Greetings to the Council:
My name is Mitch Gold.
I am the UN Special Envoy of the International Association of Educators for
World Peace (IAEWP) that is an Official Peace Messenger of the United Nations
and enjoys consultative status at ECOSOC, UNICEF, UNDPI, UNESCO and UNCED. My
function is Vice President of North American Affairs. We have relationships
in approximately 100 countries.
I have been on the path of the Peacemaker for eight years and have brought to
you some information and ideas resulting from my travels. The Draft document
attached contains many of the ideas and teachings that would be of interest
to this Council.
I have met with elders from many traditions and carry messages for many. I also
have been introduced to many traditional ceremonies by spiritual leaders in
Mexico, United States, Brazil, and have participated in the Unity Ride as an
Elder in Training. My learning includes the making of sacred drum, and the planting
of the Tree of Peace. The understandings that come from these activities enable
me to address you as brothers in spirit.
My suggestions have the endorsement of many whose names you would recognize
– both from the UN system and from the Indigenous Community worldwide.
In collaboration with these elders and with their support I bring to you a plan
and a strategy for your consideration and participation in whichever role you
choose. We have organized the First Nations Indigenous Trust (FNIT) –
to receive the Funds that will be generated by our strategy for Peace.
With your support this Trust is taking a foothold in Toronto – the Meeting
Place. We believe that Toronto is destined to be the Meeting Place for the Elders
of Indigenous Nations from around the world. We ask that this council send to
Toronto at least one of the teepees that have come to this meeting from the
West. We would like this to be set up on Toronto Island as a symbol of the Claim
for the land.
Elder Vern Harper has indicated that he will welcome the teepee in a formal
ceremony to which we invite all elders to participate in a formal manner.
This will be a starting point for the FNIT that will then negotiate with all
others that are currently living on Toronto Island. This will not be revolutionary,
but rather evolutionary towards empowering the First Nations People.
We will make changes by negotiating in a beneficial way – not from weakness,
fear and poverty consciousness – but from knowing that our cause is right
and just.
We will build a World Youth Center, a World Healing Center and a World Elder
Center in the area of the Toronto Islands. This will be funded by the energy
of the FNIT with your support.
Our work in Toronto will help enhance a World Declaration that this Council
will bring forth at the United Nations, and we will seek to develop a template
for other communities to emulate as we move forward to eliminate poverty and
hunger from our brothers and sisters around the world. We have friends in the
Congo that will emulate our efforts within a very short time.
Economists have stated (e.g., Fred Lazar of York University) that the First
Nations Peoples of Canada are owed up to 800 billion dollars. This number scares
many in the existing System and keeps the systems operating in the old way –
divide and conquer.
We come together now, in Unity, beyond the symbolism of the Ride, but in a real
way – with the Trust and a program to reshape the destiny of Humankind.
I trust this Council will be able to play an important role in the next steps
of the development of the above mentioned activities as we preserve the traditional
teachings of the People and at the same time move forward in a good way –
in the way of the Peacemaker - always calling on the Thanksgiving Address to
remind us who we are and what we are doing.
May your heart hear this in a good way as it comes to you.
Peace
Om Shanti
Om, Shalom, MITAKUYE OYASIN. AHO All my relations.
Mitch Gold