The Morning Star: It is Bright

A Prayer for Recovery and a Spiritual Explanation of the Process for Receiving Duties on Behalf of Oneself and All the People

The structure of this book and the stories in it are an attempt to connect my personal ordeal and awakenings with the enlarged collective transformative experience, and ultimately to clarify the workings of the imagination and the intentions behind creative action. The traditional understanding of duty and responsibility which is always communal, is shown to be a recoverable quality of personal identity in the modern world. By recounting in a profoundly reflective and interpretive way the patterns of my personal ancestral migrations forwarded into the present, the conceptualization and design of the ceremonies and ceremonial grounds which are the culmination of my work, demonstrate the power of memory as a source of imagination and vision.

The compassionate and equanimous inspiration for the renewal of the responsibilities inherent in ancient indigenous greeting ceremonies is shown to be a deep form of reconciliation among the first peoples of a land and subsequent visitors. Walking respectfully between my two worlds, ancestrally British and Hotinonshon:ni, and indeed among many other worlds, is shown to be fundamental to carrying out such responsibilities in the contemporary realm. The design of the architectonic setting and ritual structure for Toronto: A Beacon to the Ancestors are my reflections of this journey, inhabited by so many wise Elders and peers who have taught me.

Indeed my acts of creative imagination become my prayer, my offering, to be worthy of such a duty.

William Woodworth · Raweno:kwas

William Woodworth is a member of the Lower Mohawk Kanien’kehá:ka Nation of Six Nations of the Grand River in the Bear Clan. Adopted into the Deer Clan of the Cayuga Nation he was named Raweno:kwas “he dips the words” in the Haudenausaunee tradition. Educated in architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, he has an independent architectural practice and is an educator. His principle teacher there was the well known Latvian architect Gunnar Birkerts.

William completed his doctoral work in Traditional Knowledge, Recovery of the Indigenous Mind, at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco. He studied under Dr. Apela Colorado and Jurgen Kremer. From 1995-1996 William had the privilege to be an apprentice and assistant to the great Condoled Cayuga Chief Jacob Ezra Thomas Deyohonwedah at Six Nations of the Grand River Territory where he was given a rigorous teaching in all the Haudenausaunee practices and culture, and travelled extensively.

Among his experiences are many architectural projects, and several exhibitions associated with his architectural and teaching interests. As well he carried out numerous projects for native communities and organizations. He is a past member of the Ontario Association of Architects and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and had an independent architectural practice from 1979-1995. He is the Founder and Director of the Beacon to the Ancestors Foundation which promotes native culture in the urban environment of Toronto. William is currently on the Adjunct faculty at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, where he has taught the ground breaking course Twelve Architectures, Architectures and Native Culture in the Grand River Watershed for years.