Announcing Auroville
International Meeting in
Canada, Sept. 2007

Early report

Report from AVI Meeting
at Spa Eastman, Quebec , Canada
24 ­ 28th September 2007

Greetings from Quebec !

It is Wednesday evening and we have been meeting for 3 days at Spa Eastman ­ a beautiful resort offered at a special rate to the AVI association for this meeting by the owner, Jocelyna, who was part of Aux Petites Oiseaux in Montreal and visited the Ashram and Auroville between 1971­1973. In her own words, she expressed wanting to do something in her life that carried forth the vision that inspired her during these times and Spa Eastman is that creation. She was utterly delighted to have the chance to host this meeting and it has been very nourishing (in every possible way): www.spa-eastman.com

As is often the case, this meeting has been pretty jam packed with dynamic discussions hence the infrequency of reports for which I apologize. To give a quick overview this is what we have been up to:

Day 1:
Meeting of AVI board where discussion included voting for the new board and discussion on collaboration between IAC and AVI. There was also some discussion about the latest developments in the IZ who have just begun meeting again in Auroville and L'Avenir. In the afternoon, this was the first meeting of the general assembly and it began with a unanimous agreement to the new AVI board.

After this Yanne Dimay gave a stimulating presentation on the preparation of the UNESCO event planned for next year Auroville¹s 40th at UNESCO headquarters Paris which will coincide with the UNESCO general assembly meeting. This event will be facilitated at the highest level by Dr. Karan Singh. Dr. Doudou Dienne, Dr. Kashyip Desiraju (HRD ministry) and Enzo Fazzino in UNESCO will also be involved.
It was mentioned that this is a perfect opportunity for linking embassies and Auroville via UNESCO and could be a real stimulus for the IZ. Six different countries agreed to translating the recently completed MM film in their respective languages.

In the evening a film was shown made in France showing the remarkable role one bone in the base of the head may have played. It is shaped like a butterfly!!:

http://www.guba.com/general/video/Independent/home

http://www.metanexus.net/conference2005/pdf/staune.pdf

Day 2:
The morning was devoted to working on AVI participation for Auroville's 40th birthday. This began after an hour long introduction round to welcome and introduce Adrianne Portillo, new liaison from Mexico who just arrived and Aravinda and Jasmin who had also managed to visit for the day.

The rest of the morning was spent in a "workshop" to try and gain more clarity on how to develop the "soil ceremony" idea which has been drafted in concept but needs much more detailed elaboration. Surbhi facilitated this session including small group brainstorming and an attempt to synthesize the different ideas. In the end a committee agreed to work further to try and present a more coherent proposal in order to help manifest this idea.

In the afternoon, a few more topic points relating to Auroville's 40th were mentioned ­ a summary of events known till now, mention of the possibility for a youth conference in collaboration with Dena Merriam from the Women's World Peace Initiative.

This was followed by Auroville presentations including on ACCESS, Isai Amabalam and NCBS, mediation service, Auroville transport initiatives, open source software proposal, Auroville Industrial school and a brief report from South Africa Liaison (as Jasmin and Aravinda had to leave again). At the end of the presentations, the group adjourned to watch the short film "listening to our children" and the new Matrimandir video which was appreciated by everyone tremendously.

In the evening, we had a cultural program with Devasmita and Paolo both dancing for the group and then we all participated in folk and Sufi dances led by 2 of our Canadian hosts Stephan and Marie Jose.

Day 3 (today):
began with a special program organized by Stephan who introduced us through sharing stories and film about a native Algonquin elder known as Grandfather William Commanda. As a result of a kind of "conversion experienc" he has become a leader and voice for both indigenous people and inspiration to many as he works in his special way through his life and message for creating a circle of all nations. Stephane and Marie Jose were very much wanting to offer this exposure as they feel his vision and Auroville's are very close. William is 94 years old and made a special prayer for us at his homeplace at 9:30 am in the morning as he was unable to travel to the meeting.

We also spent some time in a sharing circle speaking of the impact of the films on his life and work as we were personally touched.

In the afternoon, Monique began with a detailed update about the land situation in Auroville ­ some recent history leading to the proposal of exchange of lands and discussion followed which highlighted the complexity of the problem that appears not to have any easy human solution. This presentation was followed by centre reports from all centres except Netherlands as we ran out of time.

Tomorrow is last day. After a 14 km morning hike (first time some of us have really been outside for more than getting from bed to meals to meeting!) we will gather in the afternoon to complete unfinished topics, work a bit more on the 40th birthday proposal and the new board will meet.

In the evening we will have a round for closing reflections.

We have all been greatly appreciating the detailed organization of Christian and the Canadian team and especially the beauty of this current location.

September 28 at 5:30pm

Rainbow over Plateau Mont-Royal while most of the AVI
participants of this wonderful meeting were leaving Montreal.
OM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI ARAVINDAYA

Christian Feuillette

Dear Christian,
It seems our rainbow(s) taken in Vermont as we drove South were reaching back to Montreal to join yours to show that we are still connected...
Love and Thanks,
Julian (Wendy, Kathy & Friedericke)

Click here for plenty more photos on AVI UK website