Gaia Ki

An Arts & Ecology Educational Resource Helping Bring Balance & Harmony with Wild Wondrous Nature

Summer 2011 Update

Gaia Ki relocated to Sarasota Florida last January. The move is accompanied with a refocus of the fledgling organization. Previously we were engaged in an intensive in-the-forest role endeavoring to protect forest and wildland ecosystems in Central Oregon's Cascade Mountains and eastern regions. While still helping efforts in this region as requested by directly engaged organizations, the move to Florida where many organizations and individuals are already well-engaged in protecting the natural ecosystems helps open broader artistic and educational pathways. Gaia Ki provides educational, artistic, and experience-founded resources helping efforts to move contemporary human societies towards balance and harmony with Earth's natural ecosystems; helping protect "Myakka Anhinga" by Asante Riverwind ecological integrity and natural biodiversity, inspire natural adventure, and foster greater appreciation of the interconnected wonder of Earth's geophysical systems, of which all life is part. Why the move to Florida? Ultimately, everything becomes personal in nature, each of us experiencing the dances of fate and chance within the environmental and societal microcosms of place; our family, loves, location, and awareness. Who are we, why are we, where are we, what are we; perpetual underlying quests whose answers emerge in the actions and choices of our evolving lives. Organizations, institutions, and efforts are founded and guided by individuals; and to a greater or lesser degree depending in part on the size, configuration, and duration of these, are affected by events both seen and unforeseen that impact the individuals at their helm. Gaia Ki, is a newly emergent endeavor directed by myself, Asante Riverwind, with the help and guidance of my wife Sylvia Rodrigo Riverwind, and supportive colleagues, advisors, friends and associates. Last December I received an urgent call; my father had been hospitalized with serious long-term repercussions to his health and well-being. Arriving swiftly in Florida, my family joined in arranging for my father's care for the near-term future, with the goal of bringing him home as conditions stabilized. Elderly, unable to live alone any longer, and infeasible to consider moving without adverse health repercussions; and I being the only one of my siblings

able to relocate; my wife and I moved to Florida to provide care assistance for my father, so he could return home for this latter era of his life. Amongst the Earth's remaining traditional cultures, how we care for our elders remains a cornerstone of integrity and spirit. It is in significant part to my father that I credit the introduction to wondrous nature, the inherent respect for all living creatures, and appreciation for exploration and adventure that has inspired and guided my path of ecological activism throughout this life. As a child my parents provided homes woven into wild woodlands. Annually we traveled across the US and Canada visiting natural wonders, opening a diverse abundance of wildlands and water adventures. The challenges of this time offer us an opportunity to reacquaint after so many decades; my wife and I now grandparents, he now a great grandfather, sharing the experiences, wisdoms, quests, and discoveries of the passing years, and the emergent ones yet to come in this "Florida" era. New Art Book! "Raven" Asante Riverwind has published a new book of raveninspired art and accompanying poems. Offered "for ravens and nature spirits everywhere" the forty page book features twenty paintings, pen & ink drawings, and mixed media art, each image adjoining the poem inspired during its creation. The opening poem best describes the book itself: Ravens soaring, perched, spiraling, heard, dreamed, visioned... ...ravens spiced throughout my art accompanied by prose & verse... ...telling raven inspired tales of magic, mayhem, & wonder ever & yet again... "Raven" is the first in a new "Nature & Spirit, Dreams & Visions" book series. Each book varies in art and writing theme, combining Asante's art, verse, and writings inspired by particular wildlife species, natural phenomena, geophysical features, adventures and visionary message. "Raven" is available through Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Raven-AsanteRiverwind/dp/1463731531/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312672333&sr=1-1 Create Space: https://www.createspace.com/3654368, and a number of other book market sources.

Urgent: Help Protect Wild Wolves!

Unconscionably, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming - aided and abetted by the US Fish & Wildlife Service which removed Endangered Species Act protections - have begun killing wild wolves whose populations are still recovering across the western United States. Please help restore ESA status & protections for wolves, honoring their inherent right to exist in their remaining natural historic territories unharmed by those vested in ignorance, arrogance, and violence. The poster below includes a recent painting in honor of our kindred wild relations, wolves:

Protect Wild Wolves!

