OWL & ASH

Finally get to release these images as they have been published in Surreal Beauty Magazine! This shoot was such an awesome collaboration! Taken at The Raptors in Duncan! - Sarah Bowman (Nov. 12, 2015)


Ash Gawiuk - Model 

Owl & Ash Gawiuk by Sarah Bowman Photography

Sarah Bowman Photography

Owl & Ash Gawiuk by Sarah Bowman from her editorial in VANorama Magazine

 

a Woodland NDN story

There is an old saying, "wise as an owl". People are always saying that, but the truth is, owls were not always wise.


Once upon a time, a long time ago, the Everything-Maker was very busy, making all the animals and all the plants and all the rocks and caverns and everything else that covered the earth.


Owl had not yet been made. He had been given a voice. And two eyes. And a head and a body and strong wings. Owl was waiting his turn to be formed. "I want a long neck like Swan," Owl told the Everything-Maker. "I want red feathers like Cardinal and a beak like Hawk."


"Yes, yes," mumbled the Everything-Maker. "Whatever you want. But you must wait your turn." The


Everything-Maker looked sharply at Owl. "Your eyes are open again. You know that no one is allowed to watch me work. Turn around and close your eyes. I have no time for you now. I am busy creating Rabbit."


The Everything-Maker turned his attention back to Rabbit who was shaking with nervousness. "And what do you want, little rabbit?" the Everything-Maker asked encouragingly.


"Long legs and ears," Rabbit spoke softly. "And fangs. Could I possibly have a fang or two? And claws. I would dearly love to have claws!"


The Everything-Maker smiled. "I think we could manage some claws and fangs." He smoothed Rabbit's long legs and ears.


"Silly Rabbit!" Owl hooted loudly. "Why don't you ask for something useful, like wisdom?"


"This is your last warning, Owl. Be quiet and wait your turn."


Owl twisted around and glared at the Everything-Maker. "You have to do it," he hooted. "You have to give us what we ask. I demand wisdom!"


"I warned you, Owl!" shouted the Everything-Maker. He shoved Owl's head down into his body, which made Owl's neck disappear. He gave Owl a shake, which made Owl's eyes widen in fright. He pulled Owl's ears until they stuck out from his head.


The Everything-Maker snapped his fingers. "I have made your ears big, the better to listen. I have made your eyes big, the better to see. I have made your neck short, the better to hold up your head. I have packed your head with wisdom, as you have asked. Now, use your wisdom and fly away before you lose what I have given."


Owl was no longer a fool. He flew quickly away, pouting and hooting.


The Everything-Maker turned back to Rabbit, smiling gently. "Claws," he reminded himself. But Rabbit was gone. Rabbit had hopped hurriedly away, too afraid of the Everything-Maker to stay for his fangs and claws.


As for Owl, Owl knew if he angered the Everything-Maker again, he would lose all that he had gained. Even today, Owl only comes out at night, when the Everything-Maker is fast asleep. As for Rabbit, his claws and fangs are waiting. Perhaps someday ...


 

HUNTING PRAYERS

Jules Cox Photography
Nov. 24, 2012

h p of a Indian woman

The 'Say No to Bully' T-shirt is a good and simple symbol to incorporate into young minds, but is the weakest way to deal with the predatory energy in your face as a child. It is as weak as Nancy Reagan's 'Say No To Drugs' jingle.  It, like this sales campaign, is a marketing tool. It is cute, but if a child understood the story of the 3 Little Pigs, for example their understanding of bullying, and the internalizing of the 3rd pig would change their relationship with the Predator energy from a victim to a Protector.

The 'Three Little Pigs' is the story my Mother used repeatedly throughout my childhood until I mastered the craft at 14. This story is a Warrior's story. I use it when I am asked to work with bullies, and gang bangers. I merged this story, and other stories from other tribes, and my own life into my children who grew up to become Protectors.

