News

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.

María Veronica Iglesias: The Mesoamerican Goddesses: Ancient Archetypes supporting women who experienced violence of gender

This presentation aims to talk about ten Mesoamerican female deities, their symbolism and meaning as well as the way they were venerated in ancient Mexico and exploring a way in which the archetypes they represent support women who have experienced gender and sexual violence. This idea has been used in several workshops and the results have been positive; every woman who has participated in them has been renewed, with a different perception of her life and what could have happened to her.

This proposal also aims to re-evaluate indigenous knowledge and spirituality, specifically the Nahua tradition. This work represents also an alternative for many women who have ancestors of Mexican indigenous blood and who now live in the United States, it is an option to reconnect with their spirituality and ancient healing forms, which is a mechanism of female empowerment that embraces practices and the traditional knowledge of their native cultures. No doubt these ancient deities have many gifts for women today as they represent different facets of women’s lives within the patriarchal system and can help us live in harmony and heal the wounds of the soul and the feminine energy.

María Veronica Iglesias was born in Mexico City, has a Master’s Degree in Mesoamerican Studies. She was initiated in the sacred knowledge of Mesoamerican shamanism and became a bearer of the Sacred Word. A Priestess of Ix´Cheel, the Mayan Goddess of Medicine, Veronica researches Pre-Hispanic medicine, rites of passage and Goddesses from Mesoamerica.

Ritual on Climate Change and Earth Abuse

This interactive ritual, suitable for either a workshop or presentation, will create a sacred space in which participants may access, express, and transform our fear, rage, grief, and mourning over the patriarchal abuse of Mother Earth. We will create a circle of Goddesses of Earth — Asase Yaa, Corn Maiden, Danu, Demeter, Gaia, Mago, Ostara, and Pacha Mama — to witness and contain catharsis and transformation. we will focus on accessing and expressing our suppressed emotions about earth abuse.  In the final part of the ritual, we will raise further energy and the group will create and participate in a performative catharsis of chanting and circling.  The ritual will close with an opportunity for participants to write and/or chant an intention and resolution for collective and/or individual action to move forward in support of Earth and her healing.

Annie Finch is a 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. A graduate of Yale with a Stanford Ph.D, Annie currently teaches for the low-residency M.F.A. program in creative writing at St. Francis College and offers inspirational talks, rituals, and workshops on language and spirit.