This Little Light Of Mine

Addena's Substack

Subject: October Newsletter


Hello everyone  💖. I’m so happy you’re joining me for this October Newsletter.
It’s exciting.  I’m grateful that you choose to spend some time with me and listen to my  raves (and sometimes rants).  
Can you believe how fast October is flying by!  It seems like only yesterday it was September, but when I look out my window I  see the trees leaves are all changing, to beautiful yellows, oranges and reds.  Piles of leaves are all falling on the lawn, on the roof, and sticking behind my car’s Windshield Wipers, reminding me (alas) that it’s Autumn.   
The deer are still visiting our yard almost everyday.

The young ones and the Moms ….

and the other day Big Poppa. 

The month flew by, and except for unpacking and trying to switch Credit Unions (which isn’t as easy as you might imagine) I didn’t complete any of the poetry I started writing in October.  I started several poems but they are not completed yet.   The last poems I completed (I was commissioned to write) were poems inspired by Artworks.  

Letting Art inspire your composition of a poem is a really challenging experience, because your intentions are to honour the work, and write words that come from your soul’s interpretation and reactions.   

I wrote and performed poems on several Art pieces by: Allison Keenan, Simon, Fleming, Vivi Maidanik, and Indeet Sharon, at the “Atelier 8.18 Gallery,‘ event: “Place, Memory, and Distance”, and in another event on several pieces in the “Art in the Gallery” event at the “Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery” in Vancouver .  The exhibiting Artist was Brian Gluckman. 

Luckily enough, Brian attended that event in the gallery and some of us poets were able to talk with him that night.  He told me he was very pleased with my interpretation of his pieces (that I chose to write on) and he said “I understood his intentions”.  I was relieved and honoured to know I had been able to convey my visions of his work and they aligned with some of his artistic intentions for his paintings.  

I am still intending to enter several those poems In an upcoming poetry competition so I can’t share those ones with you yet. 

I already shared one with you a couple of months ago, but I will share share one more poem from the “ Place, Memory and Distance: A Night of Poetry & Art  event. 

Escape                

You can’t fool me

You want me think because you framed it 

It would have order

But the frame’s  a-sym-metry

Was a clue of  the journey you offered (I could take)

if I took your dare

to let go 

and descend into : “the hole of the Rabbit”

I surrendered (to your invitation)

and dove deep.  

When I landed … A Psychedelic Garden!

A Dream Scape,

No escape? ...

I ventured further in.

You may not believe this 

But the first thing I focused on. . well, actually I tripped over,  

were High heeled Shoes 

Strewn carelessly by the pool

(strewn, like clothes at the beginning of a One-Night Stand)

Then..

Giant Giraffe trees 

With Photosynthetic Yellow leaves 

And ..  are those Giant Boas 

Slithering across the land bridge

Camouflaged in Stars and Polka-Dotted skins?

Fanned-fingered Palm Trees growing beside Reeds

Proving, we can all exist beside each other

and bend and blend 

in this Rat Race,

if we slow our pace..

enough to dare to let go

escape!

beyond the Wrought-Iron gates

(built to keep out the homeless)

I bet Billy Holiday would love this Oasis

I bet she’d pluck the delicate Orchid flowers (for her hair)

growing at the edge of your pool  

As long as it wasn’t 1940,.

She wouldn’t be allowed to swim there 

Or They would have to drain the pool after she did.

How cruel!   

Oh look ! 

… there !

There’s a Canopy near the sand’s edge,

Reminds me of the day I came home from Rehab

You’d set up Cocktails

Under a Canopy You set me up!

… again!

                                                            C. Addena Sumter- Freitag  May 2024   

 Art by:    Allison Keenan

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October: Women’s History Month 🎉🎉🎉

💜💙💚💛🧡🤎🖤

In 1992, the Government of Canada designated October as Women’s History Month, marking the beginning of an annual celebration of the outstanding achievements of women and girls throughout Canada’s history.

Women’s History Month in Canada, is a time to celebrate the women and girls from our past, and our present, who are contributing to a better, more inclusive Canada.

Let’s keep the focus on the objective of Women’s History Month, and in that spirit I’d like to Shine a Little Light on one of the most incredible Women and Social Activists I know: Aline Laflamme.  Aline is one of the “Keepers of the Drum”.  

Besides being called to offer her Drum songs to open and Bless community gatherings, Aline offers Drum Making Workshops which is where I made my first of three drums. She’s a wonderful teacher, and a most cherished Elder, who has contributed so much to the youth, Women, and families in so many communities.  

Let’s journey back in time to where and how I first met Aline.

