Photo from EcoTrust event

Here we are tabling at Ecotrust! Someone just pointed a camera at us and to hide the awkwardness we just grinned hugely. Also we were having fun.

End of another busy week at the office! This week we were a bit short staffed, with Rose and Fox up in Washington working hard to promote the NISA Festival and Katie feeling a bit under the weather. Despite the lack of supervision, those of us left continued to make strides on our individual projects and even managed to find time to move our rabbits into their new home (stay tuned for a video of the great unveiling from Kaitlyn). Things are looking up at our garden plot as well, with winter crops making their way into a beautiful key-hole shaped bed.

Upcoming: I'm super excited to start training with Film Action Oregon on Monday to learn the basics of video production - knowledge that should prove invaluable as I begin to work more closely with Wisdom's production team!

Wisdom at EcoTrust!

Greetings lovers of music and Wisdom!

Join us at the Natural Capital Center, a hub for ideas and urban community, for the last of a unique series of free outdoor concerts that tell a story about how to live deliberately in our bioregion. This Thursday is your last chance to lounge outside, listen to beautiful music, and learn about some of the many local organizations that are working for a more just and sustainable world.

Wisdom of the Elders will be tabling along with many other inspiring groups, so come on by and visit us! The entire event will be solar powered, and will feature free bike valet.

Sundown at Ecotrust

Thursday, July 28th

721 NE Ninth Ave.

5:30pm - 8:30pm

FREE, with donations happily accepted

Featuring music by: The Dimes and The Greater Midwest

Hope to see you there!

Sniffles and Spreadsheets

Hello out there,

This has been a fast and rather snotty (at least for me) week around here. Fortunately my cold is clearing up in time for some sun, or at least lack of rain, this weekend!

I have been working on editing the project description and production timeline for Wisdom of the Elders Radio: Series Four, and finishing up a spreadsheet of the eight tribes we will be working with. Next week I will hopefully begin touching base with them and updating them on the new developments. For instance, part of the production process will be training youth in science journalism and then planning a week-long science field camp where they will be able to put their new media and science skills to use! Very exciting!

Are you interested in learning more about how climate change is affecting indigenous communities? Check out the Indigenous Environmental Network. They are awesome.

Have a lovely weekend!

isobel

NISA News

Well this week has been spent adding the final touches to our NISA publicity materials including our very important mentorship application, and the first poster by yours truly. When not working on our publicity materials I have been undertaking the task of finding good articles for the VISTA team to read. Everything from Supreme Court decisions on Indian Policy, to history of Oregon Tribes, to the most peculiar practices of the Nacirema Tribe as an example of the importance of cultural relativism.

Next week, Rose and I will be at Canoe Journey at Swinomish. Ought to be an exciting adventure!

Photoshop Hyjinx

Yay photoshop trainings! :D

we cans use computer!!!!!

Wednesday July 20th - photoshop training!

Today we had our second within-team training. The first was one that I led to bring everyone up to speed with their excel skills, which immediately came in handy - we've now got some pretty good looking databases! This one, as you may or may not be able to tell from the beautiful graphics both in this post and above, was on the basics of Photoshop and led by Kaitlyn. Keep an eye out for examples of our new-found skills in the promotional material for Wisdom events from here on out. We're all looking forward to our next Kaitlyn led training on InDesign in a few weeks!

Tour de Coop

Last Saturday, the 16th, we went on Growing Gardens' Tour de Coop. We visited several coops in the SE of Portland. Maybe next year we'll get to check out the NE coops. The video is a short clip I took at Fosterville, a property in SE with several homes and residents. Sorry for the shakiness and compressed quality, but you get the idea :)

Fosterville - Their space was really beautiful, sustainable, and fun to visit. Some inspiring aspects of their property were rain barrels catching water from the gutters, green roofs planted with succulents, and an outdoor oven (photos at bottom of post).

Some chicken flocks we meet included varieties of: Rhode Island Reds, Dominiques, Ameraucanas, Welsummers, Wyandottes. Wyandottes are pretty popular, and I learned that Ameraucanas lay pretty blue, green eggs. Indian Runner ducks are adorable! Chickens seem to be relatively independent, but the ducks we met roamed the yard together. Also, the ducks and chickens shared the coop and co-existed quiet well.

The tour was a great opportunity to see different styles and constructions of coops. There were a lot of clever designs - one I particularly liked had the hens' roosting space above a compost bin for some simplified cleaning. Additionally, I loved the inclusion of old windows, screen doors, and other refurbished house decor as design elements of the various coops.

