Gyun Yuk Combined With Libation Ceremony Recorded Live

Recorded live at the Riversdale House in Hyattsville, Maryland on 11/6/2021. Peter Brooks recites the Gyun Yuk, Janice Green Curtis as Harriet Tubman transplants a small plant into the stolen soil, and Cheryl McLeod leads a Libation Ceremony to kick off the days festivities.

Transcript

Just a couple of announcements before we begin.

I need to let you know that I am not an enrolled member of the Piscataway tribe.

My family is too far removed for me to be eligible.

Therefore,

This is a demonstration,

Okay.

This is not a Piscataway tradition.

This comes to us from the six nations,

The Haudenosaunee tribe north of here.

But it is an Algonquin tradition,

Okay.

So it is true for this part of the land.

What I'm about to recite to you are the words before all else,

The giongak.

This would precede any ceremony or event just like this if colonialism had never happened.

The proper response when I say the phrase,

Now our minds are one,

Is for you to say no.

No.

You are in agreement.

You don't have to wait for that if you are in agreement with anything that I say here.

I should also tell you that if you have ever had an inclination to thank the stars,

The moon,

The fish,

The water,

Mother Earth,

If you want to give thanks,

Now is your time with this address.

Is there any elder or tribal member who would like to have the honor of reciting the giongak?

Before we begin our ceremonies here,

We need the permission of the oldest woman in the area that we may precede.

May the women give me permission?

Yes.

Thank you.

Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue.

We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things.

So now we bring our minds together as one,

As we give greetings and thanks to each other as people.

Now our minds are one.

We are thankful to our mother,

The earth,

For she gives us all that we need for life.

She supports our feet as we walk upon her.

It gives us great joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time.

To our mother,

We send greetings and thanks.

We are thankful to our to our mother,

We send greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength.

Water is life.

We know its power in many forms,

Waterfalls and rains,

Mists and streams,

Rivers and oceans,

With one mind.

We send greetings and thanks to the spirit of water.

Now our minds are one.

We turn our minds to all the fish life in the water.

They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water.

They also give themselves to us as food.

We are grateful that we can still find pure water.

So now we turn to the fish and we send our greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to the vast fields of plant life.

As far as the eye can see,

The plants grow,

Working many wonders.

They sustain many life forms.

With our minds gathered together,

We give thanks and look forward to seeing plant life for many generations to come.

Now our minds are one.

With one mind,

We turn and honor and thank all the food plants that we harvest from the garden.

Since the beginning of time,

The grains,

Vegetables,

Beans and berries have helped the people to survive.

Many other things draw strength from them too.

We gather all the food plants together as one and send them a greeting of thanks.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to all the medicine herbs of the world.

From the beginning,

They were instructed to take away sickness.

They are always waiting and ready to heal us.

We are happy that there are still among us those few who remember how to use these plants for healing.

With one mind,

We send greetings and thanks to the medicines and the keepers of the medicines.

Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to the animal life of the world.

They have many things to teach us as people.

We are honored by them when they give up their lives so that we may use their bodies as food for our people.

We see them near our homes and we see them far deep in the forest.

We are glad that they are still here and we hope that it will always be so.

Now our minds are one.

We now turn our thoughts to the trees.

The earth has many families of trees who all have their own instructions and uses.

Some provide us with shelter and shade and others with fruit and beauty and other useful things.

Many people of the world use the tree as a symbol of peace and strength.

With one mind,

We greet and thank the tree life.

Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together as one and thank all the birds who move and fly about above our heads.

The creator gave them such beautiful songs.

Each day they teach us and remind us to appreciate life.

The eagle was chosen to be their leader.

To all the birds from the smallest to the largest,

We send our joyful greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful to the powers we know as the four winds.

We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air that we breathe.

They help us to bring the change of seasons from the four directions they come,

Bringing messages and giving us strength.

With one mind,

We send our greetings and thanks to the four winds.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to the west where our grandfathers,

The thunder beings live.

With lightning and thundering voices,

They bring with them the water that renews life.

We are thankful that they keep those evil things made by the equisities underground.

We bring our minds together as one and send greetings and thanks to our grandfathers,

The thunderers.

Now our minds are one.

We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest brothers,

The sun.

Each day without fail,

He travels the sky from east to west,

Bringing the light of a new day.

He is the source of all the fires in the world.

With one mind,

We send greetings and thanks to our eldest brother,

The sun.

Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together as we give thanks to our oldest grandmother,

The moon,

Who lights the nighttime sky.

She is the leader of all women all over the world and she governs the movement of tides.

By her changing face,

We measure time and it is the moon who watches over the arrival of children here on earth.

