by Mike Adams
Art was such a foundational aspect for mom. Here she used it brilliantly in education. For those of you not from Upstate New York, the Haudenosaunee are the Iroquois Confederacy, the sophisticated Native American civilization founded in 1142 and considered the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. The Confederation inspired Our Founders such as Ben Franklin, the joining of the 13 colonies into a single nation and many of our democratic principles.
Art was such a foundational aspect for mom. Here she used it brilliantly in education. For those of you not from Upstate New York, the Haudenosaunee are the Iroquois Confederacy, the sophisticated Native American civilization founded in 1142 and considered the oldest living participatory democracy on earth. The Confederation inspired Our Founders such as Ben Franklin, the joining of the 13 colonies into a single nation and many of our democratic principles.
The picture mom outlined to paint with her students is either the Peacemaker or the Onondaga leader Hiawatha. The Peacemaker said, “A single arrow is weak and easily broken. A bundle of arrows tied together cannot be broken. The five arrows represent the 5 Nations and the strength. The motif is present in the bundle of 13 arrows held by the eagle in the Great Seal of the United States.
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In her teacher's statement, mom wrote, “I love to roll up my sleeves, remembering that I am an artist, for I believe that someday I will be in Paradise and continue to be the great artist that God intended me to be…”
Mom always used art to engage her students. She celebrated all cultures, and she never forgot where she came from; Trinidad, landed upon by Christopher Columbus in 1498 and named for the Holy Trinity. The island is truly a salad bowl of Amerindian, British, French, Spanish, African, Chinese, Indian, and Middle Easterners. Their Mardi Gras Carnival is the 7th largest. Mom was part of a group of Syracuse Trinis who brought T&T Carnivals to downtown Syracuse. I gather she even made costumes for her students. Mayor Roy Bernardi even accepted her invitation.
Mom always used art to engage her students. She celebrated all cultures, and she never forgot where she came from; Trinidad, landed upon by Christopher Columbus in 1498 and named for the Holy Trinity. The island is truly a salad bowl of Amerindian, British, French, Spanish, African, Chinese, Indian, and Middle Easterners. Their Mardi Gras Carnival is the 7th largest. Mom was part of a group of Syracuse Trinis who brought T&T Carnivals to downtown Syracuse. I gather she even made costumes for her students. Mayor Roy Bernardi even accepted her invitation.
There are pictures of Mom, Mark, and me when she became a US citizen, all three of us dressed formally in the colors. She took pride in her US Citizenship, but she also took pride in her Trinidadian roots. For the longest time, both flags were on display at their home. Mark, Matt, and I have each been to the island once each with mom, all at a very different periods in her life. I am sure that she was thrilled to share her home with us. She wrote, “ The combination of my East Indian/West Indian background and my years in the USA have stimulated me to examine more deeply the traditional social values of both cultures, and has driven me to form my non-conformist philosophy”. I can't help but think she was ahead of her time in celebrating multiculturalism.
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