Saturday, September 28th was a great day! It was the day of my naming ceremony. The weather was near perfect. About 50 or so friends and family came out to help me celebrate my "better day". Four of my community members decided to join me by receiving their new names on my day. I considered this to be an honour for me to have them join in.

From Saturday on, my new name within my community will be Kas Tchay Pah No Ho Muskwa or "Big Bear Running". My brother Art is now to be known as "Grey Wolf", my Vice-Chief, Roger Kent will be known as "Laughing Waters". My niece, Susan is to be known as "Walks with Animals" and my grandson William will be known as "Laughing Wolf".

Each name was decided upon by the individual based upon what he or she felt was right.

The Grand Chief of AWMAT,  and our Clan Mother performed the rituals. The "Circle of Friends" drummed for us and presented both Art and me with the greatest honour we could hope for, an Eagle feather. This was such an honour that I was quite choked up and virtually speechless (for me, that is a major thing).

Five of my co-worker friends and some of their family came up from Toronto to share my day. Friends from near and far came. I was honoured by the presence of the Hon. Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board of Canada, Patrick Brown, MP for Barrie and Rid Jackson, MPP for Barrie. I was presented with a lovely certificate of congratulations from Patrick Brown.

A film crew attended, brought up by my friend Roger Nair, owner of Roger Nair Productions and Lionheart Productions. It's Roger's intent to produce a documentary about Canada's native peoples and he hopes to use this event as the center point of the documentary.

The event was a huge success on many fronts however, none of this could ever have happened if it were not for the love and support of my beautiful non aboriginal wife, Sandra. Sandra worked so hard to ensure my guests were comfortable and fed. She worked selflessly to make sure my day went well. I thank the Creator that he has seen fit to provide me such a wonderful wife and I thank that wonderful wife for all she has done and continues to do. I love her so much.

My big day is coming closer, just one week from tomorrow. I have had a great bit of news, that is I have the honour of having a ladies drum circle attending the event and drumming for us. This is so cool. The long  term weather forecast is perfect so I am keeping my fingers crossed for the day. I hope to have a great turn out for the event.

The Counsel is busy making the necessary amendments to the constitution which will be presented tot he membership at the Annual General Assembly. In the meantime, Jim Lowe is working on our communications strategy, developing a new Facebook page and a Twitter account. Jim has agreed to take on this role and will be named Director of Communications for the Counsel.

Barbara Lowe (Midland) has decided to join a women's drum circle led by a member of the Metis Nation of Ontario. We hope to hear more about that in the future.

The planning is coming along fine for the "naming ceremonies" being held on my "Better Day" of September 28. Although this is "my day" and my naming ceremony will be done individually and first, I have invited other members who wish to partake in the ceremonies to do so. So far, we have 4 members who wish to be officially named on my day. If you are interested in joining in, please let me know no later than Friday 13th September to get it to the Grand Chief in time (requires a bio of your public service work in particular). If you have not received an invitation to the event and wish to attend, contact me through my email at david.lowe1950@gmail.com and tell me all about yourself. We have room for a maximum number of 60 and are very close to that number now. This may be filmed for posterity so if you have any finery of an indigenous style to wear, sashes, ribbon shirts and so on, this is the day to wear it.

New membership cards are being produced so it is time for each of us to pay our dues. Our fiscal year begins June 21 (Aboriginal Day) at which tie, annual dues should be in to Art Lowe. If you have not yet paid since June 21, please do so asap.