https://youtu.be/XkjO6rU7mZU

The Pacific Island of Guam was settled by the second quarter of the 2nd millennium BCE by an Indonesian-Filipino people. Spain officially claimed the island in 1565 but did not attempt to conquer it until the latter part of the 17th century. During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. warship Charleston steamed into Apra Harbor and bombarded the old fort. Guam was ceded to the United States. During World War II the Japanese landed on Guam just after the Battle of Pearl Harbor. Allied forces retook Guam by August 10, 1944.

https://youtu.be/azzrz4GkkH4

The Philippine Islands were first conquered by the Malays, the original inhabitants being the Negritos, but became a Spanish colony during the 16th century. As a result Catholicism became the dominant faith there and then as a result of the Spanish-American War the islands were ceded to the United States. The Malays wanted an independent country and rebelled, but the rebellion was crushed. In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth and in 1946 an independent country with American influence down to the system of government.

Tibet in Western China was once a powerful Buddhist kingdom. It came under Mongol rule in the 1200s. Eventually it was taken over by China which crushed rebellion there but granted it some autonomy.

https://youtu.be/D5a8dbb39EU

The Akha tribe in Laos preserves its unique culture and language in virtual isolation from the rest of Laos.

Japanese culture goes back thousands of years with influences from China including its writing system and influences from Korea and Buddhism and yet Japan became a very modern country in a process that started with the opening of Japan in the 19th Century.

Manta rays are found in warm water along continents and islands. They are flatter and wider than long and have fins that look like wings. They eat plankton and small fish. They swim and near water surface, propelling themselves by flapping their fins. They even leap or somersault out of the water.

The Hunza people, or Hunzakuts live in northern Pakistan and also are to be found in the bordering regions of China, Tajikstan. Local legend states that Hunza may have been associated with the lost kingdom of Shangri La. The people of Hunza are known for enjoying good health and long life spans but this may not be reflected in the average life expectancy.

In Bali Indonesia, a wedding is celebrated up to three full days. Processions and three ceremonies are held for the wedding. After the wedding the bride will move in with her husband’s family. A Balinese saying is “once you marry your partner, you’ve married his family as well.”

The French Island of Corsica the birthplace of Napoleon has switched hands many times. When the Roman Empire’s western half collapsed in the 5th century, the Ostrogoths and Vandals invaded the island that already had a history of being invaded. It soon became the March of Tuscany’s dependency and later was ruled by Pisa and Genoa. Genoa feeling it could no longer hold the island against its enemies, gave up the island to France.

Only 61 Square Kilometers San Marino is one of the smallest states in the world. It is completely surrounded by Italy and traces its origin to the early 4th century CE to St. Marinus and a group of Christians escaping Roman persecution.

King Charlemagne recovered what is today the independent country of Andorra from the Muslims in 803. Charlemagne’s grandson, Charles II, granted Andorra to the counts of Urgel, from whom it passed to the bishops of Urgel. Andorra was later governed jointly by representatives of the Spanish bishop of Urgel and of the French head of state until 1993, when a constitution was adopted that greatly reduced the power of the coprinces.

Adapted from the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Finland was a province and later a grand duchy of Sweden. Being influenced by Swedish culture some call it a Scandinavian country but strictly speaking it borders Scandinavia but is not actually a part of it. It later became a grand duchy of Russia. It became an independent country in 1917.

Bordering with Germany, Switzerland and Lichtenstein, Vorarlberg’s culture has been influenced by its neighbors in a way that sets it apart from the rest of Austria.

The Basques are a people who have inhabited the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains in northern Spain and southern France for thousands of years. They have a unique and distinctive language and culture which survived despite efforts to suppress them.

A Rutgers scientist has developed a biodegradable, plant-based coating that can be sprayed on foods, guarding against pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms and transportation damage.

“We knew we needed to get rid of the petroleum-based food packaging that is out there and replace it with something more sustainable, biodegradable and nontoxic,” said Philip Demokritou, director of the Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Research Center, and the Henry Rutgers Chair in Nanoscience and Environmental Bioengineering at the Rutgers School of Public Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. “And we asked ourselves at the same time, ‘Can we design food packaging with a functionality to extend shelf life and reduce food waste while enhancing food safety?”’

Demokritou added, “And what we have come up with is a scalable technology, which enables us to turn biopolymers, which can be derived as part of a circular economy from food waste, into smart fibers that can wrap food directly. This is part of new generation, ‘smart’ and ‘green’ food packaging.”

The fibers encapsulating the food are laced with naturally occurring antimicrobial ingredients—thyme oil, citric acid and nisin. Researchers in the Demokritou research team can program such smart materials to act as sensors, activating and destroying bacterial strains to ensure food will arrive untainted.

The research was conducted in concert with scientists at Harvard University and funded by the Harvard-Nanyang Technological University/Singapore Sustainable Nanotechnology Initiative.

Their article, published in the science journal Nature Food, describes the new kind of packaging technology using the polysaccharide/biopolymer-based fibers. Like the webs cast by the Marvel comic book character Spider-Man, the stringy material can be spun from a heating device that resembles a hair dryer and “shrink-wrapped” over foods of various shapes and sizes, such as an avocado or a sirloin steak. The resulting material that encases food products is sturdy enough to protect bruising and contains antimicrobial agents to fight spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms such as E. coli and listeria.

The research paper includes a description of the technology called focused rotary jet spinning, a process by which the biopolymer is produced, and quantitative assessments showing the coating extended the shelf life of avocados by 50 percent. The coating can be rinsed off with water and degrades in soil within three days, according to the study.

The new packaging is targeted at addressing a serious environmental issue: the proliferation of petroleum-based plastic products in the waste stream.

“I’m not against plastics,” Demokritou said. “I’m against petroleum-based plastics that we keep throwing out there because only a tiny portion of them can be recycled. Over the past 50 to 60 years, during the Age of Plastic, we’ve placed 6 billion metric tons of plastic waste into our environment. They are out there degrading slowly. And these tiny fragments are making it into the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we breathe.”

Glitter and shimmery pigments are often made using toxic compounds or pollutive microplastics.

A biodegradable alternative could be used as an environmentally friendly alternative. It uses cellulose — the main building block of plant cell walls to create nanoscale patterns that give rise to vibrant structural colors. Such a material could be used to make eco-friendly glitter and shiny pigments for paints, cosmetics or packaging.

