For those who have never attended one of my original presentations on Ancestral Trauma Healing, I am sharing a brief section in light of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020 at the hands of local cops.
"I think it's important to stress, healing work is not absolving anyone of responsibility for their life choices, even an ancestor long passed, but instead this is a practice to clear the trauma residue. “Resolve it”, blocking those today from taking responsibility and action to change our world for the better. The traumatized, traumatize others, the oppressor is traumatized as well as the oppressed, this perpetuates through generations, resulting in the damaged world we have today. As a white woman, there is a historical context of being dominated as well as perpetuating the domination of others, strengthening the bonds of patriarchal domination of the world. I believe it is because of my healing work, that I can recognize and admit those patterns and that is the first step to making lasting changes. I encourage others to do this work and see if it has a similar effect on your ability to focus on social justice actions today.
I often say that it is because of my beloved niece that I started deeply paying attention to the threads of systemic and other forms of racism in our world, especially in America. Sandra Bland's murder after a ridiculous traffic stop, terrified this Auntie...but this poem reminded me of my ancestral trauma healing work...that perhaps, the only way I can heal those familial lines, is to continue my work in social justice actions. We all carry some thread that is connected to the oppressed or the oppressor, and often it is both...recognizing and sitting with that discomfort is a path to start the healing process, reducing the resistance to the trauma, reducing the resistance to social change. While it may be difficult to recognize or accept, those who perpetuate domination, are as wounded, or more so by their actions as those who are dominated. See a bully on the playground and you will most often find a wounded child who was wounded by another wounded child parent. Acting out is a form of resistance to the emotional or physical pain they are in. I feel it is my responsibility to all those affected, to heal what is within my power to heal, thereby, reducing the resistance to social action and the suffering of our world.
“A Poem by Lessa Renee Hall”
Dear descendants of the colonizers,
No, you cannot push past the pain.
This isn't a spin class; this is life. Pushing past the pain means that you ignore your humanity.
Humans hurt.
And need to cry.
And need the time to process their wounds.
Your ancestors had to push past the pain because they were doing harm to other humans.
They extracted, eradicated, and erased the histories, stories, and heritage of those who were on these lands before their arrival.
They brought more people with them, then used violence to push their bodies to produce beyond what was normal.
With no pay.
And no compensation for the removal of their human rights.
Here's an idea...
Instead of pushing past the pain, sit with it.
Write through what is coming up for you.
Sit with the guilt and the shame.
Feel it in your bones.
Sit with the reality of what your ancestors did to other human beings in the quest to create a new home for themselves - and for you.
Cry if you have to.
Vent if you must.
Because the only way to bring healing to your body and bloodline is to acknowledge the pain of what your ancestors did, forgive them, then spend the rest of your life doing better by POC.
Invest in POC.
Believe POC.
Honour POC.
Damaged people damage people.
And until you see your own humanity, you'll never see the humanity in the descendants of the people your ancestors oppressed.
With love,
From a descendant stolen from the Kingdom of Ashanti
By Leesa Renee Hall I believe it is important to face the work needed in yourself and your own ancestral line. I'm talking about healing or “resolving”, not fixing. As you focus on the issues you bring to the world, you allow and empower others to focus on their own. It is easy to focus on problems in others; other people, other communities, other countries. It is much more difficult to bring that focus into our own space. We see that when people are fearful and hateful of the other, but I believe it is just as damaging when we ‘mean well’ or have good intentions but are unaware of the trauma we are perpetuating. We can easily hide from our wounds by focusing our energy to ‘fix’ others. But people are wounded, not broken, allowing them the space and tools to heal themselves is a very effective practice. Systems are broken and when we heal ourselves, we can become more aware of systemic problems that have been perpetuated by our ancestors and find solutions. This is how it begins, within ourselves and our own family legacy.