The Aboriginal Women’s Association of PEI

December 12, 2011

25^th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Women’s Association of PEI in Charlottetown

At the Delta Hotel here in Charlottetown, on Sunday December 11, 2011 the Aboriginal Women’s Association of PEI celebrated their 25^th Anniversary!  There were over 60 members from across PEI who attended and also took part in the election of the Board of Directors.   There are nine board members elected every two years.

Judy Clark, from Abegweit First Nation was re-elected by acclamation for her third term as President.  Julie Pellissier-Lush, from Lennox Island First Nation was elected in as the Vice-President and Paula Clory, from Lennox Island First Nation was elected in as Secretary/Treasurer.   The new elder representing AWA of PEI is Margaret Jadis from Abegweit First Nation and her alternative is Christine Bernard from Lennox Island.   The new youth representative is Samantha Lewis, from Lennox Island First Nation and her alternate is Denise Bernard.  The two board members representing the western side of the side of the Island is now Geraldine Di Julio and  Emily Bernard.  The two board members representing the eastern side of the Island is Thirly Levi and Sarah Jackson.   Executive Director Madlene Sark was pleased with the election results and looks forward to working with the new board for the next two years.

Judy Clark, newly re-elected President of the Aboriginal Women’s Association of PEI was very happy with the great turnout of members and when she was asked about how she felt the election went she said, “This is for the people, for the women we represent!”

Thank you to all the members who came to help celebrate 25 years of AWA in PEI!

This amazing play had the opening show in October 2011 at the Murphy’s Centre in Charlottetown!!

“I enjoyed it so much!!! I think, what a wonderful opportunity for the youth!! I think we have future “Oscar” winners.. And the set was the most awesome creation I have see in a long time!!! Well done and Thank you to everyone involved!! “Chief Darlene Bernard

Mi’kmaq Legends is a theatrical experience comprised of music, poetry, dance, visual arts and theatre which entwines the rich Aboriginal history with a modern-day influence.  This production has eight Mi’kmaq Legends and these are the basis of the eight stories that the actors play out.  In my opinion it has created a way to preserve our oral history  that is not just a presentation or workshop, it is eight stories that the audience will watch play out in front of them.  The best part of the play is that people have the opportunty to learn of our past in a fun way and they can take what teachings they need from each of them.

This project was exciting for me,  to see my poetry come alive right in front of me was amazing.  We had a cast of 11 people, myself included that took on this project and with the great work of Sean Ferris, who created the powerful music, and Cathy Elliot who took the eight poems and created a perfect script and Julie Sauve who showed the cast what looked best at each stage of production.. we created something special something that I hope will outlast me!!

We are applying for funding everywhere for this production so that it will not just fade away so fingers crossed that soon it will be in a theater near you!!

Charlottetown, PEI: My Mi’kmaq Mother, a book by Julie Pellissier-Lush, has just reached best seller status on Prince Edward Island. The book, published by Retromedia Publishing, was launched only 15 months ago and has garnered critical acclaim from its readers.

For every reader who has overcome the loss of a mother, sister, brother, father, child or friend, this honest, funny and powerful compilation of stories elicits a wide range of emotional responses.

“I’m delighted that My Mi’kmaq Mother has become a best seller,” said Pellissier-Lush. “I never imagined that so many people would be touched by my story.”
With the continued interest in My Mi’kmaq Mother, the book is on a path to becoming a best seller in Atlantic Canada.

Pellissier-Lush was featured on ATV “Live at Five” and CBC TV Compass. She has had coverage in The Halifax Herald where her book was picked as one of the top five for book sales in a random survey at one of Indigo’s Halifax stores. The Charlottetown Guardian gave her coverage in a comprehensive feature article as well.

My Mi’kmaq Mother is available through Retromedia Publishing at retromedia.ca, at chapters.indigo.ca and at Indigo, Chapters, Coles and BookMark bookstores in Canada.

Author Julie Pellissier-Lush

Retromedia Publishing learned today that Julie Pellissier-Lush’s popular book My Mi’kmaq Mother has been selected to be included in the Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools Catalogue 2010-2011 edition. The books were chosen by a committtee of librarians and the distribution of the catalogue will be handled by the Association of Book Publishers of B.C.

POST 28 – The Four Elements

This is my last original poem in this series, I hope you enjoyed this experience with me.  I will post my other poems that I have written, once and a while.  So you will come back and visit my blog a few more times.    My first poems made me realize I could express myself this way, and I really do enjoy it.  Those I will put on, but they were not originally written for this and these 28 were.  Each day I would think and think until I saw a story I needed to express.  Thank you so much for reading, and coming with me on this incredible journey!!  I hope you enjoy the last one.

