Letting go. Message to oneself, to a missing or forgotten woman, to another person, or saying farewell to a situation that the participant wants to leave behind. The message is placed in a closed box and burned at during a forgiveness ceremony ritual.
Objective
- Address difficult topics through a resilient aspect.
- Represent the departure ritually.
- Allow introspection and reflection on the subject.
Target Audience
Adult and youth
Duration
30 minutes
Material
Cardboard, pencil, box or sealed envelope.
Note to facilitator
Throughout this package, loss is addressed in all of its forms (loss of a person, a situation, an event, etc.) in order to engage dialogue on resilience, an ability demonstrated by Aboriginal peoples, due to the mourning they went through over the course of history.
At the end of this activity, the facilitator should observe the following with regards to the participants:
- A better understanding of the principles of resilience;
- A new way to practice letting go;
- An enhanced ease when addressing topics of loss.
Steps and Procedure
1
Have the participants listen to Diane’s statements at :2
Explain the purpose of the exercise : Bid farewell to a situation, someone lost or deceased, an emotion, etc. The farewell is done in writing, and will then be destroyed according to the facilitator’s method of choice.
Examples of settings
Women's centers, social intervention, sharing circles, cultural gatherings.
It’s Aboriginal spiritual life; it’s the rituals. It isn’t noticeable. It isn’t necessarily obvious as such, but all our elders, our parents, they lived in a certain way like that, with offerings. Every morning, every night, throughout the chosen moments of their day.