Collective and community initiatives can empower those suffering from the wounds of a violent past to collaborate towards mutual healing, thus creating new possibilities for peace.
To better understand the significance of these community-rooted collective healing endeavours, the GHFP and the UNESCO Slave Route Project hosted a one-day International Symposium, at the Royal Society for the Arts in London.
The event brought together practitioners and scholars who have experiences and expertise in the field of communal and collective healing of mass traumas, for an intimate dialogue focused around three core questions:
What are the typical psychological and social symptoms encountered in communities resulting from the experience and legacies of past atrocities?
What might constitute collective healing in these situations?
How do community-based processes and practices contribute to collective healing? (And how would the community evaluate collective healing? What are the relevant indicators that some healing has taken place?)
What would it mean to be a creator of peace in your own life, family, community, country and world?
This year, the GHFP will be hosting two Women’s Peace Circles at our Brighton premises, in collaboration with Creators of Peace (CofP). We invite friends and colleagues (and those who are new to our work!) to join usduring the weekends of 20th-22nd March or 2nd-4th October 2020.
For nearly 30 years, Creators of Peace has been bringing together women across the globe, from all backgrounds, ages and cultures who seek empowerment, inspiration and hope in our current global contexts.
Come and participate, learn, discuss, grow, share stories and explore how you can be a creator of peace.
Colleagues from CofP facilitate a ‘talking circle’, where all voices are respectfully heard, establishing shared values which will allow the group to explore diverse perspectives on topics such as:
What is peace?
Circles of concern and hope
What builds and destroys peace?
Qualities and strategies of a peacemaker
Inner Peace
Inner Listening
Listening to others
The power of forgiveness
Putting peace into action
Programme:
Friday: 6.30pm – 9.30pm: Peace Circle Session I (includes supper)
Saturday: 9.30am – 6.30pm: Peace Circle Session II (includes lunch)
Sunday: 9.30am – 3.30pm: Peace Circle Session III (includes lunch)
This programme is offered free of charge, sponsored by the GHFP and Creators of Peace volunteers.
Spaces are limited, please email events@ghfp.org to request a booking form, indicating which peace circle (March or October) you are interested to attend.
This high-level event marks a milestone of the Ethics Education Fellowship programme, a unique collaborative effort to promote Ethics Education, essential for fostering global citizenship, and building more inclusive and peaceful societies.
The Fellowship program is made possible through a partnership between the Ministries of Education of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nepal, and Seychelles, with Arigatou International, the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace, KAICIID International Dialogue Centre, the Muslim Council of Elders, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, the UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office, and the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, in collaboration with the National Commissions for UNESCO of the participating countries.
In this event, we will reflect on the importance of ethics education, and its contribution to enriching social cohesion, promoting human fraternity, and empowering children and young people to make a difference in their societies.
This event will provide a space to share challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to transform education, as well as commitments to strengthen national teacher training, policies, and investment in ethics education programs.
Welcome Remarks 09.30 – 10.00 (UAE Time)
H.E. Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi (Video Message)
Minister of Education, United Arab Emirates
Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz Al Haddad
Grand Mufti and head of the Fatwa Department at the Dubai Fatwa Centre, Member of Muslim Council of Elders
H.E. Dr. Khalid Al Ghaith
Secretary General of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity
Mr. Hironari Miyamoto (Video Message)
On behalf of Rev. Keishi Miyamoto, President Arigatou International
Children Representatives (Video Message)
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mauritius, Nepal, Kenya and Seychelles
Keynote Speech 10.00 – 10.20 (UAE Time)
H. E. Afra Al Saabri (TBC)
Director General, Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence, Ministry of Tolerance
Ethics Education Fellowship: Insights from the Implementation 10.20 – 10.40 (UAE Time)
Mrs. Mary Kangethe
Director Education, Kenya National Commission for UNESCO
Dr. Itje Chodidjha
Chairperson, Indonesia National Commission for UNESCO
In this 6th webinar, Dr. Gail Christopher and Rob Corcoran will present their practical experiences and perspectives drawn from decades of work for narrative change, racial healing, trust building, and systemic shift in the USA and internationally. While coming from very different backgrounds, they share common visions and values that inform their work. They both believe in a holistic approach to racial equity, and emphasise that empathy, relationships and legislation are required for envisioning an equitable future.