The African plant Pollia condensata, produces bright, iridescent blue fruits called marble berries. Tiny patterns of cellulose fibers in the berries’ cell walls reflect specific wavelengths of light to create the signature hue. “I thought, if the plants can make it, we should be able to make it,” says chemist Silvia Vignolini of the University of Cambridge.

Vignolini and colleagues whipped up a watery mixture containing cellulose fibers from wood pulp and poured it onto plastic. As the liquid dried into a film, the rodlike fibers settled into helical structures resembling spiral staircases. Tweaking factors such as the steepness of those staircases changed which wavelengths of light the cellulose arrangements reflected, and therefore the color of the film.

The researchers transformed their clear, plant-based slurry into meter-long shimmery ribbons in a rainbow of colors. These swaths could then be ground up to make glitter.

This gleaming ribbon contains tiny arrangements of eco-friendly cellulose reflecting light in specific ways to give the material its color.

This article is adapted from: This eco-friendly glitter gets its color from plants, not plastic | Science News

The Cherokees settled in the American Southeast portion of the country. The tribe was of Iroquoian descent. They had originally been from the Great Lakes region of the country, but eventually settled closer to the east coast. They were a strong tribe with several smaller sections, all lead by chiefs. The tribe was highly religious and spiritual. When the American Revolution took place, the Cherokee Indians supported the British soldiers, and even assisted them in battle by taking part in several attacks. The Creek and Choctaw tribes also assisted in the battles on the British side.

Eventually around the 1800s, the Cherokee Indians began to adopt the culture that the white man brought to them. They began to dress more European, and even adopted many of their farming and building methods. In 1828, gold was discovered on the Cherokee’s land. This prompted the overtaking of their homes, and they were forced out. They had been settled in Georgia for many years, but were now being made to leave and find a new place to settle. This is the origin for the historically popular Trail of Tears, where men, women, and children had to pack up their belongings and find new homes, marching a span of thousands of miles. When all was said and done, about 4,000 Cherokee lost their lives on the journey.

Sequoyah also called George Gist was born about 1775 in Taskigi, North Carolina and died in August 1843 near San Fernando, Mexico. He was the creator of the Cherokee writing system (see Cherokee language). Sequoyah was Cherokee on his mother’s side. He was an accomplished silversmith, painter, and warrior and served with the U.S. Army in the Creek War in 1813–14.
Sequoyah became convinced that the secret of what he considered the white people’s superior power was the written language, which enabled them to accumulate and transmit more knowledge than was possible for a people dependent on memory and word of mouth.

Accordingly, about 1809 he began working to develop a system of writing for the Cherokees, believing that increased knowledge would help them maintain their independence. He experimented first with pictographs and then with symbols representing the syllables of the spoken Cherokee language, adapting letters from English, Greek, and Hebrew. His daughter helped him to identify the Cherokee syllables. By 1821 he had created a system of 86 symbols, representing all the syllables of the Cherokee language.
Sequoyah convinced his people of the utility of his syllabary by transmitting messages between the Cherokees of Arkansas (with whom he went to live) and those of the east and by teaching his daughter and other young people of the tribe to write. The simplicity of his system enabled pupils to learn it rapidly, and soon Cherokees throughout the nation were teaching it in their schools and publishing books and newspapers in their own Cherokee language.

Sequoyah’s name (spelled Sequoia) was given to the giant redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) of the Pacific Coast and the big trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum) of the Sierra Nevada range. The Cherokee rose is now the state flower of Georgia. Today, the largest population of Cherokee Indians live in the state of Oklahoma, where there are three federally recognized Cherokee communities with thousands of residents.

Adapted from http://www.indians.org/articles/cherokee-indians.html and http://www.britannica.com/biography/Sequoyah

Bene Israel traditions varies on it’s origin. Some claim descent from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Others believe that their ancestors fled by sea the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes of the Hanukkah story. The Bene Israel adopted Hindu names, and took up the profession of oil production. They were known in Marathi as shaniwar teli (“Saturday oil pressers”), because they abstained from work on the Jewish Sabbath.

A Jew named David Rahabi, appeared and discovering them taught them the practices of Judaism which they had previously mostly forgotten. The Jews of Cochin Indian origin acted as cantors, ritual slaughterers, and teachers for the Bene Israel. Many Bene Israel migrated toward Bombay (now Mumbai) during this period. The first of numerous Bene Israel synagogues, all following the Sefardic (Spanish) liturgy, was built in Bombay in 1796. Till this day the Bene Israel follow Sefardic Jewish practice adopted after having been instructed in it by the Cochin Jews.

When, in 1948, the state of Israel was established, many Bene Israel began to emigrate.

In 1964 the chief rabbinate of Israel after learning of the conditions of Bene Israel practices through the centuries declared the Bene Israel “full Jews in every respect” although instructing to investigate whether their marriages were in all cases legitimately performed in India due to their isolation from other Jews throughout the world.

Edited a lot from the article in them in the Encyclopedia Brittanica online.

The Cajuns are descendants of Roman Catholic French Canadians whom the British, in the 18th century, drove from the captured French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and adjacent areas)who settled in the fertile bayou lands of southern Louisiana. The Cajuns today form small, compact, generally self-contained communities. Their patois is a combination of archaic French forms with idioms taken from their English, Spanish, German, American Indian, and African American (usually “Creole”) neighbors.

Pres. Teddy Roosevelt was a proponent of the ‘melting pot’ philosophy. The movement was led by people in Louisiana such as Progressive Luther Hall, elected governor in 1912. In July of that year, the legislature passed an act allowing the Department of Education to select all books and curricula for public schools. Starting the next year, English was stressed throughout the curricula, essentially banning French from the schools. In 1916, the state legislature approved Act 27, which required that all children attend public school where English was to be the language. This implicitly meant that the Cajun children that were brought up speaking French in their homes would have to learn English. The events were completed in 1921 when the Louisiana Constitution was changed so that all school proceedings had to be conducted in English. This succession of events led to many Cajuns growing up without learning their ancestral language. Stories abound of Cajun children being punished for speaking French at school.

Most of the parents of children in school for the first few decades of the century had grown up speaking French and still spoke it in the home. Children would learn English at school, but still learned some French in the home. As that English-educated generation grew up and had their own families, the use of French in the home was decreased with each generation. Some Cajun families, especially in more rural areas, continued to pass along the Cajun French language throughout the twentieth century.

