Yoda of the scythe

It totally made my day, meeting with master Birger.
We sat talking about how to cut the meadow with a scythe. All about technique, weather conditions, general advice, and how to maintain the scythe and make it sharp.

Birger went after his best scythe, the one he used in competitions as well as in daily work on his farm lands.
Carefully cutting the grass, beautiful and neat.
He also let me cut the grass and corrected my technique. The tip of the blade must be more parallell to the ground. He make half moon shaped cuttings but slightly shorter from side to side than I tried to do it before.
It was truly a special feeling to hold on to this scythe that has served so long in his masters hands. As if the iron handles had softened and transformed in the contact with human hand.
Birgers lovely wife Terese came to sit with us too and we all had a good talk in the summer afternoon.

I was suggested to go to Birger if I wanted to know deeply about the traditions. He's the elder, the knowledge holder of the traditions that passed down in generations. He had a lot to tell, I say! This is indigenous knowledge for me, connected to the life in harmony with nature here in the north. Connected to my family roots of farmers in Dalarna.

Birger with his scythe.

Birger gave me this whetstone to sharpen my scythe. An honour to be given such!

A rose that unfolded this morning in my garden.

Anti fracking, anti mining.

The hunger for minerals and fossil fuel is damaging the earth, in many countries.
Here's some voices, strong voices, who question the whole thing.

Movie from Canada about a young layer Caleb Behn.



Frack is Wack                    Get The Frack Out!

They Get Rich. You Get Cancer.                    Can’t Drink Money

Love Your River                                  Health Over Profit

Don’t Be Fracking Crazy!                               Fraccidents Happen


Solar Now!                   Thou shalt not frack.


And in Sweden we are giving away our mineral recources to foreign companys, leaving only the scars and wounds in the earth for the local people who live there. This land belongs to the indigenous sami people, and colonial Sweden has taken land from the sami for a long time. Now Sweden give away the minerals to foreign company, Beowulf Mining Company in Great Britan. Let's fight this on a political level, we live in a democracy and our politicians has to listen to the people.
This time the big companies will learn that there is resistance. Reindeer herding has been there more than 1000 years, and the reindeers way of walking in the mountains and forests eating different plants around the year is essential to maintain this lifestyle. A new mine in this area will become the end of that era. We can't let it happen.




TED talk Sofia Jannok:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZu8xECOdw

Long live the sami culture in Gallok! And elsewhere.
Eva 

GIFF - Gothenburg Film Festival 2014

Yesterday I enjoyed two films. And I really enjoyed. This years GIFF has delivered again. I had great company too, a friend who also enjoys slow movies that gives you a lot of food for thought.

Previous years I have chosen to se movies from Asia. So I'm glad my friend choose this one. (To surprise eachother we picked one film each)  I love the rythm, the symbolic pictures, the way of getting a glimpse of how it can be for people who live there.


Toilet Blues, by Dirmawan Hatta. A poetic, dramatic, symbolic film from Indonesia. It talks about the good and bad in every human, how life concists of both.



In one scene in Toilet Blues it's a rail road worker standing with a light on his hand saying: the train you know where it goes, it follows the track. But a humans head can go whichever way. Listen to the heart. The heart will lead, the heart is the track and the head will follow.


To widen my insights in what it is to be young and native in the US I wanted to see Pine Ridge, documentary movie by swedish film maker Anna Eborn.
Because I have a big interest in Idle No More movement.
Because indigenous knowledge is spreading and doing so much good work for clean air and water.
Because it's about indigenous rights.
I have to tap into this whole thing to understand better. Hopefully my contacts will lead me to travel there in a not too far away future.

Anna Eborn's film is not about Idle No More, it's about the people living on Pine Ridge. Are you interested to know how Idle No More comes into this? Check out social Media Hashtags: #MoccasinsontheGround #HonourTheEarth #NoKXL

Here's an interview with Anna Eborn:

Eva

Takini - survivor. Wounded Knee Survivors Run

Today.

Remember Wounded Knee 29 of December.

Descendants of survivors of the massacre 1890 at Wounded Knee run for remembering and honouring the lost ones.


"We run so that we may live".
It's to be part of the change, to be victors, winners.


To die and come back again.






They never died at Wounded Knee

To eco-nomy from ego-nomy

Advent calendar #22
Write a short poem of three lines.

In this time of the year it's obvious that commersialism is a problem to many of us. The way we consume, buy and try to fill our lives with stuff. And a majority on our earth have just no possibility to take part in this, the question of poverty is a painful reality.

The child birth in Betlehem wich started our Chistmas history is somehow forgotten. How this child was born into poverty, and had to flee to Egypt  just a couple of weeks old with his young parents. To escape threat of life. This is what the story tells, if you believe it or not.

I love Christmas-time, I'm lucky to have a good history of how to gather in the family, open the doors for friends around us who maybe don't have a family to go to. I've spend Christmas in many different ways, in foreign countries, in big gatherings of friends, in smaller family settings. I feel I'm ready to have one more type of Christmas. Tell you later.

Then I came across this little excellent film on sacred economy. As another voice in the ongoing debate.





If you might think that new ecnomy systems have support from small groups of die hard fans, then take a look at the Idle No More movement, who proudly carry indigenous way of caring and sharing, respecting Mother Earth and maintain life in a beautiful way.
Women hand drummers called to the front. Idle No More 1 year anniversary
I love theese pictures!

Eva 

Winter solstice

Darkest day of the year.

Solstice meaning in Latin: to stand still, as in when the sun stands still before reversing its direction.


Join in for the new dawn, the returning of light.
Celebrations of many diverse kind is happening all around the world. In Idle No More movement there's a call for joining in local events (all around the world) of drumming, singing, dancing. Wish I could be there. My part taking will be listening to music and writing on a future project.