During this event, they will highlight that only through multi-dimensional efforts and collaborative processes can traumatised communities embark on collective journeys aimed at transcending structural barriers while fostering true transformation.
Dr. Gail Christopher is an award-winning social change agent with expertise in the social determinants of health and well-being and in related public policies. She is known for her pioneering work to infuse holistic health and diversity concepts into public sector programs and policy discourse. Dr. Christopher recently retired from her role as Senior Advisor and Vice President at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she was the driving force behind the America Healing initiative and the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation effort. Dr. Christopher also served as Kellogg’s Vice President for Program Strategy and worked on place-based programming in New Orleans and New Mexico. In 1996 she was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. In 2015 she received the Terrance Keenan Award from Grantmakers in Health. She chaired the Board of the Trust for America’s Health from 2012-2022. In 2019, she became a Senior Scholar with George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. Dr. Gail Christopher also became the Executive Director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity in 2019. In 2021, Dr. Christopher was elected by the APHA Governing Council to serve as the APHA Honorary Vice President for the United States. Her latest book is entitled: Rx Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing Our Humanity.
Rob Corcoran is a trainer, facilitator, writer, and racial healing practitioner. He has led workshops and spoken on building trust across racial, class, political and religious divides in many US communities and in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He lived in Richmond, VA for 40 years and founded the nationally and internationally recognized program for racial healing Hope in the Cities. He served as the US national director for Initiatives of Change (IofC), a global network that inspires, equips, and connects people to address world needs starting with changes in their own lives He is the training consultant for its Trustbuilding program active in 12 countries. His book, Trustbuilding: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation, and Responsibility, has been described as a “visionary, compelling account of healing and change.” He and his wife, Susan, have three sons, and four grandchildren. They now live in Austin, Texas. Learn more about Rob’s activities and read his other writings from here: https://www.robcorcoran.org/
Trans-generational traumas resulting from mass brutality can persist through familial, communal, and societal lines. These traumas stem from major historical dehumanising acts, such as the transatlantic trade of enslaved peoples, and colonialisation. They are then compounded by continued structural oppression that affects successive generations. Recognition, Restoration, Reconciliation and Regeneration are four key processes in our collective journeys towards healing traumas, building just society, and enhancing well-being for the future.
The UNESCO Intergenerational Dialogue & Inquiry (IDI) is a community-based programme through which people come together to explore multi-dimensional harms of historical atrocities, and acknowledge the long-lasting effects of their legacies on the entire community. It seeks to reclaim the cultural resources for resilience and healing, deepen solidarity across the divides, and propose ways to address the structural dimensions of dehumanisation through systemic transformation.
This 5th webinar gathers voices from communities who have participated in the IDI Pilot, with an Introduction from Linda Tinio-Le Douarin, who is the Deputy Chief, UNESCO Section for Inclusion, Rights and Intercultural Dialogue, Social and Human Sciences Sector.
The speakers are elders and young participants of the IDI programme pilot from four continents. They will reflect on their experiences of the IDI process and share key insights emergent, with a focus on approaches to nurturing collective healing, justice and well-being.
Following brief presentations, the speakers will engage in dialogue with one another to discuss common themes of healing, and respond to questions from the audience.
Presenters
Dr Dianne Regisford is a dynamic Social Sculpture practitioner, invested in regenerative ARTivism for belonging, racial equity and cultural transformation through a social justice lens. She is the founder, visionary and creator of Evoking Belonging – a body of work expressed as Design Strategy , Social Sculpture research practice, poetry and thought leadership. Working with her unique Evoking Belonging Ubuntu Practices, Dianne designs and stewards inclusive, participatory approaches to belonging through equitable enquiry into power and privilege, racial justice and cultural transformation. This is an innovative approach to sociocultural co-imagining for a regenerative, equitable, humane and just society. Her current writing and research focus on exploring Indigenous African Diaspora Knowledge Systems, with specific reference to ancestral intergenerational healing and cultural restoration for African heritage communities in the Diaspora. More about Dianne HERE.
Dr Gloria Patricia Moreno is traditional indigenous doctor/healer of the Cañamón Lomaprieta, Colombia. She is the principal advisor and counsellor of wise men and women in the Caldas Province.
