On Tuesday, August 8, the community is invited to attend the Buffalo History Museum, where representatives from Indigenous Women’s Initiatives and the WNY Peace Center will be hosting a celebration of 10 years of the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN-DRIP). There will also be a commemoration of the victims of nuclear war and development. If you think that the threat of nuclear elimination is not real, then you’re living in a fantasy. The threat of nuclear catastrophe is more real than ever, and it’s time to start paying attention to those that are dedicating their lives to enacting peace on a higher level.
“On the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are commemorating the horrific loss of life that brought an end to World War II where tens of thousands of people, many of whom were innocent civilians died in mere seconds,” said peace proponent Martin McGee. “The event tomorrow goes further than being an annual historic commemoration. It is crucially important for people to grasp the fact that the imminent threat of global nuclear annihilation is still with us and In fact, the danger has never been greater.
“We are living in a hair-trigger moment where all of humanity could perish. Look at the present face-off between Kim and Trump. The threatening situation grows bleaker by the day. Facing this insane reality, worrying about how to pay for your kids college or your own retirement becomes utterly meaningless. Our entire civilization is literally dependent on us, all of us challenging this monstrous inevitability by banning atomic weapons completely before it is too late. Sadly this comes at a time when the US has embarked on a ten year trillion dollar program to modernize its nuclear arsenal.
“Campaigners warned how using even a small number of nuclear weapons could kill millions of people in non-nuclear countries through radioactive fallout, drops in temperature and large-scale crop failures leading to famine. In highlighting the devastating medical, environmental and economic effects of nuclear war, the campaign challenges the identities of the nuclear-armed countries as ‘civilized.’ National leaders who have fantasies about surviving a nuclear war in bunkers for the elite should note this sentence well. Even those able to find shelter in the lower-level sub-basements of massive buildings would likely suffocate from fire-generated gases or be cooked alive as their shelters heated to oven-like conditions.”
What: Celebrate 10 years of the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN-DRIP), and commemorate victims of nuclear war and development.
Native arts & crafts, music, food, Decoding Domination film (including Doctrine of Discovery), proclamations, Japanese Water Lantern Ceremony.
When and Where: Tuesday, August 8, at the Buffalo History Museum, One Museum Court (just north of Rte 198 at Elmwood Ave)
Programming as follows:
- 3pm Gnonyoh – traditional Haudenasaunee thanksgiving address
- 3:15 Speakers
- Todd Gates, President of the Seneca Nation of Indians
- Lynda Schneekloth, Interfaith Climate Justice Community
- Congressman Brian Higgins (including Highly Toxic Nuclear Waste Transport)
- 3:45 Darelynn Spruce, Seneca, Singer and Drummer
- 4:00 Decoding Domination: Doctrine of Discovery film intro, Doug George, Mohawk
- 4:15 Joanne Shenandoah, Oneida, Singer and Musician
- 6:00 Call from Jim Anderson – PeaceActionNYS, WNYPC – from Nagasaki, Japan where it will be Anniversary of US Nuclear Bombing of Nagasaki (8/9) with great reverence to (and possibly with) Hibakusha, survivors of nuclear blast
- 7:30 Lantern ceremony, Interfaith Service, Dr. Stan Bratton, Imam Omar procession to lake, and lantern ceremony – Toro Nagashi at lake
