Gathering of Alaska Native Wisdom Bearers

I wish there were more extensive notes on the talks. But the audio/video and maybe a transcript will eventually be available.

Ethel Lund said she was a bit taken back about being called a “Wisdom Bearer.” “I feel that with gray hair, wisdom doesn’t come automatically, so I’m still in the stage of learning myself. My grandmother said you’re always learning until the day you leave and I find that to be true,” she said.

Words of Wisdom
By Robinson Duffy, Published October 25, 2007

Since 1968, the University of Alaska has awarded honorary doctorates to 43 Alaska Natives. At a meeting Wednesday morning, dubbed the Gathering of Alaska Native Wisdom Bearers, many of the surviving holders of honorary doctorates spoke in the Davis Concert Hall to an audience of high school students, visiting Alaska Natives in town for the Alaska Federation of Natives annual conference, and other community members.

The nearly four-hour meeting was recording on audio and video and will be archived by the university… More than a dozen elders spoke during the meeting. What follows are brief gems of wisdom gleaned from some of those speeches.

…The Rev. Walter Soboleff, the first Alaska Native to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Alaska… was born in 1908 in Killisnoo.

At least two are nonagenarians. Unfortunately, Rev. David Salmon did not live long enough to give his address.

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Elder Wisdom Circle

http://elderwisdomcircle.org/

The orginal news story comes from “Have a problem? These seniors are online to help
Thursday, March 9, 2006, By LESLIE BRODY

The Circle of Elders is a Nationwide Network comprised of volunteer Seniors aged 60-97. Elders participate individually from their home computers or collectively at a senior community. Our Elders represent a richly diverse patchwork of life experience and wisdom.

ABOUT US: A FREE service providing practical advice and guidance from empathetic volunteer seniors. Please think of us as grandparents to the cyber-world….

Need personalized advice on most any topic? You may request personal advice on any issue, however the circle is unable to offer medical, tax, investment or legal advice….

Elder Wisdom Circle is organized as a IRS 501(c)3 non-profit association comprised of the Elders (volunteer seniors) who offer advice and our support staff. We are based in the San Francisco Bay Area with Elders all over North America. We are one of the largest providers of personal advice anywhere. The mission of our association is to promote and share elder know-how and accumulated wisdom. We also have a goal of elevating the perceived value and worth of our senior community.
FREE Advice: Our Elders can help with most any problem providing a personalized reply to each request. Our service is totally confidential and easy to use. …

To become an Elder one must be at least 60 years of age, complete an application and screening process. Elders participate individually from their home computers or as part of a collective group at locations such as an assisted living community….

http://elderwisdomcircle.org/

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Words of wisdom about academic culture

Once upon a time at Far West Big U., for instance, a search-committee member wondered aloud: “Can job candidate Venerable, who seems to have a little arthritis, get around this campus fast enough? Maybe we need his medical reports.” Once told that asking for medical reports was illegal and that Mr. Venerable was the same age as Mick Jagger, the member retreated, harrumphing. (A decade later, Mr. Venerable was still hiking and cross-country skiing, Mick Jagger had had a hip replacement, and the committee member was dead.)

• Link: http://chronicle.com/jobs/2005/08/2005082201c.htm

Alphabetical listing (mas o menos)

2003 what the City’s intentions are

2004 Nursing Homes: what LTC providers learned from battling four hurricanes

2004- Elderly in Florida at risk in every hurricane season

2006 AI/AN data report from US Census 2000

2006 National Adult Day Services Week

A push for stay-at-home healthcare

A say in one’s or other’s life?

AARP Bulletin: Blogosphere 101

AGS Foundation for Health in Aging

AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE LONG TERM CARE CONFERENCE 2006

Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Awards

Activism At All Ages

Activity and exercise

Administration on Aging Pandemic Preparation

Administration on Aging Region X: AK, ID, OR, WA

After Katrina, transplanted Creoles vow to keep culture alive

Age at retirement and long term survival of an industrial population BMJ

Age by decade

M Catherine Bateson

The Indigent Scholar to the Unorganized Borough (a.k.a., tech support for us here) went walkabout on the world-wide web to locate a former co-author and ran across Mary Catherine Bateson’s website

• http://www.marycatherinebateson.com/

Dr. Bateson is an anthropologist with scholarly and general audience publications. Her first memoir was quite interesting and I’ve been meaning to get to her other books. With A Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson [1984]. HarperCollins, 2001 ISBN: 0060975733

She has several items on-line that might interest the readers from here.

During the past few years Mary Catherine Bateson has been particularly involved with three projects: finishing and bringing out her most recent book, Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery; wrapping up the 2004 Gregory Bateson Centennial (as well as a few loose ends from the 2001 Mead Centennial) which, even after its official period passed, continues to stimulate activity and interest; and building on the experience with Granny Voters as a means to encourage trustee voting in future electoral seasons and to empower older adults to claim a voice for the future. This project has developed into a further exploration of intergenerational communication and changing ways of experiencing time and will probably lead to a book on the contributions and improvisations of engaged older adults experiencing a second adulthood of what MCB has identified as active wisdom.

GrannyVoters— grandparents who believe our political voice is part of our legacy and want to use it to give our grandchildren a say in the America they will inherit.

• http://www.grannyvoter.org/

You can find some of her current thinking at

• What’s On My Mind
  http://mcatherinebateson.blogspot.com/

and on the International Leadership Forum, such as

• THINK YOUR ISSUE IV: AGING
  http://ilfpost.org/?p=134

Currently, Visiting Scholar at Boston College’s Center on Aging and Work

• http://agingandwork.bc.edu/template_index

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