Stories, News & Updates...All the original material on this website is ©  "Circle of All Nations” - All rights reserved

Encore Vivant! 2014 Year End Report

Wed, 11 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0500

William Commanda was born as the Morning Star lingered in the sky on November 11, 1913, on the eve of the First World War. So, his mother named him Odjigkwanong, and a hundred years later, he remains for many a beacon of light in an ever-darkening world.

2014 CAN Report on William Commanda's 100th Year.pdf

Portal to Peace Commemorative Note

Wed, 5 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0500

From 9/11 to September 21, the UN International Day of Peace, to 10/22 - a somber reflection on animating peace in a world on fire
2014 CAN Nov 5 ‘Portal to Peace’ Commemorative Note Final .pdf

Our Annotated Mini Bio in French! Plus..

Tue, 29 Apr 2014 00:13:34 -0400

ICI!!
The Link takes you to the Annotated Biography - Merci Martine!
MiniBioFr2014.pdf
Here is a Bio Synopsis:
Une Mini-biographie du Dr. William Commanada, OC, Aîné Algonquin
Fondateur du Cercle de toutes les Nations

Quatre-vingt quinze ans, l'aîné Alonquin William Commanda de Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Maniwaki, Québec est née le 11 Novembre, 1913 sous la lumière brillante de l'étoile du matin, sa mère le nomma Ojigkwanong; ainsi l'univers pus figuré dans son histoire personnelle de la début. Aujourd'hui, il est vu par beaucoup comme le symbole de la lumière émergeant de l'obscurité de la première guerre mondiale, éclairant le chemin vers un nouveau monde avec sa vision d'un Cercle de toutes les Nations, une Culture de Paix.

Il est un porte-parole et chef spirituel respecté à de nombreuses conférences, il participe à des veilles spirituelles des Nations Unies pour la paix, et son travail est reconnue nationalement et internationalement. Parfaitement trilingues, il partage ses paroles et ses prières en langue algonquine, et les traduit en anglais et en français. Les enseignements les plus importants de l'Aîné William Commanda sont les notions d'égalité, d'équilibre, le respect et la responsabilité de la Terre Mère, de toutes les formes de vie et pour les personnes de toutes origines raciales et culturelles, et il travaille sans cesse, seul et tout à fait sans une organisation, le personnel, la structure, soutien formel ou financier pour animer le Cercle de toutes les Nations.

Un des plus hauts représentant des Algonquins de la rivière des Outaouais, il est l'arrière, arrière petit fils du légendaires Pakinawatik, le chef algonquin qui, vers le milieux des années 1800, a conduit son peuple de ses terres à Oka, sur le lac des Deux Montagnes à leurs activités de chasse et de piégeage traditionnels à la confluence des rivières Désert et Gatineau. Il est porteur de trois ceintures wampum sacrés d'importance historique et spirituelle: l'ancienne ceinture de la prophétie des Sept Feux, une question de choix; de la Ceinture de bienvenue de 1700 sur le partage des ressources naturelles et des valeurs des peuples d'origine avec les nouveaux arrivants, et de la Ceinture du traité Jay concernants le passage des frontières qui reconnaît l'Île de la Tortue comme une entité cohérente. Ses ancêtres ont inscrit leurs légendes, leurs prophéties et les accords dans ces ceintures soigneusement élaborées sur plusieurs siècles. Il est vu par beaucoup comme le porteur de la prophétie des Sept Feux au moment de la manifestation de son dernier message, et les messages de tous ces objets anciens sont aujourd'hui aussi profondément pertinent, qu'ils étaient dans le passé.

Il a été acclamé chef de la communauté de Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg pendant plus de dix-neuf ans, même si lui-même n'a jamais participé à ces élections. Il a également travaillé comme guide, trappeur et bûcheron pendant la majeure partie de sa vie. Il est un fabricant de canots en écorce de bouleau et artisan de renommée internationale, et il ya une exposition spéciale consacrée à son œuvre au Musée canadien du canot de Peterborough. Il a construit un canot pour la reine Margrethe du Danemark, et il a aidé Pierre Trudeau à réparer son fameux canot d'écorce de bouleau. À l'âge de 90 ans, il a partagé ses compétences en fabrication de canot d'écorce et sa philosophie dans le documentaire de Valérie Pouyanne, Good Enough for Two.

