Category: Conferences & Symposia

ASWM Conferences, held biennially in even-numbered years, and symposia, held on occasion in odd-numbered years

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Wabanaki Women: “Ritual, Tradition and Feminine Intuition”

 

At our 2016 conference in Boston, we were honored to have three speakers from the Wabanaki Confederacy present this healing, thought-provoking panel.

“Ritual, Tradition and Feminine Intuition among the Wabanaki of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes” was a discussion by Patricia Saulis (Maliseet), Miigam’ agan  (Mi’ Kmaq), and Sherri Mitchell  (Penobscot). We are pleased to offer this video of that panel. Although most of our conference videos are offered in the member-only section of the website, we feel strongly that this presentation deserves a wide audience, and so we offer it to the public as well.

At the close of this presentation, the speakers honored us with a traditional song of thanks and friendship. At their request, that song has been deleted from this video. It was a special gift for our members who were present that day, and it was not given to be shared with a wider audience through recordings. We honor their request with gratitude for their offering.

In a time when everyone captures images and words so easily, please remember that some gifts are given for one occasion, for one moment only. It is especially important in witnessing Native American and Indigenous cultural events to ask permission before pulling out a phone to record events. Let us be good, respectful allies to one another; never record speakers or events without first receiving permission.

As you view this video, we invite you to consider the importance of the speakers’ messages and also the need to grow an authentic conversation with contemporary Native American and Indigenous women. Let us create opportunities to join together in as many settings as possible. And for those of us who wish to be good allies, let’s remember that we have much to learn in all such meetings.

To learn more about the speakers’ work for justice for people and the land, see the Land Peace Foundation and read Sherri Mitchell’s book Sacred Instructions.

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2018 Conference Presentations

We are pleased to include public links to papers and presentations that are published elsewhere on the web. Additional material will be posted to our Member-only  Resources page.

2018 Conference papers:

#1 Genevieve Vaughan on the Gift Economy:

“We are born into a Gift Economy practiced by those who mother us, enabling us to survive. The economy of exchange, quid pro quo, separates us from each other and makes us adversarial, while gift giving and receiving creates mutuality and trust.”

Beyond Capitalist Patriarchy: the Model of the Maternal Gift Economy

The two parts of this paper were presented on March 17, 2018, at the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology Conference in Las Vegas, and on the following day, March 18, at the associated Modern Matriarchal Studies Day.

The paper presented on March 17 was part of the panel “Motherhood, Resistance, and Matriarchal Politics,” with co-presenters Vicki Noble and Heide Goettner-Abendroth.

 Genevieve also presented an earlier version of this paper on March 12, 2018, to the Cambridge Realist Workshop, Clare College, Cambridge University, in Cambridge, England in a shared Session with Professor Rajani Kanth.

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Kathy Jones Receives 2018 Demeter Award

Kathy Jones Receives 2018 Demeter Award from ASWM Board

At the 2018 Conference, the ASWM Board of Directors was pleased to present the Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality to Kathy Jones, author, teacher, and creatrix of the Glastonbury Goddess Conference and the Goddess Temple of Glastonbury.  The award letter reads, in part,

“As a writer, healer, teacher, Priestess of Avalon, visionary, and scholar, we recognize the important roles that you have played in restoring the divine feminine to modern culture. Your tireless work for thirty-plus years, bringing the awareness of Goddess back to the U.K., Europe, the U.S., and the world, has provided not only important original scholarship but also the creation of a vital energetic container for explorations of Goddess archetypes and practices.

“Your considerable body of written work explores the mysteries of sacred land, mythology, and healing: Soul and Shadow: Birthing Motherworld, 2017; Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess, 2006; In the Nature of Avalon: Goddess Pilgrimages in Glastonbury’s Sacred Landscape, 2007; The Ancient British Goddess: Goddess Myths, Legends, Sacred Sites, Present Revelation, 2001; Chiron in Labys: An Introduction to Esoteric Soul Healing, 1997; Breast Cancer: Hanging on by a Red Thread, 1998; On Finding Treasure: Mystery Plays of the Goddess, 1999; Spinning the Wheel of Ana: a Spiritual Quest to Find the Primal British Ancestors, 1994; and The Goddess in Glastonbury, 1990.  

“We thank you for all of your work to restore Goddess Spirituality to a modern world much in need.”

In accepting the award, Kathy joins a select group of prior winners and foremothers: Margot Adler, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Charlene Spretnak, Elinor Gadon and Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum.

 

 

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These Books Available at Las Vegas Conference

On Saturday afternoon we will have a Marketplace with book signings available from 4 to 8 pm.  Many of our presenters will have books on hand to inspire you–such as:

 

Sherri L. Mitchell is the author of Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change.  She was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian Reservation, at Indian Island in Maine. A civil rights attorney, educator and advocate for women and children, Sherri is the Executive Director of the Land Peace Foundation, which provides assistance to Indigenous populations and groups. Sherri is also a published poet, scholar and philosopher.

Beverly Little Thunder is a Two-Spirit mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and lifelong activist. Beverly is also a published author of the memoir, One Bead at a Time and a chapter in Two Spirit People (1995).

Annie Finch is an award-winning poet, writer, speaker, performer, and witch. Her eighteen books include Eve, Calendars, A Poet’s Craft, Spells, and Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams, which received ASWM’s 2010 Sarasvati Award.

 

Named a “Wisdom Keeper of the Goddess Spirituality Movement” in 2013, Nancy Vedder-Shults, Ph.D, is the author of The World is Your Oracle: Divinatory Practices for Tapping Your Inner Wisdom (Fair Winds Press: 2017).

Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba’s 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).

       

And of course ASWM’s own Vibrant Voices:  Women, Myth and the Arts and Myths Shattered and Restored.

 

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Sherri L. Mitchell Keynote: “Women are the Water Bearers of the Universe”

Sherri L. Mitchell was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian Reservation, at Indian Island in Maine. A civil rights attorney, educator and advocate for women and children, Sherri serves as a legal analyst/advisor to Indigenous and Aboriginal groups across the United States and Canada. In 2009, Sherri’s work on nation-state complicity with Indigenous human rights violations won her the Maloney-Dunn International Human Rights and Humanitarian Award.  She has also received the Maine Governor’s Community Service Award (1996, 1997 and 1998) and the Spirit of Maine Award (2015).

Sherri is the Executive Director of the Land Peace Foundation, which provides legal assistance, dispute resolution and training programs to Indigenous populations and groups, in order to protect their human rights, homelands, sacred sites, resources and cultural way of life. The staff page reads,

We are accomplished advocates, negotiators and litigators who are committed to promoting a historically proven culture of sustainability that ensures the protection of the land, the people, environment and a way-of-life that is in harmony with the natural world. Through our work to protect indigenous lands, natural resources, sacred sites and fundamental human rights and freedoms we are ensuring the continuation of all life.

An alumni member of two prestigious American Indian Leadership Programs, Sherri is also a published poet, scholar and philosopher. She is most recently the author of Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change.