Waking ourselves for the benefit of all.
Before We Were White
2023 Course Participant Page
Welcome! This page is for registrants in our 2023 Before We Were White online course. Please do not share this page with anyone who is not registered for the course. You are welcome to share specific homework materials, but not the link to the page – which will include links to recordings as they become available.
Homework:
Supplemental Offerings:
Important Information
Homework: Homework materials for all sessions will be posted below. Please allow 2-3 hours for homework per session. Your homework for this course is divided into two sections: Study (with resources for you to read, view, or listen to) and Activities. We ask that everyone engage with each of these prior to each session. We will allow time in the beginning of our sessions to check in about your experience with the assigned homework.
Recordings: Recordings of each live session will be available 2-3 days after it takes place. Links to these recordings will be posted at the top of the homework assignment for the corresponding session. Recordings, along with the participant page as a whole, will remain accessible for three months after our final live session. After this, study materials will be mailed to you as a PDF and session recordings will no longer be available.
Join Our Mighty Network! Read the full invitation, which includes the link to join, here
Mighty Networks is a versatile forum for participant connection and sharing. It has similar functionality to Facebook, but more privacy. White Awake uses it as a forum for course participants to make connections with one another and exchange information, ideas, and experiences related to course curriculum. Please refer to your full invitation to join the group for this course. Once you have signed up, you can re-access the network at this link: white-awake.mn.co. From there, click "Groups" on the sidebar to access the course-specific group. Please notice that there is more than one "Before We Were White" group on the network, and that you belong with the 2023 cohort. :)
Have you visited the Logistics Page for the Course? Please allow 20 minutes to review this page and take the action steps outlined within it prior to the course. For those who have selected to attend live, applications for your personal zoom login must be submitted by the end of the day Saturday, January 21, in order to participate in the first live session (applications are approved manually, not instantly).
Genealogy Training and Q&A
David Dean is offering this supplemental training for course participants. The training will include tips for beginning your genealogy research and ensuring accuracy as well as a Q&A with David to help you begin to draw connections between your ancestors' lives and the four historical windows of this course. All course participants are welcome to join the training live by signing up below. Everyone in the course will be given access to a recording of the training once it is complete.
Note: This training took place on February 18th. Feel free to watch the recording and access David's slides below:
Training recording: Watch here
Chat Log: View here
David's Slides: View here
David Dean is a political educator, writer, and speaker seeking to support the growth of powerful coalitions in our social movements. He gives particular focus to supporting white people to engage in multiracial movements with emotional strength, political clarity, and fierce purpose. He is the former Associate Director of White Awake and is currently developing new political education offerings while writing a book called Roots Deeper than Whiteness (an expansion of his essay you read in this course with the same name). Learn more about David's work here.
Identity-based Caucuses
We are holding the following identity-based caucuses for Multiracial, Jewish-identified, and LGBTQ course participants to reflect on the uniqueness of their course experiences in a supportive environment. All of these are optional calls that can be taken free of charge as part of this course. They will not be recorded. The caucuses are for individuals of these specific groups only and not for all participants in this course. If you have questions about whether a caucus is for you, please reach out to us at info@whiteawake.org. Note: You must register for a caucus in order to receive the correct zoom link to attend it (Your course zoom login will not work).
Multiracial Caucus – Learn More and Sign Up / 2nd Meeting 7-8:3pm ET on Friday, Feb 17th
Co-facilitated by Jimi Eisenstein - This caucus is for people who have both white and non-white ancestry who may identify as mixed-race, multiracial, or biracial.
Jimi Eisenstein is an educator for social and environmental justice. He has worked at The Eco-Institute, leading residential programs about earth healing and social activism. He now creates educational animations and works on ecologically restorative landscaping projects. Jimi is of Chinese and European ancestry, and was born in Taipei, Taiwan before moving to the US as a child.
You can be in touch with Jimi about the Multiracial Caucus, and/or your experience as a multiracial participant in the course, by emailing: jimisol@pm.me
Queer Caucus – Learn More and Sign Up / Takes place 6-7:30pm ET on Feb 4th & Feb 25th
Facilitated by Andy McGuire
Andy McGuire is a regular contributor to White Awake. He/they identify as a non-binary trans masculine person and have a background in group facilitation for queer identifying people, developing transgender specific programs at Landmark College. Andy has also led trainings for White Awake on effective communication across political divides.