Post 28 – The Four Elements

By Julie Pellissier-Lush

Wind, fire, water and earth

We need these things since the birth

Of man and animal, bugs and birds

You must know this, you must have heard

Sacred elements we need everyday

We need these elements to always stay

Earth is underneath us all around

It is one of our elements that is all over, it’s the ground

It is our Mother Earth that gives us the soil of dark red

When we pray to her she hears what we’ve always said

She is the womb of all our plants and trees

That feeds us and the animals the birds and the bees

We need to give you love, and protect you from harm

When things can’t grow any more it is cause for alarm

Water comes to us in our lakes oceans and the soft falling rain

It feeds our hearts minds and can help a soul in pain

To keep our babies safe inside the their mother’s womb

To bath our elders and keep them clean so they can bloom

It cleans our bodies and gives animals and crops a drink

It is so sensitive to what we do we can lose it in a blink

Air is the element that we can’t do without

Without it we cannot breathe, or fly or shout

Some of the air is already getting bad

Children who cannot breathe without medicine it’s sad

How could we do this to the air that’s all around

Soon there will be no noise because there won’t be a sound

Your power is there over all the other elements we know

You move the water you shape the earth and fire without you will not grow

Since I took my first breathe as a baby I always knew

How much we needed this element that much is oh so true

Fire is the last of the four sacred elements we say

You keep us warm and energize us each and every day

Your flames go through us and give a meaning to life

How cold and dark it would it be without you so much strife

You purify us and everything we need

You help everything grow even us just from a seed

Four elements we have and we need them all today

We give thanks for each and hope they’re here to stay

The creator gave them all to us to be the caretaker to all

We lost our way, but from today we know this is our call

Four elements that make us strong and keep us all alive

Four elements that give us life and help us to grow and thrive

Think of them as you wake up for the day

Think of them as the sun slowly goes away

The youth will always be the first to see

The elders will always remind me

To take a care to watch the signs that is dire

So there will be no day without water, earth, air and fire

I was doing some thinking on the Day of Action coming up… and I came up with some of the base issues I see that are ongoing and unfortunately the solutions seem so far away.  This isn’t a poem with answers… just maybe some of the questions that need to be asked.

Post 27 – Why we take a Stand

By Julie Pellissier-Lush

As First Nations People all over this land

What things make us act and take a strong stand?

Is it lack of education, poverty or abuse?

Is it programs created that we can never use?

Put in isolation away from the urban places

House next to house running out of spaces

This can be where relationships get stressed and sad

People get angry and they start acting bad

Some take drugs or drink booze to take away the pain

Looking for where their pride has gone when only the hurts remain

Useless fighting where blood is spilt

Sometimes people are even killed

Loved ones are always left to grieve

Only a few go away only a few ever leave

Women hurt badly by familiar faces

Having to still hang out in the same places

Pretending the pain isn’t really there

Bruises hidden under the clothes that they wear

Why is there this pain for this generation?

The elders are hurt with this information

What can they do to help heal these wounds?

Can we find the answers locked inside an empty room?

The government comes in to consult

Over and over and over, it’s an insult

Taking our words down and then they go

What happens to these words I really don’t know?

Nothing is ever done, the troubles never end

But we can always smile and try to pretend

Who can save us from these complicated things?

Give us solutions and give us back our wings

The government with their policies

The elders with their ability to see

The little children who need things to change

The people who are damaged and act all strange?

Is it with each and every community member?

Spending an hour or two just being together?

I wish I had the answers now

I wish I had an idea how

To help all the people in isolation

Regenerate with love and not degradation

What these problems can’t take away

It is our heart for each other and the respect that we pay

We share what we have no matter how many

We will always give to those who don’t have any

These problems are not new they are just mountains we must climb

We need some answers now so we can fix it again this time

Communities are who we are all across this land

Isolated and lost sometimes, but that is why we take a stand

 This is the a Poem of the Green house, the place I feel where I was close to my Mom.  Everyone has a place that they can think of in their mind, the place that is the whole vision of themselves when they were little.  This is mine.. I hope you can see your house that became your home, and you have one or two people who love you so much they will take you there whenever you need!!

