Every so often, travelling down this road of life, I get offers to be a part of interesting projects that not only do I feel are important to the world, but also to myself, helping me grow, learn, and broaden my ever-expanding perspective on the human condition. This past weekend, I was invited to be a part of the Napi Suicide Warrior Video Forum: a gathering of about twenty Native youth from throughout Alberta, who had all come together to talk about and explore the issue of suicide in their communities.

I've gone through some shit in my life, but my experiences of suicide are pretty limited. For many of these youth, it's a whole different story, many of them have lost close friends and relatives, and many of them, as the title suggests, have been forced to do all that they can do, which is to become hardened warriors.

I know what it means to be hardened by the circumstances of life, and I know what it is to have to work at finding emotional releases. I know what it is to hold onto things and only through time, to transmute what is often seen as bad medicine thus transforming trauma into personal tools, knowledge and hopefully with time, into wisdom.

The weekend had the youth working with media, and as a media artist, I wanted to give them one message. One single thought to hold onto and carry forward into their lives. It's hard to communicate sometimes, with all the distractions around us, and with our thoughts racing in all directions, it's often even harder to listen. So I'm not sure if any of it got through, but either way, it's all good, since I think these kids are already on their way to becoming great healers to others.

My message was as follows,

Don't let media USE you. Learn to USE media. Media is an extension of language, and with language we create the world. With language we create intentionality and through our intentions we create either positive or negative situations for change. It all goes back to the language/media you're exposing yourself to, since all of these forces subconsciously shape the way you see your reality.

It's hard because there's always a disconnect. In a workshop setting you'll see these youth talking about supporting each other, providing helping hands, and reaching out to others who may be caught on the periphery. Then the session ends, you see them go back to old patterns of calling each other names, hurtful jokes that aren't meant to mean anything but often do, and not wanting to hang out with so and so, because they're annoying. There's the paradox, there's the hypocrisy, and there's the good intentions lost in the process of being young.

I don't have all the answers, but if there's one thing I'd like to see, it's a more connected youth, and I think we're getting there. I think our youth are so disconnected by technology and media distraction that tells them who they're supposed to be, that there's only one way to go, towards connection, towards each other, and maybe towards nature if they so choose. And I think that's what I witnessed this weekend. A coming together of some people who, if they choose, will grow into powerful leaders, healers, and catalysts for change. We need change. We need to change a whole lot about how we live in todays world. These kids see it, they're not stupid, I think they often just choose to ignore lifes problems since there doesn't seem to be a way out of the mess of the previous generation. I think they see what works and what doesn't, and maybe down the road, whether through media, law, science, or art, maybe down the road, they'll help us see the things we're missing. I think only with them as teachers will youth suicide become something remembered from our past, and not often experienced in our future.

In the past one hundred and fifty years we've made a real mess of things, it's no wonder our youth feel the task of cleaning things up so daunting. And if you ask me... if we are to survive, we've given a whole generation little choice but to become hardened warriors for change.

The other option: distracted, tuned out, apathetic, disconnected, excellent participants/victims living in an unsustainable consumer society.

peace,d

Pics from the weekend and the FEAR FACTOR CHALLENGE that had the kids eating cat food, octopus, escargot, pigs feet... they ate it all... and team Gitz won again. Gitz with thumbs up in one of the pics, loves his cat food! Hehe. It was so nice to meet all of you. Happy travels and happy healing!