Now, this is a way to have a Festival that brings together the Sacred Circle of Our Human Family, from the Four Directions, within the vision, protocols, and guidance of Indigenous Peoples.
All those that had the honor and blessing of attending, Fields of Healing, followed, in detail, the guidance and protocols given by Indigenous Elders and Spiritual Leaders, locally and Internationally.
For Instance, the Indigenous Elders of Australia, of the Bioregion, asked that the Fields of Healing Festival be family-centered and alcohol and drug-free, including no smoking of cannabis. The air was always pure, with daily Smudging Ceremonies, using the beautiful smell of eucalyptus leaves.
Not one hint of alcohol and not one whiff of Cannabis. I have never witnessed or heard of another Festival, anywhere on our Mother Earth that respects, honors, supports and is more at the heart of the Global Reconciliation and Healing Movement, being led by Indigenous Peoples, than we found at the Fields of Healing, in Byron Bay!
Blessed Coast and other Festivals take note of the words and guidance of the Elders of the oldest living Culture on our beloved Mother Earth! There are Global Festivals that want to honor Indigenous Peoples. One thing is to say we honor respect and another thing is to do it action!
As well, the first act of Protocol, before the Fields of Healing, for all the International Indigenous Leaders, was to travel over mountains to Honor Chief "Poppy" Harry Walker and the community Juballam and ask permission and the privilege to walk on their unsurrendered, unceded, Sacred Lands of the Indigenous Peoples of Australia.
My beloved father, Mato Gi, always told me how much he wanted to go to Australia because "They have Good Horses." By following Indigenous Cultural and Spiritual Prayers and Protocols that we would be welcomed and honored by the Chief, Elders, and Community of Juballam, with a great Community Feast.
Of particular heartfelt inspiration was the attendance of 34 " Indigenous Inmates," from Australia's first prison program that realizes that Culture is a primary foundation in human and community healing and development.
This experience brought back the memory of my beloved father, Mato Gi. , Prison Warden Bob Rae, myself, and seven Indigenous Brothers from the Maximum Unit of the Washington State Penitentiary establishing the first Indigenous related prison program in provincial, state and federal prisons, on Turtle Island in 1969.
Initially, this Union of Brothers was called the Confederated Indian Tribes (CIT). As it grew and spread, it morphed into the Brotherhood and then to Women's Correctional Institutions as the Sisterhood, in prisons throughout the US and Canada. The formation of the CIT was followed by Pow-Wows, Sweat Lodge Ceremonies, Fasting, Talking Circles, Cultural and Spiritual Teachings, by respected Indigenous Elders and Spiritual Leaders.
It was a great pleasure, privilege, and honor to Walk together with those whose generations that walked the Sacred Lands of the Oldest, Living Culture on Mother Earth. A Living Culture of more than 60,000 years.
Thank you, Tonska's Adam Collett\, Ben Bowler, Irina, Sam Cook, Jason and the many others of the Unity Earths Circle for your dedicated work in manifesting, with the guidance and protocol, of the Indigenous Peoples of Australia, the historic beginning of the Fields of Healing, in Byron Bay!