Page 26 - Sonoma County Gazette September 2019

“Sound in the Silence”
Native American Students Participate in a
Unique Performance Camp
Sponsored by Graton Rancheria, SiS is an intercultural and international remembrance project centered on historical education
Shaylie Lozinto from Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians and Precious Thomas from Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians present their written and movement performance for Sound in the Silence.
Nearly 30 high school students from Native American households in Sonoma and Marin counties recently participated in a week-long overnight performance camp at Camp Cazadero. The site, which rests on 1,000 acres of open meadow and features groves of redwoods, madrones, firs and oak trees, is located near Santa Rosa in the hills north of the Russian River.
Rancheria Tribal Chairman, Greg Sarris. “It’s an essential component for Native American youth to build skills associated with performance art and movement, such as confidence, strength and personal identity.”
About the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
What motivated me to build the Living Peace Wall was the recognition that peace activists are almost always marginalized and/or not taken seriously. Their voices are seldom heard during the lead up to war. Instead we hear from ex generals, hawks and professional pundits, often without attribution to their connections to the military industrial complex, which benefits from war making. Non violent alternatives to war are rarely discussed in any serious manner.
The Graton Rancheria community is a federation of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo groups recognized as a tribe by the U.S. Congress. For more information, please visitgratonrancheria.com.
Robin Carr, Senior PR Counselor, Landis Communications Inc. (LCI) robin@landispr.com | C: (415) 971-3991—Landis Communications Inc. (LCI)
Conflicts between individuals or nations may be inevitable, but violent resolutions are not. We must find nonviolent, peaceful resolutions to conflicts, whether they are personal, national or international.
Of course all this starts by finding ways to become more peaceful ourselves in our daily lives. The inscription on the granite bench behind the peace wall
The camp is a combination of
the Gathering of Native Americans (GONA) curriculum and Sound in the Silence (SiS). SiS is an intercultural and international remembrance project centered on historical education that engages young people through various artistic forms. The Camp is sponsored by Graton Rancheria.
The Sebastopol Living Peace Wall
Students spent the morning hours focused on GONA teachings. In the afternoons, they paired up with an artist to create a visual performance piece that would be shared with their peers on the camp’s last day. The
This year’s Ceremony / Celebration will be held in the Sebastopol town square, on Saturday, September 7, 11:00 AM to Noon. Please join us in honoring this year’s peacemakers:
six options they had to choose from included beatboxing, film, hip-hop/ rap, movement, storytelling and singing.
Jim Corbett Among other things, he has founded the Love Choir, helped name Sebastopol “Peacetown USA”, puts on the Peacetown summer concerts, built the Peace Garden behind the community center and more.
Lynn Woolsey served for thirty years in the House of Representatives. While there she gave 435 speeches on ending the Iraq War and other peace and justice issues.
Tula Jaffe was a passionate advocate for social justice and humanitarian causes for more than fifty years. She directed the Sonoma County Chapter of WAND (Women’s Action For Nuclear Disarmament) and later coordinated the Sonoma County Task Force on The Homeless.
“The Sound in the Silence program is very important and I am a huge advocate of this camp,” said Federated Indians of Graton
Dr. Earl Herr has worked his entire life to create a more peaceful world,
first by refusing to fight in Vietnam as a Conscientious Objector, a war he regularly protested against. As a physician he later traveled to central America to provide medical care to those caught up in the Contra War.
By Michael Gillotti
I created the Sebastopol Living Peace Wall in downtown Sebastopol to
promote the cause of peace and justice by honoring the peacemakers among us. Every year we infuse the peace wall with life by adding four peoples’ names to the granite panels and by putting on an Induction Ceremony and Celebration.
26 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 9/19
sebastopollivingpeacewall.com
reads: “PEACE BEGINS WITH ME.”
We won’t be able to create a more peaceful world if we are not more peaceful
individuals. I believe this begins with listening, listening and connecting with the peaceful spirit inside and really listening to others, especially to those with whom we disagree, in order to find the “common ground” between us.
The inscription on the central granite panel of the Living Peace Wall reads as follows: “We honor the peacemakers, whose names are inscribed, who have during their lives worked for peace and against war, for justice and against injustice, for nonviolent resolutions and against violence and for the common good and against selfishness and greed.
By honoring these outstanding individuals we also honor all who share in the collective desire to rise above differences of race, religion, nationalities and ideologies to that place where we are all brothers and sisters, where we share a common humanity and a common desire to live in peace with all the people of the world.”