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green cross: global forum in moscow



~~ written  9 am  4/21/97  by David Yarrow <dyarrow@igc.org> ~~

            Democracy in the New World: Tree of Peace

                Moscow Message: Human Survival
           The Six Nations Address the Global Forum
                  reports and comment on
                   Earth Conference Two
                         of the
 Global Forum of Religious & Parliamentary Leaders for Human Survival
           Moscow, U.S.S.R., January 21-27, 1990
                       part one of three

                  Audrey Shenandoah
         Takes Iroquois Message to Moscow
 Syracuse Post Standard, Monday, January 15, 1990, by Maureen Nolan

ONONDAGA NATION, via Nedrow, NY -- Audrey Shenandoah grew up in her 
grandmother's Iroquois home, where her elders spoke a language that 
has no word for nature.

It doesn't need one.

"In our language we don't have a word for what everybody calls 
"nature" because our ancestors and our tradition are so involved and 
as one with what is called 'nature, our environment'," said 
Shenandoah, a clan mother from Onondaga Nation.  She hopes to invoke 
the traditional Iroquois harmony with Mother Earth today in Moscow as 
a keynote speaker for an environmental forum attended by more than a 
thousand spiritual and parliamentary leaders from around the globe.

Shenandoah, 63, who teaches language and culture at the Onondaga 
Indian School near Nedrow, will address a gathering whose luminaries 
range from scientists to statesmen and clerics who will discuss the 
planet's future.  Duties of clanmother in the matrilineal society 
include passing along the Longhouse tradition and selecting tribal 
leaders.

"They don't hear much about, I guess, what they are expecting to hear 
from me," Shenandoah said.  "It is like reminding people of their 
line to the rest of the universe--we are only a part of this 
creation, and we should work along with it in harmony as much as we 
can."

She left for Moscow Friday.  With her at the Forum will be Onondaga 
Chief Oren Lyons, who helped plan the gathering; Leon Shenandoah, 
chief of the Grand Council of the Six Nations Confederacy (related to 

[223 lines left ... full text available at <url:http://www.reference.com/cgi-bin/pn/go?choice=message&table=04_1997&mid=3892853&hilit=CULTURE+FUTURE> ]
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Article-ID: 04_1997&3930078
Score: 82
Subject: green cross: global forum in moscow