It was nice to meet all you Portland chicken owners! With any luck, Wisdom will have a coop in next year's tour ;)

El Gallinero Azul (The Blue Coop)

green roof, Fosterville

outdoor oven, Fosterville

Indian Runner ducks, Fox Foul (Fowl!) Farm

Full moon Friday!

Hello,

Happy full moon to you! The Algonquian people of the the North and Eastern U.S. call the July moon the Full Buck Moon. When the full moon is named in English it often refers to the names given by the Algonquian people. Interesting, no? Of course there are many other names from many other tribes in the U.S. and beyond. I invite all to research the names further!

In the Development world, there has been much progress in terms of learning, growing and understanding. Much of my time has been spent reading, preparing and compiling information. I have new spreadsheets, new calenders and new grants forming. Some other highlights would be the worm bin, a very worthwhile board meeting with important sponsors (including a potluck!) and a meaningful visit to our wonderful community garden plot located near Earl Boyles middle school.

Hope all are enjoying the sun! -Jacob Baynes VISTA Development Assistant

Hi Everyone!

End of another busy week here at Wisdom - from board meetings to cleaning rabbit hutches, from webinars to tasty treats on friday.

I have begun to dig into the vast amount of information in our documents relating to Discovering Our Story and have also been making headway on a GIS map of the area marking points of interest for future VISTAs.

Looking forward to a sunny weekend!

Avast, Land Lubbers!

Ahoy!

Today it was pirate day in the Wisdom office! Not really, but hopefully we will be implementing our theme Fridays soon.

Lots of progress was made this week on the radio program. Now that I have bionic Excel skills, I have been busting out spreadsheets left and right. Purple ones! Green ones! Ones with penguins in the background!

On a more serious note, this week I have been reading really interesting material about women of color in science fields, since part of the goal of the radio program will be to encourage Native Americans to pursue science and math-related careers. Did you know that women of color are severely underrepresented in all science fields, as well as in research-based universities? Here is a link to an article if you would like to learn more: http://www.terc.edu/work/1513.html

Aye aye!

isobel

Upcoming Ecotrust event w/ Dr. Maresca

Hi all,

It's been a productive week. We've gotten the details of our upcoming talk, by Dr. Maresca, figured out. We even got our flier together, check it out!

Also, we'll have a table at Sundown at Ecotrust on July 28th. Come out and visit us and enjoy free music.
This Saturday, we'll be going on the Growing Garden Tour de Coops. Excited to see chickens of Portland! It's a week of events & fun!

Drafting NISA Materials

This week has been spent getting our materials for the upcoming NISA Festival and Mentorship Program prepared. Created a poster for the festival, drafted an application for our mentorship program, organized our databases, and completed a draft for NACF to try and get a larger honorarium for our storytellers.

We also had an excel training from Emma Robson which has the team much better prepared to be the spreadsheet wizards that we all need to be. I've personally been tackling the mountain of learning how to use photoshop with the assistance of Kaitlyn Rich, certainly a handy program but quite inaccessible if one doesn't know how to use it.

That's all from this side of WISDOM!

Fox Blackhorn-Delph
Project Assistant for NISA

An update from Team NISA

Week Two has allowed for a lot of individual work to get done which has allowed me to start tackling the task of organizing our sometimes quite chaotic files to create directories for ease of future use. I've compiled a database of universities in the northwest with contacts for their native student organizations or academic programs to start advertising for the NISA festival come the start of Fall. We've also had to shift a few of our timetables around and are in the process of recruiting 10 master storytellers to tutor 2 emerging storytellers each for a 9-month period and we need to find them by the end of August!

On the bright side making community connections is going to be much easier from now on. We've chosen a Harvest theme for this year's festival. And starting next week we're going to be working hard on our initial announcements and developing promotional materials and advertisement. Quite an exciting time here at NISA.

~Fox Blackhorn-Delph
Project Assistant for NISA

Hi!

I'm Emma and I will be working as the project assistant for Discovering Our Story (DOS) this coming year. I am very excited to be joining Wisdom, especially now with DOS entering the process of becoming a national best practices model. I'm looking forward to a fun year working closely with the entire Wisdom Productions team on a DOS operations manual and in support of the research being done to strengthen the project.

As a (very) recent transplant from the northeast I am looking forward to getting to know both Portland and the greater northwest and am thrilled to be a part of the greater Wisdom community here.

Sundown at Ecotrust

Yesterday evening we attended a free concert, part of Sundown at Ecotrust in downtown Portland. The band playing was Typhoon, whom I had not heard before but they were quiet enjoyable. Though a cloudy day, the sun made an appearance enhancing the mellow atmosphere of the event. We were happy to find many of the sponsors had free samplers of food, as that was the theme for this week. It was fun to chat with people at Zenger Farm, Backyard Bounty CSA, Slow Hand Farm CSA, PGE renewable energy, Urban Farm Store, Fruit Tree Project, and Stoneyfield Farms yogurt.