With one mind,

We send greetings and thanks to our grandmother,

The moon.

Now our minds are one.

We send greetings and thanks to our grandmother,

The moon.

Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to the stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry.

We see them in the night,

Helping the moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to the gardens and growing things.

When we travel at night,

They guide us home.

With one mind,

We send greetings and thanks to the stars.

Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds together to greet and thank the enlightened teachers who have come throughout the ages.

When we forget how to live in harmony,

They remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people.

With one mind,

We send greetings and thanks to all these caring teachers.

Now our minds are one.

Now we turn our thoughts to the creator or great spirit and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of creation.

Everything we need to live a good life is here on mother earth.

For all the love that is still around us,

We gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the creator.

Now our minds are one.

We have now arrived at the place where we end our words.

Of all the things we have named,

It was not our intention to leave anything out.

If something was forgotten,

We leave it to each individual to send greetings and thanks in their own way.

Now our minds are one.

Steal away,

Steal away,

Steal away to freedom.

Steal away,

Steal away all alone.

I ain't got long to stay here.

Good afternoon or good morning to you.

My name is Hyatt Tubman and I want to tell you a short story of the peoples.

We got to honor the peoples who led us here to this day.

See this here is a stolen land that they came along and stole from the peoples that was here first.

And then as if they had nothing better to do,

They needed people to work this land.

See there once was a farmer who had a pasture and he wanted to increase his holding.

So he sold onion and garlic in that pasture.

But he come to find out that he made the milk sour.

So he tried to pull that garlic and onion out,

But it was too late.

They had taken root.

So they come to a place long time ago called Africa and they ripped us out of our homeland,

Out of our soil.

And they took us and planted us in that stolen soil that they had stole from them people that was here before they was.

And then they tried to pull us out,

But it was too late because we had taken root in that new land.

And so we thank all of the peoples that made it possible for us to have their roots and to grow grow strong in that new land called our land.

We give them thanks by pouring what we call libation.

The libation ceremony.

Our indigenous brothers and sisters,

Their fear aunts were already here.

Our indigenous brothers and sisters were here on this land.

Our brothers and sisters,

We came,

We were stolen from our native motherland Africa.

They thought they could bury us.

They did not know that we were seeds.

The libation ceremony in West African traditions,

Libations are poor.

And they're poor to honor our ancestors,

To respect our elders,

To protect our youth,

And to honor our extended families and to welcome guests into safe places.

Before any ceremony begins,

We call to order by saying,

I'll go.

May I have your attention?

The response is,

I may.

You have my attention.

And as my brother said,

We ask permission of our elders if we may continue.

May we continue?

This is our Sankofa bird.

Our Sankofa bird from Ghana,

The Ashanti people,

Go back and fetch it.

Or we learn from the past.

As you can see,

The bird's feet are moving forward.

The neck is reaching back to protect the egg.

The feet moving forward.

The neck is to remember our past so that we protect our future.

This is our Sankofa bird.

So be it.

Ashay.

To us,

Water is life.

The power of water,

The power of the ocean.

We cross the ocean.

And that power,

We survive.

We thrive.

So we pour water to replenish our souls.

Those who come before us,

Our ancestors,

When I say Ashay,

Call their names.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Hi,

It's up.

Ashay.

Frederick Douglass.

Call the names.

Call the names.

Let me hear you.

Those your ancestors before you.

Anyone before us.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

We also honor our elders with their wisdom and their guidance.

Shout their names.

Shout their names.

Ashay.

Shout their names.

Ashay.

We also want to honor our children for they are our future.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Say their names.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

And we must not forget those who are in the struggle,

Still in the struggle.

The indigenous,

The indeligent,

The enslaved,

The indicted,

The incarcerated.

Yes.

The insolvent.

Yes.

The infirmed.

Yes.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

And in speaking,

Because we as powerful people are living through right now,

Surviving COVID and other medical crises,

Those who have gone before us,

They are not just statistics,

Because we need statistics to show that they are here,

That we are here.

So we as survivors and we as recoverors need to tell their story.

We are incredible.

We are,

Yes,

We are those who are passing through.

We give you all safe passage today because we are here.

Ashay.

We are here.

Ashay.

We are here.

Ashay.

We are here.

We are hope.

Ashay.

And now we are as one and our spirit lives on forever.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

I just brought her blood,

Sweat and tears.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

For our people who have sacrificed so much for us to be here today.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

Ashay.

We are here.

We are here.

We are here.

We are.

ASHE!

ASHE!

YO!

Reviews

I wish I could have attended in person! Thank you for ending your live session (11/25/2021) with the Iriquois Nation's thanksgiving address, Peter. I hope to see more recordings from you, soon.