Il a promu la gérance de l'environnement et le respect de la Terre-Mère avec passion pendant de nombreuses décennies. Il a mené des cérémonies du calumet à la conférence pré-Rio du Sommet de la Terre organisée par le Président Mitterrand de la France en 1991, et ses prières sont à l'origine d'Action 21. Il a participé à la première conférence autochtone Cri de la Terre des Nations Unis. En 1995, il a servi de guide spirituel , à la marche de sept mois et demi Sunbow Five de la côte Atlantique au Pacifique, pour la sensibilisation à la crise environnementale croissante; reçu le Bill Mason River Conservation Award en 2004; organisé des ateliers sur la gérance de l'eau en 2004 et 2006, et 2009; il est président honoraire du Comité de désignation patrimoniale de la rivière des Outaouais , et offre des interventions sur les enjeux environnementaux actuels tels que la désignation de l'anguille d'Amérique comme une espèce en péril, la construction d'un méga dépotoir de Danford Lake et la Loi sur les eaux navigables.

Il est le récipiendaire de nombreux prix et reconnaissances de ses œuvres et son talent: le Wolf Award pour ses efforts visant à favoriser l'harmonie raciale et de consolidation de la paix par la création d'un Cercle de toutes les nations (très bien accueillie par exemple son engagement dans le rassemblement international annuel qu'il accueille à son domicile durant la première fin de semaine d'août - Le rassemblement de 2001 est présenté dans le documentaire Cercle des Nations), un Prix pour la justice, de l'Université d'Ottawa et un Prix pour la Paix des Amis pour la paix. Il favorise la justice réparatrice, le pardon et sa sensibilité envers des prisonniers est capturé dans le Documentaire de la National Film Board de Lucie Ouimet , Rencontre avec un Sage Algonquin.

Récemment, ses efforts ont été reconnus à Ottawa avec deux reconnaissances spéciales: en 2005, avec un doctorat honorifique de l'Université d'Ottawa, peu après la publication de son livre, Learning from a Kindergarden drop out, a été publié, et en 2006, avec la Clef de la Ville d'Ottawa, un honneur particulier pour un Algonquin d'une réserve du Québec. Cet honneur lui fut présenté à l'île Victoria, où l'infatigable vieillard de quatre-vingt quinze ans continue de travailler sur sa vision d'un Centre National Indigène, pour la restauration et le développement du site Chaudière sacré en tant que centre historique national extraordinaire, et comme un think tank de l'intendance environnementale et de la construction de la paix nationale et mondiale. Deux autres livres, Learning from a Kindergarden drop out Two et Passionate Water-Butterfly Kisses comprennent d'autres réflexions sur son travail et son idéologie.

En Décembre 2008, il a été nommé Officier de l'Ordre du Canada, pour son rôle de chef de file en tant qu'aîné à la compréhension interculturel qui a promu et permis la sensibilisation aux traditions et aux héritages des peuples autochtones du Canada. L'Aîné William Commanda, est très honoré d'assister à cette reconnaissance de la pertinence de la sagesse indigène de ce pays en ce moment. Au mois de novembre, 2009 la Fondation nationale des Réalisations de vie autochtone (The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards) lui a octroyé Le Prix 2010 comme reconnaissance des réalisations pendant sa vie entière. En janvier 2010 Le Collège Willis a annonce une bourse intitulée La Bourse Dr. William Commanda! Et, au mois de novembre 2011, le feu William Commada a reçu un doctorat honorifique de l’Université de Québec en l’Outaouais.

