Circle of All Nations

Module Table of Contents

A Global Eco Peace Community Founded by North America Indigenous Elder William Commanda

Training, Education, Advocacy, Communications and Healing

All materials created and co-created by Romola Vasantha Thumbadoo since 1997. Please acknowledge with any use of our intellectual property.

© Romola Vasantha Thumbadoo and Circle of All Nations

Ginawaydaganuc

“We Are All Connected” – Grandfather William Commanda’s

  Perpetual Prayer and Reminder

The Circle of All Nations is a global eco peace community unified by Elder Commanda’s fundamental and unshakeable conviction:

“As children of Mother Earth, we belong together and with nature, irrespective of individual colour, creed or culture.”

William Commanda (Ojigkwanong – Morning Star) :

Indigenous Elder, Chief, Ottawa (Kichisippi) River Watershed, Canada

Sacred Wampum Belt Carrier, Canoe Maker

Founder of the Circle of All Nations

Honorary doctorate University of Ottawa and Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO)

Lifetime Achievement Award, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards

Officer of the Order of Canada; Meliortum Patriatum, they desire a better country 

The Virtual Asinabka - Our Circle of All Nations Platform

The critically important peace and environmental work of Grandfather Commanda continues in his legacy vision for global peace, as articulated in the www.asinabka.com website dedicated to his Legacy Vision for an Indigenous healing and peace building centre within the National Capital Region in Ottawa, Canada.

Grandfather Commanda’s vision for reconciliation was developed with thousands of peoples and organizations, nationally, internationally and shared broadly, including at the United Nations, since 1997. 

Follow Grandfather Commanda’s work on Facebook:

Circle of All Nations 

William Commanda 

William Commanda Legacy – Asinabka 

Romola’s Nature CAN TEACH Photo/Art Page

And on our web sites www.asinabka.com
www.circleofallnations.ca (historical material)
 www.circleofallnations.ca (archival blog site)

Additional Circle of All Nations Materials

Circle of All Nations E-Newsletters

2019-09-14 CAN Annual Equinox Peace Event

2018-11-02 Circle of All Nations Newsletter & Invitation to Celebrate Grandfather William’s 105th birthday

2018-09-19 CAN Annual Equinox Peace Event

2018-07-27 Circle of All Nations Newsletter and Invitation to celebrate the life and legacy of Grandfather William Commanda on the 7th anniversary of his passing

2018-03-24 Circle of All Nations Newsletter and Invitation to Spring Equinox Event

2017-11-11 Circle of All Nations Invitation to Celebrate Grandfather’s 104th birthday

2017-09-21 Circle of All Nations Newsletter Highlights plus Invitation to Equinox Event

2017-06-16 Circle of All Nations Note

2017-03-12 CAN Equinox and 2016 Reports

2016-11-03 Celebrating Grandfather’s Remembrance Day Birthday

2016-08-18 Circle of All Nations Newsletter

2016-06-24: 2016 Circle of All Nations Solstice Event Agenda Update

2016-06-14: 2016 Circle of All Nations Solstice Event

2016-03-25: 2016 Circle of All Nations March Equinox

2016-02-29: 2016 Circle of All Nations Leap Year Message and 2015 Year End Report

 

A Few Key Academic Documents

Thumbadoo, R.V. (2021), SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Final Report: 2021 October 28.pdf
 
Thumbadoo, R.V. (2017), Ginawaydaganuc and the Circle of All Nations: The Remarkable Environmental Legacy of Elder William Commanda, PhD Thesis, Ottawa, Carleton University
 
Thumbadoo, R.V. (1975) Detribalization and Racial Conflict as Major Themes in Peter Abraham’s African Writings, Masters Thesis, McMaster University, Canada: 1975 MA Detribalization Thesis
 

Additional Academic References

** To access papers, use Google Scholar or other academic publications **

Book Chapters

  • In Further Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography: International Dimensions and Language Mapping (2019) Elsevier: Thumbadoo, R. V., Taylor, D. R. F. Storytelling with Cybercartography: The William Commanda Story
  • In Mapping with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Hess, J. (Ed.) Routledge. 2021. Thumbadoo R. V., Taylor D. R. F. William Commanda, Oral Wampum Storytelling, Digital Technology and Remapping Indigenous Presence Across North America
  • In Indigenizing Education for Climate Action: Strategies, Case Studies and Testimonies – Abstract From 1991 Pre-Rio Earth Summit Seed Planting to the present: Tracking Indigenous discourse and cybernetic navigation in William Commanda’s animation of relationship with Mother Earth, the living and intelligent Gaia – In Press May 2023

Journal Articles

  • Cybercartography, cybernetics and the cognitive mapping practice of late North American Indigenous Elder William Commanda for Volume 1: Issue 2 International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Science (IJAHSS). 2020. Thumbadoo R. V., Taylor D. R. F.
  • Indigenous Elder William Commanda and the Circle of All Nations Discourse. Volume 1: Issue 04 International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Science (IJAHSS). 2020. Thumbadoo R. V., Taylor, D. R. F.
  • Cyberphotoatlassing – Synthesis of Concepts and Technologies Wolodtschenko, A. Taylor, D. R. F and Thumbadoo, R. V in e-journal <meta-carto-semiotics>, vol. 14/2022: http://ojs.meta-carto-semiotics.org/index.php/mcs/article/view/108/111

