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This powerful mother-daughter team presents on human rights and social justice.  Listening to her own ancestors and following her visions in spite of opposition, Beverly Little Thunder holds ceremonial space in Vermont. She teaches and counsels those who hold their own visions and is especially active in supporting the next generations while they move into their places of leadership. Presenting with her daughter Lushanya she aims to inspire hope, courage, and confidence in those who will one day be our leadership. Her recent memoir, One Bead at a Time,  will be available for sale at the conference.

Beverly Little Thunder & Lushanya Echeverria, “Womyn’s Sundance: Two Spirit Indigenous Ceremonial Community”

‘We are all related’ is the belief that Lakota people live by. Womyn are the bearers of that life. Before documented history the Wimmin were the ones to decide how the tribe functioned. Today it is still the role Wimmin are playing, but now patriarchal social systems create opposition to those roles by not only men but by many females also. Our best shot at stopping that mindset is through teaching our daughters that we are not the weaker of the species. This presentation emphasizes the strengths of wimmen in fighting for social justice for all.

Lushanya Echeverria, “Recognizing Intergenerational Trauma from American Indian Boarding Schools”

The trauma from emotional and physical abuse inflicted on Baby Boomers, attending American Indian Boarding Schools, has a huge impact on Millennials as their parents process trust issues and negative perceptions of educational institutions passed down from relatives. 

Beverly Little Thunder is a Two-Spirit mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and lifelong activist. She was involved in the American Indian Movement at its inception, is a founding member of the Two-Spirit Gathering movement, and continues to fight for human rights and racial and social justice. As an enrolled tribal member, Beverly was on the front lines Standing Rock’s “Mni Wiconi” Water Protector Movement, and Kunsi Keya became the fiscal sponsor of Two Spirit Nation during that time. Beverly is also a published author of the memoir, One Bead at a Time and a chapter in Two Spirit People (1995). Beverly has also shared her wisdom in presentations at Modern Matriarchal Studies Day (2016) and at women’s gatherings across the country.

Lushanya Echeverria, Master of Art in Education,  is a professional educator specializing in Emotional Wellness and Behavior Modification in inner-city Phoenix.  Drawing from her upbringing within her Lakota Sioux heritage, Lushanya works with Native American students and families to build connections between traditional home practices and public education through community circles, parenting classes, curriculum, truancy intervention and Conflict Mediation. Spiritual Leader of the Lakota Women’s Sundance (as trained and guided by her mother), Lushanya shares traditional teachings of her people to help women, men, and children have a sense of connection between themselves and Mother Earth.  Lushanya is a trained ShadowWork facilitator, Conflict Mediation trainer, and enjoys spending her free time singing with her local Women’s Choir and time with her 18 nieces and nephews.

ASWM is thrilled to announce an exciting new addition to its 2018 conference program.

Friday March 16, 5:30-7pm – Goddess Banquet: Priestess Prayers to Shechinah

Join two Hebrew Priestesses – Judith Maeryam Wouk and Sarah Chandler– for a vegetarian dinner to celebrate the opening of the Jewish sabbath with poetry, prayer, and song. The language plays with gender of God/Goddess both in Hebrew and English. It also includes some earth-based imagery. Participants will have the option to interact with natural objects on a small altar at the center of our table/altar, as well as the option for contemplative time.

All are welcome. We are requesting that you RSVP and pay in advance, as the meal will be catered and we need a head count by March 9th. This is an OPTIONAL event, and not included in your conference registration fee. The cost will be $45 and include a vegetarian meal with wine or grape juice along with ritual supplies.

RSVP by March 9th to Judith (see below)and please pay in advance on ASWM’s donation page. Select donation type “other” and write shabbat in the “other”field so we can code properly. 

For more information and to RSVP, contact Judith Maeryam at aswm.ft9z@ncf.ca. 

The ASWM Events Team

Toypurina: Woman Warrior (film in progress)

Native American Toypurina, from the Kizh Tribe is the first and only Native woman to lead a revolt in the history of California and America. The Kizh are the original, peaceful people of the Los Angeles basin plus the Sacred Sea of Kizh (including Catalina, San Nicholas Island, etc). The tribe is also known as the Gabrielenos. They were living in a Golden Age until the Spanish arrived to force their agrarian system and religion on the people, devastating the environment and the culture. This film aims to tell the story of Toypurina and the rich ecological heritage of the Kizh, now largely forgotten.

In telling the story of one particular Warrior Woman, we discuss the way women lived in harmony with the earth, and the fearlessness and injustices of indigenous women. This little-known story must be told, so women will be emboldened by this young, Native American named Toypurina: To know that a woman fought back for the injustices done to her people and land. To know that the Indigenous people lived in Los Angeles with harmony and great respect for the land, sea, and mountains. To know that our indigenous people’s lives were not in vain.

