Opinion: Join indigenous grandmothers at Alaska meeting

Monday, May 16, 2011  

"A unique and powerful gathering is taking place in Anchorage, May 18-24, with grandmothers no less. Thirteen grandmothers from the four directions of the globe -- from the land of the Iroquois, the Amazon rainforest, the Alaska tundra, the great forest of the American northwest, the vast plains of North America, the highlands of Central America, the Black Hills of South Dakota, the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, the desert of the American Southwest, the mountains of Tibet and Nepal and from the rainforest of Central Africa are gathering in Anchorage to share their collective healing energy and wisdom. The 13 grandmothers travel to one another's homelands to learn and to affirm relations with traditional medicines, people and spiritual traditions.

I am Rita Pitka Blumenstein Pamyurran Cancirraq Panqiar, a Yup'ik tribal doctor, and one of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. When I was a little girl and visiting with my grandmother, a traditional Yup'ik healer, she handed me a cloth packet containing 13 stones and 13 feathers. She told me that someday I would belong to an important group of 13 women.

Another time, I turned to this same grandmother in fear about a fire I saw on the tundra. My grandmother explained that fire is both destructive and loving. It is one of the four healing elements, along with air, water and earth. When the fire goes out and has destroyed areas of the tundra, the tundra comes back more alive and green because the fire has burned away the old and dry parts that are of no use anymore. I learned the fire gives warmth and life back to us, as we humans offer wood and other parts of the earth to the fire. She reminded me we use fire to cook our food and nurture ourselves, our families and communities and even the larger world. The warmth of the fire changes the air and influences the way water behaves, continuing the life-giving loop around us."

Get the Story:
Rita Pitka Blumenstein: Join the Thirteen Grandmothers at the fire (The Anchorage Daily News 5/14)