Conference Paper and Presentations

      1. Keynote Students Workshop IEEE SSIT Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century conference. Lecture video recording is now hosted by IEEE TV at: https://ieeetv.ieee.org/video/circle-of-nations-romola-vasantha-thumbadoo-ieee-ssit-21cw2021
      2. Conference Paper Powerpoint Presentation. Lecture video recording is now hosted by IEEE TV.
  • 2021-12-14 ICA 2021 Integrating Cybercartography and Cybernetics in the Circle of All Nations Indigenous Mapping Exemplar of William Commanda Thumbadoo, R. V., Taylor, D. R. F.
  • 2021-12-14 ICA 2021 Cartography in the Social Media Era: A New Balance and Synthesis, Taylor, D. R. F. (Ottawa, Canada), Thumbadoo, R. V. (Ottawa, Canada), Wolodtschenko, A. (Dresden, Germany) and Zaslavsky. I. (San Diego, USA).
  • Digital and Mental Mapping: William Commanda and Circle of All Nations (CAN) in Cybernetics, Social Media, Photoatlases and Cybercartography: 2022 CCA May 26, 2022.
  • Digital and Mental Mapping: William Commanda and Circle of All Nations (CAN) in Cybernetics, Social Media, Photoatlases and Cybercartography – 2022 CCA Presentation Summary.

Other Academic Publication Outputs

  • Illustrative Atlas on Indigenous Cybercartograhy, Dresden, Germany (Taylor, D. R. F., Wolodtschenko, A. and Thumbadoo, R. V., Co-Editors)
  • MDPI/ISPRS International Journal Geo Information Special Issue on Mapping Indigenous Knowledge in the Digital Era, 2022 (Taylor, D. R. F., Thumbadoo, R.V. Co-Editor)
  • Discussion of Semiotic Photoatlases, Alexander Wolodtschenko et al., 2022

Photoatlas Series

See our Photoatlas Series (linked with the work of Dr. Alexander Wolodtschenko: https://atlas-semiotics.jimdofree.com/bild-atlantothek/) on the Gallery Page, Photoatlas Series
 

William Commanda, Founder Circle of All Nations, Wampum Belt Carrier, Algonquin Elder, Hon. PhD, Officer of the Order of Canada

Kitchi Tibi Kizis, Sun

Tibi Kizis, Moon

Kitchi Jojo Aki, Mother Earth

VISION

Mother Earth and All Creation

ANIMATION

Relationship, Social Justice and Peace

REFLECTION

Contemptation, Humility, Energy Shift

WISDOM

Bridging Diverse Knowledge Streams

Circle of All Nations' Conceptual Medicine Wheel

The Circle of All Nations is neither an organization nor a network – rather it is a growing circle of individuals committed to:
• Respect for Mother Earth
• Promotion of racial harmony and peace building
• Advancement of social justice
• Recognition and honouring of Indigenous wisdom

The core values sustaining the Circle are:
• Love
• Forgiveness
• Compassion
• Respect
• Responsibility

These values were originally presented in the Circle of All Nations Conceptual Medicine Wheel

All Circle of All Nations' activities are organic and interconnected

Vision

Community

Healing

Wisdom

These themes and values are re-presented and re-animated repeatedly in the Circle of All Nations work and are grounded in practices of storytelling, reflection and animation.

Circle of All Nations Logo as Theoretical Frame for the 2017 Thesis entitled Ginawaydaganuc and the Circle of All Nations : The Remarkable Environmental Legacy of Elder William Commanda

The Circle of All Nations logo, formally utilized as an epistemological tool since its creation in 1997, serves as illustration of the general thesis framework. The tree was photographed by William Commanda; the turtle was a live turtle photographed by Claude Latour, and the logo was co-created by Romola V. Thumbadoo, William Commanda and Claude Latour.
 
It continues to guide the ongoing animation of the Circle of All Nations work and is deemed a living logo. The spruce tree with four trunks emerging from one base root was photographed by William Commanda himself, and the turtle was a live one on the move, photographed by Claude Latour.
The Circle of All Nations Logo, as articulated in 1997, offered the following description.

This special logo incorporates many symbols of special significance to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples and to William Commanda himself. The four colours of the Sacred Circle, at the simplest level, represent the four symbolic races of man, the Yellow, Red, Black and White peoples; the four cardinal directions, East, South, West and North; and the four elements, Fire, Earth, Water and Air.
 
The symbolism and teachings of the Sacred Medicine Wheel are profound. The Turtle, here representing Turtle Island, North America, is described similarly in the mythology and legends of Aboriginal peoples of the West, the Hindus of the East and the Zulus of the South, amongst others, as being the animal that sacrificed its life to create Earth in the expanse of Sea and Sky; it endures as a symbol of sacrifice, creativity and fertility.
 