We have about 6 hours of daytime in Sweden this day. So I light my candle and have one more cup of coffé.

The dark season

Advent calendar # 16
Put on your favourite song that gives you some good energy.


Do you feel tired sometimes? Tired of the dark season, also with it's metaphor to what's happening around us? I guess it happens to all of us from time to time. We all need something to balance up all the dark signs we constantly is fed with through media and elsewhere around us. And the old school way of dealing with it, light a candle, take action, don't mourn - organize.

Here's one of my inspirations where I find a way to move forward. Artist Aaron Paquette in Canada, one of the promotors of the grass root movement Idle No More. See his paintings and blog here: www.aaronpaquette.net
He has a gentle way of spreading courage to be yourself,
to be your beautiful self, to have courage and make a change.
Change is the way to change.
And it starts with everyone of us. Use your abilities, your shortcomings, your talent.
Conquer your fears.
Don't just live your life, live your best life.

His talk on depression and accomplishement is worth listening to.

Inspiration

Advent calendar #5: Write down three things that fills you with inspiration.


Idle No More brings me enormous inspiration. I would like to recommend this excellent blog post by Aaron Paquette where he summons up what the first year of Idle No More-movement has created.

 Aaron Paquette on Idle No More and future.

Things I didn't think would happen

Today I was asked to be a computer support. Concerning a PC-question! Both of this is surprising to me. I've never felt like some kind of a computer person. From the start I was more of a mac user, because all the musicians in my connections were already using mac. Now I have to dig deeper into the world of PC because that's the environment on my new job as a youth leader in the church.

So that's another thing I didn't think would happen.
I have a regular job. That's revolutionary for me, since I've always been a free lance musician and that's all I know how to do. A regular job with a steady income, that's a whole new culture. I do this on part time, 50%. Maybe I run the music 100% like before, so it's a bit of a puzzle with time.... The appointment is to do this youthleader job for 6 month. After that I don't know but probably it will be music business as usual.

The youth leader job is organized by the church. Regular swedish church. I didn't think I would get a job there either. I don't have the required education. But maybe I have the heart on the right place. I would never ever feel confortable with some sort of conservative religious congregation. But in this case I have found the best place to be. This particular congregation of Hjällbo is open minded, focused on social equality and human rights, inter-religous events now and then. I'm so proud to be part of the future.

I see us all connected. Today I set myslef to understand more of the prayer "All My Relations". I googled, found a little bit on Wiki, and it's also a hash-tag on twitter. I follow blogs and twitter where I see the use of the phrase "All My Relations" as a greeting.

Like this, answering on a blog post:

"All my Relations! Aaron, thank you for speaking the truth in such a beautiful way! Michelle Morning Star Doherty"

To be connected to the whole universe, earth, humanity and everything living upon it. All my relatives.

Here's a clip from youtube, you can listen to the prayer and have it explained.




Tonight at the youth meeting we are discussing the topic of togetherness, community, sense of belonging. That's also a way of celebrating United Nations Day.

Eva

MUKO Sweden festival and a day of love

Irmelin did a great day yesterday, taking part in the first ever festival of MUKO Sweden. Music Collective (=MUKO) manifested ourselves for the first time.
Irmelin pictures

With a 8 band long festival including  childrens concert and whole night long row of music at Storan, Göteborg. 6 bands from our own power house of MUKO and two international acts. I especially enjoyed listening to Mikael Godee and Eve Beuvens quartet (Sweden and Belgium) and Jaron Freeman Fox and the Opposite of Everything (Canada). Sparkling energy. Deep and sensitive. Fun!

Mikael Godée & Eve Beuvens Quartet

All the other bands are super interesting too, but because Irmelin performed so much ourselves I couldn't hear everything I wanted to.


Irmelin sang in the opening ceremony of the festival, and immediately after we had to run to next gig. My friend Thomas married Cecilia and Irmelin provided with love songs and bridal march. A truly enlighted moment was to call out with our voices only in herding calls over the fields where the bride and groom walked up to their friends and family who had gathered to celebrate with them.

Yes, a long day of love indeed.

Music in all directions. Love for what we believe in.

Irmelin headed back to Göteborg and Storan Theater to get up on stage there a second time in the MUKO festival. We were carried of the support from among others the members of my choirs who came to listen. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

I'm happy to say we also made a statement from stage yesterday, in support and solidarity with all who stand up for mother earth and protect her from big company greed, mining companies. In solidarity with Gallok in Jokkmokk, Sweden, as well as anti-fracking movement in Canada and elsewhere. Our thoughts goes to the situation in New Brunswick in Canada where military made a crack down on unarmed peaceful protesters and shoot rubber bullets and teargas. Snipers aiming at singing and praying elders, women, children. Peaceful protesters, you have all the love and support that the corporations envy and fear so much. Your songs, drums, dances and prayers are more powerful than bullets. Put your boots on the ground, stand up for future clean nature to our children and their children.

Today I could think of resting a bit......and dream of all the goodies from yesterday.

Put your boots on the ground

Susane of the Mi'kmaq Warrior Society.

She's young, smart, and warrior. "The corporate monsters envy us of what we have, we have all the love and support that we can gather and we need more, "

"Join us and put your boots on the ground, flood their mailboxes."

It can be Gallok in Sweden or Turtle Island in Canada and many other places, but let's speak out and never be silent around what's happening with the earth. In the end, we can't drink polluted water or eat stones.







Let's speak out against corporation greed and colonialisation.

With this I will go out today and work with Irmelin music and take part in a action day in Sweden.

My peaceful protest. Together with about 400.000 swedish coffé drinkers we'll high light fair trade today. A step in the right direction.

fairtradechallenge.se/fikor/irmelin-utan-kaffe-stannar-musiksverige/


Eva