You can be in touch with Andy about the Queer Caucus, and/or your experience as a queer participant in the course, by emailing: andy@whiteawake.org
Jewish Caucus – Learn More and Sign Up / Takes place 5-6:30pm ET on Feb 5th & Feb 26th
Facilitated by Kohenet Jen Kiok
Jen Kiok is a white Ashkenazi Jew of Polish and Lithuanian descent. She is dedicated to building intergenerational communities rooted in arts and culture with a commitment to racial justice. She is an ordained Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess) and was Executive Director of Boston Workers Circle, Center for Jewish Culture & Social Justice, from 2015-2021.
You can be in touch with Jen about the Jewish Caucus, and/or your experience as a Jewish participant in the course, by emailing: jen@whiteawake.org
Self organized European Caucus
Several members of the Cloudberry Collective, who are themselves participants in the "Before We Were White 2023" course, invited other European participants to join them for a virtual meeting on Tuesday, Feb 21st. Those who gathered decided to leave the sign up form open so that other European participants, who may not have been able to join, can still sign up and be notified of future meetings.
If you are interested in future meetings of this caucus, please fill out the Collective's Google form here.
Cloudberry Collective wants to offer this space "for those of us living in Europe today, to share in the learning journey of the course and to reflect on the particular responsibilities and potential of nurturing collective liberation from within contemporary Europe. Our hope is to create a learning community and connect the dots between our different experiences."
If you have questions about the caucus, please write to: CloudberryCollective@protonmail.com
Session One: Introduction to the Course
Session Recording (1/22): View here
Chat Log: View here
Presentation Content: 4 Windows & Course Outline Slides / How Using Term Ancestry Slides
Guest Teacher: Bonnie Duran
Bonnie Duran, Dr.PH (mixed race Opelousas – Coushatta descendent) is a Professor in the Schools of Social Work and Public Health at the University of Washington, in Seattle. She has worked in public health research, evaluation and education among Tribes, Native Organizations and other communities of color for over 35 years.
Introduction to Session One Homework
Hello and welcome to the 2023, Before We Were White course! Homework for each session includes both study materials as well as activities to do at home.
Our first two sessions include general political and historical framing, as well as time exploring and placing your family stories into a larger historical context. In Session One we will spend time discussing the structure of the course itself, including how we are looking at ancestry, after which we’ll focus on settler colonialism and a general exploration of the forms of cultural loss that took place when our own indigenous ancestors were separated from their traditional ways of life and brought under a form of social conditioning that continues today (themes we are excited to discuss and explore with Bonnie Duran!)
We look forward to going on this journey with you!
Study Materials
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Birth of a White Nation - Jacqueline Battalora (please watch the first 28 minutes of this video)
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How Standing Rock Made the Military Occupation of Native Nations Visible - Jacqueline Keeler (15-20 min read)
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Speaking of Nature – Robin Wall Kimmerer (10-15 min selection). Please read the first full selection of this essay, stopping at these lines: “… I wonder if English sharpened its verbal ax and lost the companionship of oaks and primroses when it began to keep company with capitalism. I want to suggest that we can begin to mend that rift—with pronouns. As a reluctant student of the formalities of writing, I never would have imagined that I would one day be advocating for grammar as a tool of the revolution.”
Examples of Ancestral Recovery
Please watch at least one of the following two videos in which White Awake Director, Eleanor Hancock, and Before We Were White Jewish Caucus Leader, Jen Kiok, discuss their personal stories of ancestral recovery. There is no single way to go about this journey. These presentations are meant to serve as examples that can help you reflect on what your own ancestral recovery processes might look like and include. We encourage you to watch both videos if you can, however, if time is limited, you are welcome to simply watch the one that feels most resonate. Both of these presentations contain some fairly personal content, and we ask that you not share them with anyone outside of this course.
After watching each presentation (or the one presentation that you select), please take a minute to journal or simply reflect on what stands out to you from what was shared, as well as anything that comes up for you personally about your own life and/or family story.
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Jen’s Story of Ancestral Recovery – Jen is a white Ashkenazi Jew of Polish and Lithuanian descent, born and raised in New York City. Her father is first generation, his parents fled the pogroms of Warsaw, Poland and made their way to Brooklyn in the 1920’s. Her mother is second generation, her grandparents also made their way to Brooklyn from Panevezys, Lithuania at the turn of the century (30 min watch).