Celia Xavier (Salish, Athabaskan and Mayan ) is the CEO and Head of Original Programming at Tribal TV, a dedicated channel on Amazon Prime and Roku, and Founder and Executive Director of Tribal Film Festival in Tulsa, OKLA, whose mission is advocating a broader audience for Indigenous films.  She is also the owner of IndieIN films (Filmmaking with Intention) and a co-founder with Mary Aboud of a filmmaking bootcamp that “empowers, inspires, and sustains students to tell their digital stories.” Celia comes from the Big Island of Hawaii and resides in Los Angeles.

“Signifiers and an Emerging Paradigm – – Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum & Kindred Spirits” A Roundtable Discussion at the 2018 ASWM Conference

Stimulated by the opening chapter of Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum’s latest manuscript, Blackbird and a Pear Tree, (excerpted below) co-participants will be encouraged to share their signifiers. Lucia will bring to light the events, beliefs, people, and ideas that have contributed to her deep story, encouraging us to find our own submerged signifiers along the way. Participants will include Mary Beth Moser, Laura Zegel,Marion Dumont, Annette Williams, and Chickie Ferella, all of whom have been influenced by Lucia’s work. All kindred spirits are welcome to the discussion and to contribute their ideas and visions for a better future.

I began writing Black bird and a pear tree after my husband Wally passed September 4, 2014  numb with grief  touching Wally’s and my deep story in our genetic  unconscious~ preconscious submerged historical experience ~while consciously trying to  keeping heart and eyes open

Because transparence is necessary for truth in a deceitful time, my political convictions  are explicit on front cover, my deep  beliefs  suggested in front matter. Mary Saracino’s poem dives into my deep story, persecuted sister’s subterranean rage at historic violent power-over killing and subordinating dark others, including women.  

Louisa Calio’s Italian American jazz poem, Signifying Woman, goes to the personal geographic/ethnic/spiritual /feminist context of this book. Renate Sadrozinski, feminist kindred spirit from a different cultural context, states her synthesis  of shared feminist beliefs. Mary, Louisa, Renate inspire me to find my particular signifiers for my deep story. . .  hoping this will stimulate you to find your own signifiers.     2 steps backward uncovering our deep stories may give us the energy to bound forward. . . encountering  one another. . . creating energy that may transform ourselves and renew the world.

Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, Professor Emerita, Women’s Spirituality, CIIS, great grandmother, feminist cultural historian, and nonviolent revolutionary. Internationally recognized author of several award-winning books including dark mother, Black Madonnas, and the future has an ancient heart. Lucia’s current manuscript, black bird and a pear tree, is a memoir that suggests convergence of values of primordial migrants out of Africa learning how to survive by caring, sharing, and healing. Lucia is the recipient of the ASWM 2016 Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality, awarded in recognition of “decades of visionary scholarship.”

Marion Gail Dumont:  I was born in Verdun, in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, and hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion with a specialty in Women’s Spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies. As a registered nurse, mother, and grandmother, the focus of my work over the years has been women’s health and well-being. Today, this focus has shifted from the physical care of others toward the spiritual, with an emphasis on women’s mysteries, sacred arts and healing.

Chickie Farella is a multimedia artist/writer in Women’s Spirituality, native of Chicago, Illinois who has been transplanted to the southern California desert. She is the recipient of the 1981 Chicago International Film Festival Video Music award and the 1982 Athens Film festival video Music Award and a contributing writer to several Italian American anthologies. Her essay “I Love You Mom: Do Me A Favor. . . Don’t Tell Nobody” is published in She Is Everywhere: Volume 3. www.Godthemother.com

Mary Beth Mosér holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion with a specialty in Women’s Spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Mary Beth’s dissertation, “The Everyday Spirituality of Women in the Italian Alps,” recipient of the 2014 Kore Award, reflects her passion for her ancestral homeland. An excerpt, “Wild Women of the Waters” is published in Myths: Shattered and Restored. Mary Beth lives on an island in the Salish Sea in the Northwest US and serves as president of the Seattle Trentino Club.  See more of her writings on www.AncestralConnections.net and www.DeaMadre.net.

Annette Lyn Williams, Ph.D. is chair and core faculty in the Women’s Spirituality program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.  She holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Religion with specialization in Women’s Spirituality.  Research interests have centered on soul healing from sexual trauma, and the theme of women’s spiritual power and agency within the Yorùbá Ifá tradition, with specific reference to the primordial feminine authority of àjẹ́.  She collaborated with Lucia Birnbaum and Karen Villanueva on the compilation of She is Everywhere! An Anthology of Writing in Womanist/Feminist Spirituality Vol. 2 and is currently co-editing a Motherline anthology.

Laura M. Zegel, LCSW received her M.S.W. from Columbia University and her M.Div. from Yale University.  In private psychotherapy practice for adults and adolescents since 1994, currently in Rockland, Maine, she has consulted for public schools, local agencies and hospitals, providing inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy.  With a deep interest in women’s and adolescent girl’s psychology, she has presented workshops and presentations on these subjects for the NASW Maine Chapter, the C.G. Jung Center, Brunswick, Maine, ASWM 2014 Conference in San Antonio, TX, and the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement’s 2015 Conference in Rome, Italy.