#week 03

Week 03

Links to each lesson below

Black History Month Cinematic Universe Social Studies

Passion Project Graphic Design

13 Sandwiches Social Studies

Ayollohco Mexico Social Studies

Downloading YouTube Technology

Macron's Tweet (R&R) Social Studies

Spiritual Tamagotchi (R&R) Social Emotional Learning

Links to last week's posts that were not included:

#walkerversehiatuscreations | Week 03 | Favorite episode

@walker-extended-universe

[photograph by Ali Kazal on Unsplash of the dedication to Walt Whitman carved into Mazinaw Rock, with canoeists visible paddling in the background] Privilege is the advantage of wealth and power.  It is the rights, immunity, and benefits that someone holds.  Your privilege is everything that you don’t have to worry about that someone else does. It’s not being tailed around an outdoor supply store by a clerk who’s slapped a negative stereotype on you because you look black, or indigenous, or poor.  It’s not having to worry about how you’re going to get home.  It’s not being spoken over, for, or down to.  It’s feeling like you don’t have anything on the line when someone talks about race. It’s everything that your position in society buys you, and everything that you get to do that someone else doesn’t, because of their position.

Privilege shapes who nature interpretation is done by and who benefits from it.

It’s not an accident that so much of the imagery of people in nature features white people.  It’s not an accident that in Canada so much more land is dedicated to national and provincial parks in the north than the south; by and large Canada’s parks systems are comprised of less agriculturally desirable land, while the desirable agricultural land has largely been colonized by settlers.

1885 saw the founding of Canada’s first national park, Banff, and its superintendent seeking the exclusion of indigenous people from it [1,2].  As members of Keeseekoowenin Ojibwa band left Riding Mountain National Park for a reserve in 1936 they saw smoke rising from the fires that park wardens set to their barns and houses to keep them from coming back [1].  The Algonquin people were forced out of Algonquin Park [2]. It has been very clear, historically, that not all people are welcome within Canada’s parks. 

Black people share a similar history of white people forcing them from their lands, during the slave trade and after.  In Forsyth County, Georgia there were several years of effort by white people, beginning in 1912 when a lynching occurred, to force black people to leave [3].  In 1912 there were 41 black landowners, in 1913 there were 31, and in 1918 none were listed in the tax records; the black population dropped from 1,098 in 1910 to 30 in 1920 [3].  It’s not an accident that the term “urban” has been used as a synonym for “black”, and it is hardly surprising that some do not feel welcome in “nature”, today.

Systemic racism has fueled diversity gaps in nature interpretation.  It has created access barriers, to physical sites and to educational opportunities.  It has defined the lens through which nature interpretation is permitted to occur and facilitated land theft in the name of ecological conservation as part of a “green colonialism” [2] that has been enabled by a colonial view of “nature” and “wilderness” that excludes humanity.

Mazinaw Rock in Bon Echo Provincial Park features 300-1000 year old indigenous pictographs [4] and, (pictured above) carved into the rock in 1919, a massively large dedication to the democratic ideals of Walt Whitman.  It feels like an apt metaphor for the colonial lens that has shaped and directed nature interpretation.

Correspondence Activity:  Make a list of the stones you own, use in your practice, or want to use in your practice. What properties and associations do you use in conjunction with these crystals? Do you find that certain crystals have different properties than what is found on common correspondence charts?

Rose Quartz

Love, self-love, gentle strength, ocean gem, pearl of the sea, hope, cheer, overcoming adversity, gentleness and healing. Moon.

Clear Quartz

Openness, clarity, clear goals and safety, security. Mercury. 

Smokey Quartz

Powerful defensive energies, the “take in negative and return out positive” ability and strength. Mars and Pluto.

Amethyst

Mystic energies and energy for psychic work or divination enhancement. Moon.

Labradorite

The dreams and destiny stone. Connects you to your dreams and goals and maintains focus.

Rainbow Fluorite

The communication stone. This aids in all things Mercury related, especially facilitates learning.

Carnelian

The Life of the Party stone and the zest of life stone. Remembering how brilliant of a miracle life is. Heart, The Sun.

Snowflake Obsidian

The balancing stone. The black and white makes grey area stone. The Chariot is associated with this stone, as well as both the Moon and Sun are too. My favourite grounding stone.

Blue Lace Agate

Communication stone. One that puts ease on how one communicates to be soft as clouds.

Green Aventurine

The adventure stone, the stone of getting things done, the stone of inspiration and pushing through towards goals. A good mental stability stone.

Orange Aura Quartz

The light of life stone. Though aura quartz are made by humans they are still overtop of clear quartz, i think they are just as important in metaphysical relationships with stones as “natural stones.” 

Goldstone Runes

Another manmade but still wonderful. Stars, the stone of possibilities and divination.

Lapis Lazuli

Here’s my monster for this week! (01/15/18 - 01/21/18)

This monster takes the form of what felt today, rather than the entire week. Whatever emotion is strongest beats out the majority for my emotion driven creatures. 

Oddly enough, after drawing this little guy I’m feeling a lot better. ;w;

Week 03

TNT Cooking

Copper My Beloved

Beowulf Challenge

Three Branches Group Project

Princess Kate (R&R)

Contact Your Representative (R&R)

**Edited and reuploaded after I realized that I accidentally left Mug Cookie in the poll the first time.**

My thoughts and predictions are in the Comments.

Posts from last week which were not included are below the cut.