Reclaiming Rituals: Honoring Ancestors, Impacting Communities

Indigenizing Mental Health & Wellness in the Global Diaspora

 
 

Oct 6, 2022 - DRAFT Program

Reid Castle, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY

  • Speakers/Presentations: noon to 5:30pm

    • History of Ancestral and Indigenous Healing

    • Ancestral and Indigenous Healing Rites and Rituals - presented by Baba Ifasanmi Obaniyi Fayemi, MFA

    • Mental Health in Black, Indigenous and People of Color Communities - presented by Melany Rivera Maldonado, Ph.D., and Amanda Garcia Torres, Ph.D.; New School of Social Research, NYC

    • Mental Illness from An African Perspective: A Call for an Urgent Fully Formal Integrative Approach to Mental Health Care - presented by Daniel Lesiba Letsoalo, MA Clin Psych, PhD; Tsabedze Wandile Fundo, MA, PhD; and Curwyn Mapaling, MSc; North West University, South Africa

  • “We See Ourselves” - an exhibition of African art - curated by the Black Women’s Blueprint

  • “Doing It Our Way” - Outdoor Fire Ceremony - curated by Cocorite House

    7:00pm to 9:00pm (indoor, weather alternative)

 

This inaugural Ancestral Institute is intended to be a forum in which participants will draw on their respective cultures, bring and share their ancestral/traditional healing practices, and examine how together with contemporary mental health psychological constructs/paradigms work toward achieving a “whole person” type of treatment for Black and peoples of color; and which will work on crafting a curriculum for inclusion in training modules and therapeutic practices, especially for Indigenous, Black and people of color practitioners.