Intergenerational Trauma & Healing Discussion Panel

INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA AND HEALING DISCUSSION PANEL

Thursday, September 11 | 5-6:30pm

The Homer community is invited to learn with three local women and each other about the process of recognizing, understanding, and resolving the emotional wounds passed down through familial generation that can manifest through physical, behavioral and psychological burden.

While our panelists are not professional experts in therapeutic psychology, we have learned to listen to ourselves, our children, our partners, our neighbors and how to process our emotions through the arts, in nature, and with our communities.

Sharon Whytal

Sharon grew up in a family that experienced violence, and is grateful that even as professionals, finally we no longer need to hold a separation from those we serve, but instead use our emotional recovery in walking the healing together. She worked as a public health nurse for 26 years, where she discovered that indigenous people, despite their historical and intergenerational trauma, hold much human wisdom that western culture has forgotten. She traveled to our local villages for 7 years as a family violence prevention advocate and a member of our local SART team and Child Advocacy Center. Sharon is a tribal advocate in violence prevention at Chugachmiut and Retired Public Health Nurse at State of Alaska. She loves kayaking our magnificent AK waters with friends, cultivating the mystical in meditation, gardening and living in this incredible community we have in Homer.

Brianna Allen

As a multidisciplinary artist Brianna aims to expand the space of a mother’s authentic experience to make way for healing, empathy, and one’s own regeneration. When people have sanctified platforms to connect through mutual experiences, a rich, cathartic playground of trust emerges among us. Less alone, life is renewed.

Brianna’s art practice has been deeply informed by The Momologue Collective; an ongoing social art project which offers a platform and archive for hundreds of short stories (momologues) contributed by American mothers, to be shared anonymously on social media with an aim to build community for mothers through storytelling.

Brianna graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a degree in Studio Art and Entrepreneurial Studies with a concentration in Painting in 2008. She was born in Lewiston, Maine. Homer, Alaska has been her home since 2012. She has two daughters who are 5 and 7. Our best days are filled with baking, cold dipping, potion making, gardening, and tea time.

Jenny Baker

Jenny Baker is an Adolescent Health Project Coordinator for the Adolescent Health Program within the Women’s, Children’s, and Family Health Section of Alaska’s Department of Health.  She has a committed interest in primary prevention, community engagement, health equity, and justice.  She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Alaska Pacific University in 2009.  Currently, she supports the advisory and community intervention efforts of the Youth Alliance for a Healthier Alaska and coordinates the programmatic and evaluation efforts of the Teen and Unintended Pregnancy Prevention program.  She has previously worked in the fields of juvenile justice and youth enrichment in Oregon and Alaska.  She has been in Alaska for 20 years and is an adoring partner of Tom, a mom of Mackenzie and a fur baby named Django, and is a musician who loves recreating in the outdoors.

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This Discussion Panel is part of our ongoing exhibit “Connected” by Sharlene Cline. This installation is an immersive exploration of our shared humanity.

This is a FREE event!