November 16, 2022

Clearing a New Path™ and Clearing a New Path Podcast™ are products of Radar Media, located in Dorchester, Ontario on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Neutral peoples who once used this land as their traditional beaver hunting grounds.  As a settler here I’m committed to deepening understanding of Indigenous communities and reframing responsibilities to land and community. I am grateful to Mother Earth for the opportunity for love and connection and to the spirits of the Elders and the Medicine People who still walk the Earth.

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

I come to this work as a white woman of privilege; a vulnerable allyship student.I get things wrong often and I am open to, and welcome opportunities to be called in about the content in this newsletter, in order to create safe, brave spaces for all. The purpose is to unite people in rural Canada.I am grateful to walk along this journey in grace, love and empathy together.Simply hit 'reply' to contribute, suggest and

Please support our work. We can't do this without the support of rural folks like you.

DECOLONIZING BUSINESS, POLITICS AND MENTAL HEALTH WITH KAITY ADAMS

om Onodaga First Nation, Deer Clan and she is a proud Haudenasaunee woman. Her husband Montana is from

Aamjiwnaang First Nation w

hich is Chipewa/Ojibwe.

Kaity talks about qualifying on reserve for a mortgage to build her own house, that only her income was considered because only she is a band member. She talks about making the decision to turn the main floor of their home into a tattoo studio and boutique and moving their living space downstairs.Kaity took politics and Indigenous studies at Western University and she explains about how it felt as an Indigenous woman to learn in an environment surrounded by people who didn’t know her history. She talks about how Indigenous politics works, the benefits and the drawbacks. And her experience with witnessing mediation talks and full voting in Indigenous community.

And Kaity is very open about her mental health and how important she feels it is to be vulnerable about that, so others can feel less isolated and alone.I learned a great deal from this conversation. I hope you do too!*Kaity is preparing to create her own podcast so stay tuned for that in the future!Follow Adams Family Ink and Boutique:

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RESOURCES

Called the Iroquois Confederacy by the French, and the League of Five Nations by the English, the confederacy is properly called the Haudenosaunee Confederacy meaning People of the long house. The confederacy was founded by the prophet known as the Peacemaker with the help of Aionwatha, more commonly known as Hiawatha. The exact date of the joining of the nations is unknown and said to be time immemorial making it one of the first and longest lasting participatory democracies in the world.The confederacy is made up of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas was intended as a way to unite the nations and create a peaceful means of decision making. Through the confederacy, each of the nations of the Haudenosaunee are united by a common goal to live in harmony. Each nation maintains it own council with Chiefs chosen by the Clan Mother and deals with its own internal affairs but allows the Grand Council to deal with issues affecting the nations within the confederacy.

"The family structure of the Haudenosaunee is primarily based on the clan system. Families start with a female ancestor with all those dwelling in her long house linking back to her. Each family was called the long house family with the Clan Mother as the head. All female descendents including her sisters, her sisters’ daughters, and their daughters would live in the long house their entire lives bringing their husbands to live with them...Traditionally, women handled village concerns like property and crops while men took care of hunting, fishing and trade concerns. No member of a Haudenosaunee family was over looked with Elders holding respected positions within the communities as the wisdom keepers: the ones to impart traditions and to help raise the children."

Read more here.

CLEARING A NEW PATH PODCAST REWIND

Ashley O’Neil is a wildland firefighter in British Columbia. She says they had a helluva season in 2021.

But not only was Ashley fighting fires, running into the flames as others were running out, but she has been growing her business, AshFireWear.When Ashley started firefighting several years ago, she was one of only a few females fighting fires in her region. There were no companies that made firefighting clothing, specifically designed for women. Now that more women have entered the field and after coming home from a particularly challenging tour a few years ago, Ashley realized that not only was her clothing ill fitting but it also felt unsafe.

So she started to research. And as a proud indigenous woman, a member of the Ktunaxa First Nation, she thought, I have aunties who can sew…It took her a few years, and she was sidelined a little bit with the COVID-19 pandemic, but she’s been moving forward with a line of clothing not only for firefighters but also for folks working in the mining industry. AshFireWear isn’t just for women, it’s for everyone. And it’s environmentally friendly.At one point, I asked Ashley what compelled her to take up such a noble career as firefighting and she was quite open in saying that in the past, she got into an unhealthy lifestyle and got tired of waking up hungover, so she decided to enter the career and she hasn’t looked back.

WORKSHOP SUNDAY

'Amplify our Vision Board'Please join Indigenous Elder Cindy Crowe on Sunday, November 20 at 4 pm EST virtually for this interactive workshop entitled 'Amplify Your Vision Board'.Email Cindy at [email protected] for more information and to register. For more information about Cindy's services, you can go to https://www.cindycrowe.ca/

OPEN SUNDAY CIRCLE

What's wrong with health care in rural Canada?

Two weeks ago, I hosted an open Sunday Zoom call.Colin from Belleville, Ontario, Alan from Peterborough, Ontario and myself had an interesting discussion that touched on mental health, long term care, affordable housing and then branched off into education (because Colin ran in his local municipal election in the school trustee race) and a host of other topics.I'm still editing and it will be available soon.Since quite a few folks followed up, saying they really would have liked to have attended, I hosted another open Zoom called on Sunday, changing the time. No one came.So, here's the shortest survey I could dream up about the best time and topics. If you could take 3 min to respond, I'd appreciate it!

Want to leave me a voice message? Click the link below!

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SUPPORTERS

This newsletter and the Clearing a New Path™ podcast are supported by Xplore Business, formerly Xplornet Enterprise Solutions.