Category: News & Articles

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

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Tona Ina: Literary Creation of a Matriarchal Archetype to Tell Narratives about Feminist Paradigm Shift

This presentation is about my experience of creating a literary character, Tona Ina (Sea Light in Yorba) as an archetypal character to tell the untold stories of the Ocean, its fresh waterways and the sacredness of women. . I created a character who would tell the stories of our communal archeological scuba diving, which is contributing to the recovery of the untold history of the afro-descendant population on the coast of Costa Rica.  Tona Ina features literary stores in diverse voices about present day challenges that affirm women’s tenacity.

Sharing voices about alternative ways of being in the planet through storytelling by Tona Ina is best done when we dive deep into women’s alternative experience to overcome  mainstream paradigms of patriarchy and capitalism. Tona Ina is the extension of the gift of voice and choice in today’s world, as part of the maternal gift economy and an ecofeminist paradigm of symbiotic interaction of the human species as part of nature.

María Suárez Toro is a PHD in Pedagogical Mediation of Holistic Paradigms, currently, a community underwater archelogy graduate, a feminist journalist, an activist in defense of human rights, an educator, a fisherwoman and scuba diver and writer. She was born in Puerto Rico and has been a resident of San José, Costa Rica for close to 50 years.

She is currently coordinator of a youth community diving Center Ambassadors of the Sea in Costa Rica’s Southern Caribbean. She was a co-director of the Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE) from 1991 to 2011, of which she is a co-founder. She worked as an educator in literacy in many countries in Central America during the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1998 – 2017 she was an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Denver.

 

“Nipiih and the sacred mekinawewin (Water and the sacred act of giving)”

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Since time immemorial, as with our ancestors, we have come to know that Water is alive, and she is a living Being responsive to the nurturing of all else living upon and within Earth Mother. Our bond with her is reflected in ceremonies, rituals, honourings, teachings and healings; and these bonds are found in the narratives we tell one another.

Here four Indigenous women share their stories of sacred relationships with Water. In the telling of our histories, we’ve embodied our ancestral teachings and gained an understanding of who we are as Mi’kmaq, Basque and Michif women. As we reveal the nurturing life force of place, through Water’s connectivity and the notion of healing, we hold the hope for the protection of those yet to come. In these stories, we honour the sacred Water of our collective and intertwined nations, and women everywhere who protect Sacred Water.

Miigam’agan shares her relationship with Apaqtu’g—the ocean water where the sun rises—and where the ceremonies that signify healing and vitality within Water are held among those of the Wabanaki nation.

Natasha Simon shares her notion of Plujug’jqamati through the eyes of her Mi’kmaq ancestors, and the stories left to her through her grandmother’s lifework.

Idoia Arana-Beobide describes Basque teachings embodying Water that are found at the sacred mountain of Amboto, where the spirit force of goddess MARI and the Christian “Lady of the Remedies” (who are one and the same) resides.

Margaret Kress-White presents kisiskâciwanisîpiy (fast flowing river) of Treaty Six as the traditional gathering place for many Indigenous peoples. Here Water or Nipiih is intricate to all that is living – and to the healing medicines found along the river bank.

 

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

Registration Links and Conference information here

Lisa Levart is an award winning visual artist/photographer whose interests lie at the intersection between fine arts and social engagement. Her subjects are women and how our stories connect us to one another. Lisa’s work blends several mediums, including collage, film, multi media, dance and photography. Her process is collaborative, making space for personal agency, and the radical act of declaring, “See me.” Lisa’s Goddess on Earth ORACLE, with portraits of real women portraying the Divine Feminine, won a 2022 Nautical Book Award (Books for a Better World).

WORKSHOP: Ignite Your Intuition and Step Into the Rivers of Creativity with ORACLE CARDS   You don’t have to be steeped in the magical world of tarot and oracle cards to use them to gain personal insight or build community. This workshop will be an introduction on using Oracle cards to help readers get out of their comfort zone and allow hidden connections to flower. We will explore the language of images and symbols, the power of stories and stimulate one’s intuition to gain new perspectives on each readers personal journey. After learning the basic elements of the Goddess on Earth ORACLE deck, we will jump into individual readings…with each other as partners. Even perfect strangers and novice readers will find themselves opening up to new ways of communicating. Interacting with the divination cards and learning to trust your intuitive response is a vibrant exercise that will deepen your personal knowledge and strengthen your connection with others.

See also Lisa’s conference presentation, with Myles Aronowitz and Grandmother Clara Soaring Hawk, “The Creation of Women of the Ramapough Lenape Nation.” 

 

 

 

ASWM Conference May 5-6, Syracuse NY

Registration Links and Conference information here

Annie Finch is an award-winning American poet, writer, translator, speaker, teacher, and performer.  She is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Spells: New and Selected Poems. Her other works include influential essays, books, and anthologies on poetics, feminism, and women’s earth-based spirituality. She is widely recognized for her mesmerizing poetry performances and mastery of poetic craft. Her poetry has appeared in the New York Times, Poetry Magazine, Paris Review, and the Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, and has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Malayalam, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

WORKSHOP: “Writing the Rhythm of Water”  This workshop invites you into the rolling cadences of the meter of water, the oldest known rhythmical language pattern in English. Entering water’s compassionate channel of words, we will tap into lost parts of ourselves with techniques that have opened a useful path of self-exploration for yogis, artists, healers, and seekers of many traditions as well as writers and poets.  Bridging thought and intuition, body and spirit, and the two hemispheres of the brain, the magical Goddess-gift of rhythmical language is a human birthright and a fundamental tool of traditional cultures. Reclaim your own access to this enchanting tool, moving your voice into an ancient healing flow of the world’s heart.  No previous experience with rhythmical writing is necessary. Please bring at least nine sheets of paper at least 8 1/2 inches wide, writing utensils including pencil and eraser, a journal or other place for contemplative writing, and an open heart.

Panel Presentation: “Opening Hearts with the Meter of Water”  Of all the poetic meters in English, the rolling, flowing dactylic rhythm is most closely associated with the qualities of water. Brought down to us from the days of maricultural societies through ancient epic poems with roots in oral poetic tradition, the dactylic rhythm can open our hearts to compassion and healing. Research shows that reading aloud dactylic poems speeds healing from a heart attack. Even in daily life, people tend to speak from their hearts in dactylic meter. This paper will introduce this fascinating rhythm and trace its role in ancient and modern poetry and ceremonial language and discuss the roots of its identity as the quintessential anti-patriarchal meter in English.