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Eleanor’s Story of Ancestral Recovery – Eleanor is a white settler of Northern European descent the majority of whose ancestors migrated from the British Isles to the 13 colonies before the United States was formed and later settled in Alabama, Missouri, and Texas. She was born and raised in Abilene, Texas, and moved to the east coast as an adult (27 min watch).
Activities: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: Throughout the course, we will ask you to do two main types of activities: an outdoor, nature communion activity and an ancestral altar activity. In preparation for this, your first assignment is simply to select a convenient spot outdoors for future activities, and clear a spot in your home for an ancestral altar. Click here to read the full assignment.
Session Two: Historical Context & Political Analysis
Study Materials
The study goals for this session are two fold: 1) deepening the political analysis we introduced in session one and 2) beginning to place your family story (primarily as a general ethnic story) into the historical framework we are using for this course.
Placing your family story in context
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Roots Deeper than Whiteness - David Dean (1-2 hours, depending on how much time you spend with prompts.) Embedded videos include “Birth of a White Nation” - which you can skip if you already watched it for session one - and "World Turned Upside Down" (a song about the Diggers, original by Leon Rosselson.)
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What is Christian Hegemony? - Paul Kivel (10-15 min read). This material is not intended to be a critique of individual Christians or of their beliefs. You can learn more about Kivel's Christian Hegemony Project here.
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Research & Reflection on Your Family Story: Please click the link to review the materials we’ve shared, and spend some time reading, doing a little research, and reflecting on your family’s story.
Political Analysis
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Solidarity for Survival: An Interview with Ian Haney López – David Dean (Listen to 3 min intro). There is a transcript below the audio, if you would prefer to read. The first three minutes are delineated by a small division in the text.
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Matewan “Union Speech” – clip from 1987 film (6 min watch) Note: The term “dago” is a pejorative for Italians, who were recent immigrants during the historical period of the Matewan Massacre.
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Understanding Antisemitism as Ruling Class Strategy – excerpts from publications by April Rosenblum and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and from an interview with Eric Ward (15-20 min read).
Activities: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: After locating your outdoor nature spot and beginning to create an ancestral altar last week, you will now go through your first guided experiences in each of these spaces. Click here to read the full assignment.
Session Three: Violent Foundations
Guest Teacher: Katrina Browne
Katrina Browne produced and directed the Emmy-nominated Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, a documentary about her slave-trading ancestors. She currently works with the Episcopal Church as part of their Becoming Beloved Community racial justice and healing initiatives, for which she developed Sacred Ground.
Study Materials
Session Three is the session in which we focus on our first window into ancestry in the course, Violent Foundations: Genocide, Human Trafficking, and the Birth of Capitalism. Before you dive into the materials, please read the Introduction to this Section (linked below).
Introduction to Session Three Study Section (3-5 min read).
Embracing Rootedness and Radical Genealogy - Aurora Levins Morales (10 min read)
The Birth of Capital | Chapter Summary - Radical in Progress study guide of Hadas Thier’s 2018 book ‘A People's Guide to Capitalism.’ (please read summary of Chapter One, 5-7 minute read)
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as mentioned in session two, if you are interested in studying capitalism more deeply, you may simply want to purchase Thier's book and read the first chapter as part of your prep for session three
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North - Katrina C. Browne (please watch the trailer, 4 min video).
The Uncomfortable Truths of Jewish Life in the U.S. South (10 min read). Please read down until the heading that says “Alligator-skin goods.” If you open the article more than once you may need to submit your email to read the full article (it is not an actual pay wall).
Slate graphic of transatlantic slave trade (2 min interactive graphic). The horror of the human trafficking and enslavement of Africans is vast. As you watch this interactive graphic, take time to reflect on what you already know about the middle passage and subsequent enslavement, then attempt to scale this to the number of dots you see moving across the screen.
Bob’s Story from Combined Destinies (15-20 min reading / Content warning: graphic descriptions of violence).This is particularly difficult reading, as it is a personal story that focuses the relationship of one man’s family and community to lynching.
Americans must grapple with their bloody past - Andy Douglas (10 min read). If you find the online article difficult to read, you may use the handout we’ve created for WA here.
Optional / Supplemental resource:
This is why they hate us, a history of US backed “regime change” from Salon.
