Today is a dull, gray, midwinter day, unseasonably warm in keeping with the last two years. A group of us friends has been meeting to sort out the election and its aftermath. For several members of the group, this is their first taste of colonialism at work, and the group is wrestling with the interweaving … Continue reading On Colonialism, Race, Identity, and Money
My mom identified as settler while my dad identified as Native. It seemed that mom had room in her sense of identity for only one part of her heritage. Dad took a more nuanced view of things, making room for his European ancestors while primarily understanding himself as Native. Because of this, there was, in … Continue reading Binaries and the Shaman’s Dreaming
As psychotherapists, shamans, and traditional healers we are asked to aid patients to recall and recollect aspects of themselves, including connections to their ancestors, that have been lost to Trauma. To ignore the politics of Identity is to risk further injuring those who turn to us for aid.
Last night I saw Paul Zaloom's "White Like Me" at the Flynn Center. Humor and pathos ruled the evening's show about white privilege and racism. As the evening progressed we discovered, together, that often things are not exactly as they seem.