We're looking forward to going to several more of the concerts coming up in the next few weeks. Not to mention, we'll be having a table at the last concert in the series on July 28. Come say hi to us!

Intro to Jacob B.

Hello all!

My name is Jacob Baynes and my official title is Development Assistant. This includes, but not limited to all sorts of fun, fund and friend-raising. I am from the Pacific Northwest and have a very clear and deep connection to the land and the people. Although my formal education began in Central Oregon and later brought me to the University of Oregon in Eugene, I have traveled and learned throughout North, Central and South America both formally and non-formally. My goals and education gave me the opportunity to explore the environment, educational systems, Cross-cultural ways of knowing, appropriate technologies, sustainable farming practices and various perspectives on community development. This, along with many tangible experiences such as garden education, ESL instruction, Forest botany and mind/body work have given me a wide range of skills to better produce, record and spread worthwhile information for the betterment of the WISDOM community. Our momentous goals, wonderful leadership and unbridled enthusiasm already seem to be a perfect recipe for this years’ WISDOM VISTA team. I am very excited for the opportunity to work with such like-minded folks. -Jacob

Isobel's Bio

Hello!

I will be serving as the Production Assistant for Wisdom of the Elders Radio for this year. I moved to Oregon about four years ago and immediately became infatuated with its natural beauty and abundance of activism. I was drawn to Wisdom as an organization because it takes a truly holistic approach to community development and healing.

The next radio series will focus on the impacts of climate change on indigenous communities and sustainable responses to it. I will be using my background as a climate justice activist and experience producing radio at KBOO to help educate about climate change and strengthen connections between Native communities all over the country. A primary goal of the radio series will be to encourage Native and other under-served youth to enroll in science and math classes. The radio program will be part of a culturally-tailored, multimedia curriculum that will be offered to schools.

I'm excited to learn more about indigenous cultures and climate change, meet more excellent folks in the Portland community and beyond, and to gain more radio production experience this year.

Onward!

isobel

kaitlyn's bio

hello, I'm Kaitlyn - the Micro-business Development VISTA here at Wisdom of the Elders. I'll be working on developing Wisdom Gardens - the first of which is right here at our office. Our hope is to develop a plan for a CSA, as well as, opportunities for other hub-site gardens to bring together our elders and youth around healthy food , storytelling, and micro-business. I'm really looking forward to meeting gardeners in the Wisdom community and the larger Portland area.

My education is in graphic and web design with some dabbling in film production and photography. I love working with my hands and do-it-yourself projects - the culture of which is strong and alive in Portland. I've been gardening for several years, most recently for The Greater Lansing Food Bank, located in Lansing, MI. One of the draws of gardening, for me, is the great feeling of being self sufficient and connected to the little decisions we make about what to nourish our bodies with.  I'm a Michigan native, and have been living in Portland for almost a year now. I'm happy to be here and can't wait for what this year will bring.

-- kaitlyn

Week One with Fox with NISA

Hello, my name is Fox Blackhorn-Delph and I'm going to be the VISTA working to build the capacity of NISA over the next year. I am Kahosadi Nation or Rogue River Shasta with desires to pursue a career in Tribal Law. I came to WISDOM from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington where I focused on Colonization and Decolonization studies with particular interest in the legal system's role as a colonial institution and vehicle for maintaining sovereignty. I was blessed to have been raised on the stories of my people and am excited to be working on a project that seeks to provide that same opportunity to the community.

So week one of my work with WISDOM is coming to a close. We've spent the time getting oriented to the organization as well as working on making sure that our space is functional and presentable to the community. I would like to give special thanks to Peta Mni, Carol Craig, and Julie Scheen for meeting with us and welcoming the VISTA team. It was also a pleasure having a phone conference with Woodie Morrison and I look forward to meeting him in person at the NISA Festival this Autumn.

I am incredibly excited and honored to be working with NISA and Wisdom of the Elders and I look forward to all of the work ahead of me in the coming year.

Should anyone like to reach me for any reason please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail at fox@wisdomoftheelders.org

First week reflections

Just finished the first week at Wisdom, whew! We learned what Winnie-the-Pooh characters we are most like (I'm Kanga), met some community members, organized the office, and narrowly avoided a dangerous book shelf disaster! I am looking forward to clarifying my project description for the year and getting started on the newest radio series. Also more bunny snuggling.