William Commanda, Past Chief & Grandfather - The Circle Of All Nations Logo As Theoretical Framework

"In the time of the Seventh Fire New People will emerge.
They will retrace their steps to find what was left by the trail.
Their steps will take them to the Elders
who they will ask to guide them on their journey.
But many of the Elders will have fallen asleep.
They will awaken to this new time with nothing to offer.
Some of the Elders will be silent because no one
will ask anything of them.
The New People will have to be careful in how they approach the Elders. The task of the New People will not be easy.
"If the New People will remain strong in their quest the Water Drum of the Midewiwin Lodge will again sound its voice.
There will be a rebirth of the Anishinabe Nation
and a rekindling of old flames.
The Sacred Fire will again be lit.
"It is this time that the light skinned race
will be given a choice between two roads.
If they choose the right road, then the Seventh Fire
will light the Eighth and final Fire,
an eternal fire of peace, love brotherhood and sisterhood.
If the light skinned race makes the wrong choice of the roads,
then the destruction which they brought with then in coming to this country will come back at them and cause much suffering
and death to all the Earth's people."
~William Commanda (November 11, 1913 – August 3, 2011),
-an Algonquin elder, spiritual leader, and promoter of environmental stewardship.
Commanda served as Band Chief o
f the Kitigàn-zìbì Anishinàbeg First Nation near Maniwaki, Quebec,
from 1951 to 1970.
In his life, he worked as a guide, a trapper and woodsman,
and was a skilled craftsman and artisan who excelled
at constructing birch bark canoes.
He was Keeper of several Algonquin wampum shell belts,
which held records of prophecies, history, treaties
and agreements.
In 2008 he received the Order of Canada.


Posted by: Susan Lynne Schwenger
#the13thbridge #thefinalfire

 

i do NOT get why i can;t upload files

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=ff114bbabab144b891626219280d0c00&oe=5AABEB44

 

SO That was when we first produced our Circle of All Nations Teeshirts - 1998
- at our "Lighting Candles for a Culture of Peace" event,
co-hosted with the Wolf Project at Darcy Mcgee High School
- Inaugural racial harmony event in the National Capital Region.

The next photo, Grandfather William Commanda is in South Africa
- for the United Nations Conference against Racism and Xenophobia
- here he was getting dressed in his SA top
- a gift from the then SA High Commissioner Andre Jacquet
- and he was heading to a STEVE BIKO Commemorative event
- OBVIOUSLY, the antiracism work has to continue
- JOIN US to create a Circle of All Nations, a Culture of Peace.
PS we have reproduced our tee shirts - we developed the William Commanda thesis
around the Circle of All Nations logo, and so we now call it a UNI T - check
Turtle Lodge Trading Post
for details!!
Romola Vasantha Thumbadoo - see facebook for more details

September 22, 2013 ·
After his CAN/P4P/Ubunto moment yesterday, really thinking about the GWC legacy.

Listening to the tv Sunday concerts and missing GWC
- we used to want to stay in pjs and listen to the concerts all day
and not let anyone in the door! He loved music so much
- So did my mother
- here he is in my mother's house in SA, with Nazli,
a SA childcare worker, who GWC and I drove to St. Saveur (sp?) Quebec
to a conference (and went by Commanda Lake on our way back!)
and my sister Zeni. …
See More

• Romola Vasantha Thumbadoo says:
  
  THE LIVING TSHIRT and LOGO! SO Here is how we described in 2005 and then 2017
  - WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?? Cheers!
  
  The Circle of All Nations Logo as Theoretical Framework for the William Commanda Thesis
  
  The Circle of All Nations logo, formally utilized as an epistemological tool
  since its creation in 1997, serves as illustration of the general thesis framework.
  
  The tree was photographed by William Commanda;
  the turtle was a live turtle photographed by Claude Latour,
  and the logo was co-created by Romola V. Thumbadoo, William Commanda and Claude Latour.
  
  The Circle of All Nations Logo, as articulated in 1997, offered the following description.
  
  • This special logo incorporates many symbols of special significance to Aboriginal
  and non-Aboriginal peoples and to William Commanda himself.
  
