Dear brothers and sisters, walkers, welcomers, family and friends.

Today we stand on sacred ground to honor a completion and a beginning. I celebrate with you the many steps and miles you walkers have traveled to shine the light of your hearts on Sacred Native American lands and the dangers of nuclear power and weapons for all beings. I honor the prayerful devotion that has sustained you.

Some of you have walked all the way from Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant at Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo. Some of us have joined you for a few or many miles. We come from Japan, Bainbridge Island and Seattle in Washington State, New York, Maine, Nevada, San Luis Obispo, the Bay Area, and many other places on the planet. But all of our hearts carry a message of love and gratitude for our Mother Earth and a commitment to respect and care for her.

Whatever our birthplace, culture, race, tribe, age, or class, in all our diversity, we recognize that all beings are impacted by the threat of radiation. Our brothers and sisters from Japan know this in their cells and have come across the ocean to admonish us to heed the terrible lessons of Fukushima and Chernobyl. Our Native American sisters and brothers have taught us about enduring commitment. Veterans of many long walks and The Longest Walk, they have shepherded this herd of heart warriors with great patience and clear discipline. They have shared with us the meaning and value of the sacred sites we have visited. Our Japanese Buddhist sisters and brothers have taught us the sustaining power of chanting.

With our feet, our hearts, and our prayers, we have called for a moratorium on nuclear power and nuclear weapon development. We have pointed to the impact of uranium mining, the first step in the nuclear cycle, on the health and lands of native people in the southwest. We have outlined the risk of operating Diablo Canyon and holding spent fuel rods on land that hovers above two earthquake faults. We have told and heard stories of the desecration of sacred Native American lands.

We have suffered blisters, sore knees, restless, uncomfortable sleep, and the taunts of those who are yet unable to feel their own vulnerability to the message we walk. We have been nourished by many loving, supportive people along the route and by the community we have built together. We have each been changed, honed, carved out in this mobile community.  The beat of Buddhist and Native American drums has steadied the beating of our hearts as we walk. The echo of those drumbeats will sustain us and the experiences we have shared will empower us as we return to our homes, families, and communities.

Deep gratitude to the organizers and leaders of this amazing journey. Deep gratitude to each walker. Deep gratitude to Mother Earth for her abundant blessings.

We plan to walk to Sogorea Te from The Dead Fish Restaurant just south of the Carquinez bridge. For people who are walking with us for the day, we are asking that you part your car to where the walk will end and we will shuttle drivers back the starting place around 8:15 am.

Driving directions to where the walk will end:

View Larger Map
From I-80, cross the Carquinez bridge and take I-780 east.  The first exit is Glen Cove.  Take this exit, follow ramp to the right and take Glen Cove until you see South Regatta on the left.  Take a Left on South Regatta and drive until you reach Whitesides Street on your right.  Stop and park at that point, somewhere on South Regatta.  We don’t want to park our cars at the site.

When we walk to Sogorea Te (about 6 miles from the starting point), we will be entering by the Bay Trail from another direction.

If you can bring food to share for our closing potluck, bring something you can pick up from your car as we walk by and carry 1/2 mile into the site.

We should arrive at Sogorea Te around noon and be finished by 3.

The “Our Ancestors Our Crying” ceremony at Glen Cove, October 16, 2010

Listen to the drumming:

We then walked to Ogawa Plaza. There were crystal blue skies and helicopter noise overhead. Inside, the heartbeat chant of Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo. People would stop, listen, bow their heads. We vigiled on the north side of the plaza for most of the day. Many people took pictures of us throughout the day; we hope they will send some to us (avalokita@gmail.com) so that we can post them here.

Walking to Occupy Oakland

Arriving at the plaza

Peace vigil at the Occupy Oakland strike

Drumming on the plaza

Intertribal Friendship House
523 International Boulevard, Oakland
Starting around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.

We will arrive at 14th and Broadway at 10:30 a.m. & will address the crowd. At the plaza you can also meet up with us near the Indigenous Peoples Camp.

Walkers Chris and Debi posted a wonderful photo essay about the walk in their SARHENTARUC JOURNAL. They walked for the first two days and we are hoping to see them again towards the end of the walk.

Driving directions to where the walk will end:

View Larger Map
From I-80, cross the Carquinez bridge and take I-780 east.  The first exit is Glen Cove.  Take this exit, follow ramp to the right and take Glen Cove until you see South Regatta on the left.  Take a Left on South Regatta and drive until you reach Whitesides Street on your right.  Stop and park at that point, somewhere on South Regatta.  We don’t want to park our cars at the site.

When we walk to Sogorea Te (about 6 miles from the starting point), we will be entering by the Bay Trail from another direction.

If you can bring food to share for our closing potluck, bring something you can pick up from your car as we walk by and carry 1/2 mile into the site.

We should arrive at Sogorea Te around noon and be finished by 3.

Megu Iwate of Japan recently did a peacewalk in her native land to honor the people of Fukushima. On this peacewalk from Native American sacred sites in SLO to Vallejo, she hopes to make Californians more aware of the many parallels between Diablo Canyon and Fukushima.

Here is a press release written after our walk began:

Moving to the sound of chants and led by Buddhist peace walkers, two dozen individuals, including moms with small children, Chumash and other Native American leaders, and county activists are dedicating 16 days of their time and shoe leather to a marathon walk that began at the gates of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant October 22 and will finish November 6 at a sacred Native American site in Vallejo. It’s co-sponsored by SLO’s Mothers for Peace to raise new awareness about nuclear power and its risks, specifically operations at Diablo Canyon and San Onofre.

Elders of tribes nationwide want to draw attention to native lands, which have been been repeatedly contaminated and degraded by uranium mining and rad-waste disposal, while sacred sites, such as Diablo Canyon, considered a portal of souls by the Chumash, have been defiled.

Linda Seeley, head of the Mothers for Peace intervenors, remarks, “Our group appreciates the workers at Diablo—they keep us safe. However, nearly five million pounds of highly radioactive waste is now stored on-site, most in open-air pools. The amount grows daily—with no solution in sight.”

Some of the peacewalkers are from Japan, fresh from the disaster at Fukushima. Nuclear energy can never be made wholly safe, they assert; especially nuclear facilities like Diablo that should never have been sited near earthquake and tsunami-prone zones.

Adds Seeley: “We’re walking in support and solidarity with the people of Fukushima. What happened at Fukushima, happens here, too—we are all connected.”

The general public is warmly invited to take part in the peace walk; volunteers may elect to walk for an hour, a day, or the entire walk. On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the walk will travel from Paso Robles to Mission San Miguel, then on to Salinas, Watsonville, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Livermore National Weapons Lab, and the East Bay. Routes, schedules, and details at www.mothersforpeace.org and at www.canuclearwalk.com

Location: BFUU Social Justice Committee Fellowship Hall
1924 Cedar St Berkeley, CA 94709
(At Bonita St, one block east of MLK Jr Way)
Fri Nov 4th, 6 pm
Wheelchair accessible
Suggested donation $5-10; no one turned away for lack of funds.