Last July, I sat in Circle at the Dallas Peace Conference with seven of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. They are an extraordinary group of indigenous female elders from all over the world. They joined the Millionth Circle Conveners as we hosted a workshop on Circle. We laughed and cried together. Their website is International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, www.grandmotherscouncil.com.
This past July 9, they went to the Vatican where they held a prayer circle and recitation of the names of all those who have come before them trying to open this dialogue between the Pope and indigenous people around the world. Having received no response from the Vatican to their first letter delivered in 2005, they presented a second letter. Despite the Pope’s sudden cancellation of his July 9th public audience, to which they held tickets, the Grandmothers persevered laying down their prayers at the Vatican.
Encouraged by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s official apology to the aboriginal peoples of Australia, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent apology to First Nations people in Canada, and Barack Obama’s promise, if elected, to appoint a Native American adviser to his senior White House staff, the Grandmothers let nothing deter them from contributing momentum to this wave of support and healing for the world’s indigenous peoples.
In their first letter addressed to Cardinal Walter Kasper at the Vatican, dated October 22, 2005, the Grandmothers write, “Our peoples must still live with the continuing legacy of this first denial of our right to be treated as equal participants in the community of nations. Our peoples are still struggling for the right to live on earth and practice our cultural and spiritual traditions as our ancestors did.”
No response was received from the Vatican.
Namaste!!!
