Edinburgh festival.. an Open space event

Harrison Owen hhowen at verizon.net
Wed Apr 5 13:43:14 PDT 2006


Diane -- Surprise! And guess where a major part of the inspiration for Open
Space came from? Indigenous Market places! All of which work pretty much the
same was as a Potlatch. Same old, same old :-)

Harrison 

Harrison Owen
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Diane
Brandon
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 12:39 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Edinburgh festival.. an Open space event

Chris's comment resonated for me. Our family has had some wonderful 
weekends centered around an indigenous pow wow. Usually it's a full 
weekend - sleep over two nights - and there are lots of things going on 
-- food vendors, arts and crafts vendors, children's games, always the 
circle in the center, drumming much of the time, dances of many sorts,  
great ceremonial dress, some or all dances open to all (some for 
skilled dancers only), story telling, flute playing, sometimes sweat 
lodges, sometimes workshops on healing/spiritual topics or on making 
things, and nothing requires attendance! Many people sit around their 
campsites, sleep, talk at picnic tables, swim in the river where that's 
an option, take care of kids -- oh yes, all ages are welcome and are 
there, with a lot of honor for elders (much appreciated by this 
grandmother) and for veterans (something I was on the fence about - but 
my husband was in the Navy for 4 years in the Vietnam era, and it means 
so much to him to dance in the veterans' honoring dance, and I get to 
join him.... so I've warmed to it). Many people camp out in tents  and 
trailers, so we live together for the weekend, and the cost is minimal. 
There's plenty of room for offering what you want to offer, if not in a 
more formal way, then via your own campsite and conversations there or 
as you walk around. (I'm sure if you hang a flag at your campsite about 
your topic, you'll attract some interest!) The place-basedness of it, 
and all the preparation that goes into it on the part of the tribe or 
tribes or individuals that organize it (they usually include one free 
feast, and often a give-away), seem core to the sense of deep 
satisfaction people get from going to these weekends. I think it's very 
close to Open Space!

Diane Brandon
Eliot, Maine

On Apr 5, 2006, at 10:22 AM, Chris Weaver wrote:

> on a related large other topic, i am deeply interested in the overlap
> between ost and ceremony in indigenous traditions.  festival life, 
> which
> culminates on a specific piece of land for a specific period of time, 
> has
> some fascinating resonance with ceremonial space/time.  a topic to 
> explore
> another time.

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