Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

 

I will not be posting the conclusion to “From Resentment to Forgiveness” this week, but instead encourage you to please read and enjoy the May edition of Parvati Magazine that is now live. It is created and sustained with love by volunteers who care about you and our Earth.

 

Please take a moment on Monday, Earth Day 2013, to consider your relationship with the planet. Not only in terms of the little things you can do to support its health, such as recycling, buying local, organic produce, and reducing your carbon footprint.

 

Think too of your personal relationship with the planet. Go deeper into how you feel on this Earth, like how you would consider a friendship and your role in it. See if you can tap into the biological sense of interconnection with all that is. You literally are the very same stuff – the same carbon molecules – that makes up all of nature. There is not one thought, breath, action that you do that does not affect the whole, precisely because you are part of the whole and the whole is you.

 

So when you allow yourself to buy into negative voices in your head that say you are not good enough in some way or another, you also allow that vibration to grow on the planet. When you choose to love yourself, you come closer to finding the joy you have always wanted. And you are closer to serving all beings and feeling a vibrant part of life.

 

So today, Earth Day, consider what your relationship is with the Earth, how you can love it better, like a living organism, and in so doing, love yourself and all beings.

Let a healthy earth relationship become the foundation of a healthy, happy and prosperous tomorrow, since you are a vital member of this one earth family.

 

Jai Ma,

Parvati

North Pole Journey - Day Seven

Day Seven: Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Performance at Inuksuk High School IQALUIT

We fly back to Toronto today, but first, we have one last stop. I am scheduled to perform and Satish will present his fabric at Iqaluit's Inuksuk High School at 11am. It is already 8am. We must check out of the hotel and head up the hill for my sound check, costume change and walk through the show in a space I have not yet seen. Satish has a few personal pieces to tend to and encourages us to go ahead. He knows it takes me an hour and a half just to get into costume.

Our taxi pulls up to a large, electric blue building that looks like a large block of Lego, marked only by a few small, circular windows. The day has already begun for students. The halls are empty as we walk towards the administration offices to check in. I feel a sense of familiarity here. I remember this, the feeling of hormones and agitation in the air, the tension between the students feeling “I really don’t care but I have to be here” and “this is where my best friends hang” – and the teachers doing the best they can in jobs that are not easy.

Sunanda and I are shown into my makeshift dressing room, a small office that appears to be the guidance counselor’s office. The bookshelves are lined with information about birth control methods and tools for teenage pregnancy and parenting techniques. Here Sunanda begins to unpack the costume elements as I join Rishi for sound check.

Rishi is in the auditorium with two drama students. They are doing their best to tweak the sound system so that my music fills the space and feels juicy. I walk over to sing into the mic. There I tweak some knobs and bring to life a mixer covered in dust, with hidden magic elements these students knew nothing about. We are in better technical shape than I had thought. This will go over well. The sound is good.

I head back to the dressing room where Sunanda and I launch into transforming me into the mythic creature Natamba. The drama teacher has told us that her students are really excited about the show, since she told them I am a cross between Lady Gaga and Madonna.

The school bell rings and triggers a Pavlovian response in me. A feeling of excitement and freedom surges through my body. The halls fill with noisy, boisterous, vibrantly alive students who emerge from small rooms. Soon the auditorium is flooded with dynamic bodies full of the very hormones I felt pulsating through the halls when I first walked in. I peek out of my dressing room door and see a room agitated and full of energy. This is fabulous. I am ready.

The lights go out and Rishi walks on. He announces my presence and shares a brief introduction to the meaning of my trip. I walk through the cheer and break into song. The crowd is generous, palpable and vital.

After my four songs, I call over the mic for Satish, who I had not seen since morning. In the dark room, he had been patiently waiting through my performance in the front row of the auditorium. He walks onto the stage and together we unveil his fabric, explaining his mission. The auditorium is silent as the students are glued to his presentation.

