Walking in Balance Training

Walking in Balance with All Our Relations: A primary prevention curriculum based on indigenous values prior to colonization to promote the safety of Youth, Adults, and Elders in our communities from a Racial Justice and Gender Equity Lens.

These values include peace and justice, respect, balance, courage, humility, compassion, empathy, wisdom, sacredness/vision, connection to the land, generosity, and gratitude, Elders teach and mentor adults and children in the community. The Visioning B.E.A.R. (Balance, Equality, and Respect) Circle Intertribal Coalition, a survivor led organization, co-authored the curriculum after embarking on a two-and-a-half-year journey to learn what the elders had to say about living with peace and justice with all living beings. The curriculum is divided into thirteen three-hour modules and is designed to serve as a way of life. Those who complete all thirteen modules are certified as teachers of the curriculum. A key component of the curriculum involves using the Circle Process for teaching healing and transformative/restorative practices in eliminating violence against children and Mother Earth. Plants and animals are relatives that provide medicine for the people. They are equal to human beings, having the same psychology and need for respect as humans do. Relationships with all beings need to be reciprocal and based on appreciation for the gifts each relation provides to the wellbeing of the whole of creation. Using the Talking Stick Circle Process, this curriculum highlights the intersections of gender equity and expression, structures based on true democracy, economic justice, environmental justice and their role in preventing all forms of interpersonal violence. The curriculum develops participants’ capacity for empathy in providing healing for both those who are harmed and those who cause harm. Commitment to conflict resolution among all beings resonates throughout the curriculum. Conflict resolution using Circle Process empowers the community to promote healthy, safe, and equitable relationships. It is expected that those trained will work to transform systems that promote inequity and harm in tangible ways to address the structural harm that is the root of the sexual and physical violence children experience.

Goals and objectives for training:

Participants will learn a culturally determined primary prevention model of eliminating interpersonal violence based on indigenous pre-colonization values and traditions.
Participants will learn about a definition of the root causes of violence and racism that features an indigenous understanding that the taking of the land by white male Christians and the objectification of the environment and women are intrinsically connected.
Participants will learn about a culturally determined evaluation model that is relevant to communities of color that uses story-telling and Circle Process to both heal and prevent sexual and physical harm to children.
Participants will learn how gender equity, real democracy, environmental respect, and the equitable distribution of wealth lead to peace and justice that are prerequisites for keeping children safe.

Outcomes:

Participants will re-look at primary prevention based on their own community values.
Participants will take a fresh look at the root causes of violence taking into account the taking of the land and resources from people of color around the world to serve the global economy.
Participants will learn how culturally relevant, culturally determined evaluation models strengthen primary prevention approaches to interpersonal, environmental, economic, and systemic violence.
Participants will expand their prevention strategies to consider gender equity and expression, equitable distribution of economic resources, consensus decision making, and environmental sustainability as critical aspects of a peaceful and just society.

The curriculum is evaluated in a culturally appropriate story-telling format that yields both qualitative and quantitative data. The evaluation process is seamlessly integrated into the teaching modules.

Register for Our Next
Walking in Balance Training

Participant Testimonials:

This has affected me in a very good way. I think regardless of the communities we consider ourselves a part of, we need to do this more, get together more, talk to each other more.

You know, this is my second Circle and it’s always a strong gift that Creator gives us to be a part of Circle. A sharing Circle. A praying Circle. You know, I’m a praying man these days. Every Day I pay for courage, strength, and health in my mind, body, and spirit. Well, I’m dealing personally with trauma that happened in my past, so, I am a victim of you know, incest or sexual assault but I’m not only a victim, I’m a survivor. So, I’m able to weaken the shame and the guilt I have over it because I had no control over it at that time. At least at that point. So by sharing my story, I get to be out there. It breaks down a wall. It makes me a stronger person and hopefully, what I hope to get from this group is to be able to help people other people accept anything that happened in their past and let them know it’s Ok for them to talk about it. And that there is still a lot of growth for them and that they could overcome it. That’s it.

On my way home yesterday, on the drive back to [Riverton?], I just was reflecting and thinking how powerful this was, and how it made me feel a lot better. ‘Cause I’ve been going through a tough time in my life, and this is helping me figure out my next steps. And it was really needed. I reflected on the thing that I drew yesterday, last night. I was telling my mom about it. Sometimes it just hurts ‘cause I see so much pain and suffering, pain everywhere. The people I talk to. And sometimes it hurts me so much that I have to just avoid people, because all of their negativity, I just, I always absorb it. You know, I take it from them. So hopefully, hoping that I can, you know, figure out a way how to, I guess, block that and still be able to talk and help people that I need to. You know, maybe I’m still thinking, trying to figure it out.

Well, I know I’m changing, I think, because of this group. In particular, because I’m, I think I’m listening more and I’m able to let go when my ideas aren’t accepted. So, you know, I, like you were sharing, you know, to just pre, present this point of view and know that not everybody’s gonna be able to hear it. And that’s okay. It’s just being, you know, going out with something that’s my truth and something that I feel passionate about is, is enough. And I can let go of it. And not have an emotional attachment to it. And it’s amazing, because I’ve never had that. I think it’s, being in a Circle with a core group of people who were really listening and acknowledging you, you know. The other thing I really notice is this sense of oneness with all beings. And I think it’s the influence of the Native spirituality that I’m learning from both Strong Oak’s presence and other people that have Native heritage that are in this Circle. Especially in this time of climate change, that we need this guidance, we need this influence to change, as you were sharing, the violent ways that we’ve been living our lives as humans for a good long time. It wasn’t always this way, but you know, I really, I really think that being in this Circle is helping me change my orientation towards all beings. You know, I had this philosophy, but now, of, you know, connection with all beings and the importance of all beings, but now it’s somehow, it’s intensified. So that, you know, and I’m learning, you know, about the connections of the life forms under the earth. And this, today I learned something about the web of, the pad of mycelium and the communications and how they send antibiotics if there’s an ill tree, or they send something if somebody’s getting an, an infestation from an insect or, or something. They send poisonous things to, to other trees to kill those off. But if this, if logging, oh I shouldn’t go into [inaudible], but you know, what, what we need. And the importance of defending that. So just being here with representations of all of life, it’s, it’s a very important influence for this time going forward. And, thank you.