Circle of All Nations Mailing Address
506 Stratas Court, Kanata, Ontario, K2L3K7 613-599-8385
circleofallnations@sympatico.ca
www.circleofallnations.ca

contact – Romola

Spirit of Water - a March 22 Message

Sat, 22 Mar 2014 21:51:13 -0400

A Special Report Commemorating William Commanda’s Prayer for Water

2014 WATER – A CIRCLE OF ALL NATIONS REFLECTION ON WILLIAM COMMANDA AND THE SPIRIT OF WATER.pdf

Grandfather inspires protection of the Eel

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 21:25:00 -0500

AmEelManoshkadosh2007FinalWithOrigEmailandGWClinkBiling.pdf
Grandfather Commanda Takes about the Sacred Chaudiere Site and The Eel
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=william+commanda&docid=4908216808244154&mid=20441385BDE67C82CE3D20441385BDE67C82CE3D&view=detail&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=20441385BDE67C82CE3D20441385BDE67C82CE3D

Annotated Mini-Bio William Commanda

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Annotated Bio 4 RED.pdf

2013 Circle of All Nations Paddle for Peace

Sun, 13 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0400

A Report on the Annual Circle of All Nations Paddle for Peace Event

2013 Paddle for Peace Red 13:10:13 pdf.pdf

Circle of All Nations 2013 Equinox Event

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

A report on the Circle of All Nations March 2013 Event

Reflection March 16:13 reducedpdf-1.pdf

COP 17 - NOTE TWO

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Join in a prayer for COP 17 – December 8, 2011 – Durban South Africa - Circle of All Nations Note

It is a singularly unnerving experience to spend two weeks at a global conference on climate change of such proportion where the vast majority of the world acknowledges that life as it has evolved over thousands of years is on the threshold of extinction for most – plants, animals, peoples and land – and within timespans we can conceptualize – before the baby turns five for example - … and also be Canadian.

On Christmas Eve in 2005, Grandfather Commanda and I watched Day After Tomorrow, the dramatic movie about the ice storm in New York – when we turned to the news, the unimaginable images of the great tsunami flooded the screen. Images of environmental catastrophes spanning the globe, Mother Earth’s reaction to the assaults she has endured since the industrial age, provoked by human error or greed, have persisted with such regularity that we have actually become indifferent to them. We are in the grip of a new warfare, and we modern people who fascinated by the ideas of quantum physics scarcely understand its gravity. Only a few short years ago, President Bush said America would not leave its destiny to the hands of Nature, and on the turn, Katrina presented.

Indigenous Peoples took note of the shifts in earth energy and brought it to the attention of the global community in the face of the United Nations in the nineteen forties – over sixty years ago – before I was born.

When this was finally recognized, hope, birthed in a binding global commitment to combat climate change twenty years ago, was ignited in the hearts and minds of people across the world. I have always believed that it was significant that at its commencement in the Pre-Rio deliberations in France, Grandfather Commanda, who I call the DC - direct connect - elder – ignited the sacred pipe in a prayer the world participated in for three mornings. Strangers have come up to me and commented on its impact on them over the years. In his international Circle of All Nations gatherings the focus has always been on Mother Earth, and countless young people have learned and evolved in his school of teaching – I actually see some of them here in Durban. In 1993, he talked about the Seven Fires Prophecy of looming environmental catastrophe as inscribed in the ancient Sacred Wampum Belt at the UN’s first Indigenous Gathering – called prophetically the CRY OF THE EARTH. (An aside - Grandfather has talked about the indigenous gatherings on the land of the late sixties and early seventies – he recalls the hippies who came to camp and remembers in particular that Jane Fonda was amongst them once – and so he found it interesting that her husband Ted Turner funded the Cry of the Earth Gathering; another intriguing thing I realized is that Al Gore also attended this Indigenous Conference – unacknowledged as it might be, the Indigneous voice and prayer has nonetheless been influenced the global consciousness in deep ways over the past decades.)

