Roots of Peacemaking: third annual festival honors Haudenosaunee, international peace

The third annual “Roots of Peacemaking: Indigenous Values, Global Crisis” festival will be held on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Onondaga Lake Park, Liverpool, from noon- 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The celebration, which honors the Haudenosaunee at the birthplace of democracy, is a United Nations International Day of Peace event made possible by an ongoing collaboration between the Onondaga Nation and Syracuse University. The event is organized and presented by the Indigenous Values Initiative, an independent organization formed to articulate, disseminate and promote the ancient and enduring values of indigenous people’s traditions to the world.

Onondaga Lake is the birthplace of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, the oldest participatory democracy on Earth.

The festival will begin with a Water Thanksgiving at Onondaga Lake, followed at 2 p.m. by performances by the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers. The troupe is led by Sherri Waterman-Hopper, a Haudenosaunee educator and member of the Beaver Clan.

The festival will also feature the following speakers:

• Author and curator Suzan Shown Harjo, president and executive director of the Morning Star Institute, a national Native rights organization based in Washington, D.C. Harjo is a prominent Native American leader in the arts, culture and policy. Her leadership has enabled native peoples to protect sacred places and recover more than 1 million acres of land.

• Audrey Shenandoah, Onondaga Nation clan mother. Shenandoah is an internationally renowned writer, teacher and advisor to the United Nations. She has been a voice on behalf of indigenous peoples and the environment all over the world.

• Sally Roesch Wagner, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville. Wagner is a nationally recognized lecturer, author and performance interpreter of women’s rights history. She has taught women’s studies for 38 years and currently serves as adjunct faculty in SU’s Reneé Crown University Honors Program.

• Jack Rossen, associate professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Ithaca College and co-founder of the college’s Native American Studies program.

The event is supported by Syracuse University’s Office of the Chancellor, SU’s College of Arts and Sciences and its Department of Religion and Native American Studies Program,the SyracuseCoE, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Center for Native People and the Environment, Le Moyne College’s Department of Religion, Onondaga Community College, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation/Syracuse Peace Council, the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, Onondaga Shoreline Heritage Restoration and the Onondaga Nation.