By Wendy McDonnell

Dear Editor,

As the representative for the voiceless, I would like to say a few words on behalf of the 213 (four foot diameter) trees that were recently felled on Alexandra Road.

The trees would like to apologize for the inconvenience of being in the way of the massive new developments being built on the once arable land.

Even though they understand that it is important to have homes for those that do not, they quote Henry David Thoreau, “What is the use of a house if you do not have a tolerable planet to put it on?”

The trees show great compassion for those birds, insects and wildlife that have already perished or will perish because their only home and food have now been destroyed.

The trees wonder how the oxygen that our very species needs to breathe will be produced without them releasing it.   Twenty-two trees produce the oxygen needed for one person.  By cutting the trees, Richmond affected 8 people worldwide.

The trees are shocked at how a city, claiming to be reducing its carbon footprint, would allow the very species that absorbs our growing carbon dioxide problem be eradicated.  An acre of trees absorbs enough CO2 over one year to equal the amount produced by driving a car 26,000 miles.  The City of Richmond allowed developers to cut down an acre of trees.

The trees question the water tolerance of Richmond’s drainage without them to drink the excess water produced by large rainfalls and high tides.  Considering homeowners are unable to buy flood insurance in Richmond, and a tree can drink up to 50 gallons of water in a day, it seems ludicrous to cut trees.  But of course, I am only speaking from a simple tree’s perspective.

When the trees saw the arrival of an arborist, one who is trained to protect and understand the tree, they were relieved to know that Richmond was a city with an eye for the future.

But after the arborist completed an analysis of the tree locations, not much of an eye for the future was displayed.  The trees were chopped;  All but one.

So the one tree that remains speaks for them all:  What on Earth were you thinking Richmond?  Do you think that removing those trees will have no ecological effect?  Did you once again disregard the cycle of life that sustains us?

In memory of the Trees of Alexandra,

-A letter written for a friend to the Richmond Review regarding the chopping down of 213 trees for development in her neighbourhood.

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By Wendy McDonnell

“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you knock long enough and loud enough you are sure to wake up somebody.” ~Henry Longfellow

In order to fully capitalize on children’s gifts, they need to practice their ability to make necessary changes in society.  Often parents and teachers are satisfied with listening to children’s ideas, judging them, and then tossing them aside. An objective is considered met when a child shows us that they understand a concept, often through regurgitation of fact. Why would the children not take their ideas to the next level?   Why would they not bring their gifts and insights to the change agents of society?  Why not tap the children’s infinite knowledge to better the world?

I recently heard the story of Alexander Graham Bell, the man who invented the telephone.  Here was an inventor who spent his days exploring his endless abyss of creativity.  He did not consult “professionals” to tell him how to do things and then stop there. He took his thinking further and took pleasure in creating, inspired to make a difference.  He did not care about the money; he wanted to better the world by creating communication that was simpler and more effective.  Interestingly, when he brought his invention of the telephone to the great minds that be, they turned him down.  At the time, he only wanted a small amount of money for his great invention and hoped they would take it further.  He was judged and tossed aside.

Instead of accepting the “professionals” advice, he took the telephone on himself.  Used to the rejection, he did not let this judgment affect him. He knew the world needed his gift and, by and by, he began Bell, the longest standing telephone company in the world.  He completed the cycle.  He had an idea, developed the idea, presented the idea and then even propagated it on his own.  He was one man that changed the world.

When children have to stop at the formation of ideas, it is an effective means to limit their ability to make a difference.  When they then receive a subjective grade for their idea, negative self-talk often starts and children’s ideas are not able to surface as easily.  By the time many children reach adulthood, their psychosis of negative self-talk has made sure that they will meld perfectly into the work force without questioning the “professionals”.  And the cycle to diminish intelligence continues.  Alexander Graham Bell was an exception to the rule.

So break the traditional cycle of education.  Have children present their ideas and then take them a step further.  Discuss the ways to effectively create positive change.  First, they must follow their passion. Second, be ethical and work for the greater good.  Third, understand their proposal more than anyone else.  Fourth, realize that a rejection is but a lesson on one way not to complete the task. Fifth, modify and try again.  Then GO OUT  into the school, community, city, or country.  Bring the invention or idea to the people that make decisions for the betterment of society.  It would be giving the world a much-needed gift: Completing the cycle for the greater good.  What more could an educator ask for?

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By Wendy McDonnell

Spirituality is an aspect completely void from education.  Many schools mandate for social responsibility or anti-bullying, preaching that the school mascot is essentially the school “god” that all need to rally around.  Although cultures throughout the world are more diverse than ever, they fail to appreciate the very essence of their being.  Their spirit.

After listening to the Grand Chief Eddie Benton-Banai speaking about “Indigenous Knowledge: The Anishinaabe Perspective”, I was honoured to hear some basics in First Nations spirituality.

Basically, First Nations throughout North America embrace the duality of life.  Both hands, both eyes, both arms, both legs, both sides of the brain, both sides of the heart, both lungs, both kidneys, a duality that coexists with perfect harmony.  One-side fires, the other responds.  Our daily existence depends on the firing of both sides in order to achieve complete synchronicity.