Things began to turn around in the 1960s. Faced with the prospect of losing their language, CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) was established in 1968 to help bring interest in the French language back to the educational system. Less than 5% of Cajuns born in the last fifty years speak French as their primary language. The French being taught by CODOFIL was not Cajun French. Still, it was a move leading to French language preservation amongst the Cajuns. French immersion programs can now be found across Acadiana, Cajun Louisiana.

Zachary Richard founded Action Cadienne to advocate for the Cajun French language. The group maintains that the language is integral to the continuation of Cajun culture.

Cajun cuisine reflects the mixture of cultures in Louisiana. Among its classic dishes are alligator stew, jambalaya, gumbo—actually a Creole dish, made with a roux—and crayfish (or other seafood) étouffée, served over rice. Many dishes are prepared with some variety of sausage, such as boudin or andouille (a smoked sausage made with pork), and tasso (a pork shoulder preparation borrowed from the Choctaw). Essential seasonings include filé powder (made from sassafras leaves), cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Cajun music likewise shows a blend of several influences, including French, Creole, and Celtic songs. Cajun songs are usually sung in French. Typical ensemble instruments are the fiddle, the diatonic (button) accordion, the guitar, and spoons or the triangle. Tempos can range from a mournful waltz to a lively two-step, but, whatever the tempo, Cajun music is meant to be danced to.

Article mostly from http://www.acadian-cajun.com/clang.htmin content and http://www.britannica.com/topic/Cajun

Marronage—the flight of enslaved men and women was a common occurrence in the Americas and Caribbean from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Originally believed to be of Spanish origin (cimarrón; French marron), the term “maroon” is now thought to derive from a Hispaniola Taino root meaning “fugitive,” which combined with the Spanish cimá (mountaintop). The term was originally applied to livestock in the Hispaniola hills and to fugitive Amerindian slaves.

Known variously as quilombos (Jaga ki-lombo, “war camp”), mocambos (Mbundu mu-kambo, “hideout”), and palenques (palisades or stockades), Maroon settlements developed from the southern United States to South America.

Until a few decades ago, the area around Esmeraldas Ecuador was accessible only by sea. The only inhabitants for centuries were native people of the Tumaco and La Tolita cultures that spread over the modern borders of Colombia and northern Ecuador.

Maroons developed a variety of military, social, and political relations with Amerindians as allies, domestic slaves, spouses, and advisers of chiefs. When slaves were being brought to the New World to work the growing sugar plantations, the mines, and other jobs, some of them escaped shipwrecks and swam ashore on the Esmeraldas coast. They overcame, first by violence, then by reproducing, the local cultures, and created in northern Ecuador the Republic of Esmeraldas which became a haven for escaping slaves from other Ecuadorian provinces.

Esmeraldas took its name from Spanish colonizers, who hoped to find a rich source of emeralds, but also for the lush tropical vegetation of the area. Runaway slaves from Brazil and surrounding settlements and plantations joined with the communities and together these groups held off the Spanish colonial powers for many years. The intense mixing and merging of cultures from different sides of the globe is evident in the music of the region today.

The base of the music is made up of rhythmic drumming and the warm and distinctive marimba, a wooden xylophone, accompanied by singers and a traditional dance. In Esmeraldas and the Pacific Coast of Colombia a branch of the genre, marimba salsera, has more contemporary influences of the salsa culture popular in most parts of Ecuador and throughout Latin America. The esmeraldeños celebrate this cultural and musical legacy in various festivals and performances such as the Festival Internacional de Danza y Musica Afro, and music accompanies and is part of different religious practices.

Forms of entertainment mainly got influenced by West Africa. The main thing that they used for their daily entertainment were dancing and music. Dancing and music were very traditional, but music has changed to story-telling. The most popular dance in Esmeralda is called the Currulao otherwise known as the Marimba dance, this dance was played to a specific song. A marimba is an instrument that was made out of wood and was played using metal mallets.

The inhabitants wore informal and formal clothing. Informal clothing included hats. ponchos, and shirts that had very specific details. In some villages in Esmeralda, females would wear very vibrant colored skirts. They wear sombreros even when they aren’t farming. Normally sombreros were used during agriculture. Their traditional clothing you can see being worn for their shows consisting of dancing and music. When women dance, they normally wear those big full skirts with embroidery and vibrant colors.

Isolated for so many years, the black and indigenous cultures interwove and created a culture that remains vibrant today. With the coming of roads, the development of the port, and the establishment of Esmeraldas as the site of Ecuador’s largest oil refinery for the Trans-Ecuador pipeline bringing oil from the Amazon, the city of Esmeraldas has become a large commercial and tourism center. At the same time, ecologically concerned citizens have created wildlife reserves and mangrove conservation groups.

Adapted from:
www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/maroons-cimarrones

https://www.tripsavvy.com/esmeraldas-ecuador-guide-1635482

http://esmeraldaequador-sustainability-city.weebly.com/culture.html

https://soundsandcolours.com/articles/ecuador/esmeraldas-and-its-afro-ecuadorian-cultural-legacy-28309/

In music class when I was in junior high school my teacher told us something fascinating about former African American slaves who settled off the Southern United States coastline and said that to this day their descendents have their own language developed on the islands. I found it intriguing and it stuck in the back of my head.

The coastline from South Carolina to Northern Florida is the home of the Gullah people, an African American ethnic group. An estimated 300,000 Gullah people live along there. That coastline, “the Low Country” was deemed unhealthy for white owners and their families. The Low Country slaves were therefore freer to speak in their own languages and dialects, and to keep their African culture.

Thus were created the Gullah or Geechee language and people. Gullah allowed the Low Country slaves to communicate with one another coming as they did from an area in Africa in which there was a great deal of linguistic diversity. Settling in the offshore islands their culture and language differed from Mainland African culture and language as they do to this day. Although the Gullah language’s vocabulary is much more Anglicized than it originally was, it always was a combination of English and West African languages.

There are many groups working to preserve different aspects of Low Country life. A woman, Marquetta L. Goodwine who has been designated at the official liaison and spokesperson for Gullah/Geechee people and is therefore referred to as “Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation” works with the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition to keep the culture alive and vibrant.

