Healing Circle

Journey of Listening with the Heart

By Cindy Saufferer, MN UWFaith President

How fitting to participate in a Healing Circle on Valentine’s Day. Following the MMIWR March at Phillips Park, I joined a group of leaders representing several committees from our MN Annual Conference. Our purpose was discernment through listening.

(Photo source: Dawn Houser)

We began our time together by smudging, a ceremony of cleansing the soul of negative thoughts and inviting positive energy. For this writer, smudging is an intentional act akin to taking a deep cleansing breath and opening myself to Presence. This communal act prepared our hearts for the art of listening.

Jimmie Heags, our Circle Leader, led us through storytelling and questions. As the talking stick was passed from one to another, we could respond with caution or vulnerability, humor versus truth. 

Personally, if I listen close enough, I can hear the truth held within humor.

As our time was nearing its end, Jimmie told us of an instructor that asked his students, “What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?” 

Every student answered and each was told, “No, you are wrong.”

When all had had an opportunity to answer, the instructor gave the answer, “The first thing you do when you get up in the morning is stand on stolen land.”

It was our turn to respond. A dear friend of mine took the talking stick into his hands. Admitting the desire to deflect with humor, chose vulnerability. This friend reminded us that we gathered today because our Annual Conference wanted the Committee on Native American Ministries (CONAM) to write a Land Acknowledgment to be read at the 2023 Minnesota Annual Conference.

We were reminded that a Land Acknowledgment is so much more than words to be read and filed away or a box to be checked.

Know the Land Territories Campaign states: “A Land Acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of this land and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories. To recognize the land is an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory you reside on, and a way of honoring the Indigenous people who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial. It is important to understand the long-standing history that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history. 

“Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense. or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation. It is also worth noting that acknowledging the land is Indigenous protocol.”

A Healing Circle is a place to be profoundly heard and that can only happen if we deeply listen.

The MN Hopeful Earthkeepers have created “Transformational Journey Towards Land Acknowledgment,” a curriculum for the purpose of writing a personal land acknowledgement statement. For this student, it was a journey of listening to the land, its peoples, and my own heart.