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Beyond The Divide
Native American and Indigenous Performers Join with International
Musicians
Offering Perspectives on Protecting the Earth for Future
Generations
The mission of
Beyond the Divide
(BtD) is to
incite sustainability – to raise awareness of the increasingly
devastating effects worldwide of climate change, and to inspire an
active effort for coordinated global mitigation and adaptation
strategies. In particular, BtD seeks to generate support for the
“canaries in the mine,” the Indigenous communities who are largely
dependent on their ecosystems for subsistence, economic livelihood,
and for the very survival of their age-old cultures.
To accomplish the mission, BtD is creating an innovative stage
production and documentary film. These will serve as a vehicle for
international Indigenous musicians, storytellers and wisdom keepers
to collaborate with renowned commissioned composers to create new
music and images that reflect a vision of sustainability for future
generations. The productions will highlight the efforts of selected
indigenous communities to protect their bioregions and cultures.
Each year, funds generated from the project will benefit indigenous
groups from bioregions around the world whose projects to protect
ecosystems and culture are significant models. BtD will premiere in
2012, possibly at the Earth Summit – Rio+20.
Regardless of
where in the world they live or the traditions they follow,
Indigenous peoples have a commonality of worldview, beliefs and
values that honor our connectedness to all of Nature. With current
and future generations in mind, they recognize that their health
depends on the Earth’s health.
Many of these place-based, natural resource-dependent cultures are
already experiencing the effects of environmental degradation,
including from climate change. While indigenous people may be the
unwilling “canaries in the mine,” all of us will experience the
increasingly severe effects – human induced or not – unless we
change.
Ironically, these endangered Indigenous cultures are potential
agents of solutions, leadership, climactic wisdom and untapped
contributions to address the contemporary global climate change
crisis. Inspired by traditional teachings, Indigenous leaders
promote concepts that are locally controlled, decentralized,
bioregionally appropriate and socially just.
Respected Native American and indigenous advisors have been offering
support and ideas for the creation of BtD since the project’s
inception. An Advisory Council composed of indigenous leaders and
performance professionals, as well as individuals from nonprofit
organizations and corporate sponsors, is being created to help guide
BtD’s development, as well as the selection of indigenous projects
that will directly benefit from BtD’s efforts. Students from the
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) will be contributing to the
development of the production. Production personnel will include
members of the Native communities represented.
To maximize BtD’s impact, partner organizations will facilitate
forums and workshops held in conjunction with the events to generate
ideas, leadership, educational materials and support for ecological
mitigation, adaptation and cultural preservation initiatives. The
following nonprofit organizations have committed to partner with
Beyond the Divide: Americans for Indian Opportunity, The Cultural
Conservancy, Futures for Children, Playing for Change, IAIA, The New Mexico Community
Foundation, The Santa Fe Concert Association.
Beyond the Divide is a project
of Bridges to Sustainability Institute (BRIDGES), a 501(c)3
organization. Funding is being sought from private, foundation and
corporate sources.
Join Us!
Your support and
collaboration is vital to the success of
Beyond the Divide. You can be involved in a number of
ways:
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Support Us: Your Tax
Deductible Contribution will ensure that this project has the
maximum effectiveness. To find out how to contribute
please contact
Beth Beloff >>
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Collaborate With Us: If you are
an Indigenous Storyteller, Wisdom Keeper or Artist we would love
to hear from you >>.
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