How I met Aline  Laflamme :  It was Summer Break, and I was in the Northwest Territories, working for Status of Women of the NWT and was attending workshops that were being held at the (Purple) Diamond Jenness Secondary/High School in Hay River N.W.T.  The massive school was empty of students (for summer break) and they were holding various Community Workshops in different areas of the school. 

I was sitting in a workshop I had chosen, but for some reason I was feeling restless and agitated.  I didn’t know why. I tried to focus, but I couldn’t. Then I realized it was because I kept hearing a constant (faint) rhythmic beat.  No it wasn’t my heart.

I didn’t say anything to anyone, I just got up from my chair in the workshop and walked out into the hallway.  I listened.  Yes it was definitely a drum beat.   Where was it coming from?  

I followed the sound of the drumbeat down the hall,  around a corner, down another hallway… it was getting louder… down another hallway… it was getting even louder until I arrived at a room at the other end of the school.  It was the schools gym. 

Yes! The drum beat was definitely coming from in there!  I opened  the door and peeked into the room.   Way across at the far end of the gym near the stage, was a group of people sitting on the floor in a large circle formation.  One of those participants near the middle of that circle was The Drummer..   I walked across the floor till I reached the group. They all had their eyes closed as the Drummer was offering an Opening Prayer Ceremonial Drum Song.

I didn’t speak, I just squeezed my way into the circle and sat down on the floor.. beside the Drummer.   It was only after I sat down beside her that she opened her eyes and looked at me and said, “oh there you are.  I was waiting for you”, and then she closed her eyes and continued the Blessing.  That  drummer was Aline LaFlamme.   

After the workshop was over and we had a chance to talk privately, she shared with me that customarily she takes a time before each circle and she offers a prayer and asks The Creator and The Ancestors to send someone to her who needs her, and needs to find their drum, and let that person sit in the circle beside her.  That was why she kept drumming so long she said. She was waiting for me come join The Circle.  

Over time Aline and I became friends, and she became a Mentor to me.  We talked about so many issues, and she she passed on to me countless gems of knowledge. She explained to me that because (historically) my Cultural (Native)  drums and rhythms were stolen from me, part of my journey was to “Find my Drum” and connect to: All my Relations.

I have had the honour, since our first meeting, to work many times workshopping and co-facilitating  groups with Aline.   I have had the opportunity to make  three different  Drums in her Drum-making Workshops. One of them ( a Moose-hide drum) I offered as a gift to my Friend Jade Stanley, another Woman Extraordinaire who has worked with women’s and community groups all over the world.  

Aline is also a Poet and Facilitator who is often called on to be a Speaker, and a Guide.  Her Human Rights, Women’s Rights, Land Protection, and her work that  focuses on individual and Community Healing and Spiritual Growth is known and respected worldwide. 

Aline’s educational work focuses on empowering people. That empowerment work involves encouraging and supporting people in learning their history, their cultural and their personal identities, and finding strength and pride from that knowledge. Many of her Ceremonies, and Sweat Lodges, and workshops, encourage inclusion and diversity allowing us to learn not just our personal histories and identities, but to learn the same about others. These opportunities for inclusion allows, and had led, many of her students (of whom I am one) find and redefine the meaning of: Family. 

I hope I don’t make her sound so serious.  Even though a lot of her work involves serious issues, Aline is witty, mischievous, funny, and an incredibly joyful  person to be around. She is a bright, beautiful, magnetic Spirit …And she LOVES to dance.

Thank you Aline.  ♥️💖 I want you to know that I still drum and chant on my own at home and whenever I smudge or do Cleansing Ceremonies for my household (and my mind).  I have the traditional Dene Hand Drums I made with you, and I have 2 sets of Conga Drums. I use drumming accompaniment with Carlos Joe Costa in some of my poetry performances.  

Carlos Joe Costa gifted me his beautiful old set of Conga Drums when he got his new set and recorded his new CD: African Science.

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That’s all for this month My wonderful Readers and fellow writers and poets. I really appreciate you taking time to join me as you go about your busy days and I hope you come back to join me in November.

The only reason I may not join you next month is if Trump somehow wins the US Presidential Election. In that case I will be depressed and in mourning, and sitting in my house playing sad music and writing sad poems :)

So… if you’re in America, please, please, please use your power of your Voice:

💖💖💖💖

Next month’s issue will be mainly about celebrating Families, our Original Family and our Chosen Family. It will be about getting ready and telling Christmas stories, and updating my Countdown for Jamaica, and, ta da!. Yes!! Christmas in Jamaica. (I think today is 32 days to departure)

I got out my drum and I drummed this morning. It was Happy Making. I have to go out and spread those Vibes today.

Take care everyone. Be especially kind to yourself and to each other. We need Love and positive energy to blanket our earth. All My Relations.