Honoring a Venerable Keeper of the Land

Reader Contribution by Steven Mcfadden
Published on July 22, 2010
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“Central to all of elder Commanda’s teachings are the fundamental concepts of equality, as well as respect for Mother Earth, for all life and for people of all racial and cultural backgrounds … Chief Commanda is convinced that the future of life on the planet depends on our learning to live together in harmony with nature upon the land …”

– Remarks of Robert Chiarelli, Mayor of Ottawa upon presenting Grandfather Commanda with the Key to the City in 2006.

My beloved friend and mentor for over 20 years, Grandfather William Commanda, is cruising through the environmentally and economically  severe summer of 2010, headed resolutely for his 97th birthday come November. Among his adventures this summer in service to the land: meeting England’s Queen Elizabeth again, and asking her support for preservation of sacred land. He first met the Queen in 1953 at her coronation. This time she came to his land, Ottawa, capital city of Canada. The story of their encounter this summer is recorded on the blog kept by his companion, Romola Treblecock.

In 1995-96 I had the honor of being one of the walkers with Grandfather when he served as spiritual guide for the Sunbow Five Walk, a pilgrimage lasting eight months. We took our initial steps at First Encounter Beach on the Eastern seaboard of the Atlantic, as native and non-native peoples of all colors and faiths walked in continual ceremony across the continent to take prayers and messages of sustainability and peace-building across the land to the Pacific. All this I chronicled in the free, online epic saga Odyssey of the 8th Fire.


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