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Archive Number 3606 | ||
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Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 08:58:51 EST
MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Here is a post that Bobby sent out and copied to me. It explains more of his thinking about stories and restorative justice. To reply to him: storyflute@hotmail.com Gail For quite while now I have been fascinated, both as a storyteller and member of the Alternatives to Violence Project, with the tradition of restorative justice in some of the First People's social-foundation stories, such as the Innuit "Fast Runner" and the Five-Nations' "White Roots of Peace" (I have an excellent version from the early 1900's). In addition, I suppose you already know "The Boy Who Was Raised by Bears" (in one of Bruchac"s collections?). I'd also strongly recommend the Pawnee story "The Boy Who Was Sacrificed" from the collection by George Bird Grinnel "The Whistling Skeleton: American Indian Tales of the Supernatural". Not only do I think a deeper exploration of this model of Restorative Justice is important for our society, I also think it could be a great path for the speaker's circuit, for a researched article, or as a college course. It would be fascinating to compare and contrast this model with other tribal societies in Africa and the Middle and Far East, and the endless cycles of revenge-justice models prevalent in the hero stories of the present dominant world cultures, both Eastern and Western. I am aware that some ancient Greek societies made attempts at forms of Restorative Justice in their tradition of "ostracism". But in their great plays about the futility of revenge, it is the "Deus Ex Machina" (literally "the god in the machine" as Apollo appears to float above the stage) who decrees an end to the cycle of violence. Whereas, it seems, in the First People's stories, the human beings themselves struggle towards this realization, as Hiawatha has to struggle up from suicidal despair to cannibalism to failure to complete human being. Unlike the supernatural hero ("The Peace-Maker") , Hiawatha exemplifies our halting journey towards being fully human in the Christian or Buddhist ideal. But unlike our popular, "major" religions that have revelation as a sudden "I saw the light" experience, Hiawatha LIVES the journey for all of us, showing us our own transformations through the mirror of his own heart-breaking losses, failures and changes. I am also fascinated by the concomitant Native American idea that, because "the wounding" produces "the gift", the one who causes the wound, the "perpetrator", is NOT punished. Can you imagine how different western psychology would be if, instead of our wounds being defined as injuries, burdens and blemishes, we could see them as leading us towards greater sensitivity, awareness and connection to nature, leading us to a worthwhile place in the community? While the scars would still ache, as scars do, we could then also hold a place of gratitude for the pain which "opened us to our gift" (as in the pain and fear of any birth process), and be freed from the whining narcissism of western psychology. I'd love to brainstorm more with you if you wish. In any case, I hope you enjoy these ideas. If you are not interested in developing them furthur, I hope you'll pass them on. It would be good to bring them out into the world, and many are now ready to hear and learn. This can be a good time to again tell these stories. Sincerely, Bobby (Bob Seigetsu Avstreih) ps. I've done a little of research on "High John the Conquerer", tracing him from the Ewe tradition thru blues and stories of "John" as a trickster/survivor, up to Zora Neale Huston's World War II article offering him as a hero and role-model to all Americans. I'd love to share this with someone, too. (I need to share. I don't need to make money off my sharing, but I don't refuse money if some comes my way. It's useful. Its just not necessary. Sharing is necessary, and anyone who holds their knowledge for ransom, by copyright or whatever means, is not a fullly human being.) And by the way, have you been following the UN attempts to draw up a "Treaty for Rights of Indigenous Peoples" , which, last I heard was being tied up around the European/American countries' insistence on a definition of Western"individual" property rights vs Native "communal" property rights? ------------------------------- To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu ------------------------------- | ||