The stories within people masterfully told and enforced changes the energy bodies of victims, of the prey. It isn't ad and sales campaigns. It is the introspective lives of children's parents that needs to honestly assess their lives because our children mirror not only their parents, but the culture they are born into. Children see every contradiction living in a country bullying other countries, and its own citizenry.

These are my words. - Gregory E. Woods 6.4.13

IMPRESSIONS are what you think...

Impressive, but how can one sit with such a presence; either one of them?

Some folks complain, "Why is this woman so bored?" 
"How could she not smile?"

In my mind I ask other questions.

"Why should the model be expected to be smiling, and appearing gay and witty in the presence of so powerful a Medicine, a wild creature? Wouldn't that be rather trite? Why such an expectation from critics of photographers who pose models in provocative and challenging settings? What does it say about the viewer? What does it reveal about some viewer's ability, or inability to sit in another person's point of view, of reference? 

Hmmm... Makes a thinker think." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3.27.13

photographer Erica SIMONE
on a New York city subway train.

The HUNT

Dance of Life to Death...
April 11, 2013

NATURAL TEACHERS

Elder's Meditation of the Day - September 11

"Listen to all the teachers in the woods. Watch the trees, the animals, and all living things - you'll learn more from them than from books."
-- Joe Coyhis, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE

Nature is a living example of how communities live in harmony. If you go into the forest or mountain and sit still and watch, ask yourself, what lessons are being taught? Then watch how the animals conduct themselves. The trees could represent diversity. The flowers could represent people. Notice how everything in nature assists one another. See how balance works. See how conflict is handled. Can you see acts of forgiveness? Can you spot respect? Nature is full of wisdom if we will only consider her to be our teacher.

My Creator, today let me learn from nature

Jicarilla Apache story of Coyote & Owl

Coyote Takes Arrows From Owl  

Owl was the one who had arrows. He had a club also with which he killed men whom he ate. "Up at the low gap I am watching for men, wû hwû wô," he sang. 

Coyote came walking along in front of him. 

"Wû hwû wô," sang Owl, "I am looking for men in the low gap." The two came face to face there. "Now," said Owl, "the one who vomits human flesh will kill men." 

"Very well," said Coyote, "shut your eyes." 

Owl Shut his eyes. When he vomited, Coyote put his hand under and took the meat. The grasshoppers which Coyote vomited he put in Owl's hand.

"Now open your eyes," said Coyote. 

Owl looked and saw the grasshoppers lying in his hand. Coyote showed him the meat. "What did I tell you," said Coyote, "this is the meat I threw up." 

"Where did I drink in the grasshoppers?" said Owl.

Coyote ran all around Owl. "Because I run fast like this I eat people," said Coyote. "These legs of yours are too large, I will fix them for you. Shut your eyes." 

Coyote cut Owl's leg, trimming away the meat. "Dô xaaa you must say," Coyote told him. He broke his leg with a stone and took the arrows away leaving him only the club.


Coyote ran around Owl who threw his club at him. He would say, "Come back, my club," and it would come back to him. He threw it again. "Come here my club," he called. He hit him with it. 

Coyote said, "Wherever a stick falls when one throws it there it will lie." The club did not return to Owl.

"Now you will live right here in the canyon where many arrows will be in front of you. Somebody might kill you," Coyote told him. 

Owl hitched himself along into the canyon. "Arrows painted black may kill you," said Coyote. Coyote went around in front of him and shot him with his own (Owl's) arrows.

After that everybody was afraid of Coyote who went around killing off the people.

Jicarilla Apache Texts, by Pliny Earle Goddard; New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. VIII; (1911) and is now in the public domain.

from archives of BLUE PANTHER 

OWL MEDICINE

A circle around a pentagram contains and protects. The circle symbolizes eternity and infinity, the cycles of life and nature. The circle touching all 5 points indicates that the spirit, earth, air, water and fire are all connected. - Lillian Roi

http://keeperofstories.blogspot.com/2010/02/earth-medicine.html 

Earth Medicine

“Medicine has a way of drawing what it needs from the stories that hold people together by agreement.”

–Heart Song Stone Man