Category: 2018 Conference

Activism into Art into Activism into Art

 

I will discuss my new (fourth) book ACTIVISM INTO ART INTO ACTIVISM INTO ART with a foreword by Gloria Steinem.  I wrote this book to preserve and share the feminist history that shaped where we stand today and which was crucial to my development as an artist and writer.  My goal in this book was to present my experiences, which were part of the feminist movement of the 1960s through the 1980s, and the art they inspired me to create.  I became a feminist at a pivotal time in history – the 70s and the 80s – and was motivated by what I saw and experienced to create a body of work inspired by these events.

Cristina Biaggi, artist, activist and scholar, has achieved international recognition as a sculptor of bronze and wood and a creator of large outdoor installations and collages in two and three dimensions. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. She is a respected authority on the Great Goddess, Neolithic and Paleolithic prehistory, and the origin and effect of patriarchy on contemporary life. Her works include Habitations of the Great Goddess, In the Footsteps of the Goddess, and The Rule of Mars. Her most recent book, Activism into Art. . ., with a foreword by Gloria Steinem, is about how the global feminist movement of the 1960s through the 1980s motivated her activism, which in turn inspired her artwork. cristinabiaggi.com

Mysteries of the Sacred Pond and Its Lizard Guardian: Tribute to Alice Kaehukai Shaw, Memory-keeper of Moku`ula and the Kihawahine

Moku`ula, the “Red Island” (referring to menses and genealogy), is one of the most sacred sites in Hawai`i. Moku`ula was the seat of ancient Hawai`ian royalty and home to the Kihawahine, a woman sanctified as the spirit of conception and embodied as a Lizard-guardian of fresh waters. Little is left of the ways that kept the waters pure and ceremonies of Moku`ula vibrant. What did survive colonization and missionization is due to a line of cultural practitioners who gave their lives to protect and maintain the ancient ways. Alice Kaehukai Shaw (1867- 1956) was the last of this line. Dr. Apela Colorado joined efforts with her husband Keola, Moku`ula sacred site guardian, to research and recover the narrative of Alice’s life. Inextricably linked to the greater story of the guardian-spirit she served, and through the individuals and communities revitalized by these stories, Alice continues her work of bringing life through the waters.

Apela Colorado (Oneida-Gaul) is the Founding Director of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network, a cultural nonprofit created in 1989 for the revitalization, growth and worldwide exchange of traditional knowledge. Apela also created the Indigenous Mind Program, the first advanced degree program based on Indigenous Science. She suports Indigenous healers in their work for their communities and advocates for protection of key apex species integral to the cultural survival of Indigenous peoples around the world.

Frances Santiago (Tagalog-Ilonggo-Ilokano), MA in Indigenous Mind and PhD candidate in Women’s Spirituality, is a poet, dance ritualist and scholar born and raised in the Philippines. She volunteers at the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network as a writer and editor. She also volunteers at the Center for Babaylan Studies where she is involved in the Filipino and Filipino-American decolonization and reindigenization movement. Frances’ current research focuses on the ancestral remembrance process of women from different cultural lineages.

Snake Women: a global perspective

This is a visual presentation on goddesses, ancestors, shapeshifters, priestesses and shamans around the world, with the focus on snake iconography. Among the sources we’ll examine are rock art from Australia, Brazil, Utah, and South Africa; seals from eastern Iran, Canaanite gold, Egyptian stelae, Aztec statues, and masks from Nigeria to Ivory coast. We’ll look at the continent-spanning theme of the woman who grasps serpents in both hands, and also she who is belted with snakes, and discuss the python oracles of Greece, Malawi, and Surinam.  We’ll also view snake goddesses from Egypt, Mexico, Germany, China, India, Benin Republic; and snaky women from Mali’s Inland Delta of the Niger, Argentinian bronzes, Frankish ivories and Romanesque churches. It’s a free-for-all of fairies and saints, Chinese shamans, Mami Wata and Santa Marta la Dominicana.

Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research global women’s history and heritages. From her vast collection of images, Dashu has created over 100 visual talks. Her books are Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion (2016) and Deasophy: A Coloring Book of Goddesses, Spirits and Ancestors (2017). She has produced two videos: Woman Shaman: The Ancients (2013) and Women’s Power in Global Perspective (2008).  www.suppressedhistories.net

 

Tepeyollotl: the Mountainheart. Mesoamerican Myths of the Jaguar and the Mind of Humankind

This paper is a depth-psychological analysis of the mythology and symbolism of the Jaguar and the cloud-forest. Especially, I explore how the Mesoamerican way to dialogue with its unconscious through mythologies and rituals brought a profound sense of the sacred, which was expressed through the glorification of the jaguar and of natural sacred landscapes. The cloud-forest and the jaguar symbol have a prominent place of the in the different Indigenous cultures of the pre-Columbian world.  The importance of these traditions is preserved in contemporary Indigenous groups in Mexico and Guatemala. I examine the impact that climate change and the unsustainable practices of human consumption have on indigenous populations, the ecosystem and the natural species.  I conclude by suggesting solutions that promote a holistic relationship with the environment.

Yuria Celidwen is a native of Chiapas (Mexico). She is a Ph.D. candidate in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, and a graduate from the Contemplative Sciences, Contemplative Psychotherapy, and Yoga and Psychology Programs from the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Sciences. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges reason with emotion, and scientific inquiry with contemplative practices. Her research focuses on mystical traditions, the experience of the numinous, and compassion and ethics for social and environmental justice.   She chairs the Psychology, Culture and Religion section of the American Academy of Religion—Western Region, and is a humanitarian affairs officer for the United Nations in New York.

We are pleased to announce that Yuria is a winner of our Presentation Outreach Grant Award for 2018.

Traditional Designs and Contemporary World Patterns: Connections with Prehistoric Images of the Human and the Animal Feminine

In this presentation I examine how feminine images and symbols that blend the human and the animal divine have dominated the visual language of artistic representations, as they developed in Eurasia, the Near East, and the Americas. In particular I focus on embroideries, paper cutouts, hand-woven laces, painted Easter eggs, wood, metal, and leather carvings, as well as on abstract symbols on ritual cloths, folk costumes, and kilims. I pay special attention to the prominent place two female elks/deer, considered the mothers of humanity, as well as the frog, play in these designs.

Since her childhood, Dr. Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba has lived and studied in many countries and continents, and is fluent in seven languages. Different cultures and languages became the subject of her research and her passion. Her cross-cultural, women-centered interests are reflected in her two recent books, The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe: Tradition and Transformation (UNMP) and Fierce Feminine Divinities of Eurasia and Latin America: Baba Yaga, Kali, Pombagira, and Santa Muerte  (Palgrave), as well as in her numerous presentations and articles around the world.  She is Professor of Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.