Soldiers talk about what they saw and did in Iraq (CW: descriptions of specific acts of violence)
“The Wellbriety Journey to Forgiveness” (37 min watch / CW: descriptions of childhood abuse)
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This is a grassroots documentary that illuminates the Indian Boarding Schools in relation to genocide of Native people’s of Turtle Island, broadly, as well as inter-generational trauma and what it takes to heal a damaged culture.
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The material can be very triggering. Please allow time and space for your viewing and post-viewing experience.
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The video title is linked to an edited version created for White Awake workshops; the full documentary can be found on Youtube here.
Capitalism and Soil - selection from Hadas Thier's A People's History of Capitalism (5-7 min read)
Optional / Supplemental resource:
Epistemic Racism/Sexism & the Four Genocides / Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century - Ramón Grosfoguel / This paper was shared with our class by Bonnie Duran and, while long and more dense reading, is very relevant to the themes and history we are discussing in session three.
Activities: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: This set of activities is meant to support you in holding the weight of the study materials for session three. Your outdoor activities include guidance to release down into the earth any emotional intensity that may have built up, as well as simply breathing and softening your focus. The ancestral altar work includes guidance to offer prayers to those harmed, call on a protective companion to accompany your work with this section, and other activities to process grief or strong emotions. Click here to read the full assignment.
Session Four: Our Animist Past & Earth-Honoring Traditions
Guest Teacher: Rune Harnjø Rasmussen
Rune Harnjø Rasmussen is a Danish anthropologist of religion with a Ph.D. from the University of Uppsala. He is dedicated to supporting those of us who are white in reconnecting with aspects of our cultural heritage in responsible ways. Rune’s work focuses on Nordic animism and the animist culture of Euro-descendants more broadly that was rejected during modernization.
Introduction to Homework for Session Four
“Everyone, no matter what their cultural background, has a right to discover the sacred in nature; to heal and be redeemed spiritually by nature; and to revere the Ancestors. We are all haunted and saved by our
memories.” - Martha Brooks (Bone Dance)
As we spend time with this window into ancestry, your homework materials will be divided into two different types of focus: 1) considering and bringing in an experience of animism from our ancestral past; and 2) considering and bringing in an experience of what a turn towards animism might look like now. For some people, these two activities are linked. Learning and bringing animist practices and worldviews of our ancestors into contemporary life is a beautiful and powerful activity. However, for the purpose of this course, we simply hope you can investigate your ancestral story and develop an understanding and appreciation of when and where your ancestors might have lived in a traditional, animistic way. Whether or not you feel called to adopt specific ancestral practices is entirely up to you.
Regarding contemporary life, our goal for this window is that we can all consider together how we move (individually and collectively) towards a sustainable, animistic, connected way of living that honors relationship and values reciprocity. In this second goal, we cannot avoid the significance of looking to the leadership of Indigenous stewards of traditional cultures and ecologies at this point in this time. Many Indigenous leaders are themselves calling for this, however, doing so requires its own practice of reciprocity, respect, avoidance of appropriation and active support for Indigenous sovereignty and land repatriation.
All of these themes are deep and nuanced. We hope you will consider your homework for Session Four to be a work in progress with multiple, interconnected points of entry that can enliven this exploration of ancestry and contemporary well-ness in your own life, community, and work for positive social change.
Study Materials
European Animism & Ancestry
The ancestry of white people generally involves the severing of ties with the animist ancestors of each group that has come to be classified as white. In many cases this break with an older, rooted and traditional way of life began hundreds or even thousands of years ago. As you learn more about when and where your ancestors may have lived with a sacred connection to a specific place, we also want to consider what values and qualities these types of communities share. This is the starting point for our approaching this window of ancestry through the lens of animism.
Defining “Animism” – White Awake Handout (10-15 min read)
The Vast and Beautiful World of Indigenous Europe – Lyla June (approximately 10-15 min; embedded video optional)
Ragnarok – Rune Harnjø Rasmussen (19 min watch). In this video Rune discusses his work on European and Nordic Animism, how it differs from modern ways of relating to the world, and how a recovery of animist modes of relating is important in our times.