Then we open a dialogue and welcome questions. The one I get the most is about the wig and costume. This is never dull, especially now with this spontaneous wig creation on my head made of recycled mayonnaise lids! It’s a great green promo piece, I joke. Satish is asked about the breadth of his travels and where he goes next. The kids are clearly inspired by our presence and shout out “great work!” and “keep going!”. This is why we have come: to touch, to inspire, to heal, and to transform. Another success as we come to the end of our North Pole journey.

As I walk off stage, CBC TV is waiting. A producer had come to televise the show and now wants to ask questions. I love the feeling of being able to reach and touch many people through the media. We live in a blessed age where distance does not matter.

Rishi is busy redirecting various teenagers that surround us. As I leave the CBC interview, students ask for my autograph. The many faces show differing stories but all have the light of hope in their eyes.

I peel myself away from the group and slip back into the dressing room. Our flight leaves in just over an hour. Sunanda helps me get out of costume as quickly as possible and we hastily make our way into a cab.

HOMEWARD BOUND

This time however, we are not all going the same direction. Just as we came separately to Resolute Bay, now we go our separate ways. Satish is on his way to Ottawa while we go home to Toronto. After this adventure of a lifetime and working in such close camaraderie, sharing the common vision to serve our planet, leaving Satish is hard. We make sure he is safely on his flight and then run to ours.

Just as our trip started barely making it to our flight Northbound, we now return home barely making it onto this flight. When we left home, our delay getting to the plane was due to the amount of tasks we had to prepare for a completely unknown experience in a very short time. Perhaps too, it was an expression of some fear of the possibility of death we could meet in the journey. Now, the tight timeline to get to our flight feels like a result of us trying to savour every last morsel of this adventure of a lifetime.

Nunavut, we will greatly miss you. Your story moved us to come to the top of the world. Now, your story is part of our own personal story. Each one of us carries within us new-found love for the Inuit, deeper love for our planet, our Mother Earth and growing gratitude for the power of friendship. Individually we are strong. But together we are One Earth family.

North Pole Journey, Day Six

Day Six: Tuesday, September 28, 2010

BACK TO IQALUIT

Satish, Sunanda, Rishi and I greet this, our last day in Resolute Bay, before sunrise. Out the breakfast room window, the wind blows powdered snow across the rocky ground and out over the frozen Arctic Ocean where yesterday we walked on icebergs. Today the sky is cloudy, still darkened by the remains of the night. Our bags are packed, awaiting us at the front door of the inn so that we may catch an early flight to Iqaluit today, en route back to Toronto. Tonight we will rest in Iqaluit, Nunavut territory’s capital city and largest community located on the south coast of Baffin Island at the head of Frobisher Bay.

We say our goodbyes to Chris at the inn, then Meghan at the airport who drives us to our departure. There is no doubt we are sad to leave. This has been an enormously important trip for each one of us, the likes of which seems still masked by a cloudy feeling that draws across my inner sight. I cannot quite see the magnitude of what this all means. All I know for sure is, like a child who marks their growth with lines on the inside of a doorjamb, the growth of my Self is marked on the doorjamb of my life by this trip to the North Pole.

The flight, which left the ground at 6:30am, is relatively uneventful. It retraces our Northbound steps, now moving back over land that we saw just a short time ago with the miracle of virgin eyes. Today’s clouds partially masks the view of the geographic magnitude we were privy to witness on the way up. Despite the cloud, I can still very much feel the expansive, harsh rock and ice that rolls out in broad, carved strokes below me. This is the land of the Inuit people where humans have survived for thousands of years. Like a child that intuitively knows its mother, I feel a connection to this part of the world, our Mother Earth, as though within me a baby Inuit soul is being born. I understand fully how I heard Her call that drew me on this journey. I am connected to the planet, to these people, to all people through my humanity, through my reliance on this majestic planet’s selfless generosity for my very survival.

The 6000-plus populated Iqaluit, by comparison to the Resolute Bay community of 200, seems like a booming metropolis. But still, the modern buildings are laid out over rough roads and sidewalks, which lend some insight into what perhaps most cities were like in early inception. Founded in 1942 as an American airbase, Iqaluit, meaning "place of many fish" in Inuktitut, is a young city.

