Healing of Memories in Hawaii

It may seem curious that the Institute for Healing of Memories found its way to the Hawaiian Islands. Glenda Wildschut, IHOM Board member, provided the connection. She came to Honolulu in 2007, at the invitation of Church of the Crossroads, United Church of Christ, to deliver the church’s bi-annual Watada lectures.

Inspired by Glenda and eager to learn how South Africa’s experience might speak to social justice and trauma issues in Hawaii, a group of twelve church members journeyed to Cape Town the following year.. We visited the Institute, watched the DVD, and dialogued with staff. We were moved by what we saw and heard. By the end of our visit, two members, Liz Nelson and Linda Rich, knew we wanted to become involved with IHOM.

Many e-mails and months later, we were in New York, attending a Healing of Memories workshop and facilitator training, and talking with Fr. Michael, Phyllis Rodriguez and Steve Karakashian about a workshop in Honolulu. We set a date, asked Church of the Crossroads to support our efforts as a fiscal sponsor, wrote grant proposals, contacted everyone we could think of who might be interested and received numerous e-mails of encouragement and advice from IHOM-North America.

May arrived and Fr. Michael and Thulani Xaba were here to conduct the first Healing of Memories Workshop in Honolulu. Now, three years later, there have been two public workshops and one in a women’s residential drug treatment program, two programs in a women’s prison, talks with Buddhist , Methodist, Episcopal, and United Church of Christ congregations, the Hawaii Forgiveness Project and an appearance on Hawaii Public Radio. On each visit to Hawaii, Fr. Michael has connected with the Native Hawaiian community, becoming more aware of the historical trauma and social justice issues of these islands. In the future, we hope to provide a forum for what he calls “courageous conversations” about these realities.

Next year we plan to hold a facilitator training and build our capacity to hold more frequent workshops.