Honor the Endangered Species Act & the Natural Heritage of Generations Yet to Be

"Kindred" by Asante Riverwind, acrylic on canvas, 30" x 24"

Contact the following, insist the killing of wild wolves be stopped immediately, full Endangered Species Act protections be honored, and wild wolves and other imperiled species be protected from harm: Pres. Obama: president@whitehouse.gov US Fish & Wildlife: (800) 344-9453 Idaho - Gov. Otter: (208) 334-2100 Montana Sen. Tester: (202) 224-2644 And your Elected Officials & Friends!

Kindred All our relations, nature's wild interwoven evolution kindred in spirit, in being in life's will of survival adventure, exploration, and play interdependent amidst unfathomable webs of ecological and self integrity sovereign spirits be they furred, feathered, finned, rooted or flowing all with an inherent right to be, to live wild and ever free...

Fresh Art The move to Florida brought opportunity to further explore in depth the subtropical wonders seen during visits over the years. Myakka River, Oscar Shearer, the open Gulf, Intracoastal Waterway, barrier keys and islands all beckon adventure. In addition to "Myakka Anhinga" and "Kindred" paintings (above), a number of new 2011 artworks inspired by the wonders of living Earth are featured:

"Anhinga"

"Fly Free"

"Turtles"

"Ibis & Sundog Sky"

"Canoe"

As usual, most of the new art is accompanied by poems that emerged during its creation. And many were inspired by direct adventures amidst wild nature's wonders, some with stories of their own beyond "Remembrance" the image and poetry. Some stories are simple yet fulfilling beyond words, such as "Fly Free", drawn from many years of repetitious rescue, healing, and release of injured birds and other species - which also can be viewed as a symbolic healing and release of wild dreaming aspirations of self. "Anhinga", "Myakka Anhinga", and "Turtles" are inspired by hikes through Myakka River State Park's subtropical jungle woodlands, watching anhinga dry their wet spread wings beneath the searing sun, alligators floating in slow obscurity, and turtles bask on the sun exposed surface of submerged fallen trees and eroding bank roots - while we cherished the shaded shadows, watching at length in quiet communion. "Ibis and Sundog Sky" the beautiful transient dance of soaring ibis, sundog rainbow, and feathered clouds above as we floated peacefully in the small murky lake at Oscar Shearer State Park. "Canoe" is literally a canoe we picked up that I painted, with Celtic weave designs in talisman to the large alligator that "counted coop" during its maiden voyage, giving it a watchful eye and symbiotic weave with water, peace, energy and life. We'd canoed down the

Myakka River a number of miles, and were returning back upstream. Directly across river from a group of alligators sunning on a mud flat along the bank we decided to take a break beneath the shading canopy of a large tree. Apparently the alligators tired of our prolonged intrusion into their territory, eight of them in sizes ranging from very large to juvenile adult decided to enter the water towards us enmass. Accustomed to alligators converging towards you when they really are heading for the deeper waters in the middle of the river, at first I didn't pay their dispersal much heed. But suddenly the water beneath my back side of the canoe churned. The largest of the alligators, submerged beneath us, pushed up against the rear of the canoe where I was paddling, raising one side out of the water, tipping us towards capsizing. Countering leaning with my paddle, I managed to keep the canoe from going over, the alligator leaving us "Remembrance" with a resounding thwack of its tail along the canoe's side as we rather quickly paddled away tapestries of time from its territory. My wife, Sylvia, sitting energies weave quietly throughout was not even phased, beyond lives or boundaries saying simply she knew I'd handle it just fine. all interrelated, all our relations Now when canoeing we don't dawdle too long visions of remembrance in close proximity to a bunch of alligators guide pathways during their spring mating season. Apparently awareness illuminating the mating-minded males sometimes mistake action & choice canoes and kayaks as competitors for the pioneering future's shadowed mists attentions of females, and become a mite more spirit sculptures shape shifting aggressive than their usually placid demeanor. wondrous nature's magic mystery "Remembrance," recently completed and alive in adventure's celebration hanging in a Sarasota Art Center show through dimensions of moments, jewels of October, a dream-vision celebrating the perception wonders of life's wild adventures in partnership honoring all yet to be born with my wife, both of us immersed in the wild within the embrace of being... waves of times journey. Its inherent mystery is perhaps best augmented by its poem (at right):

