A message from Nathaniel Williams
In preparing for the ISC of 2024 the desire arose to create something cohesive and interconnected. How could we prepare a worldwide students' conference where all the activities and aspects somehow related to one experience or picture? There was also a question of how we could create this feeling of interconnection with the greater society, and not just the conference community. This is how we came to the idea of preparing a participatory story telling event for a public space on the last full day of the conference. Not only did we want to have the event involve as many students as possible, and to take place in a widely accessible and public place, but we also wanted to find the right story for this conference. Gradually we arrived at a vision to bring together song, movement, imagery, procession, and performance to tell “Excerpts from the Journey of the Peacemaker”. This story relates the watershed transformation that led to the Haudenosaunee confederacy in North America over seven hundred years ago. The script was inspired by many written sources, as well as conversations with Kay Olan and was first performed in New York in 2014. Kay is a respected storyteller of the Mohawk nation. When asked if she would pass on a message to the participants of the ISC in 2024 she wrote:
“I think it is always good to share the story of the Peacemaker's Journey. Thank you for wanting to do that. I think it is also very important to consider sharing Haudenosaunee teachings that emphasize the importance of remembering our relationship with and our responsibility to the natural world. We are instructed that we, the human beings, were put here as caretakers, not destroyers. We are supposed to consider the effects of our actions and of our words on the future generations. We are supposed to think seven generations ahead to make good decisions for the sake of those to come. Onondaga Faithkeeper, Oren Lyons, once said that we cannot have peace until we make peace with Mother Earth.“
The Haudenosaunee confederacy emerged through the work of a group of remarkable individuals, most importantly the individual known as the Peacemaker. Already at an early age he understood his mission to spread the great law of peace, that thinking would replace killing, that hatchets would be buried, and all nations would converse under one roof. The confederacy was originally established by five nations, while today it consists in six. It has played a part in the emergence of the modern state and ideas of equality and liberty that is often overlooked. In 1987 the US Senate formally acknowledged what many have long observed, that “the original framers of the Constitution, including most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts, principles, and governmental practices of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Whereas the confederation of the original Thirteen Colonies into one republic was explicitly modeled upon the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself (3-4).”
It is a story that we can carry with us for years and continue to learn from and be inspired by, as have many generations past. We will turn our attention and our hearts toward a moment in history of a mighty movement from conflict toward peace, something so meaningful for us today.
Many volunteers and artists have been working for weeks to prepare for this part of our conference. Artists Barbara Bäumler (movement), Brigitte Kowarik (speech) and Dorothee Nys (music) have also agreed to bring their gifts to the service of the story, and in the end everyone at the conference will be able to play a part in the telling.
I am also sharing some references for anyone who is interested to deepen their relationship and understanding:
Cadwallader Colden. The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada.
Bruce Elliott Johansen. Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois, and the Rationale for the American Revolution. Gambit, 1982.
Jacob Needleman. The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders. Penguin, 2003.
Paul A. W. Wallace. White Roots of Peace: The Iroquois Book of Life. Clear Light Publishers, 1994.
Tehanetorens. Roots of the Iroquois. Native Voices, 2000. |
