NDNs & DOGS, A MOMENT DEDICATED TO FRIEND

Dedicated to the late Lisa Sazama

I was shocked to hear about Lisa's passing Sandy Scofield informed me, and I am sadden by this news. I met Lisa around 1991 - 92 through my former artistic partner. Jimy Sidlar. Jimy is a great singer songer writer performer and actor. I first saw Jimy as an actor in Peter Barnes Noon Day Demon and hired him for the role of Danny Dog in the Experimental multi-media work NDNs and DOGs. NDNs and DOGs was a chaotic and intense performance script adapted from the poems and writings of Neil Benson and Donald Morin after Donald Ghostkeeper asked me to do a performance event based on the indigenous issues of the day (1989-onward) After dialogue with Neil and studying all my writings and plays, the script was re-written numerous times till the first 1990 performance event at the International Pitt Gallery in Vancouver, then at the Earth Voice Festival 1992, and then at the 1994 National Native Youth and Multicultural conference at The Hotel Vancouver. As an inter-disciplinary artist, I directed the first two events of which both were learning experiences in accordance to the Aesthetics of Performance, It was with the 1994 event that Lisa was the theatrical director of the Hotel Vancouver Show, while I constructed the multimedia around the direction of her two actors, Jimy and Donald.

She was an extraordinary artist who had a strong and clear methodology regarding her directing and her involvement in the rehearsals and her direction created in my humble opinion, the best performance of the three produced shows of my work as a writer/producer/director.

You can see and hear her briefly at my NDNs and DOGS web-documentary of this unique period of my life. My condolensces to her loved ones at this sad time of all of us, who were touched by her grace, her artistic geniosity, and her kind and caring nature.


NDNs and DOGs Hi-Res Digital Release-May09

Donald_Morin | Myspace Video

Live 3 Song Medley by Donald Morin

Lecturing and Teaching with Skype; A First at The University of the Fraser Valley

Hats off to Sophie Isbister for her seamless writing and editing at the cascade student paper about my online lecture and presentation of my media work. Here is the link: http://ufvcascade.ca/2011/02/15/teaching-with-skype-a-first-at-ufv/comment-page-1/#comment-3170

Christine Elsey's work is important at the academic level of deconstruction, evaluation, and applying direct action and ideas to how we manufacture literacy.

Manufacturing Literacy as in The Literacy Manufacturing Company, of which was part of and is part of my ideas as an artist today and since the 1990s. Beyond the systemic conventional terms of a dying colonial world, we manufacture our literacy through our connection to the Great Spirit, the Creator, and to his/her angels and how we teach our children Yes the Affirmative Culture Literacy has always existed and its system with all its apparatuseses of definition and control. great and small are being exposed in the new WikiLeaks literacy and that is good.

Chaos happens today now in the Middle East because it is the time of the end, the slow march towards the end of time. A New Literacy is being created, so stop, stay alert and be prepared to do great work in all you do. Hy Hy The cyber surveillance tools of all the terrologues in the free world may watch us and look out for the agitators, anarchists, militants, sabatours, provocateurs and terrorists, but hell, they have been calling us those signifiers every since they got lost in these woods during contact. So stand up, show your power, and that you are not afraid to fight the terror machine. Feed the poor, heal the sick and get ready for the war! Hy Hy, O'SIem, Gila Kesla, All my relations.

CBC News - Saskatchewan - Sask. First Nations call cigarette seizures 'unconstitutional'#socialcomments

Finally More of our People are taking a stand againest the colonial monopoly Canada has on our sacred tobacco. The time is right for revolution, stand up against the system of decay around us that they call Canada. Take back what is ours now!

CBC
News - Saskatchewan - Sask. First Nations call cigarette seizures 'unconstitutional'#socialcomments

lecture video excerpt from U of FV presentation.wmv

Online Interview of Christine Elsey published in UFV student rag and online at Interview pertains to Online lecture and media presentation I did for Native Studies Class at University of Fraser Valley

http://ufvcascade.ca/2011/02/15/teaching-with-skype-a-first-at-ufv/

1999 Metis Sauvage European Tour Digital Magazine Revisited | IsumaTV

1999 Metis Sauvage European Tour Digital Magazine Revisited | IsumaTV

Harper says 'Canada shone' in 2010

Right. After a discussion this morning with professionals in the various services of working with Canada's first people, we all agreed that Canada's relationship with Canada's first people has not succeeded and that systemic racism invisible and visible is in Canadian society. So, PM Harper, quit spreading the lies you create. You only perpetuate the status quo of systemic racism in Canadian society and pulling the wool over all non-native Canadians, who buy into the current lie about native/non-native relations in Canada, and North American society.

The day a Slain yachtsman's daughter [who is] 'pretty tough' made the news

Theses commenters lost the point of the news and made it a social discourse of left and right winged political debating.

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

wasted resources spent on Cariboo grow-ops targeted by B.C. RCMP

Const. Michael McLaughlin says, These newcomers to the pristine Caribou region have no regard for the land that they occupy; streams are being diverted, growth-enhancing chemicals and pesticides are leaching into the soil, and garbage is being left behind,"

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

Some words regarding the the opinions from the CBC commenters pertaining to the Dec 3rd. CBC story of First Nations group, province disputing child welfare.
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!

CBC closes commenting on the WikiLeaks stories

CBC's comment tool is closed for these wikileaks stories! Why is that? The true colours of the USA are being exposed, the arrogance, the roughshodding, the bullying, the racist sense of superiority of military and diplomatic might from the beast of the belly

Shaking Our Artistic Hands with the Devil

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

DAM Comments on CBC story of U.S. pornographer targets Winnipeg aboriginals

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/11/04/man-winnipeg-aboriginal-pornography-website.html#socialcomments-submit#ixzz14MTYRmWB

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!!

Supreme Court to hear case over Quebec’s controversial ethics and religion class

In response to article published in The Globe and Mail
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

"Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. has said its pipelines pose no threat to the environment", they say there is no guarantee in life, and it is rather arrogant for the corporation to say that. Let’s not forget the accidental rupture some time ago in Burnaby when an independent contractor made a mistake. Oil is oil; IT will destroy everything it touches No matter what clean up attempt is initiated.

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.

Alta. child welfare system needs to change: report

Story closed for commeting, why is that? The majority of the children under care are first nations. Is the government hiding behind legislation in their positioning and conditioning of indigenous people? Has anything changed for our children since the 60s Scoop? Tell us something we do not know. Stop taking away our children! have a good day, and week ahead.

All 33 Minors rescued in Chile! Rescuers remaining!

Thank our Creator, all "33" men were rescued. Very important number considering Jesus lived 33 years, now we have the resecuers to rescue, God help them all. God bless the survivors in the belly of our rocky life!

Prostitution laws struck down by Ont. court

The protection of our life givers is paramount. The old saying about "the oldest profession” rings true throughout history, the bible, other teachings, writings and the modernity of our popular culture. Women and men have a God given right to their bodies, and how one cares for the human body and what we do to our bodies.

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.

Kelly A H Bird Presents An Exosphere Production In Association with New ...

Kelly A H Bird Presents An Exosphere Production In Association with New ...