As a traditional healer, Gloria introduces the spiritual aspect to healing, justice and well-being. She sees the spiritual as the balance between the different forces, such as between the positive and the negative, and between demanding respect for human rights, and restoring human values within the community. For Gloria, healing is achieved through harmonisation and every concrete material activity has its balance through rituals and spiritual contents.
Casey Overton (she/they) is a radical nonprofit strategist, writer, and spiritual activist who is insistent on cultivating space for collective healing. They are the editor of “Liturgy that Matters”, an enfleshed publication, and the coordinator for Black faith programs in an affirming spiritual community. Her communications and faith-based nonprofit background has allowed the cultural metaphysics of liberation to become an ongoing priority in her work. As a multi-spiritual worker, they love being immersed in cooperative interfaith dialogue while creating restorative environments for marginalized populations within or beyond faith institutions. Her work as a faith nonprofit strategist draws on her expertise in systems analysis for co-creating spiritually sustainable cultures. She is a graduate of Hampton University and Duke Divinity School. She resides in the Powhatan lands now called Richmond, VA., USA.
Ojeriakhi Oluwaseyi (Seyi), born and raised of mixed ethnicity of Edo and Yoruba in the suburbs of Lagos, Nigeria, is a lawyer, writer, artist and changemaker. Seyi is a student of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lagos. He is a member of the Secretariat Committee, and recently was awarded first prize in the 2023 Writing Bout of the Law Students Society. He is a facilitator for Initiatives of Change, Nigeria, a global NGO with an interest in driving the necessary ethical transformation in the society. Seyi recently co-facilitated an Ethical Leadership Retreat hosted in Lagos, which supported and nurtured over 40 students from Lagos University through dialogic learning.
For the 4th webinar of the Series, the keynote speakers are Prof Ana Lucia Araujo and Lewis Cardinal. They explored questions such as
What should be the principles and objectives of reparations following historical atrocities such as enslavement and genocides of people of African and indigenous descent?
How might reparations be implemented ethically and meaningfully for the descendant communities?
What are the opportunities and challenges for reparation, restoration and regeneration to contribute to healing, justice and well-being?
Following their keynote presentations, Prof Araujo and Mr Cardinal discussed the optimism and complexity brought forward by the most recent call for global reparation to address the legacies of historical mass atrocities inflicted upon peoples of African and Indigenous descent.
Watch the recording of the webinar through the link below.
Keynote Speakers
Ana Lucia Araujo is a historian and full professor in the Department of History at the historically black Howard University in Washington DC, United States. She specializes in the history and memory of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade and her research interests include the visual and material culture of slavery. She is a member of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Project Routes of Enslaved Peoples (former Slave Route Project) since 2017.
Ana Lucia’s recent awards include a fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey), and a Senior Scholar Grant from the Getty Research Institute where she is currently in residence. She is a member of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Scholarly Advisory Board and was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London, UK. She also serves on the Board of Editors of the American Historical Review, the editorial board of the British journal Slavery and Abolition, and the Editorial Review Board of the African Studies Review.
Ana Lucia’s three recent books are: Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History (2017), with a new revised and expanded edition in 2023, Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past (2020), and Museums and Atlantic Slavery (2021). She has two books (2024): Humans in Shackles: An Atlantic History of Slavery (University of Chicago Press) and The Gift: How Objects of Prestige Shaped the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism (Cambridge University Press). She is currently working on three book projects: The Power of Art: The World Black Artists Made in the Americas, Global Slavery: A Visual History, and Oceans of Sorrow: The French Trade in Enslaved Africans.
Lewis Cardinal is a communicator and educator; he has dedicated his life’s work to creating and maintaining connections and relationships that cross-cultural divides. His long track record of public service currently includes; Board Member of Theatre Network Society, Vice-Chair of the Documentary Organization of Canada-Alberta, Chair of the Global Indigenous Dialogue of Initiatives of Change-Canada, and Trustee and Chair of the Indigenous Taskforce for the Council for a Parliament of World Religions.
Lewis has received two medals from Queen Elizabeth II, the Diamond Jubilee Medal for Public Service and the Platinum Jubilee Medal for his contributions to the Province of Alberta, the IndSpire Award for Public Service (awarded by the Indigenous peoples of Canada), the Province of Alberta’s Centennial Medal for his work in Human Rights and Diversity, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Grant MacEwan University, and the Honorary Degree of “Doctor of Sacred Letters” from St. Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta.