Partially based on http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/gullah.html

Melungeons, dark-skinned mountaineers of eastern Tennessee, southwest Virginia and Kentucky, have sparked myths and theories over the past century: among them that they were descendants of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors, or the Roma, the Gypsies. Some have speculated on connections with the Lumbee Indians in Robeson County or the Lost Colonists of the Outer Banks. The traditional view is that they are of mixture of black, white and Native American origin.

For centuries, they remained almost invisible to the American mainstream. They live hidden away on inaccessible mountain ridges, and a racially segregated society wrote them off as a mixture of white, black and American Indian. Now, evidence is emerging which suggests that the Melungeons may have been among America’s very first settlers, arriving in Appalachia long before the Northern Europeans.

The name likely comes from the French “melange,” a slur most often used by suspicious white neighbors in the days of the Jim Crow South, when African-Americans and anyone with dark skin faced prejudice and segregation.

Researchers have theorized that Melungeons may have been a mixture of European, African and Native Americans. A DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy in 2012 found that the families historically called Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin.

In the segregated South, any trace of black blood mattered legally. Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act in 1924, the so-called “one drop” rule that would strip anyone of mixed race from white legal privileges. Melungeons through history were often shunned and pushed off to the edges of the economy.

The conventional wisdom, suggests that Appalachia was settled predominantly by English, Scots and Irish people. But to many, like a certain, Dr Brent Kennedy, that did not appear to be the whole story.

When he began to research his ancestry, Dr Kennedy found evidence that the first people to arrive in Appalachia, were not northern Europeans which includes people from the British Isles, but may have been Ottoman Turks. Portuguese settlers brought Turkish servants with them in the 16th Century.

Sir Francis Drake unloaded hundreds of other Turks after he liberated them from the Spanish in 1587. Blood typing has confirmed close similarities between present day Melungeons and people of the Mediterranean region.

What has now become known as the Kennedy theory is that these people pushed inland and settled down with American Indian women, to begin life as farmers. With his team of researchers, Dr Kennedy has found hundreds of words in local Indian dialects that have almost the same meaning in Turkish or Arabic. The Cherokee word for mother for example, is Ana Ta. In Turkish, the word for mother is also Ana-Ta.

Dr Kennedy says the word Melungeon is derived from the Arabic “Melun-Jinn” meaning one who has been abandoned by god – a cursed soul.

His theory is that when white settlers arrived in the region and saw that these dark skinned people had already taken the best land in the valleys, they pushed them out and into the high mountain ridges where Melungeons live to this day. The word Melungeon was considered a racial epithet, and the specter of the dark people of the mountains was used by Appalachian mothers to scare their children into good behavior.

In the segregated South, local bureaucrats described Melungeons as mongrels and half -breeds, and they were classified black and denied education or the right to vote. Others moved away in the hope of escaping the racism of the South. Those who stayed kept to themselves.

Melungeons have filtered into all aspects of American society. Researchers claim that Elvis Presley and Ava Gardner may both have had a Melungeon heritage.

Brent Kennedy has received death threats from those who feel he is slurring their name by denying their Scots-Irish heritage.

But for many younger Melungeons, the idea that they may be linked to some of the very first settlers in the new world 400 years ago, has given them a stronger sense of identity, in a country which has forced them to hide it for centuries.

Edited mostly from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/24/melungeon-mountaineers-mixed-race/29252839/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/384502.stm

The Greeks are known to have established colonies and carried out extensive trade on the Circassian coast of the Black Sea, and their influence is clear. The successive influence or outright control of the Romans, Khazars, Mongols, Crimean Tatars, Turks, and Russians was to follow.

In the great territorial wars that ensued between Russia, Persia, and Turkey, the Caucasus region was hotly contested. The Circassians carried out a notably fierce and protracted resistance to Russian domination. Frustrated by the sporadic rekindling of resistance in ostensibly pacified Circassian villages, Russia in 1860 embarked on a campaign to forcibly resettle Circassians eastward in the valley of the Kuban River. By 1864 the expulsion had largely been accomplished, but almost the entire Circassian population—some 400,000 people—instead emigrated to territories within the Ottoman Empire, with many thousands perishing of starvation and disease en route.

Of the two main groups of Circassians, the Adyghians (Circassians proper, or Lower Circassians), who numbered about 165,000 in the late 20th century, live mostly in the republics of Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia in Russia. The Kabardians (or Upper Circassians) number about 345,000 and live mostly in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia. Circassian communities also exist in Anatolian Turkey (150,000) and Syria (35,000), with smaller groups in Jordan, Iraq, and Iran.

Many Circassians live in the plain immediately to the north of the Caucasus, others live in the mountain piedmont, and a few live in the upland and mountainous regions. Their traditional economy is based on mixed pastoralism and farming, supplemented by fruit growing. In their traditional social organization, princes and nobles controlled the herds and soil. The mass of people were organized in a complex system of subordinate ranks. Slavery was maintained until recent times.

Adapted from Encyclopedia Brittanica Online

Prior to the 17th century, the Daur lived along the Shilka River in modern day northeast Russia as well as the Heilongjiang, Zeya, and Bureya Rivers. Today, that region is known, among other names, as Dauria.

In the mid-17th century, the Daur came under the control of the Manchu, a fellow northeast Asian people who had recently grown powerful and established the Qing dynasty.

Feeling pressure from the Manchu in the south and the expanding Russians in the north, the Daur migrated southward to the banks of the Nen River.

Culture

The Daur language is Mongolic in family.

For centuries, no major decision could be made without first consulting a shaman, who acted as an intermediary to the spiritual realm. Today, each Daur clan still maintains its own shaman.

Among the Daur those with the same surname belong to a group called a hala, which spreads itself out over two or three towns. Each town is populated by a single mokon, or clan, a subgroup of the hala. The husband moves to live with the clan of his wife.

Sport is highly valued in Daur communities, particularly field hockey and wrestling. The Daur have traditionally played a version of field hockey. The game was played with an apricot root for a puck and long wooden branches for sticks. Today, Western field hockey has been enthusiastically adopted by the Daur. In fact, a third of the 2008 Olympic men’s field hockey team came from Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner.

Adapted from: An Introduction to China’s Daur People (theculturetrip.com)

Please Help the most underprivileged children in Israel

Due to the unfortunate circumstances that many of our children come from, they require extra light and joy to compensate for the years of deprivation and suffering they have endured. Ohr Simcha was founded in 1971 and is among the nation’s most experienced institutions of this sort.

