Drum Dance & Dream for Peace
When Mary “Whitefeather” Joyce first met Peace Bridge founder Jean Campbell in 2006, she said: “We're supposed to do something together, something with the children. What is it?”
Mary had had a dream shortly before this meeting. In the dream, she said:
“I am standing in a large, grassy field in a circle of women and children, lots of children. There are drums in the four directions and a Mother drum.”
By early 2007, it was clear what Mary's dream had been about. Through a conversation with Dr. Ashfaq Ishaq, Director of the International Child Art Foundation, Mary was asked if the World Dreams Peace Bridge might be willing to create “the world's largest drumming circle for children” at the 2007 World Children's Festival, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in June.
The International Child Art Foundation creates an Art Olympiad every four years, in which children from around the world can participate. Participants are invited to Washington for a full week of awards, music, dance and arts on the National Mall. Since 2007, the World Dreams Peace Bridge has participated in the World Children's Festival in 2011 and 2015, concluding the public part of the Festival with “the world's largest drumming circle,” and with participation from all the children present in A Ceremony for the Future of the World's Children, created in 2007 by the Native American shaman and medicine man Woableza for Drum Dance and Dream for Peace.
Additionally, we have encouraged Peace Bridge members around the world to create drum circles and drum ceremonies so that, at the time of the World Children's Festival, there is a global drum circle for twenty-four hours, broadcasting our intention of creating a peaceful world for children to live in.
We have also used activities around Drum Dance and Dream for Peace to collect funds for the Aid for Traumatized Children Project. In 2011, for his fifteenth birthday, the World Dreams Peace Bridge sponsored Mohammed, his brother Ahmed, his sister Zeyneb and their father in Washington for the Festival and for their first trip to the nation's capital. This family was aided in their immigration to the United States from Iraq by funds raised through Drum Dance and Dream for Peace.
A Prayer from Native American Medicine Man Woableza, Given in 2007
16 children of the colors of mankind will gather together.
Four each will stand in the four directions: west, north, east and south. The children will dance in a circle, facing the mother earth.
After encircling four times, dancing for Mother Earth barefoot, they will stop.
They will say a simple prayer in their language for Mother Earth and all her inhabitants.
Four grandmothers of four races will bring them bowls painted red, white, yellow and blue, sixteen bowls in all.
The grandmothers will fill the bowls with what the children of the future will need such as: clean water, heritage seeds from all corners of the earth, beautiful flowers, and incense from all over the world.
At the end of the ceremony, the children will again turn, facing outward toward a new path of continuing life. The large bowls of flowers will be tossed in the air so that the children may dance with flowers at their feet. The music can be drumming and harps.
Mitakuye Oyasin
I pray that this happens
Woableza