Date/Time
Date(s) - August 21, 2015
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Grandview Calvary Baptist Church
Categories No Categories
It is an honor and a pleasure to announce the 2015 totem pole journey, led by Master Carver Jewell James of the Lummi Nation’s House of Tears Carvers.
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Kick off the tour in Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver):
EVENT 1:
Friday Aug 21, 6-9:00pm Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, 1803 E 1st Ave, Vancouver. (1 block east of 1st & Commercial). 6-7pm, Community Dinner, By donation.
7-9pm Screening a film documentary by Freddy Lane of the Lummi Nation and Sierra Club about the 2014 “Our Shared Responsibility” journey through the Pacific Northwest. There will be a discussion with Jewell James (Lummi) and Rueben George (Tsleil-Waututh) following the film. Presenting supporter: Wilderness Committe; venue sponsor: Grandview Calvary Baptist Church.
EVENT 2:
Saturday, Aug 22, 10am-1pm, Tsleil-Waututh Community Centre, 3010 Sleil Waututh Rd, North Vancouver, BC V7H 2V5
10-12noon – 2015 Totem Pole Journey arrival and ceremony outdoors;
12-1pm, Lunch in Community Centre. Free.
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Please join the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust in supporting this year’s journey. Each year for the past two years, Indigenous carvers have transported their totem poles thousands of miles to raise public awareness and strengthen opposition to the export of fossil fuels from the west coast of the United States and Canada.
Working in close association with other tribal governments, environmental organizations as well as the faith-based community, these efforts have helped shape the public debate and understanding of what is at risk with the proposed fossil fuel exports. These journeys have reached millions of people through the mainstream and social media. The 2015 journey (August 21-August 31) comes at a defining moment in our collective effort to defeat these fossil fuel export proposals.
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The Corps of Engineers will likely decide in mid-to-late August whether or not it will agree with the Lummi Nation and deny all permits for the Gateway Pacific Terminal Project. Meanwhile, the project proponents are engaged in a public relations campaign to sway public opinion married to efforts to influence the Corps through elected officials in Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Washington, D.C. The 2015 journey will play an important role uniting opposition to the fossil fuel export projects, empower the general public with information, send a strong and united message to agencies and elected officials, and strengthen local, regional, and national networks and alliances.
The 2015 Our Shared Responsibilities Totem Pole Journey
Unlike previous journeys the 2015 journey will focus events in places of worship and in key tribal communities. Pope Francis, in his recent 184-page papal encyclical Laudato Si, issued a sweeping condemnation of the “relentless exploitation and destruction of the environment and the reckless pursuit of profits, excessive faith in technology and political shortsightedness.” The central theme of his message was “our shared responsibilities” to the Creation and to each other. This is also the theme of the 2015 totem pole, and one that goes to the heart of opposition to the proposed extraction, transport and storage of fossil fuels in the Pacific Northwest. We will be holding events at places of worship during the journey to build on this interdenominational message of our shared responsibilities in the faith-based community.
We will also be stopping in major urban areas (Spokane and Portland) and are planning for events in Vancouver and at Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust, Bellingham, Seattle Area (Tulalip), Longview, Celilo Falls, Yakama, and, finally, the Northern Cheyenne reservation. The journey is scheduled to end in the territory of the Northern Cheyenne whose sacred lands would be devastated by the proposed coal mine. We must raise a total of $29,791 before the departure date of August 21, 2015, so please consider stepping up to support this powerful journey.