Special Events | Talking Circle Perth-Huron

The Talking Circle Perth Huron Special Events

Summer Solstice at the Falstaff Centre

CHI ANIMIKIIKAA BIG THUNDER HOLDING TWO EVENTS FRIDAY JUNE 21ST 2024

SUMMER SOLSTICE CEREMONY @ 11am

LIGHTING OF THE SACRED FIRE CEREMONY WITH TRADITIONAL CEDAR OR WHITE PINE TEA. TELLING THE STORY OF WATER AND WHY WATER IS SO IMPORTANT. WOMEN WALK IN WATER & PUT WATER IN COPPER POT AND WE WILL DO DRUMMING AND SINGING OF NIBI WABO AND WITCHETA DO YA DO YA.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY @ 2pm

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Smudging of Stratford

TEACHING OF ONE DISH ONE SPOON .

A STORY For kids if there Adults if not there. Maybe a Craft.

Also accepting Donations for THE TALKING CIRCLE and to buy more MEDICINAL AND EDIBLE PLANT'S FOR FIRST NATION'S MEDICINE WHEEL GARDENS. WILL ALSO BE SELLING ITEMS SWEETGRASS BRAIDS SAGE FOR SMUDGING AND SAGE STICKS, TOBACCO, CEDAR, BAGS OF ALL 4 SACRED TRADITIONAL MEDICINES TOBACCO TIES DREAM CATCHER'S SALVES, SOAPS

Solidarity Walk around the River Everyone that wants to attend these 2 Events please wear your Orange or Red Shirt. Please bring a lawn chair or blanket and if have a Drum, a Rattle please also bring these or TWO White Birch Sticks about 18 inches long. And if had Ribbon Skirts please wear them in Respect & Honor of Indigenous People's Day & Summer Solstice 2024.

One Rule actually Two Rules of Today's Events... SACRED FIRE CEREMONY & LIGHTING OF IS JUST THAT SACRED. A sacred fire is an Indigenous traditional wellness approach. The fire is one of the ways to start a CEREMONY or any SACRED EVENT. It is a SPIRITUAL DOORWAY that OPENS to a SPIRITUAL REALM so that INDIVIDUAL'S can COMMUNICATE and have RELATIONS through the FIRE. It also USED to CONNECT with our ANCESTORS, the ONE'S who have GONE ON BEFORE US. We put TOBACCO in the FIRE and ACKNOWLEDGE our ANCESTORS and request PRAYERS. We are only ALLOWED to put SACRED ITEM'S TOBACCO, SAGE, CEDAR, SWEETGRASS BIRCH and/or food into the fire. The SACRED FIRE is never left ALONE, it is WATCHED and ATTENDED to by a FIRE KEEPER. FIRE KEEPER'S are MEN WOMEN are usually are NOT ALLOWED to take care of the FIRE.

PROTOCOLS of Sacred Fire • Be alcohol and drug free (4 days) • Bring positive thoughts, prayers and Yaw^kos Miigwetches (Thankfulness) • We cannot take pictures or video tape the fire • Women who are moon time, this is when they are most powerful and strongest and must not participate in CEREMONIES. • Always be RESPECTFUL and ask QUESTIONS if NEEDED. SACRED FIRE'S are SACRED and POWERFUL ELEMENTS used in CEREMONY, COMMUNITY PROTECTION, and SUSTAINING DIVERSE PLANT and ANIMAL LIFE.

You can join Chi Animikiikaa Big Thunder Oneida Nation, Turtle Clan at FALSTAFF CENTRE 35 Waterloo Street STRATFORD ON. EVENTS STARTING @ 11AM Summer Solstice 2 PM Indigenous People's Day. Then Saturday @ 2 PM ST.MARY'S Multicultural Festival OPENING CEREMONIES with Land Acknowledgement, Smudging, Food Booth, Music and Both of these Events Falstaff & Festival are with the Assistance & Help of Geza Wordofa Founder of Multicultural Center and my Ally.

National Truth and Reconciliation Day - September 30

11am -2 pm - Falstaff Family Centre

First Nations Medicine Wheel Garden Teaching and Storytelling by CHI ANIMIKIIKAA BIG THUNDER

SAGE AND SWEETGRASS COLLECTING OF MEDICINES. SACRED FIRE WITH TRADITIONAL CEDAR TEA OR WHITE PINE TEA. SELLING HANDMADE SOAPS, SAGE BUNDLES, SWEETGRASS THEN LEADING SOLIDARITY WALK @ 4 PM WITH STOPPAGES TO TEACH & SING NIBI WABO THE WATER SONG TOGETHER WITH ORANGE SHIRTS PARADE. Everyone that has a Drum please bring it so you can learn a couple of Songs ASEMAA'KWE and NIBI WABO THE WATER SONG.

Summer Equinox Activities at the Falstaff Centre

Todd Torresan CHI ANIMIKIIKAA of THE TALKING CIRCLE GROUP is opening up two Events Tuesday, June 20th @ 11 AM at Falstaff Family Centre, 35 Waterloo St. Stratford for International Refugees Day. I'm welcoming them to Turtle Island North America with Land Acknowledgement and Smudgings and Tobacco Ties with Medicine Pouch with a huge BBQ so Citizens of Stratford please come on out.

