Religions: Regional Wisdom and Ways
- “ I believe in girls being empowered to use their inborn power to manage their lives positively.” These words would be meaningful spoken by anyone, anywhere. But these words spoken by a woman who herself, as a teenager, was a survivor of a violent attack, and by a woman who watched women and girls in her marginalized community victimized—sexually, financially, and socially—are truly inspirational. Meet Jane Anyango. She lives in Kibera—the largest slum of African—just a few kilometers from Nairobi, Kenya. When the election results of late 2007 were disputed, rioting between the Luo and Kikuyu ethnic groups broke out. From December 2007 to April 2008, daily violent protests left approximately 800 people dead and over 600,000 people displaced from their homes, with a degree of resolution eventually negotiated by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Jane Anyango had had enough. She had seen businesses and homes in her Kibera neighborhood destroyed and women of all ages intimidated, raped and harassed, and she had had enough.
Jane gathered some women in her neighborhood and started an organization called the Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness. Women meet together regularly to discuss their needs, to discover their strength and confidence, and to collectively implement strategies to address injustices in their community. They draw on their religious and society belief systems to gain a sense of dignity, to draw on a sense of power, and to work for justice. A deep sense of collective wisdom to deal with crises is called upon.
Group therapy, cell groups focused on empowerment, life skills training and entrepreneurship, women’s rights awareness, lobbying and advocacy training, human rights campaigns—the Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness face the harsh realities and develop solutions. It’s not all work, however. They have created a football and volleyball league, hold talent shows and cultural dances and use theater to enjoy each other and to express creatively the problems and solutions in their difficult situations.
“I am a changemaker because I believe in inborn Power for self-control/guidance,” Jane says. She calls her friends and neighbors her “heroes.” Not surprisingly, the feeling is mutual.
http://generationkenya.co.ke/main/kibera-women-for-peace-and-fairness/ (Organizational website)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGrgL0zPCvI (video of Jane) - “Always Was, Always Will Be, Aboriginal Land” This is a saying of the aboriginal people of Australia, whom archeologists believe are possibly the oldest surviving culture on earth—perhaps over 65,000 years. To be aboriginal does not mean the color of one’s skin, the shape of the nose, or one’s type of hair. Aboriginality, 2% of the current Australian population, is a cultural heritage, a shared history or living in a place and on an ancestral land.
Since colonization from the British in the 18th century, aboriginal people in Australia have suffered oppression and discrimination. Removing people from ancestral lands, sometimes separating children from their children in order to break the cultural traditions passed down through families, and denying education that embraces cultural heritage were practices aimed at disrupting and denying cultural identity. Despite these injustices, cultural traditions have not been completely demolished and there is a resurgence of appreciation and respect for Aboriginal ways and wisdom.
While many people of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal culture admit that there is a long way to go to secure human rights and equal education for the Aboriginal peoples, the government of the New South Wales is leading the way in valuing, integrating and providing employment and educational opportunities for those of indigenous heritage. A traditional “special place for sharing” has been created through the Aboriginal Knowledge and Practice Center to celebrate what one professor said, “a wonderful era where our first Australians are being welcomed, respected and honoured.” Read more about these exciting efforts: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/about-us/news-at-det/news/aboriginal-knowledge-and-practice-centre
- Moose soup, akutaq (a kind of ice cream), fish strips and fry bread. While these foods may not be what you normally eat, for older people of indigenous peoples of the U.S. state of Alaska, these are “comfort foods.” Many traditional cultures in Alaska are dying with the elders whose children and grandchildren often leave the homelands to find work in cities or regions far from their ancestral lands. The young people who stay have less social support and often struggle with issues such as suicide and depression.
The 13-member Alaska Native Elder Health Advisory Committee, or ANEHAC, was formed in 2004 to provide advice and guidance to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s board of directors on health issues affecting Alaska Native elders. ANEHAC works to connect elders with young people, sharing traditional wisdom and support to help reverse the suicide rate among young people.
“Every family, every elder must be involved,” one committee member said. “Suicide is 100 percent preventable; it takes us all to make that happen. Loving, caring, sharing– it’s the Native way of life.” Read more at: http://www.alaskanewspapers.com/article.php?article=1046alaska_native_elders_give_health_wisdom_forg
- The decade of the 1970s in Nicaragua was characterized by terrible violence and guerilla warfare, as a people’s movement overthrew the government of dictator Antastasio Somosa Debayle. Also brewing during those years of turmoil and change were feelings toward the Catholic Church in Nicaragua and elsewhere in Latin America. Increasingly, the Catholic Church was criticized for its hierarchical leadership structures. As the Nicaraguan liberation movement advocated for the liberation from poverty of the poor, alternative expressions of the Christian faith also developed. From these expressions, and from similar struggles in other Latin American (and other) countries grew Liberation Theology.
Branching out into both the Catholic and Protestant churches, the theology of liberation asserts, among other things, a “preferential option for the poor,” and celebrates the servant aspect of Jesus Christ. The tiny community of Solentaname in Nicaragua, led by Catholic priest Ernesto Cardenal, began to read passages of the Gospel (the four first books in the New Testament of the Christian holy book, the Bible), “from the underside,” or, from the viewpoint of the poor. The transcripts from the Solentaname community were considered subversive because they challenged the political and church structures of the day and were eventually published in a series of books called “The Gospel in Solentaname.”
The lasting effects of the liberation theology movement is that churches today—both Catholic and Protestant—affirm one of the central affirmations of the Christian faith: that each person is a child of God and is deserving of a life of abundance. Another outgrowth of the movement was unique music and artwork, depicting village life and marginalized communities. “La Misa Campesina,” (The Peasants’ Mass) is a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTJIKJYrQ_o&feature=related
- The problem of HIV/AIDS is worldwide—not a country is untouched by its presence. Affirming the value of the whole person, religious communities have responded in different ways—through education and community awareness, providing health care and medicine, and for providing emotional and economic support for the victims and families of those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
Beginning in Thailand, and now also working in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Southern China, Vietnam, Mongolia and Butan, the Sangha Metta Project applies traditional Buddhist wisdom to addressing the problem of HIV/AIDS. Buddhist monks provide education about HIV/AIDS, encourage communities to avoid high-risk behavior, train HIV/AIDS sufferers in handicrafts and provide counseling and meditation training to them. “HIV-friendly” temples welcome sufferers and help reduce the social stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, and cooperation with local hospitals in providing traditional medicines in conjunction with other therapies strengthen cooperation from various sectors of the community.
Central to Buddhist teachings is the alleviation of suffering. The Sangha Metta Project is one step closer on that path. http://www.buddhanet.net/sangha-metta/project.html
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