Every so often, travelling down this road of life, I get offers to be a part of interesting projects that not only do I feel are important to the world, but also to myself, helping me grow, learn, and broaden my ever-expanding perspective on the human condition. This past weekend, I was invited to be a part of the Napi Suicide Warrior Video Forum: a gathering of about twenty Native youth from throughout Alberta, who had all come together to talk about and explore the issue of suicide in their communities.

I've gone through some shit in my life, but my experiences of suicide are pretty limited. For many of these youth, it's a whole different story, many of them have lost close friends and relatives, and many of them, as the title suggests, have been forced to do all that they can do, which is to become hardened warriors.

I know what it means to be hardened by the circumstances of life, and I know what it is to have to work at finding emotional releases. I know what it is to hold onto things and only through time, to transmute what is often seen as bad medicine thus transforming trauma into personal tools, knowledge and hopefully with time, into wisdom.

The weekend had the youth working with media, and as a media artist, I wanted to give them one message. One single thought to hold onto and carry forward into their lives. It's hard to communicate sometimes, with all the distractions around us, and with our thoughts racing in all directions, it's often even harder to listen. So I'm not sure if any of it got through, but either way, it's all good, since I think these kids are already on their way to becoming great healers to others.

My message was as follows,

Don't let media USE you. Learn to USE media. Media is an extension of language, and with language we create the world. With language we create intentionality and through our intentions we create either positive or negative situations for change. It all goes back to the language/media you're exposing yourself to, since all of these forces subconsciously shape the way you see your reality.

It's hard because there's always a disconnect. In a workshop setting you'll see these youth talking about supporting each other, providing helping hands, and reaching out to others who may be caught on the periphery. Then the session ends, you see them go back to old patterns of calling each other names, hurtful jokes that aren't meant to mean anything but often do, and not wanting to hang out with so and so, because they're annoying. There's the paradox, there's the hypocrisy, and there's the good intentions lost in the process of being young.

I don't have all the answers, but if there's one thing I'd like to see, it's a more connected youth, and I think we're getting there. I think our youth are so disconnected by technology and media distraction that tells them who they're supposed to be, that there's only one way to go, towards connection, towards each other, and maybe towards nature if they so choose. And I think that's what I witnessed this weekend. A coming together of some people who, if they choose, will grow into powerful leaders, healers, and catalysts for change. We need change. We need to change a whole lot about how we live in todays world. These kids see it, they're not stupid, I think they often just choose to ignore lifes problems since there doesn't seem to be a way out of the mess of the previous generation. I think they see what works and what doesn't, and maybe down the road, whether through media, law, science, or art, maybe down the road, they'll help us see the things we're missing. I think only with them as teachers will youth suicide become something remembered from our past, and not often experienced in our future.

In the past one hundred and fifty years we've made a real mess of things, it's no wonder our youth feel the task of cleaning things up so daunting. And if you ask me... if we are to survive, we've given a whole generation little choice but to become hardened warriors for change.

The other option: distracted, tuned out, apathetic, disconnected, excellent participants/victims living in an unsustainable consumer society.

peace,d

Pics from the weekend and the FEAR FACTOR CHALLENGE that had the kids eating cat food, octopus, escargot, pigs feet... they ate it all... and team Gitz won again. Gitz with thumbs up in one of the pics, loves his cat food! Hehe. It was so nice to meet all of you. Happy travels and happy healing!

This past week Morris took me out to the portion of the Peigan Reservation known as the Hay Lease. Back in the day this land was used, as the name implies, to gather hay. This area is made up of 41 sections of land (a section being 640acres), which means it's unbelievably vast. Roaming these spectacular grasslands are huge herds of Peigan Horses.. Morris tells me there are about 3000 horses spread across the Hay Lease in smaller herds of a few hundred, as seen here.

It's so rare these days to find place like this. Places where the land remains unbroken, having never seen a plow. While we were out on the land Morris told me a story of when he brought a rancher he used to work for as a younger man out here. After being in a the Hay Lease for a while the rancher finally broke the silence, "I thought the west was broken," he said, and then went on, "if I were you, I'd shoot anyone I see near this place with a plow!"

My sentiments exactly.

peace,
d

Waiting for a HTML redux of my website www.windpathfilms.com once she's done, there'll be tons of fresh photos, and videos there and also posted on You Tube. Big ups to my crew out east for working the Podcast angle and taking care of all my footy I keep sending back home. I'd like to be moving on, but playing the waiting game instead.. it's alright.. weather hasn't been cooperating with my lens and as my Blackfoot family keeps reminding me, it's only time to leave, when it's time to leave. In some senses, I'm 'out of time'.
__
This past week I met a gentleman who has jut retired from working with the World Bank & Global Environment Facility I think working mostly in Central and South America. Our initial conversation left me ready to sit down for hours longer and discuss our ideas concerning where this crazy world of ours is headed. Once I finish capturing the remaining footage from the Piikani Reservation I may head out to the Gladstone Valley for a few days to sit and interview and talk with my new friend. Again, a lot of this has to do with waiting for the website and podcasts to be ready before another media blitz and heading down into the U.S.

