WHY THIS WORKSHOP

“Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great grandparents maybe even…” Elon Musk at AfD’s far right rally in Germany, January 2025

“One of the things our ancestors will guide us to do from the realm they now inhabit is to take responsibility for the past and repair for the future” Nago saying, Benin

In a world shaped by the legacies of empire, two worldviews collide. One seeks to forget: “It’s not my fault, so it’s not my responsibility.” The other calls us to remember, insists on continuity and responsibility: “I am part of a lineage, and I have the responsibility to repair what was done wrong.”

As descendants of colonizers, white people carry an inheritance that is more than material wealth and privilege. It is also silence, guilt, diconnection, shame and collective amnesia.

Many white people like to pick and choose their ancestors, claiming the abolitionists, the artists, the “good ones”, while erasing the colonizers, the enslavers, the nazis…the silent ones who upheld systems of violence. But ancestry work does not work that way. To truly engage in ancestral work, healing and responsibility, we must turn towards the fullness of our lineage, the parts we are proud of, and the parts we would rather not see. Only then we can step into honest repair.

This workshop is not about blame.

It is about responsibility. Repair. Right relationship.

In this 3-month online process based on weekly meetings, we will trace the colonial genogram, looking honestly at the personal, familial, and systemic lines that tie us to histories of conquest, extraction, and violence. We will use the Soma and grief-centered practices to explore what it means to be shaped by empire, and to begin the slow work of metabolizing shame, and stepping into forms of repair.

This is not a space for performance or quick fixes. It’s a space to grieve, witness and practices being in right relationship with the past, the body, and with the more just futures we long for. If you feel called to turn towards this work, to hold ancestral responsibility as a living, breathing practicing rather than an intellectual idea, I invite you to join us.

WHO CAN JOIN THIS WORKSHOP?

This workshop is for white people and descendants of European colonizers who are ready to engage with the ancestral responsibility of empire.

It is for those who:

• Wish to move beyond shame into meaningful, embodied repair.

• Are willing to understand everything that lies beneath ancestral responsibility.

• Are curious about how empire has shaped their families, bodies, and ways of relating.

• Long to step into right relationship with the past, the present, and the future.

• Desire to engage in social justice work not just intellectually, but in the soma, in daily choices, and in relational accountability.

• sit with the discomfort of the death of empire.

• Want to honestly do ancestral and repair work.

  You do not need to “know everything” about your lineage to begin. You only need a willingness to turn what has been inherited, and to explore how to carry it differently.

WORKSHOP STRUCTURE

This workshop is a weekly gathering spread over three months (Every Friday on zoom), and built on walking together, witnessing each other, and practicing accountability in community. Your presence matters, not only for your own process, but for the collective field we are weaving.

Sessions are LIVE AND WILL NOT BE RECORDED, honoring the privacy of the group and the depth of work we are here to do. However, a dedicated space on a community platform (CIRCLE.SO) will be available for participants to stay connected, share reflections, and exchange knowledge and resources between sessions.We encourage you to commit to attending each session whenever possible, as each meeting builds on the previous one, allowing the work to unfold relationally and in real time.

If you are ready to show up fully, with openness and courage, I welcome you.

Phase 1: Seeing the Inheritance

We begin by mapping the colonial genogram.

Phase 2: Feeling and Grieving

Together, we turn toward the grief, shame, and discomfort that often surface when facing these truths.

Phase 3: Repair and Reimagining

This final phase invites dreaming and accountability.

DATES ( 12 meetings)

OCTOBER: Fridays 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st

NOVEMBER: Fridays 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th

DECEMBER: Fridays 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th