"As We Drum, We Are One" is a theme the All One Tribe Foundation in New Mexico began to share three years ago with their vision of a global drumming event to celebrate the new millennium. For thousands of years, the drum has been the very heartbeat of community for the world's indigenous peoples. It has been used for rites of passage and ceremony, for celebrations of the seasons and cycles of life. At the turn of the new millennium, we are just beginning to remember and rediscover the healing power of the drum. The spirit and magic of the drum's universal vibrational language cuts through all ages, sexes, races, religions and cultures to bring the message of unity and oneness.

Anchorage 2000 New Year's Eve Celebration has caught the wave of the power of group drumming and is planning a drumming celebration to which everyone is invited! Anchorage 2000 plans to bring together the entire multi-cultural community of Anchorage to celebrate our unity and diversity through a year- long series of community events. The New Year's Eve event of "Drumming in the New Millennium" will celebrate drums and percussion from around the world. As Alaska is in the last time zone in the U.S. to turn the millennium, you are invited to join in this ecstatic celebration of world beat.

Anchorage 2000 has invited Alaska's Whirling Rainbow Center to share the Mother Drum at the New Year's Eve drumming celebration. Over the last five years, the Whirling Rainbow Center has held a dream of building a large drum that would travel around the world with a message of unity, peace and life. The Mother Drum Project is part of a vision of healing for all the children of Mother Earth for the next millennium.

The drum will belong to all the children of the earth and will bring the universal vibrational message of oneness with the theme: The Heartbeat of One Family, One Earth.

The Mother Drum will be the first universal drum of its kind. This large, eight-foot diameter, wooden, kettle-shaped drum, will be designed from the Mapuchas tribe from Patagonia in South America and Alaska Native peoples of North America. Since the Mother Drum is for all of Mother Earth's children, all native and non-native cultures in Alaska are invited to help with its making and first official use. The Anchorage Museum of History and Art has donated space so that the public can watch the birthing of the Mother Drum unfold. The Mother Drum building project is scheduled for September through December of 1999. The museum is also scheduling group drumming circles and drum making events to get us ready for the big night.

The Mother Drum will be initiated at a dawn dedication ceremony on Dec 31, 1999, at the Alaska Performing Arts Center in Anchorage. Later that evening, the Mother Drum will be broadcast worldwide as part of the Anchorage 2000 Night of Light, Drumming in the New Millennium celebration. Drums of all cultures will be invited and school children from all cultures will participate by making smaller "baby" drums. We will be asking children throughout Alaska to send us their poems, prayers and intentions for the next millennium. These will be hung as Rainbow Dream Flags from the Mother Drum and travel with her worldwide.

Anchorage 2000 expects as many as 20,000 people drumming at the New Year's Eve celebration. The celebration of our entrance into the new millennium will be guided by the heartbeat of the Mother Drum. From here, the Mother Drum will begin her worldwide travels. Many prophecies about the healing that might begin on Earth at the turn of the millennium referred to it as "beginning in the north and creating a healing wind around the world." The Whirling Rainbow Center feels that the Mother Drum Project is part of the fulfillment of this prophecy.

The Whirling Rainbow Center is recruiting craftspeople from the community to assist us in designing and making the Mother Drum. Specifically, we are looking for the following:

• Carvers, woodworkers, drum makers (or boat builders) and artists to give expertise on the design and making of both the drum base and drum stand.
• Skin Sewers to sew hides for the top of the drum.
• Hides to cover eight foot in diameter.
• Wood (Alaska Yellow Cedar) for drum base and stand.
• Seamstresses and sewing material for making the Rainbow Dream Flags.
• Funds and Sponsors to pay for supplies and artists.
• Video Production of the Mother Drum Project.
• Drummers, including women, men, and children from every culture to participate in the first playing of the Mother Drum on December 31, 1999.

For more information on the Anchorage 2000 events, contact the organizing committee at 907-258-AK2K or check out their website at www.anchorage2000.com

To get involved in the Mother Drum Project, contact The Whirling Rainbow Center at 907-688-2226 or email us at akwow@alaska.net. Come and celebrate with us the Heartbeat of One Family, One Earth for the new millennium!