Recognized by Israel’s Ministry of Social Affairs as a therapeutic boarding school, it serves a diverse population of religious and ethnic backgrounds including Arab and African countries and as a meeting ground for children and youth from all over the country. They grew up in poverty, in single-parent families, with divorced parents, sick people, drug addicts and prisoners. Some of the children are orphans.

The children are helpless and need a warm home, security and support. We are considered to be one of the leading therapeutic campuses in Israel thanks to our special form of rehabilitation, attention and warmth, and do everything they can to provide the children a balanced education and strong socio-cultural values. Thanks to the devoted care, personal attention and assistance they receive in the school, children are able to develop, recover and move forward as productive members of society.

We combine learning and individual care in unique ways that enable each and every child to reach his fullest potential. The children are always productively occupied and are constantly learning and discovering. Yet at the same time they are given enough freedom and support to develop as individuals. At the boarding school, the children enjoy a warm and loving home, in a rural setting in tranquility with a lively community life.

Our dedicated, experienced and attentive staff, imbued with vision and a sense of mission, give children attention and warmth, doing everything in their power to have them advance academically as well as socially, culturally and morally. Thanks to the dedicated care, the personal attention and the help they receive at the boarding school, the children succeed in developing, rehabilitating and moving forward.

The professional staff includes about 100 people, including teachers, educators, professional therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, educational counselors, mothers, mentors, doctors, nurses, tutors, volunteers and private tutors. Our personal care program is built according to each child’s personal needs. It includes a variety of services and sports and leisure facilities such as clinics including a dental clinic, a pedagogical center, a gym, a kiosk, billiard rooms and tennis courts, computer rooms, libraries, a petting zoo, lawns etc. The school has a safe room for grades 1 to 9, which is recognized by the Ministry of Education. The school has therapeutic and special education classes. In addition, the school has art therapy, a speech therapist, auxiliary classes, and more.

Helping Our Students

The students of the boarding school, who grew up under intolerable conditions of poverty and acute distress, arrive as high risk minors with a significant lag especially in their studies and emotional development, behind their peers and without learning habits after having experienced many failures in educational institutions. Some during certain periods of their lives lived without any educational framework. In addition the circumstances of their lives caused most of them to develop learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders and severe emotional and mental problems. In addition, many of the students suffer from low self-esteem and severe emotional problems that impair their ability to function.

We invest as much as possible in our students in order to give them a real chance of a better life and to enable them to acquire skills for a normative life in the future. Running the boarding school and the various projects involves costs, which we can not cover without support. – We urge you to support our efforts to rehabilitate children at risk and integrate them into society.

Phone: 972-3-9606137 info@ohrsimcha.org

“Mishpachton” Family Home

The children of Ohr Simcha have either been forcibly removed from their homes by social services due to abuse or neglect or brought by parents and relatives who are not able to care for them. These children require psychological therapy and in some cases medical intervention.

In 2005, Ohr Simcha spearheaded a unique Family Foster Home (FFH) framework and has grown to a total of 72 children over the past six years.

Thirteen children who are most in need are selected to move from the boarding school framework to the Family Homes. Preference is also given to the youngest children and children who suffer from chronic diseases who require extra care and attention. The children live with a married couple, their foster parents and their biological children in a family-like setting with a warm and loving home who take care of them for intensive care and supervision and operating according to regulations set by the Ministry of Welfare, the Ministry of Educational.

The couple is carefully selected according to their educational and therapeutic experience as well as caring personality. They are responsible for caring for all of the children’s physical, emotional and social needs, for constructing an educational program, maintaining ongoing contact with the school, instilling discipline and values, and being available to listen and provide for any need that might arise with the children. In every dwelling area twelve children live in six bedrooms. We have six sections in the boarding school and we want to absorb additional children.

The children’s’ daily routine is constructed around the family as much as possible and within the home. They eat together as a family (and not in the boarding schools’ dining room), do laundry, receive separate therapy sessions, attend special events and go on trips as a family. Our various forms of therapy including: art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy, counseling and group therapy, are rigorously tailored to each child by our professional therapeutic staff.

In the mornings they attend the regular school framework and in the afternoons engage in our various enrichment activities such as computers, sports, carpentry, electronics, art, music, etc. They also receive homework assistance if necessary and emotional therapy. They are readily able to be checked up on by their foster parents but also are given their privacy. After the age of 14 the children transfer from the family home unit into a high school dormitory, also located on our campus. Under the care they receive at Ohr Simcha the children grow up to be productive loving people and parents and have served wonderfully in the military as well.

Bar Mitzvah

As part of our efforts, to fill the voids in the children’s’ lives that they came to us with we hold a bar mitzvah every year for 20 children. The Bar Mitzvah ceremony is very important and is a major milestone in the transition from childhood to adulthood. The parents of the children do not participate in the organization or funding of their children’s Bar Mitzvah celebrations.

The event includes a learning process, an aliyah to the Torah at the Western Wall and a big celebration, to which family members, friends and public figures are invited. We purchase suitable clothing, tefillin, tallit and gifts for each child. As part of the festivities, we also take the campers for tours around the country.

We need assistance through support or sponsorship to produce the Bar Mitzvah celebrations and cover the costs involved. The costs include studying for the ceremony, purchasing clothing and accessories (talit and tefillin) for each trainee, traveling to the Western Wall, organizing the ceremony (stage, refreshments, musical accompaniment, photography) and tours.

You may donate to our online campaign at this link here:

https://www.blupela.com/initiative.php?id=850/Ohr-Simcha-Children-s-Home

Mail and donations can be sent to:

In the US:
American Friends of Ohr Simcha
c/o Rabbi David Friedman
5640 Phillips Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
412 889-4447
Email: dfriedman5640@gmail.com

In Israel:

Ohr Simcha
P.O. Box 21
Kfar Chabad
60840
Israel
Email: info@ohrsimcha.org
Telephone: (+972) (0) 3 960 6257
Fax: (+972) (0**) 3 960 7313
טלפון: 03-9606137 info@ohrsimcha.org

Art and Music Therapy

One of the most effective ways of dealing with a wide range of difficulties our children have including behavioral and functional, difficulties is intensive therapy through art and music. It is an effective tool that help children with qualified and experienced therapists to rebuild their self-confidence.

Animal Therapy

In the animal corner built in the boarding school, the students enjoy animal therapy. The treatment is designed to develop and enhance emotional, social, behavioral and motor skills. In addition, it provides knowledge and familiarity with life processes and develops curiosity.

