Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 215

PROGRAM
Saturday, December 5, 2009
A String and A Prayer: Creating Universal Peace Beads
Eleanor Wiley
Room 214
Interactive Workshop
This experiential, non-denominational workshop brings together people of all ages and spiritual traditions to create a personal prayer strand. Participants will receive a Sacred Wheel of Peace (a mandala based on a talk by Jim Kenny at the Chicago Parliament in 1993) and will choose beads from a common bowl to create their prayer strand. The act of creation gives each person the experience of present moment practice while working in community with people of many faiths. Participants will also share their traditional use of prayer beads, revealing interfaith connections. Participants may then take home a physical tool to support their personal prayer practice and deepen their spirituality. It will also serve as a reminder of the gifts of understanding and global community. The personal prayer strand will be a tangible sign of the creator's commitment to generate justice, sustainable living, and a better world. Creating a personal prayer strand is an opportunity to learn to listen and hear in a new way, to see our similarities and the ways we can unite to make a difference. All materials are free and the workshop requires no artistic background.
Eleanor Wiley has been creating interfaith prayer beads since 1994. She has presented workshops in such countries as the US, Turkey, Ireland, UK, Spain, and South Africa. She is the author of A String and A Prayer' and 'There Are No Mistakes. Wiley's interfaith beading workshops allow participants to find a new way of understanding diverse spiritual paths. learn about commonalities and create community.
Arctic Peoples: Environment and Traditional Ways
Norma Kassi, Canada: Vuntut Gwitch'in First Nation, Moderator
Minnie Lucy Naylor, USA: Inupiaq Eskimo Room 215
Special Panel
The cultures, languages and spiritualities of Indigenous peoples of the Arctic reflect the Arctic environment. Traditional values provide instruction on how we should live on this planet. The ability of Indigenous peoples to practise traditional ways and subsist in the face of climate change will be the focus of this panel.
Norma Kassi, raised in Old Crow, Yukon, is Vuntut Gwich'in [People of the Lakes). From 1985 until 1992 she was a member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly. She has been a spokesperson in the effort to preserve the Porcupine Caribou Herd and serves on the International Gwich'in Steering Committee for the Preservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She is Co-director of the Arctic Health Research Network: Yukon, engaged in health research.
Minnie Naylor, an Inupiaq Eskimo raised in Kotzebue, Alaska, works with the Sivuliq Youth Media Group, which is finishing its current production, The Lost Dances, a film about Eskimo dances exchanged between Alaska and Russia. She has been an academic advisor at the local university branch campus and has been involved in local government. She is a recent graduate of the Rural Development Program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Maori Custom Law and Listening to the Land - Australian Aboriginal Meditation Merekaraka Caesar
Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann
Room 216
Interactive Workshop
Merekaraka Caesar, Wahine Maori of Queensland, will explain Tikanga, or Maori Custom Law, a practical, vibrant, living part of the Maori Culture that has been handed down from our Tipuna, or Ancestors. Tikanga is from our God and our Ancestors and gives spiritual guidelines for our daily lives and interaction. From the very beginning of time, when once we stood as eternal brothers and sisters, it has helped to remind us of our sacred cultural and spiritual values. Next, Miriam-Rose UngunmarrBaumann, Aboriginal artist, will present Dadirri, a form of Australian Aboriginal meditation that is based on listening deeply to the land and reconnecting to the Earth, our mother. A unique gift of the Aboriginal people, Dadirri is inner deep listening and quiet still awareness. Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. The contemplative way of Dadirri spreads over our whole life. It renews us and brings us peace. It makes us feel whole again. In our Aboriginal way, we learned to listen from our earliest times. Our Aboriginal way has taught us to be still and wait. We do not try to hurry things up. We let them follow their natural course-like the seasons.
2:30-4:00pm ENGAGEMENT SESSION
Merekaraka Caesar is Founder and President of a nonprofit cultural humanitarian organisation, Wahine Maori of Queensland Inc, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It has a humanitarian arm and plans to build orphanages in third world countries, commencing with Thailand. Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, a member of the Ngangiwumirri language group, was born in the bush near Daly River in 1951. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University, a Bachelor of Education, and a Master of Education, with High Distinction. In acknowledgment of her leadership and example in the fields of Aboriginal education and the visual arts, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Northern Territory University.
Indigenous Land Rights: Struggles and Survival (Session 1]
Tonya Gonnella Frichner, USA: Onondaga, Moderator Marcos Terena, Brazil: Terena
Room 217
Panel Discussion
In the first of two session, the participants on this panel will give examples of their struggles for land rights. The survival and livelihood of most Indigenous communities depend on their land rights and ownership of their land base. Dispossession of these ancestral homelands is a major problem confronting Indigenous peoples worldwide. Economic development and various forms of governmental policies pose the threat of weakening or dispossessing Indigenous peoples of their rights to their homelands. Tonya Gonnella Frichner, Esq is the North American representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and a professor of Native American law and human rights. She is president and founder of the American Indian Law Alliance, an NGO in consultative
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