Before December comes to a close, we have featured two family events for your consideration in this newsletter, plus an international opportunity for world peace and a chance to have your say about protecting biodiversity and ecosystem health. To see more happenings, please visit Creatively United's Event Calendar and free Community Blog. Creatively United, in collaboration with our Climate and the Arts partner, shared in a number of major projects this past year, including a documentary film on the Columbia River; free public events with the Community Trees Matter Network; a six concert, multi-month Re-Connect Festival; and helped forward an innovative carbon recycling project in Esquimalt, BC that is a low footprint solution to regional municipal, demolition and construction waste and could save 73-acres of trees from destruction by preventing the unnecessary expansion of Greater Victoria's Hartland Landfill. Changing Course - A River’s Journey of Reconnection, a 60-minute documentary film on the Columbia River co-produced by Creatively United and Climate and the Arts, previewed to a sold-out audience on Earth Day, April 22, 2023, and will be publicly released on World Water Day, March 22, 2024. Stay tuned for further details and other exciting creative projects planned for 2024, including the innovative multi-media stage production of MetaMorphosis: A Healing Journey, to be performed in collaboration with the REACH Choir, April 27+28, 2024. Thank you for your continued support and best wishes for a peace-filled 2024. |
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CISV Victoria (formerly Children’s International Summer Villages) annual winter social will be held from 6-9 pm, Friday, Dec. 15 at Maria Montessori Academy, 184 Fairburn Drive. Meet the CISV Victoria community, share in a vegetarian meal, and gather in holiday merriment for the whole family. Free. Donations welcome to cover food costs. Visit cisvvictoria.ca to learn more. |
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The Rocky Point Observatory's annual Christmas Bird Count for Kids is a chance for the whole family to get out and enjoy nature while contributing to the health and welfare of our bird population. Sat., Dec. 16, 1-3 pm at Beckwith Park in Saanich. All ages welcome, registration required. |
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10,000 for Global Peace Initiative December 29, 2023 to January 13, 2024 |
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More than 10,000 practitioners of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation® [TM] and advanced Meditator programs will be meditating together between December 29, 2023 to January 13, 2024, to create coherence in collective consciousness, the basis for world peace which is more critical now than ever. If you have a meditation or prayer practice, of any description, please join in this international peace initiative for as long as your practise allows starting at 5:30 am and 3 pm PST daily between December 29, 2023 to January 13, 2024. Learn more here about the science and effectiveness of group meditation in restoring harmony and defusing world crises. |
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Urgent Request For Strong Biodiversity Protection By Elders for Ancient Trees & Sierra Club BC |
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Please sign the United We Stand for Old Growth declaration which calls for a strong Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework with the power to protect endangered species. With the right commitments, the Framework could finally start to resolve the significant gaps in legislation and policy that are responsible for so many species and ecosystems being close to the brink. From now until January 15, the Framework is open for public engagement. The public is invited to provide comments by contacting: biodiversity.ecosystemhealth@gov.bc.ca Your voice matters! Right now, the province is consulting with First Nations, industry, and the public. Some industry reps would like to weaken government commitments. We need your help to ensure this long-overdue Framework is a win for the animals and ecosystems so essential to the lands and waters and our collective well-being. With your help, we can restore healthy relationships with the lands, waters, salmon, bears and all those with whom we share this home. We urge you to send a letter today and encourage you to personalize your letter so that your message goes even farther. |
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Amnesty International Condemns Canadian Government and RCMP By Ketty Nivyabandi |
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Amnesty Canada has just issued a research report that documents and condemns a years-long campaign of violence, harassment, and racial discrimination inflicted upon the Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia (B.C.). The land defenders have faced a litany of human rights violations and abuses at the hands of the Canadian and B.C. governments, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and fossil-fuel companies – simply for defending their Indigenous rights. The Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline cuts through the heart of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s unceded ancestral territory, threatening to sever their profound connection to the land. The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, the Nation’s traditional authority, have refused to grant their free, prior and informed consent to the project – as is their right under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Learn more here |
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Creatively United for the Planet is a registered non-profit society. Since 2012, we have been leading, convening and amplifying ways to share how collectively we can reduce our ecological footprint and implement long-term sustainability solutions. Our mandate is to foster conversations, connections and create collaborative opportunities that bring individuals and organizations together in support of achieving common sustainability goals and accelerating climate action. Creatively United is a member of the Westcoast Climate Action Network and works collaboratively with numerous community organizations and in partnership with the Gail O'Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Fund, supported by The Victoria Foundation. The Gail O'Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Fund is dedicated to changing human consciousness towards global environmental change by combining science with the creativity of the performing arts. |
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Healthy, happy communities begin from the ground up. Help us inspire generations to protect and preserve the natural world and confront climate change, so families, communities and nature can prosper together. |
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