4 UP Meeting last night!

4 Unity Project
Meeting @ Essential Elements
3~October~2010

Before we got officially into the meeting a few of us were talking and I mentioned to Lacy that Essential Elements could be a great place for people to drop off clothing for the drive. She welcomed the idea and we have officially decided that will be a primary donation center for the drive.

We started the meeting with Lacy lighting Palo Santo and calling in our focus and intentions for a productive and flowing experience. We all received a blessing in turn and then she lit a candle to hold the space with its light and again to from my interpretations call in the focus and presence for each and all of us. After this she also came around and put an essential oil of Lavender on each of our temples and third eye to calm us and give us clarity. This was a welcome way to start things off.

Lacy was very clear and calming in the way she addressed us and really expressed to us that even being present there tonight was such great medicine and an important part of the movement (showing up is so key!), she gave me personally (and I imagine everyone else) a sense of self empowerment as we got ready to share where we were at.

Katie~talked story of how she would like to help organize and facilitate some of the workshops and be something of a liaison as we bring this event that is being hosted by NAYA (Native American Youth Association). An idea to put together herbal products and food to sell with 4 Unity and Medicine for the People information attached to them. One of the ideas we had was to make elderberry syrup and also to make it there and show people how easy it is to do this themselves.

Kristen~talked story of how passionate she was to get this information about the drive into peoples hands, she was so excited that she has already printed up and passed out many of the flyers (with a few omissions) that our good man Darren Bachtel has created down in California for the clothing drive. She shared that a part of her medicine is sharing the messages that she learns with friends and the greater community here in Portland. I am very grateful for her ambition and support.

Me (Joe)~ talked story of my passion and vision to document this event (and as much of the subsequent events leading up to it as well) through pictures and video. Another thing we spoke of in relation to this was to make a short promo video for the 4UP movement. I would like to sit down with as many of us as possible and get a few minutes of everyone sharing what there medicine is and using some of that for the short (and for the greater documentary of this as well).

Erin~Had a great idea that we get receipts that we can give out to those that would like to use their donation as a tax write off because it is for a non-profit. I think this is a great idea. She appears dedicated to the organization side of things, seems to be a great asset for keeping dates and events in their right places.

Roberta~ Came in with a great burst of energy and many powerful things to share. She spoke of the Native American Youth Association, they have a commercial kitchen that we will have access to so we can create a big enough dinner to feed roughly 100 people. The Medicine show would be in the gym with half the bleachers down. It would be $5.00 at he door for the whole family. She informed us she would like to include Rosebud Reservation in this drive so it will be for Pine Ridge and Rose Bud Reservations. She would like to see %50 of the proceeds going to the drive.

~There is a big event fundraiser she mentioned, I grabbed this from their website: The Native American Youth and Family Center is holding its seventh annual dinner and auction fundraiser event on Friday, November 12, 2010 in the Governor Hotel's Heritage Ballroom.
There is a good chance that Medicine For the People can play for a part of it and that Roberta will get a chance to speak in front of a few large businesses like Nike and Columbia about donating clothing and whatever they can which is a great incentive for them because it is a tax write off and it looks good for them, and we’re asking for a couple thousand in donations, a small some for these giant companies. This event is separate from the event we are focusing on but if she can get this to happen then it could be amazing for the drive!

~She mentioned a friend Skybird who is looking into local farmers markets and other local grocers to get food donated for the event.

~She also shared a vision for the student body at the school there at NAYA to have their own drive for this that could be there project and a great way for the youth to truly become involved, youth empowerment realized.

She recommended we all learn about the NARA (Native American Recovery Association) and how she has already approached them to become an active part in this drive and to unite with NAYA which apparently for some time has been a challenging area. Her idea is simple, get them to collaborate on this project and thereby unifying their efforts and building a better relationship ideally through it.

~We all talked about going to one of the Cultural nights in the coming weeks so that we may get to know the people we will be bringing this movement to. I think this is a great idea and I look forward to being a part of this when it comes. They are teaching the kids the traditional arts and talking story all the while and through this instilling in their youth their culture, their history, and how everything is sacred.

One last thing specifically I she said towards the end of bringing us up to speed as we were all marvelling at how brazenly she has just taken this vision and done so many incredible things and her response was “I just stopped thinking about Road Blocks and started thinking about Solutions.” That made me smile and it inspired me even more to take bold actions as often as I can.

During this point we realized that we were dwindling on time for everyone to be there and that we had 15 minutes left so Erin encouraged us to focus on our intentions on the next steps. This is what I gathered...

*Look at the websites for NAYA and NARA, get educated yo!
*Next Big step, get the flyer out for the clothes drive - get it out!
*Use the Blog! (we are to encourage everyone in this movement to get some words on their so we can see how the movement is moving)
*A personal goal/objective I’ve given myself is to write some material to recommend for the pamphlet we are making, I also want to consider a more in depth version being made at some point that is more of a zine.
*We talked about setting up a pen pal experience for the children here at NAYA who are learning how to make flutes and having them connect with the particular kid that they are going to send it to at Pine Ridge or Rosebud Reservation. I love this idea.
*Another objective I have is to connect with the SunnySide Church to see about using the downstairs space for a meeting slash cooking gathering.
*A glorious manifestation occurred when Roberta mentioned she had a video camera and would like it to be used at the event and I graciously accepted that role (which Roberta had not yet arrived at the meeting to hear ;) so I have a nice video camera to use for the documentation of the event, she even brought it in and showed me it, it’s beautiful! I am grateful indeed.

*We talked about seeing if Joanna would like to take on the role of also contacting local food providers and utilizing her connections to gather donated food for the event. Contacting Food not Bombs and Food not Lawns as well.
*I accepted the role of getting the flyers written up and printed up so I will dedicate some of my time tomorrow to completing this.

~We established that the next meeting will be at Essential Elements next weekend at the same time 7:00p.m. which will be 10-10-10! 10~October~2010 at 7:00 p.m. we shall see where the movement has moved(and then making it move even more!)

Mahalo yo!