Future Ancestors: Navigating Decolonization and Embracing Ancestral Wisdom
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Future Ancestors: Navigating Decolonization and Embracing Ancestral Wisdom

In this episode, we had the honor of speaking with Dr. Leny Strobel, a pioneer in decolonization and re-indigenization. We explore her journey, the vital role of "Babaylan," and indigenous wisdom. Discover how Filipino Indigenous Knowledge brings positive change. Learn from Dr. Strobel's wisdom on bridging generations and reconnecting with heritage. She shares practical steps for decolonization. Plus, catch our rapid-fire segment for insights into her experiences.

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Green Dreamer Podcast: Finding Belonging and Remembering How to Dwell in Place
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Green Dreamer Podcast: Finding Belonging and Remembering How to Dwell in Place

“You can use all the deconstructive theories, post-colonial, postmodern theorizing. But then there comes a time when your body begins to speak. What is your body saying? For me, that is when decolonization evolved into something that’s no longer metaphorical—something more real and material. ”

— DR. LENY STROBEL

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Kultivating Kapwa (Episode 2.26): Reflecting and Visioning Kultivating Kapwa - Summer 2021
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Kultivating Kapwa (Episode 2.26): Reflecting and Visioning Kultivating Kapwa - Summer 2021

This is Kultivating Kapwa, hosted by Jana Lynne Umipig and Olivia Sawi.

In our FIRST series, we sit down and ask Auntie Leny questions about her life, her work, decolonization, academia, ethnoautobiography, her relationship to nature, the land, and all living beings, and her views of the future.

In this special episode, we give an introduction to Decolonization and Leny Strobel. This is a great starting point for gaining background knowledge of the topics we will be covering in the podcast. 

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Embodiment Matters: Decolonization—A Conversation with Dr. Leny Strobel
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Embodiment Matters: Decolonization—A Conversation with Dr. Leny Strobel

In this episode, Erin speaks with Dr. Leny Strobel about her decades of work in decolonization, as a Filipina American, as well as in her role as a “settler” in her home in Northern California, and how it all connects with being embodied. We explore issues of race, of choosing to live small, of how to become indigenous to the place on earth we inhabit, and so much more. Leny is truly a wise elder and her kind heart, spacious awareness, and deep integrity, developed over many decades of deep exploration, are a gift. I hope you enjoy the episode.

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Revolutionary Wellness: Learning How to Dwell in a Place—A Practice in Decolonization with Dr. Leny Strobel and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe pt. 3 of 3
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Revolutionary Wellness: Learning How to Dwell in a Place—A Practice in Decolonization with Dr. Leny Strobel and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe pt. 3 of 3

How might we learn how to Dwell in a Place, learn how to be part of the landscape, or learn how to see and feel in a whole new way? By learning how to dance, chant, and do ritual? To greet the ancient redwoods in our backyards every morning and hug the trees in the garden? To put our hands in the soil and try to learn the names of all the non-human beings we live with? All these take time. Slowness is key.

Practicing presence is difficult for us in this modern culture. We are latecomers to this way of being and while we may still feel resistance sometimes, this may be the essential practice to undo our current cultural conditionings.

Join us for this conversation on disengaging from the intellectual life that demands a loyalty to the faculty of reason with the body and emotions served only as side dishes on the menu of the canon and learn how to bring your whole self  - body, mind, heart, spirit  - into the only life you have to live, because when you do it changes everything.

Part 3 of 3.

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Revolutionary Wellness: Learning How to Dwell in a Place—A Practice in Decolonization with Dr. Leny Strobel and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe pt. 2 of 3
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Revolutionary Wellness: Learning How to Dwell in a Place—A Practice in Decolonization with Dr. Leny Strobel and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe pt. 2 of 3

How might we learn how to Dwell in a Place, learn how to be part of the landscape, or learn how to see and feel in a whole new way? By learning how to dance, chant, and do ritual? To greet the ancient redwoods in our backyards every morning and hug the trees in the garden? To put our hands in the soil and try to learn the names of all the non-human beings we live with? All these take time. Slowness is key.

Practicing presence is difficult for us in this modern culture. We are latecomers to this way of being and while we may still feel resistance sometimes, this may be the essential practice to undo our current cultural conditionings.

Join us for this conversation on disengaging from the intellectual life that demands a loyalty to the faculty of reason with the body and emotions served only as side dishes on the menu of the canon and learn how to bring your whole self  - body, mind, heart, spirit  - into the only life you have to live, because when you do it changes everything.

Part 2 of 3.

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Revolutionary Wellness: Learning How to Dwell in a Place—A Practice in Decolonization with Dr. Leny Strobel and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe pt. 1 of 3
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Revolutionary Wellness: Learning How to Dwell in a Place—A Practice in Decolonization with Dr. Leny Strobel and Dr. Bayo Akomolafe pt. 1 of 3

How might we learn how to Dwell in a Place, learn how to be part of the landscape, or learn how to see and feel in a whole new way? By learning how to dance, chant, and do ritual? To greet the ancient redwoods in our backyards every morning and hug the trees in the garden? To put our hands in the soil and try to learn the names of all the non-human beings we live with? All these take time. Slowness is key.

Practicing presence is difficult for us in this modern culture. We are latecomers to this way of being and while we may still feel resistance sometimes, this may be the essential practice to undo our current cultural conditionings.

Join us for this conversation on disengaging from the intellectual life that demands a loyalty to the faculty of reason with the body and emotions served only as side dishes on the menu of the canon and learn how to bring your whole self  - body, mind, heart, spirit  - into the only life you have to live, because when you do it changes everything.

Part 1 of 3.

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Interview with Gemma Benton: Ancestors & Art
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Interview with Gemma Benton: Ancestors & Art

Gemma Benton is a Spiritual Activist, Native American singer, creator of Healing Her Story Oracle Cards and the Ancestor's Journey. She is Menominee and Filipina and lives in the Sacramento area.

For the past thirty years Gemma has been involved with issues concerning intergenerational and historical trauma and traditional healing in Native American and indigenous communities.

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Interview with Molly Arthur: Decolonization as a Spiritual Path
Leny Strobel Leny Strobel

Interview with Molly Arthur: Decolonization as a Spiritual Path

What is a colonized person? How do we overcome the internalized oppression of colonization? How do non-indigenous people understand a connection to their original homeland without being on the land?

"If decolonization has taught us anything, it's this: part of our own healing is to no longer be the willing receptacle of these projections from the colonizer. What then becomes of us when we are emptied of colonial projections? I was reminded by a very wise woman mentor from India that my colonized self is only a sliver in the totality of my Filipino self. Yet, temporarily, it was necessary for the process of decolonization to take up time and space in the psyche in order to purge these projections so that I can come home full circle to the largeness of my own indigenous self.”

"I use the term indigenous to refer to the self that has found its place, its home in the world. Emptied of projections of "inferiority,' "third world," "undeveloped," "uncivilized," "exotic and primitive," and "modernizing," it is the self capable of conjuring one's place and growing roots through the work of imagination, re-framing history, and re-telling the Filipino story that centers our history of resistance, survival, and re-generation."

"Our primary babaylans and babaylan-inspired kapwa are still with us. In land-based tribal communities in the Philippines, they perform their roles as they have done for thousands of years. Karl Gaspar calls them "organic mystics." In the diaspora, he calls them "mystics in exile." Among Filipinos in the homeland and in the diaspora, decolonizing Filipinos claim the babaylan spirit as an inheritance that is available to all who wish to follow an indigenous Filipino spiritual path."

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