Magical World of Aradia – passage from the 1998 translation by Mario Pazzaglini, PhD and his mother, Dina Pazzaglini) | With a focus on Northern Italy, this a useful resource for thinking about ways that older earth-honoring traditions remained alive through thousands of years of repression, and (similar to Rune’s explanation of Ragnarok) what some qualities of these traditions might be (10-15 min read)
Research and Reflection on Your Animist Ancestors – This exercise has much in common with the one we encouraged you to engage in for the study portion of Session Two (“Research and Reflection on Your Family Story”), however the focus now is not on migration or assimilation, but on the place or places where your ancestors held a strong bond to the land before migration, assimilation, or older disruptions by colonial and imperial forces in Europe. (30-45 min activity)
Consider supporting Indigenous language recovery projects featured in Episode 3 of the Nihizhí podcast:
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Yuchi Language Project (a living language habitat to produce a new generation of Yuchi speakers)
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Keres Children’s Learning Center (a Keres-language revitalization school)
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Ekvn-Yefolecv (an intentional ecovillage community of Indigenous Maskoke persons)
Animism & Indigenous Leadership Today
“We all are humans, and I think we have to find our commonalities. These ideas of modernization and progress without restriction are killing us. We have to be open to learning Indigenous values of respect for Mother Earth and how the reciprocal work could heal the human greed in the world.” - Yojana Miraya Oscco on Red Nation Podcast
WANTING TO BE INDIAN: WHEN SPIRITUAL SEARCHING TURNS INTO CULTURAL THEFT - by Rev. Myke Johnson (please read pages 8-11, starting with "What Can White People Do") | (10-12 min read)
We strongly recommend Lyla June's training "Forging Settler-Indigenous Alliances" as a follow up resource to Johnson's essay; see "Optional Resources", below
The “Honorable Harvest”: Lessons From an Indigenous Tradition of Giving Thanks - Robin Wall Kimmerer (5 min read)
Fielding Faculty Four Arrows & Notre Dame Faculty Emerita Darcia Narvaez Discuss the Significance of Restoring the Kinship Worldview | at minimum, please read the introduction to the video (2 min read) / (17 min video is optional)
The Indigenization Controversy - by Four Arrows (please, at minimum, read the Abstract of this paper) | (2-3 min minimum read; full paper is optional)
Encouraged, not required: “How to Be Human Again” an interview with Darcia Narvaez - Useful Idiots podcast (last 30 minutes of the video) | Narvaez presents a unique perspective on contemporary disconnection from traditional, relational ways of living and also (towards the end of the interview) shares some simple practices that can help us become, in her vocabulary, more “nested” at a personal level
Activities: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: This week's activities section involves practices to cultivate connection with the Indigenous ancestors of the place you currently call home and to your ancestors who had their own connection to place and earth-honoring traditions. Participants will also be encouraged to use elements of previous activities to aid them in their work with this week’s practice. Click Here to Read the Full Assignment.
Optional Resources for deeper reflection (now or later):
"Forging Settler-Indigenous Alliances" Training Materials – This training by Lyla June Johnston offers concrete skills for those of us who are non-Native to act in solidarity with Indigenous communities. You are welcome to work with this training content now or in the future. | Decolonization & the Long View of History with Carlos Saavedra & Fhatima Paulino - Irresistible Podcast episode | SAMUEL BAUTISTA LAZO on Handmade Futures - For the Wild Podcast episode | Restoring the Kinship Worldview - book by Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez, PhD | Nordic Animism - Rune Rasmussen’s project | The Red Nation Podcast - support on Patreon here | Nihizhí, Our Voices: Indigenous Solutions - podcast by Lyla June Johnston (host) and Lyncia Begay (Creative Director)
Session Five: Harm Endured
Guest Teacher: Katrina Messenger
Katrina Messenger is a radical feminist of African, Cherokee & Celtic descent, and a refugee from the communist, labor, feminist, and black nationalist movements of old. With over fifty years of experience as a grassroots activist and community leader, Katrina is a full time Wiccan mystic, an ordained minister, and the founder of Reflections Mystery School.
Study Materials
Introduction to Session Five Study Materials – White Awake (1-2 min read)
Part One: European Roots, Colonial Migration & Early Immigration
Boudicca – This is a short summary of how Boudicca united Celtic tribes against the Roman invasion of the British Isles (10 min read). Boudicca’s story illuminates some of the earliest forms of colonization in the British Isles, itself an example of early colonization processes in Europe. As you read, we encourage you to reflect on the following question: What ancient empires may have disrupted your ancestors older ways of life? Content warning: Includes descriptions of physical and sexual violence.
