Educator
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Getting Closer to the Beast
Friday, November 06, 2009
Support The UMAYC youth centers
I would say, support the centres; very much so, give them the support they need and deserve. From my experience with teaching some of the Coast Salish Youth and Indigenous urban youth in filmmaking, I learned so much from their innocence, their desire for social and political change, and their desire to leave a legacy for future generations. As some say Architecture is politics in Stone. Our Indigenous youth today have the ability to transform Nature's resources into a social and cultural tool for changing the "diapers of the ruling class", through their activism, through their traditional and political/cultural creations, and through our support. As a survivor of the 60s scoop, my mother tongue came from the Queens institutions of the day, and they have tried to define me every day as the historical, stereotypical unban ndn, no matter how much education we obtained as we developed ourselves as fighters against the systemic racist values of the day. Many of our relations did not make it to today to be able write our comments for the world facers to see and read.
Their written history is in the statistical archives of a colonial born country that left our people behind to die on the streets, in the desolate areas of territory, and from the drug/alcohol stained veins of our cancer infested bodies living in a cancer infested world. Our youth know our people from all sides of history, the spectacle and the body. The human body in its many forms can build these Centres, because there is a dire need and urgency to build and utilize these centres as cultural/spiritual/educational grounding and healing place to help heal a troubled world. Miigweech, all my relations and give them the money they need to begin this great journey we can all share to our children.
Go to facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166709714366 and join today, tonight, don't think about tomorrow cause it does not happen then, life happens now!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Dreams from Hera’s Temple on Salish Land
From the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera to the 2,600 years and more years Salish People have been on their territory, culture is re-ignited in every generation, in every dream and this flame is the beginning of something new to many, is the beginning of something un-liked by others. From watching the ceremonies and listening to the "dignitaries", it was appreciative to hear the acknowledgement to the people of the Salish Territory, From the Olympics' Furlong to the Mayors and the premier; then they introduce the PM Harper. He does his salutations to all, but when it comes to the first people of this continent, there is no mention of territory, only acknowledgment of race, "our aboriginal guests", so the Olympics may be intended to represent the best of the Human Spirit, the torch represents the best of the Human Spirit, and then the cauldron is to be lit for our global human family, but it only takes one with his political schemers to use a choice of words to define who holds the allocation of power in this country.
Yet, do these unabashed media portrayals of pride, determination, success, and futurist winnings help the less fortunate of our society on a daily basis. Does all the money spent each day on the physical, economical intellectual and technological devices to allow us to watch, read, and listen to this Olympic Dream Story feed, support or love: the ones who have nothing, the ones who live in the alleys, roach and sick infested houses of the countries? Does the money for these games and how the money is spent in covering, celebrating, hosting these games; help the families in the welfare slums of our territory as the flame dies in their hearts. Each of our four nations ask the hosting indigenous territory for permission to land, show their cultural strength and rightly representations of cultural protocol, but does pomp and ceremony help the starving child/man /person/who lives on stolen unceded territory, as bravados shows our class distinction, and the new pan-Indian canoes. We are still the dime store Indian as we are moved by digital dreams and the high dreams of social change. You are not speaking for me, Mister rep. of the four nations. Miigweech, wound a knee, break a leg, merde, here in "Canada"! Not!