About
Intercontinental Cry is a blog dedicated to keeping you informed about the many struggles and conflicts involving the world’s land-based, Indigenous Peoples.
Authored By John Schertow (Ahni), it’s updated about 5 times a week; with new Videos added every Saturday; and a new monthly report of underreported struggles added near the end of each month.
A little about me
In short, I am a 28 year old writer, painter, and self-taught web-designer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I am also a Two Spirit of Haudenosaunee and European descent. I used to be a full-time activist, but a few life-changing experiences, followed by a rather dramatic emotional and spiritual breakdown, compelled me to walk away from activism and everything I was surrounded by at the time.
Since then I’ve been focusing almost exclusively on writing, helping out with the Oneidas For Democracy website, and most importantly, on decolonizing (healing and empowering) myself.
Currently I’m preparing to attend a community development program at Red River College.
As a side-note, I’m also working on getting published a bit more. So far, I’ve had my paintings, articles, and poetry featured in Serendipity, the Adagio Review, Swerve Magazine, Upside Down World, Activist Magazine, and Poets against the War.
Website Background
Originally, Intercontinental Cry was a project I came up with as my involvement with the now-defunct ghostchild.com was coming to an end.
The project was centered around action and dialogue: on one hand, we (anyone who agreed to a certain standard of conduct) as a community would work to produce non-profit, consensus-driven media such as books, spoken-word cd’s, essays, and articles–all of which would be geared towards educating, challenging, and informing people about everything happening in the world–especially regarding the issues facing Indigenous People.
The other side of the project was to work directly with social movements and Indigenous People. For instance, we would help organize campaigns and projects that focused on dealing with abuse, poverty, housing, alternative energy, empowering women, protecting language, ending war, and so on. The key point here is that the efforts would be specially designed FOR the People and Groups. We would not impose our will or agendas, but rather work as facilitators.
Well, I tried for a year to move the project forward, but eventually I came to realize my ambition greatly exceeded my capability. Namely, I had no resources or external supports; and without any formal education, training or experience in any field it was hard to be taken seriously. Not to mention that I was just starting to learn how to “walk and talk.” So I decided to put the project down and (gradually) make Intercontinental Cry into what you see today.
For that, I owe Dru Oja Jay (dominionpaper.ca) and Noam Chomsky a big thanks for their guidance and encouragement — along with everyone else who has send me donations and words of support over the last couple years. Your appreciation is what keeps Intercontinental Cry alive.
I also wish to thank Benjamin Melançon (agaricdesign.com) for donating the Intercontinental Cry domain name and webspace on Mayfirst.org.