Therapeutic Riding

Through our riding lessons, students learn riding skills and horse control and improve abilities such as attention and concentration, spatial orientation, and gross and fine coordination. Being close to a living creature, accepting and loving the rider in a nonjudgmental and reserved manner, allows the formation of a bond that contributes greatly to the child’s mental and emotional health.

Therapeutic Sports

Students learn martial arts to strengthen values of discipline and achievement and experience group sports that foster social skills and cooperation. This activity gives the students an opportunity to experience success, and to channel this positive experience into the school framework as well.

Please Help US

It is very expensive to operate a boarding school for children with special needs. We call on you to support our efforts to rehabilitate children at risk and to integrate them into Israeli society. Your help is very much appreciated, and if you are ever in Israel, please come and visit us at any time. You don’t even have to make an appointment.

Other Ways You can Help

We understand that many people would like to help, but lack the financial means to do so. If you would like to help, please at least help us spread the word using Tormin.net.

Tormim.net helps us reach out to people. It uses 6 languages and 4 different social media websites. After you make a donation (even a small one), please use the “Share” feature to let your friends know about the work we do and that you support that work.

Thank you most sincerely for your help.

Dr. David Vaughan

Executive Director, Summerland Key Campus

Dave Vaughan is Executive Director of Mote’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration in Summerland Key, Florida. He is also the manager of the Coral Restoration program and manages the Protect Our Reef Grants program. Dr. Vaughan directed research and education programs previously at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and the Oceanic Institute.

From:

https://mote.org/staff/member/david-vaughan

About Mote

Marine Laboratory and Aquarium

We are scientists, explorers and stewards of the ocean. Driven by research, education and excitement we work to create a better environment for ourselves and our children. The answers are in the ocean. Together, we will find them.

We are an independent marine research institution comprised of world-class marine scientists committed to the belief that the conservation and sustainable use of our oceans begins with research and education.

From our humble beginnings in a tiny shed in a small Florida town, our efforts have expanded to include:
•Sarasota – 10.5-acre Base Campus and Aquarium
•Sarasota – Aquaculture Campus
•Key West – Field Station and Public Exhibit
•Summerland Key – Field Station
•Boca Grande – Outreach Office

Originally focused on sharks, our research has expanded to include studies of human cancer using marine models, the effects of man-made and natural toxins on humans and on the environment, the health of wild fisheries, developing sustainable and successful fish restocking techniques and food production technologies and the development of ocean technology to help us better understand the health of the environment.

Our research programs also focus on understanding the population dynamics of manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks and coral reefs and on conservation and restoration efforts related to these species and ecosystems.

The ocean is our passion. And science is our catalyst to help our oceans heal, thrive and continue to be havens of sustainable life, life-improving science and life-giving solutions.

www.mote.org

The Roma are an ethnic people who have migrated across Europe for a thousand years. The Roma culture has a rich oral tradition, with an emphasis on family. Often portrayed as exotic and strange, the Roma have faced discrimination and persecution for centuries.

Today, they are one of the largest ethnic minorities in Europe — about 12 million to 15 million people, according to UNICEF, with 70 percent of them living in Eastern Europe. About a million Roma live in the United States, according to Time.

Roma is the word that many Roma use to describe themselves. They are also known as Rom or Romany.

The Roma are also sometimes called Gypsies. However, some people consider that a derogatory term, a holdover from when it was thought these people came from Egypt. It is now thought that the Roma people migrated to Europe from India about 1,500 years ago.

They originated in northern India and by the second half of the 20th century they had spread to every inhabited continent.

Because of their migratory nature, their absence in official census returns, and their popular classification with other nomadic groups, estimates of the total world Roma population range from two million to five million. No significant statistical picture can be gained from the sporadic reporting in different countries. Most Roma were still in Europe in the early 21st century, especially in the Slavic-speaking lands of central Europe and the Balkans. Large numbers live in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, the Czech and Slovak republics, and Hungary.

All nomadic Roma migrate at least seasonally along patterned routes that ignore national boundaries. They also follow along a chain, as it were, of kin or tribal links. The Roma’s own supposed disposition to wander has been forcibly furthered by exile or deportation. Only 80 years after their first appearance in western Europe in the 15th century, they fell under the penalty of banishment in almost all the nations of western Europe. Despite their systematic exile, or transportation abroad, however, they continued to reappear in one guise or another back in the countries they had left.

All unsettled confederations who live among settled peoples seem to become convenient scapegoats. So it is with the Roma, who have regularly been accused by the local populace of many evils as a prelude to later official and legal persecution. Their relations with the authorities in the host country have been marked by consistent contradiction. Official decrees were often aimed at settling or assimilating them, yet local authorities systematically refused them the bare hospitality of a campsite. During the Holocaust the Nazis murdered an estimated 400,000 Roma. French laws in modern times forbade them campsites and subjected them to police supervision, yet they were taxed and drafted for military service like ordinary citizens. Spain and Wales are two countries often cited as examples where Roma have become settled, if not wholly assimilated. In modern times the socialist countries of eastern Europe attempted programs of enforced settlement to end Roma migration.

Traditionally the Roma have pursued occupations that allowed them to maintain an itinerant life on the perimeters of settled society. The men were livestock traders, animal trainers and exhibitors, tinkers (metalsmiths and utensil repairmen), and musicians; the women told fortunes, sold potions, begged, and worked as entertainers. Before the advent of veterinary medicine, many farmers looked to Roma livestock dealers for advice on herd health and husbandry.

The archetypal Roma family consists of a married couple, their unmarried children, and at least one married son, his wife, and their children. Upon marriage, a young couple typically lives with the husband’s parents while the young wife learns the ways of her husband’s group. Ideally, by the time an older son is ready to move away with his family, a younger son will have married and joined the household with his new wife. Although the practice had declined significantly by the late 20th century, marriages traditionally were arranged by the elders in the family or band (vitsa) to strengthen political and kinship ties to other families, bands, or, occasionally, confederations. A central feature of Roma marriages was the payment of a bride-price to the parents of the bride by the parents of the groom.

Gypsy chieftains (voivodes) are elected for life from among outstanding families of the group, and the office is not heritable. Their power and authority vary according to the size of the band, its traditions, and its relationships with other bands within a confederation.

