Eighteenth Annual Gathering for Mother Earth to be Held September 27th and September 28th in Pojoaque

2014 Gathering for Mother Earth flyer

CCNS NEWS UPDATE
Runs 9/5/14 through 9/12/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

*   Eighteenth Annual Gathering for Mother Earth to be Held September 27th and September 28th in Pojoaque

The eighteenth annual Gathering for Mother Earth, sponsored by Tewa Women United, is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, September 27th and 28th, in Pojoaque. The event, which is open to the public of all cultures of all ages, seeks to honor Mother Earth for her lifegivingness.  The Gathering is a time for community unity to protect the most vulnerable people, including pregnant women, infants and farmers, especially those living around production sites for nuclear weapons.  http://tewawomenunited.org/

Both days will begin with a sunrise service at 6:30 am.  Saturday’s scheduled program will begin around 9 am and include mini-gathering circles and workshops, ending around 5 p.m.  Local Native dancer groups and others will perform, including Jon Naranjo’s Family Dancers, The Danza Mexika Dancers, Indigie Femme and others, Beverly Doxtator of Native Lifeways, Inc., and Katia Delgado and others from Peru who will grace attendees with their spiritual wisdom.

A delicious communal meal will be provided, followed by entertainment by local poets from 100,000 Poets for Change.

The Sunday sunrise service will include a blessing for the relay runners participating in the Sacred Relay Run.  At 7:30 am, the runners will begin the run at Tsankawi, the ancestral Pueblo homelands near Los Alamos, and end at the Gathering site.

At 10 am there will be Memorials for Beloved Elders and Youth Leader.  Tributes will be given for the Late Beloved Vincent Harding and Late Elder Johnson Bluehorse.  A Tribute for Youthful Loss will be given for Victor Villalpando, the 16-year old El Rito youth shot and killed by an Espanola police officer in June.

The Gathering will close around 1 pm when there will be a traditional distribution of gifts.

Kathy Sanchez, of Tewa Women United and organizer of the Gathering, said, “Let us all celebrate cultural ways of sharing love and gratitude for our Earth Mother — to show love for her will heal our hearts of grief and overwhelming sense of loss we feel as violence pressures us to be numb and do violence to ourselves and others.  It is time to unite for eco-systemic revival.”

She added, “The emphasis of the Gathering is on healing Mother Earth to bring sacredness back into our homes of earth-based living.  We need to encourage all cultures, all ages, schools, communities and families to bring intergenerational thinking to holistic ways of active healing.”

The Gathering will be held at Pojoaque Ben’s Gathering Grounds on Highway 502, 1.8 miles west of the interchange with Highways 285 and 84, near the Pojoaque High School.  Please bring your own dishes and water bottle.  To volunteer, please call (505) 747-3259.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at www.nuclearactive.org.

Tags: Gathering for Mother Earth, Kathy Sanchez, Pojoaque Ben's Gathering Grounds, Sacred Relay Run, Tewa Women United