As we arrive at the new Nova Inn, we are told that there are no rooms left to accommodate our needs. Somehow Sunanda creates magic and soon we are up in our room. The day is yet young, so we head out for a planned meeting at the Elder Centre. It is I in particular who wants to visit with the Inuit elders to hear what they have witnessed in environmental changes, to learn from their insights, to see if there is a way we can serve them and in so doing, serve the Earth.

WISDOM FROM THE ELDERS

A bilingual, middle-aged Inuit woman greets the four of us at the Center. She is our translator. Most of the elders speak only Inuktitut. Some of these people are over 100 years old.

The large, bright room with a bay window at one end is filled with perhaps people, mostly women, who sit at tables and chairs playing cards, conversing and sharing time. Rishi asks if he is allowed to videotape our visit. We are given permission.

Two women, perhaps eighty or so, become spokes people for the group. They share stories about the enormous changes they have seen over the course of their lifetime, illustrating how snow used to be pure white but is now dark, dirty and yellowed. They speak of life living off the land and how they now no longer live in igloos but in built houses. They share stories from their grandfathers, how their elders saw the coming of the white people and how they would bring this environmental change.

These elders say they have hope, that is, hope for their children. They see the Inuit children now more educated and as such, with more ability to deal with the environmental problems. For them, the future depends on the health and strength of the children.

Satish reaches into his jute bag to pull out his eco-silk fabric message, dedicated to children. Sunanda and I help open it up and walk around the edges of the room so that the elders can see the many signatures from around the world it showcases. We talk about Satish’s work and share the reasons we have come to the North Pole. I share how my music is dedicated to helping people remember the good of life, awakening to who we are, how we are all interconnected as one human family. I am asked to sing, so I spontaneously choose “You Gotta Believe”, a song I wrote on 9-11 and had the privilege to sing in New York City at the world famous Madison Square Garden. As the sound pours out of my mouth, I feel my whole body shiver with waves of energy moving through. I am reminded and humbled yet again that there is a force here that is so much greater than our limited selves can see.

SPEAKING AT THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING

The next meeting that Sunanda organized for us is with City Councilor Simon Nattaq. We make our way over to the government building. Shaking Simon’s hand is like touching the strength of the Earth. Like Sam the hunter who brought us yesterday out to the ocean icebergs, Simon feels made of the land itself. This is not a feeling I have had shaking any other politicians hand. I soon find out that Simon is not only a politician, but a respected elder in the community. A government employee translates Simon’s native tongue Inuktitut into English and our words into Inuktitut.

Satish and I speak of our mission to help awaken people to the necessity of understanding our interconnection, how we are all children of the same Mother, the planet Earth. Simon is open to this message and warm to our communication. We spend a generous half hour together. He signs Satish’s fabric in traditional Inuktitut geometric writing. His penmanship stands unique among other signatures in various languages on the electric-green silk.

We are offered a place to speak at the City Council Meeting today. At the meeting, Satish and I individually step to the microphone and each share the call of our parallel missions. As I speak, I watch the Inuit women on the board resonate with my words:

I am not a scientist who works in external laboratories. I have no clinical evidence to prove the agitation that is in Nature at this time. I am an artist. My laboratory is within. Through my inner, quiet, contemplative practice and meditation, I have felt called from within from the Earth herself to make this journey. We are one Earth family, all inter-connected through Nature, our Mother Earth.

Being a singer, songwriter and performer, what I can offer is my voice. I am here to help give voice to the environment and bring with me a message from the North. Being in the media, I am in a position to help raise awareness of the melting polar ice in people all around the world, many of whom are disconnected from Nature and are unaware of the role we each play as Earth Walkers. I am here to be present with you, to connect, to listen, to honour your ways, to respect those that are acutely aware of our interconnection with Nature. The reason we have come is to build a community of mutual trust and support. We know that only when we listen and work together can we bring about the change that is so urgently needed. I would like to hear from you if there is any way you feel we may serve you and our shared Earth.

