Module 4: Collective Recovery
We begin the observance planning process by asking three basic questions: Why are anniversaries important? What is an observance? And, how can observing anniversaries help us transform the ecology of inequality? We explore these questions in the video below.
[Video]: Our shared history includes all kinds of power struggles, betrayals, victories, and happenstances. The passage of time is not necessarily enough to resolve all that has happened to us. Collective anniversaries remind us that the past is with us, which enables us to resolve issues that continue troubling our relationships so that we can move on together in a healthier manner. Anniversaries are more than just history lessons. They call us together so that we might better understand who we are and what we might become, if that is indeed what we commit ourselves to do when we observe anniversaries as significant as the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Africans at Point Comfort near Jamestown, to be sold into bondage.
[Video]: The Charlottesville Clergy Collective sponsored a Pilgrimage of Transformation from Charlottesville to Jamestown that connected the events of 2017 in Charlottesville with those of 1619 in Jamestown. Over 400 pilgrims visited sites that hold the memories of those who were dispossessed of their homelands and the enslaved men, women, and children who then worked these lands. At Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, the slave owning author of the Declaration of Independence, the group read aloud the names of 360 enslaved people buried on the former plantation. The pilgrims were also instructed by Dr. Karenne Wood, an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation, in the 18,000-year history of her people.
[Video]: The Pilgrimage of Transformation demonstrates how the anniversary of a painful and, for many, traumatizing event becomes a moment when people are called together. The observance of this anniversary connected or reconnected participants to places and histories that define who we are to each other within the history of inequality. However, this observance also proved that we mean more to each other than this history. By walking, learning, grieving, and reflecting together, participants bore witness to the past and acted toward a transformed future. In the words of the pilgrimage organizers: “We heard stories and untold histories, we built relationships, and we identified common concerns that need to be transformed in order to bring about racial equity.”
[Video]: The 400 Years of Inequality team calls this transformation, “collective recovery,” a way for communities to heal from trauma. The memories of Point Comfort and Jamestown, settler colonialism, and other violently oppressive events and systems, are deeply painful. These traumas live with and within us. In remembering we recall suffering and loss and we recall that people have come together repeatedly and courageously to refuse oppression and inequality in order to live full, free lives.
[Video]: Collective Recovery is a way for communities to heal from trauma. We know that when people are experiencing trauma their instinct can be to retreat from others and become isolated. Affirming, loving connections are important for healing. Collective recovery provides methods for helping us heal together.
[Video]: Are you ready to begin planning your observance? The activities and resources we provide below will help you take the first steps in the process.
Charlottesville Clergy Collective’s Pilgrimage of Transformation
If you would like to watch a video of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective’s Pilgrimage of Transformation, please click here: https://cville2jtown.weebly.com/
(note: if the site does not open automatically, you may need to copy and paste the address into your browser)
(note: if the site does not open automatically, you may need to copy and paste the address into your browser)
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