  • The four colours of the Sacred Circle, at the simplest level,
  represent the four symbolic races of man, the Yellow, Red, Black and White peoples;
  the four cardinal directions, East, South, West and North;
  and the four elements, Fire, Earth, Water and Air.
  The symbolism and teachings of the Sacred Medicine Wheel are profound.
  
  • The Turtle, here representing Turtle Island, North America, is described similarly in the mythology
  and legends of Aboriginal peoples of the West, the Hindus of the East and the Zulus of the South,
  amongst others, as being the animal that sacrificed its life to create Earth in the expanse of Sea and Sky;
  it endures as a symbol of sacrifice, creativity and fertility.
  
  The Western story of the Tortoise and the Hare stresses the importance
  of perseverance in following dreams and achieving goals.
  
  • The Sacred Tree is a Spruce Tree photographed by William Commanda.
  
  Four separate trunks emerge from one base of the 75 foot tree.
  
  The seven roots of this tree, which reaches into the Sky, grow through the Turtle into Mother Earth
  and the Sea, connecting all.
  
  It represents the Seven Fires Prophecy of the sacred wampum belt William Commanda
  carried for the people for over forty years.
  
  • The other trees remind us of the importance of the trees to Mother Earth and to our lives.
  As he watched with pain the endless passage of logging trucks through his family’s traditional lands,
  William Commanda said, “It feels like a needle piercing my eye”.
  
  • The Mountains represent The Lake of Two Mountains,
  the traditional homeland of William Commanda’s ancestors.
  
  They also represent the climb up the Sacred Mountain in the search for wisdom.
  
  • The Morning Star is the symbol of enlightenment and vision,
  and because it shone so brightly when he was born, his mother
  named William Commanda “Ojigkwanong”. (Thumbadoo 2005 54)
  
  With specific reference to this thesis, I articulate the significance of the logo as follows:
  
  • The Morning Star bridging between night and day, asserts the energy of emergence, enlightenment
  and knowledge, of the aspirational, and of volition and willpower;
  
  • The image backdrop denotes a cosmic stellar world inextricably linked with sacredearth,
  Turtle Island, with semiotic messages of water, turtle and prophecy roots performance
  mapping the ideological foundation, cartographical geo-narrative, reflexivity and cognitive mapping themes of the thesis;
  
  • The cosmic spruce tree (photographed by William Commanda) is used
  in the creation of the iconic Algonquin birch bark canoe.
  
  It also reflects the relational/inter-connectedness/adhesive theme of Ginawaydaganuc,
  around which the entire thesis spins;
  
  • The territorial referential of two mountains underpins the historical dialectical spatial narrative;
  the cosmic tree links elemental creation stories with historical references
  (Lake of Two Mountains at confluence of Ottawa and St Lawrence Rivers);
  and the special biodiversity/environmental importance of the area and work is anchored by trees;
  
  • The four separate trunks are aligned with the four branches in the ways
  of knowing examined in the thesis: empirical, animative, reflexive and dialectic.
  
  Analysis of research materials in the context of the centrality of the Ginawaydaganuc/relational theme
  is conducted in part via the digital atlas methodological trunk tool;
  and the tree branches epitomize the cybercartographic and social media refractions and voices.
  
  • The circle outline demarcates the constructed circular storytelling epistemological approach
  which, with distinct association with colour (from [en]lightenment of the yellow of the East,
  to the passionate animation of the red of the South, to the reflexive zone of the black of the West,
  to the wisdom articulation in the white of the North) projects movement and flow,
  the underlying regenerative theme of the thesis.
  
  A further examination of the circular Medicine Wheel flow reveals the movement
  from visioning and planning, to animation and action, to reflection and refinement,
  to articulation and dissemination as wisdom.
  
  • As intimated and articulated, the Circle of All Nations projects the ultimate vision
  of balance and harmony, emergence and evolution to be achieved in the motion of the striving for a Culture of Peace.
  
  

 

please follow on:
https://www.facebook.com/romola.thumbadoo

 

https://www.facebook.com/circleofallnations
for CIRCLE of all nations

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/2642206079374181
Sep 20/2020

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2020 AT 1 PM – 4 PM EST
CIRCLE OF ALL NATIONS Equinox Peace Event