The message from the council members echoes what we have heard unsolicited from the elders, hunters, healers, environmentalists and politicians: tell the south to stop polluting. The world’s pollution ends up in the North, at the top of our world. Nature is dying; the animals are leaving; and as such, we are suffering.

After our City Council talk, several young adults at the meeting who are part of Katimavik, an organization that educates Canadian youth through community involvement, come up to us to share how touched they are by our North Pole mission. Yes, hope is in the children. And this environmental crisis calls each one of us to make positive change in our own lives, in what we think, in how we treat ourselves, in how we listen to each other and in how we respect our planet. Yes, now more than ever, hope is born from awakened consciousness in all we do.

North Pole Journey: Day Four, Part Five - Healing at the Top of the Earth

 

Day Four: Sunday September 26, 2010

Part Five

HEALING HAPPENS IN THE UNSEEN

Healing work happens in the unseen. It is a process of becoming still and surrendered, enough so that we align with a much greater truth, beyond our limited ego or will. In that state, we move from a monochrome, black and white reality to what I call ‘hyper-real’, a tapestry of technicolour possibilities and infinite, co-creative abundance.

I have been privy to extraordinary and exceptional grace over the years, witnessing profound beauty emerge and be born from this state. It seems that the breadth of our human potential goes largely untouched. In the compressed, me-me-me centered rush of our busy, self-absorbed lives, we unconsciously play out old stories we developed as children and from times now long gone.

Here, in this place of vast Arctic immensity, surrounded in all directions by kilometers of pristine, crisp, absolute white snow and ice, I am acutely aware of what most of us, as a human species, are missing: the magnitude and magnificence of this moment. Everything lies there within, a place of infinite potentiality, void of all wants, the fulfillment of our deepest longings, loves and desires.

Faced with this expanse, there is nothing I can do now but bow to the Supreme Consciousness that is beyond comprehension, that defies understanding. It is this compassionate and wise life force that permeates and pulsates through all living things – the force of our universe and beyond - that of which I am made.

The technicalities of our video shoot seem far in the past. As we return to our airplane, our pilots share good news. We do not need to pitch a tent on this frigid ice. While we were shooting the performance footage, they located a wind shelter, courtesy of Parks Canada, that we can use.

We move through the snow that lay between the plane and shelter with single-minded focus. We enter a small cabin that is surprisingly sound. Equipped with a butane stove to cut through the fierce chill, it is has solid flooring, walls and a roof. It seems that the angels continue to grace our mission to serve all beings and our planet Earth at the North Pole.

HEALING THE EARTH AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

In monk-like quiet, Sunanda pulls out from beneath her Arctic wear a book that she, Rishi and I very much respect. It contains the Lalita Sahasranama, Sanskrit prayers to the Divine Mother. We have traveled over 3000 miles (5000 kilometres) to chant these ancient prayers and make this offering to the Earth at the top of the world. The Earth is our Mother. She provides us with life and sustains us. But now, due to human ignorance, she is in distress. May our offerings serve in some way to alleviate suffering for all.

Sunanda turns on a recording of a monk chanting these sacred words. She attentively joins in. Rishi and I enter deeply into a meditative state. This is a setting I can use, a gift I have had since I was a child. As one Vedic astrologer said to me, I have a very strong relationship with the unseen. With my eyes closed, and with no attachment or agenda other than to serve the highest good, I begin non-verbal communication with unseen presences, energies as alive as that which are in flesh. In this, a transformative process begins to unfold.

Feeling cradled by the penetrative sound of the Sanskrit chanting, I let go and expand. In this field of possibility, I become witness to a rearranging and clearing that takes place all around us that we cannot see. We are far from alone.

Just as the North Pole is a dumping ground for our world’s physical pollution, I now see that it is also a dumping ground for the psychic pollution in the thoughts of humanity. I watch as energies shift, move, clear, reveal and disappear. All of life is unfolding, arising and falling - first in the unseen, then in the seen.