Post 26 – The House that was a Home

By Julie Pellissier-Lush

There once was a house right by the beach hidden in some trees

There lived a Mi’kmaq mother, a father and a baby that was me

The walls outside were painted a dark forest green

It really was the biggest house that I had ever seen

Two stories high with an attic way up at the top

During the summer the flowers grew up here there and everywhere

We were always so busy playing in the sun and smelling the calm sea air

An apple tree grew just outside the house real wild and tall

We’d pick all the apples before they could have a chance to fall

Picking clams on the beach for a big clam bake

Eating up so many that my belly would sometimes ache

This house was a home full of so much laughter

Full of joy love and hope for a happily ever after

People came to visit, people came and went

There was so much time visiting so much time spent

One day that Mi’kmaq Mother got sick down deep inside

It was cancer and from that there was no place for us to hide

She got sicker and sicker each week and month that went by

After that the time spent in that beautiful house went as fast as time could fly

When she passed away on that cold dark morning in March

The house became for us like a ugly broken arch

So soon it was sold and we moved far away

The people that bought it only came there to play

In the summers when the sun was high in the sky

When the winter came they’d say goodbye

A few years came and went and that house just sat so still

Things started to go and the family had got their fill

Soon people came and tore that old house down

They cleared out all the debris that was left all over the ground

Now all that remains are the trees standing tall

It is like there was never a happy family there at all

The house that was a home is gone but not forgotten my me

I stop by and look sometimes at that old apple tree

The laugher and love that came from that place

Is not totally gone without a trace

I am here with the memory in my head

The house that was green and the soil that was red

It was my house that became my home

Someday I will come back when I stop wanting to roam

For now like the special people and places that are gone

I think of them when I need strength to  carry on.

POST 25 – The Drummer

Last weekend was an amazing Pow wow held by the Native Council of PEI.  They had lots of dancers and drummers.  It made me think and on the way home I started this poem, The Drummer.  They fill our events with music and some of them are also amazing teachers.   I have been very fortunate to be able to sit with a few and hear their stories and why they drum.  Post 25 is for all the drummers out there and all of those who will start drumming.  You have a gift, and everyone thanks you for sharing.

Post 25 – The Drummer

By Julie Pellissier-Lush

The Honour Song is floating in the air around me

I see the group drumming together singing so free

Words of their history through drumming and song

The words they do echo so loud and so strong

One young man stands out and I look over and see him

Eyes are closed, head is tilted up and his mouth has a grin

Hitting the drum with a regular beat

I see his Mom looking at him so proud in her seat

The music, the drumming and song floats up to the sky

I look to the heavens and start wondering why

Why is this music so special to us every time?

Why does it get in our hearts and our minds?

After the drumming was done for a while

That drummer came over and sat with a smile

If you want I can tell you what makes this song great

Why when you hear it you want to celebrate

The beat is the sound that we hear

When Mama’s heart beat is very near

When we are a baby in the womb

It is the sounds that we hear that little room

When we are children adults and teens

We hear the drum and somehow it cleans

Our hearts, our minds and our souls

No matter if we are young or old

The sound of the drum goes deep inside of me

Thank you drummer for helping me to see

What the drum really means and why

The first time I heard it, it made me want to cry

It is the sounds of our people our mothers, our fathers

It is the sounds of our people our sisters and brothers

I can hear it in the Mi’kmaq words you sing under the sun

I can hear it in pulsating beat of the drum

To ground us to our history, and give us wings to soar

Into the future, as a Nation who could ask more

Please drum some more for all of us gathered here today

Come back into the circle once more and play

This poem is for the pregnant women out there.  It is not about the people around them, but the new life within them.  Having a new life inside your womb is the most amazing experience, and if I had my time back would definitely have done it more than three times.  But my calling was for something different, and I accept that with a smile.  For all the Moms out there, poem 24 is for you!

Post 24 – The Baby Within

For the little life inside of me today

There are so many emotions I cannot say

The joy of knowing you are safe and warm

Nervous because I know soon you will be born

I know I’ve never felt so complete

Since the first time I felt your body move

Wiggle and kick inside, of me you must approve

Your little way of letting me know you were there

When you’re pregnant I found people just don’t stare

They rub your belly and pretend that it is catching

You’re just like a little egg getting ready for hatching

I picture your tiny hands and tiny feet sometimes

I would never hurt you baby, that would be a crime

I love you little one and can’t wait to hold you tight

I look forward to you waking me up at night

These little sounds will soon become music to my ears

I love you baby, with all my heart my dear

I will do what I can to be the best Mom I can be

It is all so new it won’t be easy for me

To grow so fast, nine months is not that long

I just need to love, to plan and be strong

You will always be my number one

Be you a beautiful daughter or a handsome son

I hope what I do for you today deep within me

Will help you grow up strong and proud for me to see

Will you be a dancer, singer or drummer when you grow up?

No matter what you will always be my little buttercup

I ponder these thoughts as I lay in bed at night

Baby my hope is that your future be bright

One last thing as I give my tummy a rub

I give you this poem, dear baby with all my love