2023 Journal and Program

Reclaiming Rituals: Honoring Ancestors, Impacting Communities

Indigenizing Mental Health & Wellness in the Global Diaspora

(Program subject to change)

Time (EST)

Activity

12:30pm

LUNCH

Sign On to the 2023 Ancestral Institute

9:45am

Call to Order

10:00am

10:30am

11:15am

Rituals, Rites and the Urbanization of Psychology presented by Yaseen Ally, Ph.D. (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa)

1st Breakout Session [B1]

  • B1-A Spiritual herbalism, the ways in which herbs are used for healing; community discussions on storytelling - Karen Rose (Sacred Vibes Apothecary)

  • B1-B Cultivating Wellness through Ancestral Recognition: The Intergenerational Stories we tell ourselves and how to identify yourself in them! - Iya Fasewa (Faswea Wellness, LLC)

  • B1-C Understanding Rites of Passage for Boys and Girls (Shinnecock Indian Nation)

Tiresias an excerpt from Sophocles’ 2500-year-old play “Oedipus Rex” - presented and performed by Theater of War Productions, with actors: Ato Blankson-Wood and NYC Public Advocate, Jumaane Williams.

Reconvene/Welcome

We Been Here From The Beginning: Recovering Ab-Original Psychoanalysis, and Indigenous Healing - presented by Daniel Gaztambide, Ph.D. (Queens College, CUNY, NYC)

2nd Breakout Session [B2]

  • B2-A “Knowing My Story” - How to elicit/gather stories and how to preserve them? - Chief Fasanmi (Creative Healing Arts), and Dr. Yaa Elombe (Black Women’s Blueprint)

  • B2-B Sensual Awareness: Exploration into my Human Sensuality - presented by Kali

  • B2-C Indigenous Herbs and Medicines (Shinnecock Indian Nation)

  • B2-D Birth and Postpartum Doulas - Simone Colbert and Ashlee Lyte

1:00pm

1:45pm

1:45pm

2:30pm

Next Year - (amplifying conversations, networking/organizations to connect, resources, tools?) - welcoming suggestions for AI-24 - building planning team, planning, location, topics/subject areas

3:45pm

Closing - Ancestral Invocation - Chief Baba Fasanmi

4:00pm

Kindred Spirits

This beautiful sculpture was built by the Irish people in Ireland to honor the American Choctaw Indian tribe, to express their gratitude for the Choctaw People , who in 1847 sent money to Ireland when they learned that Irish people were starving due to the potato famine. The Choctaw themselves were living in hardship and poverty, having recently endured the Trail of Tears.

Kindred Spirits is a large stainless steel outdoor sculpture in Bailick Park in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland. The shape of the feathers is intended to represent a bowl of food.