Wednesday morning, June 21 at 8.30 am I'm having my Summer Equinox Ceremony & Indigenous People's Day with Sacred Fire and TRADITIONAL CEDAR or White Pine Tea to celebrate Longest Day of the year and telling my story of THE FIRST NATIONS MEDICINE WHEEL GARDEN. Talking Circle Group Members & Citizens of Perth & Huron please attend one or both events

Niawen Miigwech. Thank You everyone...

Spring Equinox Sacred Fire - March 20

35 Waterloo St. Stratford Ontario. March 20, 2023, 3pm

Sacred Fire with Traditional Cedar Tea Drumming and Spring Equinox Ceremony

by Todd Torresan, Elder of THE TALKING CIRCLE GROUP @ Falstaff Centre by the Medicine Wheel Garden.

Dress warmly and bring a chair or blanket to lay on, a Drum or Rattle if you have or a Flute. Also it's Spring Equinox so if anyone wants to plant some Medicine Seeds you are welcome to plant them in our First Nations Medicine Wheel Garden. Tobacco seeds, Sage white, blue, Buffalo or mountain plants, Baby Cedar or White Pine Trees Sweetgrass. Our Spring Equinox SOLSTICE Ceremony will be about an hour to hour and a half in length.

Water is Life Benefit Concert

String Bone + The Talking Circle Group

Water Is Life Benefit Concert

Feb. 24th, 2023 at Revival House, Stratford, ON

Stratford - January 27, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Five days before Christmas, Stratford musician Barry James Payne received an email from local First Nations member, Todd Torresan (who runs The Talking Circle Group at Falstaff Centre in Stratford), regarding a State Of Emergency on the Oneida Nation Settlement. The community had to conserve all water use as their water tower was desperately low. Torresan and Payne met a couple of years earlier at a Multicultural Association event in Seaforth where both were performing and stayed in touch through Todd’s periodic mailings about The Talking Circle Group.

“When I read Todd’s email, I was shocked to hear that the Oneida community just 30 minutes Southwest of London, Ontario had called a State Of Emergency 5 days before Christmas and I was thinking, this can’t be right. Clean water is a human right. I would think that every other community surrounding London has clean drinking water. Why not Oneida? But the community has been under a boil water advisory since 2019”, Payne said.

So, his wheels started turning. He had a gig booked at Stratford’s Revival House in February and contacted Todd to discuss using this gig to raise awareness and funds for the cause. “I just want to do what I can to support their efforts and so we are going to have a night of music to bring people together to raise some funds and awareness for the cause” he said.

With his former band Rant Maggie Rant, Payne was the driving force behind a gig that raised $3,000 for The Local Community Food Centre several years ago and did a similar event in 2019 raising funds for The Multicultural Association of Perth-Huron.

Payne and Torresan with the help of Revival House owner Rob Wigan have come together to use Payne’s event featuring his band String Bone with several special guests to help raise funds to support Oneida’s clean water distribution program.

Here are the details:

Water Is Life - Benefit for Oneida Nation of the Thames Clean Water Distribution Program

Date: February 24, 2023

Where: Revival House - 70 Brunswick St., Stratford, ON

Time: 8:00pm

Who: String Bone featuring special guests - Upside Of Maybe, Brandon Solomon, Kylar Quewezance,

Todd Torresan, Glen Dias, Lindsay Schindler, James Downham, Derek Barnes, Marc Boisvert, Neil

Little and Nathan McKay

Tickets: $40+fee

It is recommended to book dinner reservations by calling 519-273-342. Net proceeds of the event will be donated to the Oneida Community Centre water distribution campaign that is looking after the temporary bottled water distribution to the community. An online silent auction is being organized by Todd Torresan with donations coming from many local merchants and will go live on Feb. 8th. Watch for it on Social Media posts or go to www.silentauctionbiz.com

A GoFundMe campaign will be launching online as well for further cash donations with a goal to raise $5,000. Go to StringBone.ca for information and links or follow on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StringBone

Tickets are available online at stringbone.ca or locally at Fanfare Books & Treasures Gifts in Stratford.

More details about the concert:

Payne and his band String Bone will be performing with Glen Dias and Lindsay Schindler for a reunion of the former Rant Maggie Rant members.

Local Drum&Bass producer, Nathan McKay, will join the band to perform the song he and Payne co�wrote and released in 2020 called Two Stars Collide.

String Bone will also perform with Jim Cuddy sound-alike Derek Barnes and guitarist Marc Boisvert both of whom played with Payne in a Blue Rodeo tribute band called Diamond Mine, so expect to hear several Blue Rodeo songs too.

Upside Of Maybe members will acoustically perform their hit song, the emotionally charged, Rainmaker, about residential schools and the !60s scoop that they released last year with Indigenous artists Okama.

Indigenous artists Brandon Solomon and Kylar Quewazance will both perform solo sets as will local country artist James Downham and local Neo-folk singer Neil Little all for this great cause and a great night of music and community.