It was the voivode who acted as treasurer for the whole band, decided the pattern of its migration, and became its spokesman to local municipal authorities. He governed through a council of elders that also consulted with the phuri dai, a senior woman in the band. The phuri dai’s influence was strong, particularly in regard to the fate of the women and children, and seemed to rest much on the evident earning power and organization of the women as a group within the band.

Strongest among Roma institutions of social control was the kris, connoting both the body of customary law and values of justice as well as the ritual and formation of the tribunal of the band. Basic to the Roma code were the all-embracing concepts of fidelity, cohesiveness, and reciprocity within the recognized political unit. The ultimate negative sanction of the kris tribunal, which dealt with all disputes and breaches of the code, was excommunication from the band. A sentence of ostracism, however, might exclude the individual from participation in certain band activities and punish him with menial tasks. In some cases rehabilitation was granted by the elders and followed by a feast of reconciliation.

Bands are made up of vitsas, which are name groups of extended families with common descent either patrilineal or matrilineal, as many as 200 strong.

Spiritual beliefs

The Roma do not follow a single faith; rather, they often adopt the predominant religion of the country where they are living, according to Open Society, and describe themselves as “many stars scattered in the sight of God.” Some Roma groups are Catholic, Muslim, Pentecostal, Protestant, Anglican or Baptist.

The Roma live by a complex set of rules that govern things such as cleanliness, purity, respect, honor and justice. These rules are referred to as what is “Rromano.” Rromano means to behave with dignity and respect as a Roma person, according to Open Society. “Rromanipé” is what the Roma refer to as their worldview.

Language

Though the groups of Roma are varied, they all do speak one language, called Rromanës. Rromanës has roots in Sanskritic languages, and is related to Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Bengali. Some Romani words have been borrowed by English speakers, including “pal” (brother) and “lollipop” (from lolo-phabai-cosh, red apple on a stick).

The Roma today

While there are still traveling bands, most use cars and RVs to move from place to place rather than the horses and wagons of the past.

Today, most Roma have settled into houses and apartments and are not readily distinguishable. Because of continued discrimination, many do not publicly acknowledge their roots and only reveal themselves to other Roma.

While there is not a physical country affiliated with the Romani people, the International Romani Union was officially established in 1977. In 2000, The 5th World Romany Congress in 2000 officially declared Romani a non-territorial nation.

During the Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015), 12 European countries made a commitment to eliminate discrimination against the Roma. The effort focused on education, employment, health and housing, as well as core issues of poverty, discrimination, and gender mainstreaming. However, according to the RSG, despite the initiative, Roma continue to face widespread discrimination.

According to a report by the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, “there is a shameful lack of implementation concerning the human rights of Roma … In many countries hate speech, harassment and violence against Roma are commonplace.”

Edited from the Encyclopedia Brittanica Roma article online as well as from https://amp.livescience.com/44512-gypsy-culture.html

The history of Zoroastrianism began with the Prophet Zarathushtra teaching what was called “the Good Religion,” to ancient Persia and Central Asia. His teachings taught obedience to one god; while he drew a small group of dedicated men and women, he also met with great resistance from local priests and princes. According to legend, Zarathushtra was invited to present his teachings before King Vishtasp, who became one of the first of many rulers in Central Asia to embrace this new and revolutionary faith. The religion continued to evolve into its present form from the belief in a supreme god representing what became the state religion of the Persians. Its present monotheistic and at least what some would call dualistic varieties all involve worship of one god, the good one who will triumph over the evil forces. This represents the dualism in all forms of the faith that goes back to its founder Zarathushtra.

Zoroastrianism gradually gained wider acceptance, becoming the religion of the Achaemenian Empire (550–330 BCE) founded by Cyrus the Great. The Achaemenians established the first “universal empire” across linguistic and cultural frontiers, practicing religious and ethnic tolerance for their subjects. The Achaemenians were defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, and the city of Persepolis, along with its library of religious texts, was destroyed by fire. After nearly a century of Greek rule under the Seleucids, the Parthians (256 BCE–226 CE) came to power and ruled in ancient Iran for many centuries. The Sassanian Empire (226–652 CE) succeeded that of the Parthians and during the next four hundred years, the Sassanian kings established Zoroastrianism as the state religion of Iran. This was the “golden age” of Zoroastrianism, with as many as thirty million people practicing the faith. The liturgy of the Avesta was collected into a cohesive unit, and new literature in the Pahlavi language flourished.

In 652 CE, the Sassanian Empire was defeated by Arab Muslims. The majority of Zoroastrians accepted Islam. Those who did not and were not fleeing the country fled to other areas within Iran. The Zoroastrian refugees developed their own language, Zoroastrian Dari, as well as a separate culture.

The Zoroastrians faced considerable adversity and religious persecution, which varied under different dynasties. Under the Umayyad dynasty, personal rights could be obtained with the payment of jizya, a special tax for non-Muslims, while during the Qajar dynasty, repression of the Zoroastrian religion took on cruel and violent forms. The life of Zoroastrians in Iran was often characterized by humiliation—with rules preventing them from riding on horseback, building places of worship, receiving an inheritance, or even from carrying umbrellas or wearing eyeglasses. With greater freedoms in the 20th century, Zoroastrians were able to establish themselves in business, industry, the educational field, and philanthropy. Many of today’s Iranians are Zoroastrians who pretend to be Muslims.

Taken and edited from:

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zoroastrians-in-iran-06
http://pluralism.org/religions/zoroastrianism/the-zoroastrian-tradition/zoroastrians-in-india-and-iran/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/beliefs/god.shtml
http://www.zoroastrian.org/other/faq.htm
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/19959

Warul Kawa (Deliverance Island), Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia.

There are an estimated 274 small islands in Torres Strait, which separates Australia’s Cape York Peninsula from Papua New Guinea.

The islands and their waters and reefs are home to many rare and unique species.

Torres Strait is named after a Spanish captain, Torres, who sailed through the strait in 1606 on his way to the Philippines. In the first half of the 19th century, trader ships regularly sailed up Australia’s east coast and through the Torres Strait on their way to ports in India and Asia.

In the 1850s western traders discovered the seas close to the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Straight were rich in the much-sought after sea animal bêche-de-mer (Sea cucumber).

By the 1870s, there was a rush on pearls in the waters around the islands and before long the Colonial Secretary in Britain decided to annex the profitable territory to the then colony of Queensland.

