A Heartwood Lodge Retreat Fortifying the Personal Process Towards Decolonization
Even before the foundation was poured or the first wall went up, Heartwood Lodge was imagined as a sanctuary, a physical space to inspire, support, and sustain inquiry and engagement. The Lodge has hosted both large groups engaged in shared learning as well as individuals engaged in independent retreat and residency. The Lodge best meets its mission when it creates space for cross-pollination between those seeking retreat and our campus learning community. As an example, last December Cobscook Institute welcomed René Goddess Johnson, founder of Embodied Equity, LLC, for a month-long retreat.
While immersed in her own deep retreat, René shared her work with our school community by offering an interactive workshop with students in the Cobscook Experiential Program.
Using healing arts, René brings her experiences of being born under the South African system of apartheid and as a Black Queer woman in Maine to her present-day work towards systemic and transformative change in social and racial injustice. Weaving pieces from her one-woman show with open space for students to reflect on racial and economic injustices, René created a dynamic space for students to enter a conversation about inequality, racism, trauma, and healing. Daisyjo Jones, a junior, reflected, “René created an open and sharing space with lots of options for us students. She’s had lots of struggles in her life and shared those stories, but she doesn’t let the past weigh her down. She uses her stories to build people up.” Zack Bladen, sophomore, shared, “I really liked René’s energy. I think it’s amazing how she uses her personal story as a foundation for the workshop she led. She’s truly inspiring. I hope she comes back.”
The power of retreat can be at once deeply restorative and transformative. René shared her experience of her time at Cobscook and finding healing space, within her context of living within a world of systemic racism, violence, and colonization. To understand the healing value of retreat, we have to also understand the context of surviving within this world. This story reveals the intersection of personal, community, and global well-being. In an interview with program coordinator Anne Hopkins, we gleaned the following about René’s experience.
René described her residency/retreat in Heartwood Lodge as “an impeccably timed” chance to seek stillness, and focus on listening deeply to the vulnerability of art making in the wilds of Peskotomuhkatik, Passamaquoddy territory.
As someone who is indigenous to South Africa, having grown up in the dual reality of her indigenous culture, colonization, and apartheid, and also in Maine, as a Black Queer woman, on stolen Wabanaki land, René is acutely aware of the legacy of colonization and sees the work of Embodied Equity as the work of decolonization. Colonization, slavery, and white supremacy have created a world where Black and Indigenous women face disproportionate violence. René and others describe living with this threat as white terrorism: an effect of the white supremacy culture we all live in, resulting in People of Color not being safe existing in the world. This language and framing is intense and that intensity helps make visible how a culture that is built on a violent past and extractive practices, perpetuates harm – often not visible to portions of society. In using this language, we can recognize that this reality is not inherent, but created and therefore it can be deconstructed. In fact, it liberates each of us to imagine we have a role in transformation and healing.
We aspired to create a safe space for René in a world where it is not a given. She shared that being in a rural space, within the cocoon of Heartwood Lodge and the Cobscook campus, was healing and allowed for a body that has been assimilated to white terrorism to open towards awareness and a peaceful experience of personal choice. The refuge allowed for a spiritual opening to hear her authentic thoughts and feelings away from the conditioning of colonialism and to find clarity.
A significant component of René's work with Embodied Equity is in facilitating processes and practices that support people in shedding the legacy of colonization and white supremacy culture by getting out of their heads and into their bodies and hearts. René’s work recognizes that ultimately we all need to enact self care to be well and honest within ourselves in order to enact change.
René’s residency was an opportunity for her to research and apply skills for self care, a practical and careful approach to expanding the toolbox of nurturing and accessing deep self knowledge. The safety of Heartwood Lodge created space for René’s listening prowess to strengthen. The deep quiet resulted in an opening to spirit strength. Reflecting on her retreat, René said, “Going up there was just coming to ‘the clarity.’ I was like, ‘I need the clarity of what’s happening to me, because it has to be simpler than what I'm seeing. It just has to be, I know it is.’” This is a theme for her work in this world, to expand beyond the conditioning of supremacy, and develop the tools and practices to access self knowledge and to cultivate healing of our spirits, bodies, and minds. The practice of deep listening rejuvenated and refreshed René’s creative practice, providing Abenaki Land, where she lives, with the most honest version of herself, essential to being in relationship with the land and her path of working towards decolonization.
To engage with Embodied Equity visit: embodiedequity.online