In February, UAII hosted the first of 6 workshops in the Women’s Empowerment workshop series. I facilitated a Touchstones workshop during this first session, for over 30 female participants from the UAII L.A. County American Indian/Alaskan Native community.
Following a very difficult discussion about historical trauma, I introduced the workshop as a window of time to heal. I reminded the participants that one of the ways we can transform and heal our historical trauma is through art. My role as a facilitator was to try to empower these women. It was an extremely empowering experience for me to find the strength and courage to speak about my own historical trauma. And in turn, that newfound empowerment allowed me to empower these women to take charge of their healing by using art to transform their own trauma.
During the workshop one participant expressed her gratitude, “Thank you for this. My heart hurts after listening to the conversation about historical trauma but this helped.”
The following week, the same participant expressed her thanks again stating, “I don’t know how you all are able to speak about everything we’ve been through. It hurts me for a long time after hearing the stories, but I appreciate it and I really liked the art.”
The workshop became a perfect example of the saying, “Empowered Women Empower Women” and that same phrase became the influence for my touchstone.