This duality needs to also include the coexistence of a physical and a spiritual.  A duality that completes our lives, complements our being.  Many great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Einstein, and Da Vinci also all knew that their inspiration came from the spirit.  There was no selfish exploitation of their creation, it was a mutual gift for all to enjoy and revere.  There was an acceptance within themselves of their duality, and all greatness was possible.  Their memories are kept alive today and are quoted daily for their inspiration. Yet education fails to include this power in its teaching.

The Elder spoke of the atrocities that First Nations still face today.  One teacher spoke of how she cannot receive a loan to buy a house or start a business on her reserve due to the humanitarian nightmares of the Indian Act.  Another was recently fired from her teaching job due to teaching too much First Nations culture in her classroom.  No one has been fired for celebrating Christopher Columbus culture, although he was responsible for essentially committing a holocaust on the First Nations of North America.  Where is the humanity in learning about and celebrating historians who had no compassion? As Raffi (the children’s singer sings), “We don’t want to learn about war no more”.

In order to raise a generation of children that will honour the next and past seven generations, children need to be able to hear the whole story.  Not just “His” story, the story of the complete being.  The complete being that exists in all four colours of the world:  The duality of the spiritual and the physical.

Share with children the 50,000-year-old spirituality of the First Nations.  It is very simple and will probably sound very similar to teachings from a variety of different cultures.

1)      The clan system believes in protecting the unborn and deceased in complete equality with those that are living.  Love and respect is shown for both the past seven generations and those seven generations of the future.

2)      The human family is but one and comes in four colours.

3)      Earth is mother.  Honour and protect her.

4)      Breath comes from spirit. Body is from the earth and will return to the earth.

5)      Language is given by the Creator and is to be respected.

6)      All descendants are from the original person therefore the route to knowledge is eternal.  ALL ARE CONNECTED TO ALL – past, present and future.

7)      The heartbeat of the earth and the connector to the earth is the drum.

The 4 commandments of the First Nations are RESPECT, RESPECT, RESPECT, RESPECT – the body, mind, spirit and Earth.

Satisfy a child’s insatiable desire to fulfill their duality: To be complete.  Teach them all the spiritual messages from all the great leaders from all the four colours.  Help them develop an understanding that embraces compassion instead of rules.  Help them empower themselves to look after the next seven generations.  They will never be alone.  Their spirits will be with them.

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By Wendy McDonnell

This summer my family returned to the North.  After living in the city for four years, it was time to return to life: be alone and live simply.   We drove endlessly through our old exploration grounds reminiscing of the times in the wild we shared.  The grizzly bears greeting us by our doorsteps, the winters of below minus fifty degrees Celsius, the dark nights we searched for the warmth and companionship of a people who had lived on the land for generations and could still feel its pulse.  The stories began turning into legends the further we escaped from the concrete towers and roadways. We were connecting.  The teachings we experienced living in the north were unparalleled in any traditional school.  The true teaching occurred outdoors, whether through stories of the past or through led expeditions through the bush.

Being a woman in the north, I searched for the comfort of a womanhood I had barely read about in stories.  I craved the knowledge, the spirit, and the connection that the Elders possessed with the land.  I asked questions but the answers were often unspoken.  My concerns were not what they wanted to teach me.  Who really cared how long they breastfed their newborns, when they were struggling with addiction, abuse and neglect.  Beading nights often occurred in silence, uncomfortable for me, yet perfect to still their minds and connect with their spirits.  I tried to pry, observe, advise but was still oblivious for many years of the true depth of their survival.  My questions were simple and disoriented for my young years.

The culture thrives on connections.  A raw, real relationship that needs to be harnessed instead of mocked.  A confusion stems within the people that can only be solved from within.  They are torn between their spirit’s expectations and modern materialism.  While reading A Native’s Life by Richard Wagamese, he spoke about how he had one foster father that understood his unspoken connection with the natural world.  The only way he knew how to foster this in his “son” was to take him fishing.  On the dock they sat, in silence, while the boy connected in a way completely unbeknown to most.  The ability of the First Nation’s to harness this gift is amazing and powerful.  When Chief Dan George passed away, an eagle soared above the entire ceremony and flew when it ended.  He was speaking to his people; to all people, that indeed there is purpose and anything is possible.

When we visited the village we spent so many cold winters in, we began to cry.  A new understanding of the people had bloomed within us and we subsequently went to all our past students homes to share some time.  Not used to outsiders, many were shocked and hid, but others gave us hugs, like “Donna”.  In a drunken stupor, she shared her story at the side of our beaten up truck.  The power of her words mesmerized us and all I could do was send healing energy to her to help her overcome her confusion.  She had lost her daughter recently in a house fire, her son had just graduated, she needed to stop drinking, she was a medicine woman but she was a Catholic.  Her husband abused her, and she almost died the night before until a voice told her to eat black ash to cleanse her.

She survived, and she prayed.  She was a product of Residential School, no attachment, no culture, no love for her own spirit.  At that moment I knew that she spoke for many First Nations who are trying to live in a world of capitalism, destruction, and selfishness.

We hugged Donna and left the village with a new sense of how much we needed to learn.  We realized that within us all, we have a First Nations spirit: a need to connect, to be at peace and to find our way for the greater good.

So when I embark on an Eco-Lesson, I first research the First Nations history of the particular plant, animal or situation.  The information can then help me produce a lesson that will help connect children to their First Nations within.  Then we are silent.  We listen.  We touch.  We feel the pulse of the earth and we say thank you:  Simple, effective and unbelievingly curative.

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