In the Torres Strait, families travel from island to island by small boats

The Torres Strait Islander peoples are of Melanesian descent, as are the people of Papua New Guinea, with whom they share similar cultural traits and customs. These islands can be divided into five cultural groups, which are represented by the white five-pointed star on the Torres Strait Islander flag: the Eastern (Meriam), Top Western (Guda Maluilgal), Near Western (Maluilgal), Central (Kulkalgal), and Inner Islands (Kaiwalagal). The flag’s green, black, and blue stripes represent land, people and sea.

Designed by the late Bernard Namok of Thursday Island, the flag symbolizes the unity and identity of Torres Strait Islanders.

Like the Aboriginal flag, the Torres Strait Islands flag is recognized as an official “Flag of Australia” under the Flags Act 1953.

The Torres Strait Islander peoples speak two distinct languages. The traditional language spoken in the Eastern Islands is Meriam Mir, and in the Western, Central, and Inner Islands the language spoken is Kala Lagaw Ya or Kala Kawa Ya, which are dialects of the same language. Since European colonization of Australia, the Torres Strait Creole (Kriol) language has developed as a mixture of Standard Australian English and traditional languages. The Torres Strait Islander peoples use Creole to communicate with each other and with non-islanders.

The spirituality and customs of the Torres Strait Islander peoples reflect their dependence on the natural world of their home islands and the surrounding waterways. Torres Strait Islander culture and spirituality are closely linked to the stars and the stories of Tagai, a great fisherman and spirit being who created the world in their traditional religion before Christianity was introduced to the islands by missionaries, created the world. Tagai is represented by a constellation of stars in the southern sky. Torres Strait Islander law, customs, and practices are shaped by the Tagai stories. The Torres Strait Islander peoples’ deep knowledge of the stars and sea provide them with valuable information regarding changes in the seasons, when to plant gardens and hunt for turtles or the manatee-like dugong, and how to circumnavigate the seas.

Article for the most part taken and edited from:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Torres-Strait-Islander-people

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34037235

HEALTHY PLANET – PLANETA SANO

HEALTHY PLANET, HEALTHY LIFE

PLANETA SANO, VIDA SANA

WHAT IS A HEALTHY PLANET?

¿QUÉ ES PLANETA SANO?

Planeta Sano is an association dedicated to the research, implementation, training and promotion of a healthy life through native organic food and the correct use of medicinal plants and renewable construction materials.

Planeta Sano es una asociación dedicada a la investigación, implementación, entrenamiento y promoción de una vida saludable a travez de alimentación orgánica nativa y el uso correcto de plantas medicinales y materiales de construcción renovables.

WAYS WE HELP

MANERAS EN LAS QUE AYUDAMOS

EDUCATION – EDUCACIÓN

We offer face-to-face and online courses with everything related to a healthier and friendlier lifestyle.

Ofrecemos cursos presenciales y online con todo lo relacionado a un estilo de vida más saludable y amigable con

INVESTIGATION – INVESTIGACIÓN

We always look for new ways to perfect or improve the activities we carry out

Buscamos siempre nuevas formas de perfeccionar o mejorar las actividades que llevamos a cabo

PRODUCTION – PRODUCCIÓN

We do what we preach. We strive to produce in a way that both ourselves and those around us are motivated to copy.

Hacemos lo que predicamos. Nos esforzamos por producir de una forma en que tanto nosotros como aquellos a nuestro alrededor se sientan motivados a copiar.

DEVELOPMENT – DESAROLLO

Are you interested in taking care of your health and that of the planet? We are happy to help you with whatever interests you, from building green focused facilities to planting in your home corridor.

¿Le interesa cuidar su salud y la del planeta? Entonces estamos felices de ayudarle con lo que le interese, desde construir facilidades con enfoque verde hasta plantar en el corredor de su casa.

“You are not always happy when you are good, but you are always good when you are happy.”

“Uno no siempre es feliz cuando es bueno, pero siempre es bueno cuando es feliz.”

Oscar Wilde

We have decades of experience working with national and foreign volunteers, so we are sure that Planeta Sano will be an experience that will not only enrich you, it will make you happy.

Tenemos décadas de experiencia trabajando con voluntarios nacionales y extranjeros por lo que estamos seguros que Planeta Sano será una experiencia que no solo te enriquecerá, te hará feliz.

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ARE YOU INTERESTED IN COMMUNICATING WITH US?

TE INTERESA COMUNICARTE CON NOSOTROS?

Quepos, Costa Rica

logistics@planetasano.org

+506 8701 5946

About Us

Nadia Salon, Inc. is located on Walnut Street in the heart of Shadyside. Our Staff of talented Stylists offer Custom Styling, Cutting and Coloring services to satisfy your individual needs. Our specialty services include Copolla Keratin Smoothing Treatments and Balayage Highlighting technique. Brow and Lip Waxing available. Manicure and pedicure services available.

Get the haircut you deserve.

Our trained stylists listen to you and
deliver only the most fashionable looks.

Nadia Salon,Inc. opened on December 24, 2008 and is owned and operated by Jeff Palmieri, Stylist and Salon Owner for 28 years. Jeff is a father of two beautiful children and chose to name this new business after his daughter, Nadia Palmieri.

OUR SERVICES

To ensure that we can fully accommodate your needs, we ask that all appointments be booked in advance. If you must cancel or reschedule, please do so within 24 hours of your original appointment or you will be charged a nominal fee. A missed appointment incurs the charge at full price. Prices for all salon and hair services vary depending on the staff member. All prices subject to change.

OUR PRODUCTS

We are exclusivly a Schwarzkopf salon using their Igora Royal, Igora Vibrance, Color10, Essensity, and BlondeME. We use their BC Bonacure hair care line and OSIS+ line creative styling products.

Gift certificates available.

Walk-ins welcome but appointments

recommended.

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Taj Weekes is a dreadlocked Rastafarian singer-songwriter who fronts a dynamic reggae band named Adowa. Raised in the Caribbean island of St. Lucia but shaped by intercontinental life experience, he is also an unwavering, energetic humanitarian, who founded his children’s charity, TOCO (They Often Cry Outreach). His efforts earned him the title UNICEF Champion for Children for St. Lucia where he implements and executes various programs designed to enrich the lives of Caribbean children.

So what makes Taj Weekes special can be summarized in three words: MUSICIAN, POET, HUMANITARIAN. What makes him astonishing is the easy and unforced harmony among all these facets of his existence.

Click here for more on Taj Weekes and his band

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