Monday, October 29, 2012

Lakota Hoop Dancer: Kevin Locke

(click on the picture to go to the website)
LAKOTA HOOP DANCER
by Kevin Locke
About the Book

For Kevin Locke, the Hoop Dance is more than a dance; it is a way of keeping Lakota traditions alive. In the lively photographs and engaging text of Lakota Hoop Dancer, the importance of the dance to both Lakota culture and all cultures is rendered compellingly. Readers will learn how Kevin prepares his hoops, what regalia he wears, the designs created in his dance, as well as the training, skill and practice that go into his performance. This book is a testament to a dance that Kevin describes as a "prayer in movement". It is a celebration of the human spirit and a symbol of hope for future equality and harmony.
About the Authors

Jacqueline Left Hand Bull, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is an educator and lecturer about indigenous cultures in the Americas. She was born on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and now lives in Rapid City, South Dakota. This is her first children's book.

Suzanne Haldane is a photographer and author of Painting Faces (an ALA Notable Book), Helping Hands: How Monkeys Aid People Who Are Disabled, and other children's books. She lives with her husband and son in New Hampshire.

Tawacin Waste Win: MYSTIC JOURNEY: GETTING TO THE HEART OF YOUR SOUL'S JOURNEY






From Kevin Locke:  The October 20 Baha'i Holy Day; "Birth of the Bab" is especially poignant to me because it is also the anniversary of my mom's passing. In commemoration of this day, author Robert Atkinson has given me permission to excerpt this section from his book; " Mystic Journey, Getting to the Heart of Your Soul's Story"

“Recognizing love as the source of our core identity helps us remember at the same tim
e that we are souls on an eternal journey. One very vivid illustration of what this all-pervasive love can look like for us, and how it can change our perception of ourselves, was given by Patricia Locke, a Lakota educator and MacArthur Fellow, when she introduced herself at a talk she gave as a Libra Visiting Professor at the University of Southern Maine. She stood in front of her audience, took a step forward, and said:
I am an old person. I am a grandmother. And I am a keeper of our tradition.
She made a complete 360-degree turnaround in place, and continued on:
I am a young matron. I am raising my son and daughter. I am teaching them how to be brave, how to be generous, how to be compassionate, how to be respectful, how to be wise, and I am helping to keep alive the traditions of the Lakota.
She made another complete turn around, and continued:
I am a college student. I am learning the skills that will help me be a warrior in the society. I’m having fun. I’m still learning about the values and the traditions of the Lakota and the Anishinabe.
She turned around once again, and continued:
I’m a teenager. I’m frivolous. I’m a surfer. I’m a dancer, and I’m kind of foolish.
She turned around again:
I’m a child, a little girl. They have named me “Tawacin Waste Win.” My parents love me. My grandparents love me. I sit on my grandfather’s knee. I am barely learning about the Sun Dance, about the Sweat Lodge, and it’s hard to be quiet.
She turned around another time:
I’m a spirit child, looking to be born. I wonder where in this world I should go. Who needs me? Where shall I land? Into which family shall I go? I am going to be a sacred being.
And she turned around one last time, and explained,
And now I am a grandmother again, before you. I did that because I want you to remember the same thing in your lives, that you are all of those segments of your own lives at once, simultaneously, and you can call on all parts of your being to help you though the travails of life. You are still a sacred being, as I am still a sacred being because I am still a child, and I am still a dancer, and a surfer, and a young mother and a young wife, and all of the time all of those parts of me are still with me, and the same is it with you.
She went on to explain further,
I say that because I want you to know that I know you are sacred. I am not sure you know that. Sometimes in living in the cities and living with today’s bombardment with problems, we forget that we are sacred, and we become overburdened and sad, and we lose the joy that we felt when we were children, and when we were teenagers, and when we were young men and women.
I have another reason for asking you to remember all those stages of your life, because if you remember them, then it’s easier for us to be friends, to be interrelated, even though we are many different colors in this room.
She explained that looking beyond the external parts of our beings is something we have to do because “in each one of us there is this child, this lovely sacred being. The word for child in the Lakota language is sacred being, wakan yeja. That’s what our people call children, wakan yeja, so you are all wakan yeja, and we are all related.” She concluded this part of her talk by adding,
That’s what soul-making means to me, that we remember that we are gifts of the Creator, and our souls and our spirits are sacred because they are gifts from the Creator. If we understand this that we must always, all through our lives, try to make ourselves hollow reeds, then that energy that comes through us will help us to be citizens of our families, our communities, and the larger world.
Patricia Locke helps us all remember the most important things in our lives: that we are all sacred beings; that we are all related; that we are in all the stages of our lives simultaneously; that our souls are gifts from the Creator; and that it is the Creator’s love for all creation that makes this all possible.”

From Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Our Soul’s Story, by Robert Atkinson (New York: Cosimo Books, 2012), pp. 97-99.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Your NPRBC & Funds in Action: Inauguration, October 20, 2012 Bismarck, ND

 

Dinner with friends, including Valerie and Jaci from the National Spiritual Assembly

Friends and family during break

Bahi, ABM and Regional Baha'i Institute Coordinator visiting with Max's family

Learning about the  "Continum of Growth of the Region," with Bahi and Farris.
 ans
Friends stopping to smile for me!

More study of he Letters from the Universal House of Justice

Chauncey and Riaz discussing JY activities at dinner.

Dru, NPRBC Secretary and Max, NPRBC Chairman discussing responsibilities after dinner. NSA Members  far right.

Saturday night dinner with friends.





Greg spends a lot of time helping all of us with technical challenges...

NSA Vice Chair Jaci, Karen and NPRBC Treasurer Doney

Jennifer, Riaz, Dru

Karen  and Jenn...

Lovely Karen

Max & Riaz

Max's beautiful Family, Greg in foreground

Max  with Riaz, ABM and  Jill ,ABM

Max, Chairman NPRBC and family, Ferris, ABM

National Spiritual Assembly Member Valerie

ANIMATORS: COMING SOON TO A CLUSTER NEAR YOU! JY ROCK! ( Poster design by Andrew Johnson)


Your NPRBC in Action: Regional Baha'i Council Orientation, August 18-19 2012 Wilmette, IL

Northern Plains Regional Baha'i Council (Back Row) Greg Hansen,Jennifer Doney, Max Defender (Front Row) Bronwyn Castillo, Karen Pulkrabek, Dru Hanich; Randy Daniels was unable to be with us.




Quote from Bahiyyih Khanum


More Day 1 Book 8, Custer SD 23Sept12

Paiman Darab, Sylvia Morrison, Alan Schulte, Bonnie Hartpense, Trish Haugen, Dalari Bentley-Stillman, Pat Schulte, Alberta Schulte

Bob Haugen, Riaz Castillo, Bronwyn Castillo, Ken McNamara

Joe and Bonnie Hartpense, their home the "perfect" setting!

2012 JY Standing Rock

Chauncey Canyon, Morgan Rose LeBeau, Jasmine C. Lebeau
Jason Hill, Chauncey Canyon, TC Hill


Children's Classes Mclaughlin, SD (Photos from Chauncey Canyon )Sep 2012