"Before We Were White" - ceremony and ancestral recovery for anti-racist action

Online Workshop Series presented by White Awake

Facilitators: Eleanor Hancock and Darcy Ottey

**Registration has now closed, though we do hope to offer the series again. To be notified of this, and other White Awake offerings, you can sign up for our mailing list here.**

• Four sessions: Jan 28, Feb 4, Feb 11, and Feb 18, 2018

• Each session: 5-7pm ET / 2-4pm PT

• $75 for whole series

• No one is turned away for lack of funds.

• Live sessions will be held as video conferences via Zoom

• Sessions will be recorded and shared with participants

• Questions, or to request a scholarship, write us at: info@whiteawake.org

“Your culture is your medicine.”- Jeff Duncan-Andrade, La Cultura Cura

"Before We Were White" is an online workshop series for white-identified people seeking greater emotional resilience in their work against racism and for a sustainable future. Together we will explore how ceremonial practice and ancestral identity help us challenge white supremacy as whole people.

Each of us belongs to a collective body of people with a story (or stories) that reach before us and after us in time. Before we were ever classified as “white”, our ancestors were distinct peoples with their own unique culture - their own unique “medicine” (to quote Dr. Duncan-Andrade). What happened to us? And what have our ancestors done? What can we do, now, to stop the trauma from continuing, repair the harm, and build a better future?

Together we will address these questions, and build our resilience, by connecting with ancestral stories across these four thresholds of remembrance: ancestors who lived as indigenous people, with deep ties to land and place; ancestors who experienced domination and destruction of traditional ways of life; ancestors who participated in violence and subjugation of other people's (directly or indirectly); and ancestors who resisted all along the way.

Through this interactive workshop series, facilitators Darcy Ottey (Co-Founder, Youth Passageways) and Eleanor Hancock (Director, White Awake) will help you:

• Establish a baseline of understanding of what whiteness is, why it was formed, and how it is impacting our society today

• Explore techniques to support the recovery of the Original Instructions our oldest, indigenous ancestors received; mourn and repair the damage that has been done to us and by us; and open ourselves to further instructions for our work at this moment in history

• Develop skills for ceremony and ritual that are vital aspects of healing and resilience

• Understand cultural appropriation and learn tools for healthy, cross-cultural exchange

• Bring all of these learnings out into your life, and draw upon them in your work for racial justice and collective liberation

Photo credit: Steve Corey