Benefit Concert: First Nation Youth to the Vatican

Join us for a benefit concert that will help fund a trip for 12 First-Nation youth and elders to visit the Vatican to discuss rescinding the church’s brutal Doctrine of Discovery that has traumatized generations of native peoples. The concert is organized by Veterans for Peace and First Universalist’s Environmental and Racial Justice Teams

The concert features an incredible line-up of performers: renowned singers Prudence Johnson and Larry Long; Hollywood actor and director Max Gail (best known for his film and TV work on Barney Miller and General Hospital); and First Nation performers Dorene Day Waubanewquay, Tom LaBlanc, Joe Savage, Keith Secola and Mitch Walking Elk.

Doors open at 1 p.m. with refreshments and a silent auction, followed by the concert at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance; $25 at the door. Purchase tickets at www.youthtothevatican.eventbrite.com.

The trip to the Vatican is being organized by the Indigenous Youth Ceremonial Mentoring Society, which teaches ceremonies to Native youth in the St. Paul School District. Last November, First Universalist was asked to help finance travel for youth and elders of the Society to visit Pope Francis at the Vatican. Their intent was to be a discussion of the historical and inter-generational trauma endured by First Nations people for centuries due to publication of the Doctrine of Discovery by Pope Alexander VI in 1493. With the help of folk singer Mitch Walking Elk, coordinator of the Society, and David Logsdon of Chapter 27 of Veterans for Peace, First Universalist’s Environmental and Racial Justice Teams made plans for a benefit concert to help make this trip possible. “Ultimately the goal of this trip is to have every Papal Bull that was written that called for the subjugation of Indigenous people and lands, revoked,” adds David Logsdon.