peace,
d

Thursday, April 19, 2007
Location: Piikani Reservation, Alberta

I’m back into film production, on the days the weather cooperates with me, this after a few months of learning to listen. It’s been raining here for the past few days, and it seems if it’s not raining it’s snowing. Although the moisture isn’t great for production, it’s excellent for what I now affectionately call ‘my girls’. The 160 cows I help care for. Well, it’s not exactly great for the cows, but it’s great for the grass, it’ll bring lots of green, and lots of green means healthy and happy cows and horses across the reservation, which in turn means higher cattle prices, more money, better grass-finished beef on the table. Again all interconnected.

I’m taking advantage of the rain and using the time to clean my camera gear. I also just changed my van’s alternator, and she’s currently jacked up outside while I wait for a delivery of new brakes and rotors tomorrow morning. I’ve never really been into working on vehicles, but here on the reserve, some attitudes have changed. I’ve started looking at the ability to work on vehicles as a form of traditional knowledge.

My van is a '93 GMC Diesel and is fairly difficult to work on in terms of space under the hood. But I CAN work on her if I take the time. Being a '93 and diesel, things are built in a fairly straightforward and low-tech fashion. This is the same for most of the Peigan ranch trucks I’ve had the privilege of riding in, and crawling under. The thing that I’m beginning to love about the concept of the old farm truck is that you can fix them. Almost anyone, with very limited knowledge, can fix a farm truck, all it takes is time and a scrapyard.

With most vehicles on the road today, we’re up the proverbial creek. This because cars of today are built to include high-tech electronics and on-board computer systems, all jam-packed under the hood using factory robotics, leaving little room for human hands to work & play. Contemporary cars and trucks just aren’t designed like they used to be… simple.

This is just one of these things in the world that erks me. It bothers me that vehicles nowadays are designed to be complex, to render us incapable, to tie us into a larger auto maintenance economic system of new parts, high-tech gadgetry and skilled labour. Simply put, building complex fancy cars and trucks is great for the economy, but bad for someone short on $ who just wants to crawl under the hood and do it themselves.

I think we should design a car that is free of all the bells and whistles, runs reliably, consumes little fuel, and can be fixed with a bent coat hanger. That’s what I’d like to see, spare me your new Lexus, I’ll take the old brown farm truck I can fix with a pair of pantyhose.

The other day Morris and I met a guy who had broken down on the outskirts of Brocket on his way to Lethbridge. We opened up his hood and were faced with exactly the complexity I’m talking about. Looking at each other we both shook our heads, “Sorry, we can’t really help you, except to call you a tow truck.” Half-hour later we watched as he was towed down the highway past the ranch. I’m guessing a tow from Brocket to Lethbridge costs around $300.

peace,
d

To follow up on The Great Global Warming Swindle, if you watch that doc you should also watch this one from the CBC's Fifth Estate. You may be interested in who is said to be funded by whom, and in this whole notion of the Denial Machine.

As I said, what a crazy world. As we find ourselves busy arguing over the 'truth', time rolls on, and maybe things we should be taking care of are being forgotten in the midst of it all. To me, all this seems to bring with it a feeling of inevitability, a feeling that in all the world's complexity, things will be what they will be, and maybe there's not so much we can actually do about it. I dunno, it's a tough one.

peace,
d

Click HERE for CBC video

Saturday, April 7, 2007
Location: Piikani Reservation, Alberta

Lately I've been helping out a Rocky Mountain Outfitter by the name of Mike Judd (one of my interview subjects). Mike has been passionately fighting Sour Gas development in the Southern Rockies for over ten years. I agreed to help him put together a PSA for You Tube to get the word out on the issue. I have a more polished vid with fancy editing but Mike wanted to run it past a lawyer before it goes to air. Don't want to piss off the MEGA CORPS.. or do we. In the meantime see Mike and a simple PSA below.

peace,
d

To repeat myslelf, I have often been asked if I believe in Global Warming.. I think it's a moot point... regardless of whether what is happening globally is real (which I believe it is... hmmm after watching the below doc I start to wonder.. the power of media), we still live in a toxic world and desperately need to clean up our air, water, and soil and work on consuming less energy. We need to slow ourselves down for the sake of personal health and sanity... and take the time to build a healthy world for our children. Global Warming aside.

This blog goes out to my friend Steve in New Zealand and my friend Bud in Pincher, both Global Warming skeptics. As I said above, I think Global Warming is a moot point, our world is still pretty F%^KED up and we need to change the way we live.

Below is the link to the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, at the end of each clip you can select the next clip (2 of 10, 3 of 10, etc.) in order to watch the entire program.

Food for thought... man reality is paradoxical and confusing at times. It's hard to tell where the propaganda begins and ends, I know some of my hippy friends may have a hard time with this one. But again, I think the debate itself makes no real difference to my core beliefs of needed change.

peace,
d

Click HERE to watch clip!

