The Numinous Podcast

Today on the podcast I’m speaking with Sewit who goes by the English name, Thomas Jones. Sewit is a scholar of linguistics and I had the opportunity to learn alongside him at a language revitalization workshop called Where Are Your Keys.

As I mentioned in the previous episode, WAYK is a comprehensive method for revitalizing endangered languages and skills. It uses games, tricks and sign language to essentially “hack” second language learning. It was develop by an American fellow named Evan Gardner as a response to the imminent crisis of language loss that so many indigenous communities across North America are facing as elders and conversant speakers die and forget and culture slips away.

In this episode, Sewit introduces me to the concept of "the borrowed child" as a form of intergenerational connection, a concept I personally find fascinating coming from more of a "latch key kid" kind of upbringing.

He also tells a beautiful origin story from the Snuneymuxw people and shares his thoughts on communal living.

Sewit also mentions two other language learning resources you might want to check out if you're interested:

Chief Atahm

Total Physical Response (TPR)

There is a real urgency to language revitalization because the fluent speakers are dying. Sewit is one of only a small number of latent speakers Snuneymuxw. In the past four years, of the ten fluent speakers he could go to for teaching, six have died.

Sewit does voiceover work and you can hear him speaking hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ in the show, Warrior Games.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

First Peoples' Language Map of B.C.

In this moving and memorable episode, I'm talking with Tiffany Joseph about indigenous language revitalization, sense of place, and navigating settler-indigenous relations with an aim towards Reconciliation. Tiffany is a language scholar and also an astrologer, multi-media artist and blogger.

Full disclosure: I cried fragile white lady tears through pretty much the whole thing.

I can't quite describe how acutely I felt Tiffany's words, how true they felt in my body, how deeply they pierced through my insides.

Give yourself some time to listen carefully to this beautiful offering from Tiffany.

You can read the follow up to this interview on Tiffany's blog: https://netsnetseol.wordpress.com

Follow her astrology work on Facebook.

If you appreciated Tiffany's insights in the episode, you can support her directly through PayPal: PayPal.Me/TiffanyJoseph

***

Click here to learn more about Where Are Your Keys? It's not overstatement to say that their method is truly revolutionary and actively helping to save languages from extinction. Check them out, support them and spread the word.

In this free ranging conversation with artist, poet and playwright, Janet Rogers, I have an opportunity to learn about some of the iconic female artists who've inspired some of Janet's work.

We also talk about "feminism" as a concept and a word, and "reconciliation" as a concept and a word, and the notion of land-as-body.

We get down and dirty about land, reparations, equality and activism.

Also notable (for me, anyway), is how my privileged, possessive, white supremacist language which keeps slipping out – I can't seem to stop myself from referring to everything and everyone as "our", as in, the colonial "our". Ugh.

Anyway, I do my best. I receive feedback. I apologize. It still pains me to hear it, though. It's what I suppose they call a "teachable moment" and I appreciate Janet for pointing it out and for being patient.

Eden Robinson, mentioned by Janet in this interview, is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations and a prolific author.

You can follow Janet on Facebook and purchase her books online at Indigo. In this interview, Janet read from her newest work, Totem Poles and Railroads. Yes, I cried.

I'm so pleased to welcome to the podcast, Aftab Erfan, Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement at the University of British Columbia.

Aftab is an experienced facilitator and longtime trainer of the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy.

When you watch the video clips at the top of the DeepDemocracy.ca website, you can see me standing behind her business partner and co-facilitator, Sera, who is speaking animatedly. She's "amplifying" Jeremy - one of the tools used in this facilitation method to quickly get to the heart of a matter. My face is cropped, I'm wearing a white blouse, hands in pockets. My posture pretty much says everything about what I think of "hope" in the context of the Is Hope Bullshit? Civic Dialogue they convened. My feelings about hope have evolved a bit since then. It was a life-changing day. Myrna Lewis, (co-developer of the Lewis Method), is just to the left of screen wearing taupe, hand on her necklace.

The book Aftab references in this episode is called Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair by Sarah Schulman. Sounds like essential reading.

Along with Jessie Hemphill (my guest on TNP65), Aftab co-facilitated a Civic Dialogue I convened in my hometown called Yes, I'm Privileged. Now What? I received a lot of feedback from that event, all of it positive. Since then, I've seen it galvanize members of my community around social justice in a way they didn't before. Many have told me it was the experience they needed in order to show up and speak up and put their privilege to work on behalf of marginalized populations.

