Events at the PLOT 2021
Winter Solstice Circle of Lights
Winter Solstice Circle of Lights at the Newton Medicine Wheel in the PLOT Sharing Garden, In honour of Elder Mentor Grandma Amy Wuttunee Eagle Tail Feather Eusterguerling. The weather was winter cold and the opposite was true of the hearts who tended and attended the Candle Light Vigil.
Death of our Mentor, Grandma Amy
October 30
It is with very sad hearts that we share the news of our dear Friend of the PLOT and Mentor, the Newton Medicine Wheel’s Visionary and Founder Elder Grandma Amy Wuttunee Eurtergerilng’s passing. Grandma Amy Eustergurling Manchus S’kwao Wuttunee Eagle Tail Feather passed away on October 30th at 4:00 am. She was cremated in her shawl and moccasins as per her families traditions.
Amy, Manchu S’quao Earthworm Woman’s devotion to the teachings of the Medicine Wheel and to the wisdom from her lineage was unparalleled. The knowledge was imparted with great grace, love, and humour and has been a blessing for so many.
While we grieve the loss of this beautiful being, I sense all her ancestors and those on the other side celebrating and welcoming her arrival, acknowledging her life, and her passionate work to regenerate and keep the teachings of living with the Laws of Nature alive.
Thank you for being an example of how to walk in a good and soft way, and how to be in right relationship with this amazing Mama Earth.
Thank you to Don and Cora Li-Leger for welcoming Amy into the PLOT Sharing Garden project. Amy always tells the story of your enthusiastic acceptance of her wish to create a Medicine Wheel.
Amy’s Apple Tree
In 2014 when the Medicine Wheel first came into being, Grandma Amy asked to have a living tree, a fruit tree, planted in the center of the Medicine Wheel. The PLOT and MW volunteer group tried to dissuade her for many reasons including the expected short life of the garden project.
It took a few years and great persistence on Grandma Amy’s part, and finally in 2019 a little apple tree was planted.
In 2020 at the beginning of Covid, community gatherings of more than 6 were not permitted for the Spring Equinox. Wanting to observe the occasion, Grandma Amy and a few other volunteers, complying with Covid restrictions, showed up. They arrived with prayers and kind intentions that had been collected from community members for this purpose. The few representatives that gathered with Covid distancing and masks, read these caring words out loud around the MW wheel on the Spring Equinox.
At that same event, Grandma Amy took the time to speak kindly and lovingly to the little tree. As if by the magic of her words, this little tree produced a great abundance of fruit that year. The next year in 2021, the year Grandma Amy went to live with the ancestors, producing 44 luscious apples.
It was said by a Cree Elder, at a pipe ceremony in honour of Amy, that 44 is a significant number. He felt it was a great blessing and testament to the good life lived by Grandma Amy Wuttanee Eustergurling, Eagle Tail Feather… also known as Manchuw S’kwao Earthworm Woman, who passionately cultivated the fertile soil of the heart of the community and created a place for all to flourish.
Manchuw S’kwao’s teachings live on in our hearts and help inform the way we walk in this world, with greater awareness of the laws of nature and how to live in good relationship with the earth, and all her sentient beings.
One of Grandma Amy’s main teachings is that when all the elements are in balance, the tree of life at the center will bear good fruit. And so it is.
We are ever grateful for having had the privilege to enjoy the precious joy filled light that shone, and the grace of wisdom that showed up, whenever Amy was near.
First Canadian National Day of Truth and Reconciliation
Thursday September 30
We will be gathering at the Newton Medicine Wheel at 2:15pm PDT Thursday September 30 for the First Canadian National Day of Truth and Reconciliation to drum for the children. We will do this following the way the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc have invited us to join in. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, from Kamloops, where the first 215 plus unmarked graves of indigenous children and babies were uncovered in June of this year. It is their wishes to involve the world in recognizing the very first Canadian National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. If you are called, at 2:15 pm PDT tomorrow please join us at the Newton Medicine Wheel and PLOT Sharing Garden. If you can not make it to the MW, if you are called, please join us from wherever you are, pause, reflect, send prayers, light a candle and or drum the song contained in the link below which is a Tk’emlups te Secwepmec honour song.
Summer Solstice Ceremony
Summer Solstice Ceremony Honouring of the 215 plus with Cree Elder and founder of Newton Medicine Wheel Grandma Amy Eustergurling at the Newton Medicine Wheel and PLOT Sharing Garden, Sunday June 20 2021. We gathered round a mandala of 215 cedar bundles, created not just for the 215 plus, also for all the children and all the families and communities affected by the atrocities of the residential schools. Healing prayers with love to grow awareness as we move into a deeper truth and reconciliation. Honouring all our indigenous families and friends on National Indigenous Peoples Day June 21/21. With Great Love from the PLOT Sharing Garden. Gratitude to all the Grandmothers, Mothers, Sisters, and Aunties who tied prayers, cedar, sage and flowers into the bundles leading up to the ceremony. To all the men who supported the process.