As I allow my body to be a physical conduit for the Earth (matter from which this body is made) to the unseen (source from which I am), an alchemical process unfolds within the next two hours. As witness, I see first a clearing of the space, which include evicting a variety of energies, then opening a gateway for benevolent Cosmic Intelligence energies so they may provide healing support for the living organism, the Planet Earth.

From deep within this meditative state, I am shaken. The pilots summon my attention. We have at most 20 minutes until we must be on the plane to make it back safely.

Sunanda concludes her second round of the Lalita Sahasranama, the thousand names of the Divine Mother, as I begin to bring my full awareness back to the physical reality of this Earthly shelter. As I open my eyes, I see that my breath still creates frost, despite our little heater hard at work. My body is dusted with black soot from the camphor we have been burning continuously.

The pilots encourage us to the cabin door. It opens and reveals dusk light. We must make our way back to the plane and begin our journey across the British Empire mountain range over Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, heading southbound back to Resolute Bay. We still have a four-hour flight until we are back to safety.

Once on board our tiny sea otter plane, I feel elation. Surprisingly not exhausted by the already twelve-hour day in extreme conditions, all I see outside the plane window is Nature shining. It seems She is very pleased. I sense all of creation singing joyfully.

Though the sun was almost gone from view, hidden behind the Earth’s surface, the world, the universe, feels lighter, bright and more expansive. In the sky, on the journey here, a strange, sharp, sparkling, golden light seemed to follow us. When I looked at it then, all I could think was that it was angel Ariel supporting us, with us, present.

Now en route back, a similar otherworldly light fills the sky, this time surrounded by rainbow colours of the setting sun. It is clear to me that we have succeeded in this mission to support healing the planet. It is clear to me that this trip, from beginning to end, is Grace, orchestrated from far beyond, and so much bigger than us all.

North Pole Journey: Day Four, Part Three

Day Four: Sunday September 26, 2010

Part Three

AT THE NORTH POLE

It feels as though we have arrived on the moon. The plane seems even tinier now that we have touched down onto the vast field of pure white, untouched ice and snow. To the East, the wind has carved a few sculpted, hills made of solid ice. The snow extends as far as I can see, far out over the flat, vast ocean that is capped by solid ice, upon which we stand. The pale blue, expansive sky blends with the pale blue tinge of the snow, giving the impression of otherworldly groundlessness and infinite reach in all directions.

We are here for two reasons: for me to perform my songs at the top of the world and to do healing work for the planet Earth. Both of these are to help raise awareness of the speed with which the ice now beneath our feet is melting. In just a few years, we will be among the few who were able to stand here.

That thought seems hard to believe, as it is now -25C, yet this is unseasonably “warm” weather for this location. We were told that at this time of year, it was dangerous for us to land as the ice is thin. I also know that just as the Earth’s physical pollution is carried by wind currents and tragically collects at the top of the world, so too, the Earth’s psychic pollution gathers here. This was part of the call to come. At the crown of the body of our Mother Earth, we can, through song and prayer, offer our presence as service to ease the suffering She endures due to our human ignorance.

Sunanda, Rishi and I launch into high gear to get our work done in the short time frame. We have three hours here until we must board the plane for our safe return. The clock is ticking. We have scheduled for ourselves one hour to shoot the video of my performance and two hours to do the healing work we have come to do. All our actions needed to be trim, prompt and focused, especially with quickly fading light. Immediately we go to the task of shooting me singing four songs at the North Pole.

We are usually a strong, harmonious group, but almost as soon as we land, each one of us becomes anxious, pushy, cranky and tense with each other. One could say our behaviour is simply a reflection of the pressures of the day. Yet I know otherwise. The tricky energies here are seeping into our psyches. There is interference which does not wish our success. We must not only be on our toes to get our tasks done but we must be more inwardly alert than ever to be present as karma yogis, those dedicated to selfless service through action. I feel strengthened with the thought that our group of volunteers we call the Earth Team and the spiritual community we belong to in Toronto are actively praying for us and supporting the success of this mission.