A video sent to my friend Claire from her boyfriend Carlos.
Another look at Global Warming. I'm not too fond of this video actually but thought I'd post it anyway. See, I'm a folky at heart and would replace the drum and base with some nice quiet acoustic guitar.. and when it comes to the audio taken from Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, I would say.. well, actually, we DO need education, we need to educate one another and create a healthier, happier and more sustainable world.

I have often been asked if I believe in Global Warming.. I think it's a moot point... regardless of whether what is happening globally is real (which I believe it is), we still live in a toxic world and desperately need to clean up our air, water, and soil (our world) and work on consuming less energy. We need to slow ourselves down for the sake of personal health and sanity... and take the time to build a healthy world for our children. Global Warming aside.

peace,
d

http://www.ministryofsound.com.au/ecard/prydz/a-global-warning.html

Saturday, March 31, 2007
Location: Piikani Reservation, Alberta

I have to say I’ve been having a really hard time writing these days. Actually I’ve been having a pretty hard time communicating in general. Even now, as I’m typing, there’s a large part of me that’s feeling unnatural.

Lately I’ve been in a world of internal dialog and feelings. I’m feeling withdrawn and separate from most of the world around me. I’m processing the experiences of the past few months, I’m longing to hit the open road, and I’m feeling sad and torn apart by this very same notion of leaving.

It’s the ebb and flow of my journey, the ebb and flow of my process, and the ebb and flow of my spirit.

peace,
d

Saturday, March 24, 2007
Location: Piikani Reservation, Alberta

I was recently speaking with my new friend Claire about progress. In my journals I always come down pretty hard on the notion of progress and I usually use the term in a negative context. It’s just the way I see it, or rather, I feel it’s my role to hold up a progress warning sign. I do this because I feel most of the western world has been conditioned to never question ‘progress’, to never think critically about apparent innovation, and to just accept NEW as always IMPROVED.
Walking down the side of a mountain we discussed our individual views on progress, and arrived at the conclusion that progress is usually both subjective and relative.

This discussion has started me thinking about what it is I’m honestly trying to say about progress, and where I’m coming from.

I recognize that much of the innovation of the past hundred and fifty years has in many ways greatly improved our lives. At the same time I’m always interested in the question of how sustainable are these innovations. I would argue that we’ve become progress junkies, addicted to NEW and IMPROVED. This phrase is everywhere, filling grocery store shelves, television sets, and our entire world.

There’s this commercial I’ve caught on television lately… Oven Roasted Potatoes… it begins with a girl washing potatoes at her office desk, cut to: chopping potatoes in a boardroom, cut to: spicing potatoes while driving home. The slogan comes in “Tired of working all day for perfect oven-roasted potatoes? Well now you don’t have to, with our @%$<# 10minute potatoes!” I have to ask myself, what the hell is going on? Is this a symptom of our times, have we traded in time, patience, and a connection to our food for Zip, Zap, and Serve? These commercials are everywhere and they always leave me shaking my head and with less hope for humanity than before. The reality is this magic potato product is a) filled with nasty unhealthy preservatives, b) packaged in an equal amount of plastic to a 15lb bag of raw potatoes, c) takes people out of the kitchen and a connection to cooking, d) conditions children to favour instant, obesity-encouraging nourishment likely resulting in a lifetime of similar choices, e) costs more, f), g) , h), the list goes on and on.

I kinda got off on a tangent rant there. I apologize. But it drives me totally mental! In my opinion, this is NOT progress, but again it’s subjective, maybe if I were a single parent after a long day at the office I’d really appreciate those potatoes. See, This is where I lose hope… everything is connected and even as I try to justify the need for instant food I’m asking questions, maybe the instant food isn’t that answer, maybe a shorter work day is, a workday where you can spend time with your children and cook a good meal. Then another connection arises: housing costs. Often both parents in a family have to work long hours because the cost of living has become so high, something Jane Jacobs, in her book Dark Age Ahead, indicates as a symptom of a coming dark age. Either way, for me it’s not just about potatoes, it’s about the reality we’ve built up around a central notion of progress, frankly, I don’t see progress in so much of what we do and so much of what we live for.

I’m trying to look at the big picture. I’m trying to look at things with a long-view. I completely agree with Claire when it comes to things like medical science, mechanical engineering, or physics, we’ve made huge leaps and bounds in the past one hundred and fifty years, and I agree that in some cases we have achieved true progress. The reason I hold up the progress trap sign is because I fear that if we don’t separate the true progress from the false, down the road we may find ourselves still living in a completely unsustainable world. As a result of these choices we may end up losing much of what we’ve worked so hard to create. And where would that leave us?

As we come down the mountain, someone asks the time, Claire pulls her cell from her bag, no signal and therefore no clock. Looking at her with a wry smile I have only one word, “Progress”.

peace,
d