October 13, 2019: Abenaki and Caring for the Land

Sunday Oct. 13, 2019

Today's focus: Abenaki and Caring for the Land

Spiritual Theme: The Abenaki people who have lived here on this land for thousands of years have a strong sense of belonging to the land and for caring for it.

• We went around and shared gems of Joy and Concern.  They were GREAT listeners and shared some meaningful things
• Children who hadn't signed our covenant yet got to sign it
• We talked about the theme of "Belonging" and came up with a gesture to show how it feels (like hugging yourself)
• We acted out elements of an Abenaki Creation Story and watched the short video narrated from the graphic novel.  It was neat to hear the Abenaki language spoken!
• We broke into groups, with options being 1) to make storyboards using leaves, sticks and stones to recreate images from the creation story or 2) to transplant flowers (gently--not like the stone people in the story) from the side yard into pots for people to take home and care for during the winter. 

Continue the conversation at home:  

• Ask if they can retell you any parts of the Abenaki Creation Story (some of them took home a few coloring pages of it, so you could look at it together, or watch the 2 min. video).  
• Why were the stone people destroyed by the Creator?
• How were the people of the ash trees (who became the Abenaki) different?  What are things we can do as people to live more gently on the earth like the people of the ash trees?