NOT ALL THAT SHIMMERS IS GOLD

Our first task is to look for the ideal location to shoot the performance footage. We need something that will capture the immensity of where we are. Strong light is key. We see in the distance a gorgeous spread of golden light across the snow as the sun begins its descent behind the plane. We decide to walk towards this shimmering expanse as fast as possible and set up the shoot.

Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes go by trudging with effort through snow and ice as high as our knees. I turn back and see the plane has become a dot in the distance. My heart skips a few beats as I crouch down to push away the snow at my feet and reveal thick, translucent ice. The image of polar animals swimming below me flashes through my mind. I am not on solid land. I am in the middle of nowhere and, now, far from the safety of our plane, the pilots, their rifle and our gear.

I realize that we have made a rookie mistake and already spent a quarter of the time we have for the video shooting, and we are no closer to our golden location. Panic sets in. I quickly conclude that, likely similar to being in a sandy desert, now in this snow desert, without any points of reference, that which seems close is in fact much further away than what our senses can perceive.

I stop abruptly and the sound of crunching ice and snow beneath my feet also ceases. I understand that we are chasing a sparkling, fractal illusion of light. We believe we are moving closer to it, yet it is quickly receding from us, drawing us further and further away from safety and now sabotaging our mission. I call out to Sunanda and Rishi who also stop walking. I suggest we set up our shot exactly where we are with the light we have left before we lose it altogether. This is our one and only chance to get the shots we needed. We cannot spend any more time seeking “the perfect light”. This is the perfect place to be. So we begin.

North Pole Journey - Day Four, Part Two

EUREKA

Around midday, we land to refuel in the Canadian weather station Eureka, official population seven. As the plane lowers to the ground, I notice unusual animals in the distance that look like prehistoric woolly mammoths. As we deplane, the pilots tell us that we have landed near a heard of wild muskox. We are encouraged to take a closer look, so Sunanda, Rishi and I walk cautiously towards the heard. Their long, furry dark brown coats are layered with clusters of ice. A couple of beasts shake their heads, steam escaping from their nostrils in the rush of an exhale. They know they have onlookers. As though these creatures are the dark, rocky mountains that surround us come to life, a wild, untouched force feels clear in their presence.

Soon a truck pulls up to the plane. Two inhabitants of the weather station have arrived to greet us, offering us the use of the washrooms there if need be, while the pilots refuel. The three of us go quickly to be back in the sky about 20 minutes later. We still have another couple of hours until we reach our final destination.

THE ANGELS ARE WITH US

As the hours pass, the kilometers of vast, expansive scenery out the plane window is breathtaking. Throughout the flight from Resolute Bay to Eureka and now here, heading northbound somewhere above uninhabited Canadian wild, we have been graced by clear skies. Below us I see rolling and plunging icy fiords with rock as black as night and snow a sparkling white as pure as crystal. We pass over dusty steel-blue-grey frozen ocean with broken sheets of pale white ice. When open water appears, it looks as black as the mountainsides, dark, deep and menacing. Certainly this landscape does not welcome humans. I am grateful, despite the beauty, for being in the relative safety of this tiny, warm plane.

Out of the window over my shoulder, I continually notice a shimmering light in the sky. It is as though a dancing ray has been following us since we departed this morning. It creates sharp shards of golden beams that pierce the sky, then grow into a fiery expanse. I lean into Sunanda and suggest that Archangel Ariel is with us. For sure, this plane, that I would call Grace, feels escorted by angels. Filled with prayers, mantras and healing intentions, there is a harmonious presence in us all, a surrender to this experience.

NATAMBA

I notice the co-pilot Mark looking back at us from the cockpit to catch our attention. He signals it is about an hour until we land. Sunanda and I pull open our bags and get out hairpins, brushes, makeup, mirrors, costume and the wig. It is time for me to get ready for my performance and transform into Natamba, the Avalonian Goddess from my show. Using the petrol barrels as our tabletop, carefully and skillfully, Sunanda and I manage to paint my face, tie up my hair, place the new, makeshift wig on my head and clothe me fully in a gold flight suit, made especially for this trip.