If your organization has the funding and desire to tackle hard topics in order to move forward together, you should definitely reach out to her.

I'm not gonna lie. This one's a doozy. In this episode of the podcast, I am the guest and I say the F word and several other swear words, a lot.

The full-length version of this conversation was published in video form as part of Rachael Rice's series, Confronting Whiteness.

I met Rachael and Marybeth online and we became familiar with each other's work through Facebook conversations. It was evident to me from the beginning that these are women who know what time it is (#revolutiontime). If you're on Insta, you should definitely follow them.

In this conversation, I tell the story of The Racist Dinner Party and I rant about white fragility in Well-intentioned White Women Sisterhood spaces.

I make the case for developing a more mature and nuanced relationship with shame and honour, and I implore white women to become more resilient when it comes to racial conversations.

Here are the excellent resources cited in this episode:

The Roots Of Addiction In Free Market Society

Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor

The Bluest I Blog by Michelle R Smith

Is Shame Necessary?: New Uses For An Old Tool by Jennifer Jacquet

Today I'm talking to my girl, Jessie Hemphill, and we're having a warm and wonderful conversation. It's like we're all sitting down for tea and Jessie's telling us stories about growing up Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxd'axw and Métis in rural coastal Canada while passing for white.

We hear a bit about 'Nakwaxd'axw mythology, what her Indigenous name means, how she became a politician, and what it means to do urban planning using culturally-based Indigenous planning processes.

Finally, I tell the story of how I became infatuated with met Jessie and she changed the course of my life with some magic words. Then we dish about our unhealthy ways of coping with grief and rage. In the end, it's abundantly clear how much we love each other and this whole show is just a meeting of our mutual appreciation society.

You should definitely learn more about Jessie and recommend her company to any community that is looking for a facilitator who can sit in the truth and hold space in the heart of the matter.

This special episode is a recording of an hour-long keynote address I gave in the fall of 2016. The title of the talk is, "Learning To See In The Dark: Reclaiming Our Power, Transforming Our World".

It's a deep dive into the Dark Woman archetype, how she shows up in our lives, why she is so feared and what her purpose is in transforming our lives and our world.

For further reading:

Charlene Spretnak

Jean Shinoda Bolen

Demetra George

Caroline Casey

Carol Leonard & Elizabeth Davis

Peggy Reeves Sanday

Marije Gimbutas

In this final episode, I talk more about the spiritual void underpinning the abandonment wound.

I also provide a framework and suggested exercises that clinical hypnotherapists and other healing practitioners might use to support clients in their journey from abandonment to healing. This framework is based on Susan Anderson's model of the Five Stages of Abandonment.

In Part 2, I dive deeper into Attachment and Addiction.

Additional readings I suggest in the introduction to this episode are linked below:

The Attachment Parenting Book, by Dr. Sears

A therapist I once worked with said it best:

Abandonment is the gap between what you need and what you get.

Abandonment arouses the primal fear of infancy and childhood, that of being left alone to fend for ourselves.

This kind of wound is cumulative: every loss, betrayal, disappointment, rejection (perceived or real), break-up or death can trigger the primal Abandonment Wound. Rather than dissipate, feelings incubate.

Everybody has an Abandonment Wound. The issue is not whether or not it exists within us, it’s how well we’re coping with it.

In 2014, I delivered a lecture at the Canadian Association of Clinical Hypnotherapists Conference called, "Healing The Abandonment Wound: A Five Step Process". This is a special Numinous Podcast three-part mini-series that expands on that lecture with additional readings, resources and thoughts about how this work has evolved in the three years I've spent focussing the client work in my hypnotherapy practice in this area.

Resources cited in this episode include:

The Roots of Addiction in Free Market Society, by Bruce K. Alexander

Rat Park, by Bruce K. Alexander and the comic it inspired by Stuart McMillen

(not mentioned in this episode but equally entertaining work describing Rat Park is the video, "Everything We Know About Addiction Is Wrong")

In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, by Dr. Gabor Maté

The Journey From Abandonment To Healing, by Susan Anderson

You can explore this work with me further at: www.carmenspagnola.com/abandonment-therapy/