The Western story of the Tortoise and the Hare stresses the importance of perseverance in following dreams and achieving goals.

The Sacred Tree is a Spruce Tree photographed by William Commanda. Four separate trunks emerge from one base of the 75-foot tree.
 
The seven roots of this tree, which reaches into the Sky, grow through the Turtle into Mother Earth and the Sea, connecting all. It represents the Seven Fires Prophecy of the sacred wampum belt that William Commanda carried for the people for over forty years. The other trees remind us of the importance of the trees to Mother Earth and to our lives.
 
As he watched with pain the endless passage of logging trucks through his family’s traditional lands, William Commanda said, “It feels like a needle piercing my eye”.

The Mountains represent The Lake of Two Mountains, the traditional homeland of William Commanda’s ancestors. They also represent the climb up the Sacred Mountain in the search for wisdom.

The Morning Star is the symbol of enlightenment and vision, and because it shone so brightly when he was born, his mother named William Commanda “Ojigkwanong”. (Thumbadoo 2005 54)
 
With specific reference to this thesis, I articulate the significance of the logo as follows:
 
  • The Morning Star bridging between night and day, asserts the energy of emergence,
    enlightenment and knowledge, of the aspirational, and of volition and willpower;
  • The image backdrop denotes a cosmic stellar world inextricably linked with sacred earth, Turtle Island, with semiotic messages of water, turtle and prophecy roots performance mapping the ideological foundation, cartographical geo-narrative, reflexivity and cognitive mapping themes of the thesis;
  • The cosmic spruce tree (photographed by William Commanda) is used in the creation of the iconic Algonquin birch bark canoe. It also reflects the relational/inter-connectedness/adhesive theme of Ginawaydaganuc, around which the entire thesis spins;
  • The territorial referential of two mountains underpins the historical dialectical spatial narrative; the cosmic tree links elemental creation stories with historical references (Lake of Two Mountains at confluence of Ottawa and St Lawrence Rivers); and the special biodiversity/environmental importance of the area and work is anchored by trees;
  • The four separate trunks are aligned with the four branches in the ways of knowing examined in the thesis: empirical, animative, reflexive and dialectic. Analysis of research materials in the context of the centrality of the Ginawaydaganuc/relational theme is conducted in part via the digital atlas methodological trunk tool; and the tree branches epitomize the cybercartographic and social media refractions and voices.
  • The circle outline demarcates the constructed circular storytelling epistemological approach which, with distinct association with colour (from [en]lightenment of the yellow of the East, to the passionate animation of the red of the South, to the reflexive zone of the black of the West, to the wisdom articulation in the white of the North) projects movement and flow, the underlying regenerative theme of the thesis. A further examination of the circular Medicine Wheel flow reveals the movement from visioning and planning, to animation and action, to reflection and refinement, to articulation and dissemination as wisdom.
  • As intimated and articulated, the Circle of All Nations projects the ultimate vision of balance and harmony, emergence and evolution to be achieved in the motion of the striving for a Culture of Peace.

Here are two downloadable pdf files in English and French describing the logo, which also appears on our Circle of All Nations Teeshirt, first gifted to hundreds of people in 1998!  Now that this Culture of Peace Tee is is associated with the William Commanda thesis, we call it a UNI Tee!

Indigenous Language

William Commanda ignites the fire for Indigenous Language for the first UN Conference of Indigenous Peoples – The Cry of the Earth 1993

Animating Indigenous Language at local, national and international levels

“Elder Commanda, was passionately engaged in advocacy for the protection, preservation, revitalization and animation of Indigenous language. He described his language in a land based word: “vast”. Other languages did not have the words for the spirit, passion, ideas and thought that his earth-emergent language held. With the passing of every Indigenous language speaker he saw libraries of knowledge disappearing. Consistent with his Wampum heritage, he challenged this on the local, national and global stage at every turn, perhaps primarily so we could understand Mother Earth as he did.”

Excerpt CAN 2019 Unesco Year of Indigenous Languages Commemorative Poster

 The First United Nations Conference of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 1993: Cry of the Earth – Part 2 of 12 – Algonquin Delegation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NANaKYxfZY
 
The beginnings of a dialogue: William Commanda and the Official Languages Commissioner – 2011:
 
William Commanda and Indigenous Languages: Circle of All Nations Commemorative Poster:

Circle of All Nations (CAN) Reports and Newsletters

Miscellaneous Circle of All Nations (CAN) Info PDFs

Core Integrated Themes in CAN Teaching Priorities

GINAWAYDAGANUC – Everything is interrelated!

Now for the ongoing animation of the legacy vision for the global eco peace community via research, reports and blogs, events, social media, photos, audio-visual, live stream presentations. JOIN US and SHARE!

Note also our Circle of All Nations Facebook Page. Click below!

Circle of all nations