Sans Non-Profit Status

A choice for fully pertinent free speech...
In deciding to create a new organization, the why, how, form, focus - mission, motivation, and raison de etre' come to the fore. Among the many choices comes the relevancy - or not of acquiring non-profit status. Most educational, conservation, and arts organizations go this route, seeking tax exempt nonprofit status granted by the IRS that significantly enhances an organization's ability to receive funding. Absent such status, organizations generally are not able to receive monetary grants from philanthropic foundations. Absent adequate funding, it is difficult to sustain organizational efforts, acquire needed resources, or maintain staff. Absent the protections of non-profit status, actions such as litigation represent a politically turbulent,

"Merging" by Asante Riverwind

economically dangerous path. Yet, non-profit status comes with arduous restrictions. These bite into and neuter the ability of accepting organizations to speak freely and fully to the political realities of contemporary issues. IRS restrictions limit organizations from taking clear public positions, advocating for or against politicians running for office or currently in power. Yet addressing the root causes of most contemporary societal issues, it is essential that we be able to speak clearly concerning the reprehensible actions and harmful ecological consequences resulting from the political minions of multi-national corporations currently running this global nation, and our living Earth, to irreparable ruin. Holding politicians accountable for their actions, building community awareness, organizing towards building a strong politically feasible alternative to the corporate "two party" funded illusion of government, requires the ability to not only endorse candidates of ecological and personal integrity, it necessitates the capability of bringing forward, organizing for, and promoting "Nature Rising" by Asante Riverwind representative candidates with a real chance of significantly changing the current Corporate States of America, and helping create a true ecologically responsible representative democracy accountable to the people of this nation, the world, the numerous diverse species with which we share this living Earth, and the future generations yet to be. At this juncture, limited by the care giving responsibilities to my elderly father, the decision whether to pursue non-profit status or instead become an arts and educational resource - and freely political advocacy organization - can be set aside for the time being. At present, sans non-profit status, we can swim the waters of free political speech, unencumbered by the silencing restrictions embedded like poison into the conditions of economic sustenance from foundation grants. That such conditions exist at all calls into question why - in a nation claiming to be founded on freedom and inalienable rights - are conscientious conservation and public service organizations hampered in their speech, while at the same time multi-national corporate enterprises are increasingly unrestricted in their financial manipulation and control of our political systems, and government institutions, including our educational systems? If we watch beneath the well-funded corporate veil of present day political contrivances, we may notice that the same corporations fund, to varying self-serving levels, their political puppet minions, the "Democratic" and "Republican" parties ever busily putting on the pretentious dramatic illusion of meaningful conflict, ignoring the true needs of the majority of the American people, while plundering the environment, the treasury, and the chance of a quality future for all. For as long as we are limited in speech and action, preventing the effective redress to core causes of current

issues, we will be as societal hamsters in a tread-wheel maze, perpetually seeking remedy for cause de' clbre' after cause, saving this piece and that fragment of wild wonderful nature, helping this person and those people in a varied litany of places across the globe, while the interwoven geophysical tapestry of Earth's life itself continues to diminish, incrementally consumed into the insatiable maw of the corporate profit quest. Once all corporations were licensed in the name, and under the control, of all the people. They were accountable to the well being of the people, and the environment, in the areas where they operated. Their licenses were only valid for a five year period, their operational record and impacts reviewed in consideration of renewal or revocation as best met the interests of the people and communities directly affected. Corporations were not permitted to own other corporations, were not permitted to withdraw their resources from home communities and simply relocate their operations overseas, were not permitted to exist in perpetuity without review and licensing renewal, and accountable to the nation's communities, were taxed appreciably and fairly on their income and holdings. Evolving awareness weaves through time, Robin Hood, Zorro, Crazy Horse, Chief Seattle, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Amritananda and so many others of vision, conscience, and integrity... Echo in the inspiring words of Margret Mead "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." What's next? No one can solve the paradigm riddles alone, yet this begins in the depths of spirit vision within each being. The path of answers are in your heart, dreams and spirit, awaiting the birth of centered action into being, and the convergence of harmonious evolving community spreading across the Earth...

"Return to Forever" Of a future time when people remember life in balance with nature, spirit & dreams, sharing joy & love in celebration of who we are, why we are, what we are, ...what life is really of...
Gaia Ki P.O. Box 22233 Sarasota, FL 34233 winddancer.ki@gmail.com

"Return to Forever" by Asante Riverwind, 48" x 56", acrylic on canvas