Dancing in the Streets, Excerpt from a Book Review excerpt (5-7 min read)
Wales: the first and final colony – Excerpts from a lecture by Adam Price MP (15 min read). Price's lecture illustrates how patterns of British imperialism abroad played out and were even perfected in their colonial projects at home. As you read, we encourage you to reflect on the following question: What intra-European colonization projects may have impacted your ancestors, confronting them with assimilation and/or cultural genocide?
“What is antisemitism” (10-12 min read, CW: graphic images). While for Jews this selection touches on harm caused to their communities, we note that for non-Jews, familiarizing yourself with this material can illuminate various themes of harm caused and endured within the complexities of European and Eurocentric history (through to the present day) and perhaps shed light on the ways in which bigotry and targeted violence hold up the larger systems of white supremacy and capitalism that our course is focused on unveiling.
Roots Deeper than Whiteness Review & Exercise (30-45 min)
Part Two: How Harm and Manipulation have Continued into Modern Times
I Ain’t Got No Home / lyrics to Woodie Guthrie’s popular song (5 min read). As you read these lyrics, consider what you know about the Great Depression, and how this time period may have impacted your family line. You might also consider the theme of “tension between those who live off of work and those who live off of money” (Quote from Grace Blakeley's book, Stolen). How has this tension continued through the 21st century into today? How do these tensions impact you today?
Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March (7-10 min read)
C.P. Ellis Why I Quit the Klan (20-30 min read)
Blood on the Mountain Official Trailer 1 (2016) – Documentary trailer (2 min read)
Roots Deeper Excerpt (7-10 min read)
Interview with Authors of “Deaths of Despair Study” (10-15 min read)
Patterns, examples & internalized impact of antisemitism on Jews (8-12 min read)
Wealth Inequality in America (6 min watch) Regardless of where you fall on the graph represented in this video, consider the exploitation that is taking place by the people who are at the very top, and the way in which the entire system is untenable and destructive for all involved. Folks who are not from the United States might look for resources to consider wealth inequality in their country of origin, and/or consider the way in which the inequality in the U.S. reflects larger, global trends.
Costs of Oppression to People from Privileged Groups (5 min read)
Activities: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: Now that we have completed four sessions of the course, and are preparing for the last two, we suggest that you consider all the activities assigned so far to be a repertoire from which to draw as we explore these last two windows. We offer some guidance for how you might do this in this unit’s activity section. Click Here to Read the Full Assignment.
Session Six: Resistance and Self-Determination
Study Materials
The study materials for session six include resources and guided reflection on more ancient history, more modern histories, and pathways of resistance that you may engage with today. We’ve also included a personal assessment of outward focused, social change work that you may want to complete now or after the course ends. Notice that some of the links take you to a separate page where a longer activity is described.
Resistance to Intra-European Imperialism (15-20 min total)
More Recent Legacies (35-40 min total)
"The Other America" - presentation by David Dean (20 min watch)
Who Was Rosa Luxemburg - video by Eleanor Penny (suggested: first 9 minutes of the video). Putting a spotlight on one of many ancestors of resistance and self determination, this short selection of slightly longer video (which we recommend in whole!) highlights some essential contributions of Rosa Luxemburg that we can build on today. The concepts put forward here can help us discuss what kind of society we envision, and how we see ourselves contributing to the building of it, in the context of solidarity based work at this time.
Encouraged, not required: Dr. BAYO AKOMOLAFE on Slowing Down in Urgent Times / Episode 155 - For the Wild Podcast (20 min selection; starting at 41:30 - link should take you here - stopping at the musical interlude at 59:24) | As many of you have already pointed out, Bayo Akomolafe’s teachings are an apt supplement to our work with animism in this course. Akomolafe is particularly helpful in bridging the focus on animism within ancestry and the ways in which an animist world view could be brought into contemporary life and activism today.
Becoming a Good Ancestor - This final portion of your study is something you might look over now, and then return to consider in depth once the course is over. We do suggest you review the personal assessment assignment before attending session six, as we will spend time with some of the questions in our break out discussions. (30 min minimum)
Activities: View Full Assignment
Assignment Summary: The activities portion of your homework will emphasize not only this window of Resistance, but also exercises to bring closure to the work of this class (which you may choose to do after session six). We also invite you to consider whether there are practices that you might want to continue or draw upon after your work with the course ends, and how you might integrate these into your daily life. Click Here to Read the Full Assignment.