Todd Torresan will kick off the night with a land acknowledgement and Indigenous smudging ceremony. Don’t miss it! Don't forget anyone wanting to Donate ITEMS to our Silent Auction contact Todd Torresan and need to have anything handmade by Feb 6 2023 for Auction. Niawen Miigwech Thank You everyone. Thank you so much for any and all support in getting this information out into the community. If you would like to interview Todd or myself please contact me at 519-301-6044 or Todd at 519-671-9240.

Summer Solstice: Tuesday, June 21

Sacred Fire and Summer Solstice at Falstaff at 5 pm

35 Waterloo St. Stratford Ontario. All are welcome to stop in.

Indigenous People's Day: Saturday, June 25

BRVTA’s second annual Indigenous Peoples Day hike will be held on Saturday, June 25 starting at 11 a.m. on the Sawmill Trail.

Todd Torresan of the The Talking Circle Group Perth-Huron will be both special guest and guide. Torresan is a well-known speaker on Indigenous culture and will share his knowledge as hikers stop along the trail.

This will be a BRVTA members-only hike with pre-registration required by contacting Ralph Blasting at rjblastingjr@gmail.com or 519 525-3205. The Sawmill Trail offers a 2 km hike with one steep hill. The event will last about 90 minutes. Hikers are asked to meet and park at the Sawmill trailhead on Old River Road, on the north side of the Bayfield River. A map can be found at Sawmill Trail.

Spring Equinox Ceremony - March 20

We will be hosting a Spring Equinox Ceremony with Sacred Fire and Traditional Cedar Tea

at 7.30 AM Sunday morning March 20 2022.

Clinton Lion's Park 77975 London Rd, Clinton, ON N0M 1L0

Visit the Ojibwe Spirit Horses - Saturdays

On the first Saturday of every month, Sallianne and Dale Denham Patch will hold an OPEN HOUSE from 2-4 p.m. You are welcome to come out to the ranch and meet Takona and all his family of Ojibwe Spirit Horses, Chase the Stallion, and the Quarter Horses, Paint and Scandinavian Horses, as well as the goats,chickens, dogs and cat.

Address: 2624 Line 47 Gadshill, Ont N0K1J0

Celebrating Haida artist Bill Reid - Wednesday, October 20

McCarthy Place

1 - 2:30 pm Bill Reid celebrations: storyteller and healer Todd Torresan will share a traditional Land Acknowledgement and the story of 7 Grandfather Teachings, Meet and Greet and Pet Ojibwe SPIRIT Horses

Cedarcroft Place

3:00 pm Bill Reid celebrations: storyteller and healer Todd Torresan will share a traditional Land Acknowledgement, the Haudenosaunee Creation Story with Nanabush, Sing n Drum, Smudging, signing and adding hand prints to Banner

National Day for Truth and Reconcilation - Thursday, Sept 30

1:30 pm: Market Square behind Stratford City Hall: Sign or add handprint to the Tree of Peace with Roots, Trunk, Branches and Leaves, all in Medicine Wheel Garden COLORS

2 - 3 pm: Solidarity Walk with Choices For Change - leaving from Market Square to River

3 pm: Truth And Reconciliation Vigil with SACRED Fire at Falstaff Family Centre, around the Medicine Wheel Garden.

4 - 5 pm: Talking Circle Group Meeting

5 - 6 pm: Greetings, Land Acknowledgement and Smudging led by Todd Torresan

S.P. Joseph Lyons will join us to talk about Truth and Reconciliation

Winona Sands will share the meaning of Phyllis Webstad Orange Shirt Day

* Orange SHIRTS for will be for sale. There are four designs, both long and short sleeve t-shirts and hoodies.

Come out to learn and connect. There will be stations set up for Smudging, Medicine Wheel Teachings, the Creation Story, Medicine Teaching, Talking Circle and a Meet and Greet with the Ojibwe Spirit Horses. Learn their story from their caretakers Salianne & Dale Patch and meet the horses! Horses will be present from 3 - 6:30 pm.

Todd Torresan: Se go Li Aanii Sgë:nö’ në:ha_ ni’ gya:söh. Hello. Are you well? My name is GCHI Animikiikaa ah-nih-mih-kee-kaa- My clan is _Turtle Clan Lo-dee-noon-SHYOON-nee) a'no:wál My nation is Oneida Nation ofthe Onʌyo taʼa:ke niwago ̨̲hwęjˀodęˀ Haudenosaunee- PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE NIAWENKOWA - Nyow wuh, Goh wuh!!! Thank you very much.

Todd started The Talking Circle Group in Stratford on January 8, 2020 with 4 Members. We have grown to 210 members as of Sept 2021.

S.P. Joseph Lyons is an Algonquin children's author, and romance fantasy novelist. As a 60's Scoop adoptee, and intergenerational survivor of the residential school legacy, he endured abuse and segregation through the child welfare and school systems.

Visit S.P. Joseph Lyons website

Winona Sands is Chippewa from Walpole Island and is an entrepreneur who has lived in Stratford for the past 15 years. Her business is called Howling Moon Aboriginal Arts and Catering.