Lewis is Woodland Cree from the Sucker Creek Cree First Nation in Treaty No. 8 in northern Alberta, Canada. His consulting company, Cardinal Strategic Communications, specializes in Indigenous education, communications, and project development. He is also owner and Head Storyteller of Red Earth Blue Sky Productions, a media production company. Currently, Lewis is Project Manager for “kihcihkaw askiy–Sacred Land” in the City of Edmonton, the first designated urban Indigenous ceremony grounds in Canada.
Dr Ali Moussa Iyeis a writer and researcher. He holds a PhD in political Science from the Institute of Political Science (Grenoble, France). He was a journalist, Editor-in-chief of a weekly newspaper and Director of Press and Audio-visual in his country (Djibouti) before joining UNESCO. Within UNESCO, through various posts, he actively contributed to the elaboration of the UNESCO Strategy against Racism and Discrimination and the creation of the International Coalition of Cities against Racism. From 2004 and 2019, Dr Moussa Iye was the Head of the History and Memory for Dialogue Department and directed two important UNESCO Programmes: the Routes of Dialogue (Slave Route Project and Silk Roads Project) and the General and Regional Histories (History of Humanity, General History of Africa, General History of Latin America; General History of the Caribbean, History of Civilisations of Central Asia; Different Aspects of Islamic Culture). He has initiated and coordinated the pedagogical use of the General History of Africa and the drafting of the last three volumes of this prestigious collection to update it and address the new challenges faced by Africa and its diasporas.
Dr Moussa Iye is currently pursuing research in the field of political anthropology and is working in particular on the revalorisation of African endogenous knowledge. He is the founder and Chair of the Think-Tank “AFROSPECTIVES, a Global Africa initiative” to re-imagine Africa’s presence and contribution to the World. Among his publications are “The Verdict of the Tree: An Essay of an African Endogenous Democracy” (2014) and “Slavery, Resistance and Abolitions: A Pluralist Perspective” (2019).
Esther A. Armah is an author, playwright, international public speaker, and former journalist. She is CEO of The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice (The AIEJ), a global institute creating racial healing resources and tools working across Accra, New York, and London. She is author of “EMOTIONAL JUSTICE: a roadmap for racial healing“, a #1 New Release on Amazon in the category General Sociology of Race Relations for six straight weeks. Emotional Justice is a racial healing roadmap Esther created over a 15-year period through assignment, research and community engagement in Accra, Philadelphia, South Africa and New York. As a journalist she has worked in London, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
Esther was the Spring 2022 Distinguished Activist in Residence at New York University’s Center for Black Visual Culture. Her Emotional Justice essays are featured in the New York Times best-selling book “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America“; the award-winning Love with Accountability, Charleston Syllabus, and Women & Migrations (II). She has written five Emotional Justice plays that have been produced and performed in New York, Chicago and Ghana. For her Emotional Justice work, she won the ‘Community Healer Award’ at the 2016 Valuing Black Lives Global Emotional Emancipation Summit in Washington DC. Esther was named ‘Most Valuable NY Radio Host’ in The Nation’s Progressive Honors List for her work on Wake-Up Call on Pacifica’s, WBAI.
The UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project and the Global Humanity for Peace Institute, University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD), are jointly hosting an exciting international webinar series entitled: New Perspectives on Collective Healing, Social Justice and Well-Being.
The 2nd webinar of the Series featured the presentations of the keynote speakers, Dr Joy DeGruy and Thomas Hübl (PhD), who are both renowned for their insights into intergenerational trauma and collective healing.
Following their keynote presentations, Joy DeGruy and Thomas Hubl engaged in a dialogue about the opportunities and challenges of healing the wounds of history and ancestral trauma, and how global communities must take responsibility for supporting a flourishing future for the whole of humanity.
Keynote Speakers
Dr Joy DeGruy is a nationally and internationally renowned researcher and educator. For over two decades, she served as an Assistant Professor at Portland State University’s School of Social Work and now serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Joy DeGruy Publications Inc. (JDP). Dr DeGruy is committed to the healing of those that continue to suffer from past and present injuries and for the well being of all people.
As a result of twelve years of quantitative and qualitative research, Dr. DeGruy has developed her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, publishing her findings in the book “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome – America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing”. The book addresses the residual impacts of generations of slavery and opens up the discussion of how the black community can use the strengths we have developed in the past to heal in the present.
Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator whose lifelong work integrates the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. The origin of his work and more than two decades of study and practice on healing collective trauma is detailed in his book Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds. Thomas’ next book, Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World, will be published in September, 2023.
Mysticism and the principles that guide the actualization and practice of embodying these profound experiences are at the heart of Hübl’s teachings. In all his courses, participants can expect to learn from his extensive experience as a teacher of meditation and study of wisdom traditions. His didactic talks draw from evidence-based research and the leading edge of transpersonal, interdisciplinary studies.
The opening webinar took place on Monday 3 April 2023 at 2 pm UTC / 3 pm London time / 4 pm Paris time.
Mrs Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, and Prof Medwin Hughes, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales Trinity Saint-David jointly launched the webinar.
The keynote speaker was the award-winning international TV and radio journalist Ms Zeinab Badawi who edited, produced and presented a major 20-part TV series on the History of Africa and who is currently writing a book on the History of Africa.
Following the keynote presentation, Mrs Ramos and Zeinab Badawi explored the importance of UNESCO’s General History of Africa in giving a voice to people of African descent, and valorising their culture and contributions to modern societies. UNESCO’s work to address racism and discrimination, and its support to communities’ resilience was also discussed, together with the GHFP-UNESCO’s collective healing initiative.
The dialogue will be moderated by ProfScherto Gill, Director of Global Humanity for Peace Institute at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Today we join hands with millions of students, teachers and many others in celebrating the International Day of Education! We are reminded of the critical role of ethics education in contributing to the holistic well-being of children, global citizenship and building peaceful and inclusive societies.
Ethics education promotes intercultural and interreligious learning, dialogue and collaboration and affirms the importance of nurturing core human values and children’s spiritual development.
This unique approach to education helps strengthen children’s humanity, connect them with their cultural and religious rootedness, cultivate critical thinking, and foster awareness, attitudes, and capacity to appreciate life and to collaborate with people of other cultures, religions and beliefs.
Ethics education is built around the common value-pillars such as solidarity and human fraternity, which empower children to embrace their individual and collective responsibilities in an interconnected world.
On this day as we celebrate the power of education, we invite ministries of education and policy-makers to prioritise curriculum activities and pedagogical approaches that cultivate ethical values, intercultural and interfaith learning, dialogue and collaboration.
On this day as we cherish the value of education, we invite all educational organisations, formal, informal and non-formal to join us in advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly Goal 4.7 which includes “ensuring education for the promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity.”
We also invite teachers, educators, faith communities, and all those working with children to renew their commitment to integrating ethics education in their programs with children, as a contribution to building a better world for and with children.
In peace, GHFP, a partner of the Ethics Education Fellowship Program
Well-being studies is an exciting and relatively new multi-disciplinary field, with data being gathered from different domains in order to improve social policies. In its reliance on a truncated account of well-being based implicitly on neoclassical economic assumptions, however, the field is deeply flawed.
Departing from reductive accounts of well-being that exclude the normative or evaluative aspect of the concept and so impoverish the attendant conception of human life, this book offers a new perspective on what counts normatively as being well. In reconceptualising well-being holistically, it presents a fresh vista on how we can consider the meanings of human life in a manner that also serves as a source of constructive social critique. The book thus undertakes to invert the usual approach to the social sciences, in which the research is required to be objective in terms of methodology and subjective with regard to evaluative claims. Instead, the authors are deliberately objective about values in order to be more open to the subjectivities of human life.
Happiness, Flourishing and the Good Life thus seeks to move away from economic considerations’ domination of all social spaces in order to understand the possibilities of well-being beyond instrumentalisation or commodification. A radical new approach to the human well-being, this book will appeal to philosophers, social theorists and political scientists and all who are interested in human happiness.
Understanding Peace Holistically: From the Spiritual to the Political argues that spiritually rooted and morally oriented peacefulness is relevant to the socio-economic–political structures that provide the conditions for a culture of peace. GHFP’s Scherto Gill and Garrett Thomson are the co-authors of this book.
Through developing a theory of positive and holistic peace, from the spiritual to the relational, and from communal towards the socio-political, this book identifies key principles that characterise international and institutional processes that nurture peace. The innovative conception of peace developed in this book may guide and inspire individuals, institutions, and international organisations with regards to how to make peace.
