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News FWF supports many like minded groups locally and abroad. Visit our Friends of FWF page January April 2009 Chile - Mexico for the Winter April 30th 2009 - Women’s Lodge Portland There will be a wide range of extra special hand-made items...some of the lovely items that were on sale last year include: If you are feeling crafty and want to donate items for our sale or if you would like to give away any of your gently used belongings, please contact me at susan@hotpepper.com Proceeds go toward supporting Sweet Medicine's work in Chile. Four Winds Foundation 2008 Eco News Article in Bend, Oregon SOURCE magazine - click here January – April 2008 - Mexico for the Winter For the first part of the year, Sweet Medicine will be in Mexico. She has been invited to attend a immersion program in the City of Morelia , Micheacan, Mexico to continue the deepening of this link with the South gate nations. Sweet Medicine has traveled to forums every other year and spoken an offered view points on ecology and its response to ritual and its spiritual components. “We are seeing that there are really no borders, when it comes to people, our ways and the greater needs we all have.” FWF is also dedicated to furthering these ties in Mexico and the South American areas to protect and nurture better understanding between counties as well as sharing our knowing. During this extended stay Sweet Medicine will be meeting with religious and indigenous spiritual leaders, sharing ceremony, knowledge and experiences. The culmination of which will be a book. September 2007 - Awarded SolAire Grant by Central Oregon Environmental Center Four Winds Foundation (FWF) was awarded a grant from the Central Oregon Environmental Center in recognition of our commitment to the environment. Funds from the SolAire Grant will help us, in collaboration with Wolftree, to complete a special project. FWF is assisting in the preservation and re-establishment of home waters for 146,000 steelhead fry by restoring the banks of the Sisters Wychus Creek to clean waters. The goal is the re-establishment of the riparian margins in support of these young and sensitive fish. Wychus Creek was chosen for its history as the native home of steelhead. Through outreach programs with schools in Deschutes and Jefferson Counties, children will see firsthand the effects of our efforts through underwater viewers, hand crafted by Four Winds members with materials purchased with SolAire Grant monies. All of us at Four Winds Foundation would like to thank SolAire and the Central Oregon Environmental Center for recognizing our work and supporting us in continuing our commitment to all our relations in the Great Hoop of Life. October and November 2007 - Boys to Men & Girls to Maidens October and Dec 2007 - Roots and Shoots program offered Four Winds Foundation has joined again in partnership with Wolftree in providing powerful hands-on programs for the youth of Sisters. We are coupling this season with the Roots and Shoots program this fall to further assist with the “greening” of Sisters, Oregon. We are giving students further opportunities in creating a forest and river management plan and forethought in a restoration project around our area that they can watch and be proud of. These projects are mainly along the Wychus Creek flood plains...as well as private property owners lands...many advanced classes in restoration of streams, water courses and forestry assistance focus on riparian habitat. These energetic students have taken to this project with amazing pride. We are creating citizens with knowhow and increasing their backgrounds in forestry and fisheries. They are our future, and this investment of time and energy is being seen around our area as a new way of schooling. We are looking towards more hands-on classrooms in the forest this spring. November 2007 - 5th Annual Conference Guatemala FIFTH INTERNATIONAL FORUM ABOUT THE SPIRITUALLITY OF THE INDEGENOUS PEOPLE OF AMERICA “THE SPIRIT OF WATER” The Inter-American Council for Indigenous Spirituality, CISEI and the Great Confederation of Main Councils “Ajq’ijab” from the Mayan community of Guatemala, extended an invitation to participate in the fifth international forum about the spirituality of the indigenous people of Americas, where the main subject shall be: “the spirit of water”. From the 24th to the 29th of November 2007, in “Tiosh Abaj”, Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala Today, humanity is facing the great challenge of fighting the over exploitation of water. An Irresponsible exploitation resulted from the negative impact of human conduct throughout time. The inadequate use of this resource has caused the exhaustion of underground water reserves, the disappearance of lakes, and the reduction of rivers volume and capacity; eliminating, also, native vegetation and threatening the subsistence of ecosystems throughout the planet. The irresponsible exploitation of water reserves limits the future development in the affected regions and shall worsen if the climatic tendency of the past years -characterized by extreme conditions that include longer and more severe drought periods-, continues. Furthermore, there are an increasing number of regions where the underground water reserves shall be the main and in some occasions, the only source of water available for common use; this is why, these resources become so strategic, and must be handled and managed efficiently, in order to assure the continuity of life. The environment and water problems have been approached in different forums from a scientific and technical perspective. However, intercultural and spiritual perceptions have been excluded. Ancestral cultures within our continent give account of the importance of the “spiritual handling” of water throughout time. This forum intends to recognize these ancestral practices related to the spirit of water and their contributions towards the responsible use of water within the world. Main objective is: Claim, reinforce, and deepen our connection with the spirit of water, and strengthen the links between scientific and ancestral wisdom.
Conclude with the declaration about the spirit of water and deliver it to the different governments, members of CISEI, in order to influence the creation of new public polices in America. Oregon Measure 37 FWF is working in tandem with C e n t r a l O r e g o n L a n d W a t c h, speaking out, at the County, State and with local residents: giving voice to the Land and other nations such as the (deer, elk, cougars and birds) in this local area, who can not show up in court to speak for their homes. We are working with Land Watch to insure that the voice for balance for the ecosystems, where mass “commercial destination resort” are planned during this time of Measure 37 proceedings. This will effect all in the Lower Bridge Way region and those on the Crooked River Ranch that look to towards the splendid Mountain views over the Wild and Scenic River area of the Deschutes.
WomanSpeak 2007 This gathering of women of all nations and creeds and honor the unspoken wisdom held by Spirit within a woman's heart. We must think differently in order to effect change in the world. Reach for the power and compassion that lies within. Respond to the beauty and power that is already yours.
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