It continues to do so profoundly at this COP 17 – where, especially, the brothers and sisters of South America persistently and courageously raise the presence of the voiceless and the rights of Mother Earth herself – I remember that over the past decade, Grandfather Commanda used his Condor feather in all his blessings – he was already affirming the prophecy of the Unity of the Condor and the Eagle, his work was acknowledged and affirmed in a video produced at the Gathering of Indigenous Peoples in Venezuela a few years ago, his efforts have been strengthened by his personal relationship with countless South American Indigenous Elders, and it is significant to note that his Circle of All Nations is present at COP 17 to support and collaborate with Fondacion Argentina a las Naciones Camino a la Verdad - on the road to the truth – a voice from the south. Grandfather has noted the artificial dividing of the Americas with the Panama Canal – and he has always affirmed the connection.

This great COP 17 gathering is happening in Durban, South Africa, the birth-place of humanity, and the prayer is still strong that the hope of the world will not be left to die here. Grandfather also smoked his prayer pipe here in Durban a decade ago, on the eve of the world’s move to greater warfare and irrecovable shift to crippling fear and division.

It is not for lack of scientific, accredited knowledge, nor deep wisdom, that this conference is struggling so much. As several of the state leaders noted in the High Level Discussions, the world cannot be held hostage to the whims of one or two nations who renege on their responsibilities to global citizenship.

Canada is the obvious target of the frustration and despair, because it expresses unfathomable indifference to the unequivocally acknowledged extreme gravity of global climate change, and it persists with the creators of the great carbon crisis to stare blindly into the faces of those looking at death looming at every side – in rising oceans readying to swallow them, and heat and drought devouring all hope of food.

There is much frustration expressed about the United Nations, in its inability to lead the world out of this morass. What can it do? It can set a moral marker; and one can see valiant efforts to do so in the leadership voice at the conference. It has also put forward the voice of the global citizenry in the alternative efforts at Durban.

The challenges are Canada and the United States and a few others. Grandfather’s Turtle Island is now populated by the world, and his people know with what cost to them this colonization came. US is indeed us. Now our siblings from across the waters are crying out their pain, fear, frustration and hope – and you hear it in ninety percent of the statements at the High Level Discussions. You also hear it in the presence and petitions of young Canadians at this conference.

The cry is also there in Grandfather’s prayer of Ginawaydaganuc – We Are All Connected. This prayer is in grave danger of disintegration. Grandfather, as carrier of the Sacred Three Figure Wampum Belt, noted the Indigenous in the centre as the glue to hold a fragile humanity together – and it is this prayer that must be animated in the hearts and minds of people across the globe – we who now constitute Canada and the United States must understand and realize the implications of such deep interconnection, and reach those who have moved from this centre of humanity. I recall a poem about industrialization that I studied in high school in South Africa forty years ago – We were taken from the ore beds and the mines and hammered into being – Beware you become the slave of what you create!

The world demands a legal framework to manage interrelated global realities, because the state of climate, environment and humanity is evidence of the abysmal abuses imposed by colonizing nations that have long dispensed with their sacred birthright of an organic interface with Mother Earth. It is only because of our accessing of the great social network of values and the resources that sustained Grandfather’s ancestors for centuries, that the new people of North America have made out so well, at least on some levels – all came from oppressive conditions else where. It is only these same values and resources that gave Europe a second chance after the first two world wars.

We have to pray for the animation of the threads of ancestry that link the new people of the Americas with their places of origin, heal the disintegrating threads of connection, and ignite a prayer of affirmation of the deep wisdom of Grandfather’s Ginawaydaganuc, that emerges from our link with his Turtle Island.

We must animate sparks of humanity in our lives – in order to claim our rightful places in the great family of humanity. We must animate our relationship with Mother Earth, the ultimate mother of all and provider of all life giving things.

We must do this collectively – and we must do it like Grandfather too – he marched on alone, with the word Ginawaydaganuc written on his back.

GINAWAYDAGANUC – WE ARE ALL RELATED

ISIBINDI NDONDO SQUARE REPORT

Thu, 1 Dec 2011 20:00:12 -0500

ISIBINDI NDONDO SQUARE REPORT14:6:11.pdf

Stories, News & Updates...All the original material on this website is © "Circle of All Nations” - All rights reserved