Natamba to me is much more than an entertainment character. She represents the Cosmic Intelligence, the highest good in us all. The embodiment of I AM consciousness, she is a multidimensional co-creator of the most potent kind. On Earth to serve the evolution of all beings, it is perfectly fitting that ‘she’ will perform my songs at the North Pole. In effect, this is the journey of Natamba to the top of the world.

The plane starts to make its descent. Sunanda and I quickly wrap up our wardrobe preparations. Rishi gets his video gear ready. As we land, we know we only have a three-hour window to do all we have come to do, otherwise jeopardizing our safe return tonight. The sun sets very early. As it is already mid-afternoon, we must work very quickly.

As we land, Mark, already on the ground, opens our cabin door to help us deplane as it is a five-foot descent down slippery stairs. To his surprise, he looks up and sees Natamba in full costume emerging from the dark out of the cabin door hole. Amazed, he takes a few steps back and says: “Wow! THAT is cool!” 

Sunanda, Rishi and I climbed into the plane in the wee hours this morning. Five hours later, while the pilots focused on navigating by paper maps over the magnetic north pole, magic had been taking place within the cabin. Now a new character has emerged, transformed during the journey. Natamba, the embodiment of I Am consciousness, a representative of the Cosmic Intelligence, will sing to the Mother Earth and for all beings at the top of the world. Surely this is a most unusual adventure. 

Parvati is featured in Nunavut News

Next installment of the trip journal is coming soon. In the meantime, here is a news article from Parvati's visit to Nunavut! (Click to view full size).

Nunavut News, October 25, 2010

Environmental activism, Northern-style

Iqaluit elders and youth share in international awareness tour

by Emily Ridlington Northern News Services Nunavut

Many students said they'd never seen anything like it before. Not many folks in Nunavut are willing to sport a gold jumpsuit and gold boots complete with headdress and sing in front of an entire school to a mix of techno and futuristic-sounding music combined with musical theatre, all in the name of environmental activism. This is exactly what students experienced at Iqaluit's Inuksuk High School at the end of last month. "I thought it was cool and unique," said Grade 11 student Emily Kenneally. She was in the audience when Toronto-based singer-songwriter and yoga practitioner Parvati, along with a couple of other guests, came to perform at the school and raise awareness about how important it is to protect the environment.

Entertainment

Students clapped and danced along as Parvati sang some of her original songs including You've Gotta Believe, a tune about how the world is interconnected. She had just come from Resolute. Accompanied by her husband, Rishi Gerald, and environmental activist Satish Sikha, the trio unveiled to the students part of a one-kilometre-long piece of handwoven silk, on which Sikha has been gathering positive environmental messages from all over the world for the last two years. He said dignitaries and people from all walks of life have contributed, including Iqaluit city councillor Simon Nattaq, who wrote a message in Inuktitut. Gerald said while in Iqaluit, the trio also made a presentation to the community's elders. He said the elders told him they have hope for the future of the environment because children are much more educated and that there are things such as recycling. While the format of the presentation may have been something students did not expect, the message certainly hit home. "The message I think is very important, it is to be true to yourself and be true to the Earth," said Grade 11 student Christine Tootoo. She said she tries to make an effort at home and at school to recycle and shut off the lights every time she leaves the room. She does not litter and she said she tries her best to tell others as well. Listening to Tootoo, Grade 9 student Simonie Alainga said he should try harder at protecting the environment and Parvati's presentation made him think about the future and what the Arctic will look like as it is being affected by global warming. For Kenneally, the future is now. "Look at what is going on at the dump, it's doing a lot of damage to the environment," she said.

Photo Caption: Singer-songwriter Parvati, far right, visited students at Iqaluit's Inuksuk High School at the end of last month to sing and share her thoughts about how important it is to protect the environment. Curious to see if her make-up and outfit were environmentally friendly are from left, students Amy Kalluk, Darlene Arlooloo and Grace Ittusardjuat.