BY NIBI WALK, PANGEA WORLD THEATER, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TASK FORCE [1335 E 23RD ST., PHILLIPS COMMUNITY– VENTURA VILLAGE, MINNAPOLIS] IN COLLABORATION WITH SHARON DAY, ON THE MINNESOTA STATE CAPITOL STEPS SUNDAY OCTOBER 11, 2020, WAS AN INCREDIBLE PREFACE TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY 2020 THE NEXT DAY. 

The Tree of Peace, Tree of Life, Tree for the Future Ceremony 

BY NIBI WALK, PANGEA WORLD THEATER, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TASK FORCE [1335 E 23RD ST., PHILLIPS COMMUNITY– VENTURA VILLAGE, MINNAPOLIS] IN COLLABORATION WITH SHARON DAY, 

ON THE MINNESOTA STATE CAPITOL STEPS SUNDAY OCTOBER 11, 2020, WAS AN INCREDIBLE PREFACE TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY 2020 THE NEXT DAY. 

Sunday October 11, 2020 one day before Indigenous Day 2020. 

Over the last few months, many people have responded to Sharon Day”™s invitation to send their messages to future generations. From a place of deep love, the purest truth, and with hope, people created leaves with their messages to be part of the Tree of Peace, Tree of Life, Tree for the Future. People from all over Turtle Island contributed to this large scale sculpture. The tree was raised with the wish that our leaders enact policies that reflect our prayers that everyone be able to live a good life. 

Singers, dancers, and speakers were 

● MN Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Band of Ojibwe 

● Meena Natarajan and Dipankar Mukherjee, Pangea World Theater 

● Sharon Day, Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, a second degree M”™dewin, Indigenous Peoples Task Force Executive Director, artist, musician, and writer. 

● One Voice Mixed Chorus 

● MN Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein 

● Barb Tilsen, singer, songwriter, poet, performer 

● Tom LeBlanc, Strong Buffalo, (Tatanka Ohitika) Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, decorated Vietnam veteran, poet; and Ben Weaver, singer, songwriter, poet 

● Ikidowin Youth Theater Ensemble 

● MN Senator Patricia Torres Ray 

● Oshki Gishiik Women Singers 

● Sara Thomsen, singer, songwriter, composer 

The messages were presented to the people because “we love our children, we wish for our children”™s children to live a life where they can smell the flowers, put their feet into clean rivers, breathe air that is life giving, and live each day without fear of the police, pandemics, and government”™s run amuck.”Â 

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