Moving Through

Dakini Gardens and Retreat presents a workshop dedicated to moving through and past the multitude of losses of a lifetime, which unacknowledged, unwitnessed and never fully grieved, inhibit our potential to truly embrace life for all it may be. This workshop provides an opportunity to examine our losses through meditation, circle sharing, expressive arts, relationship with nature, storytelling and movement. Nothing that exists is ever truly lost, it simply changes form.

Georgia Bannon lives and works in Hawaii where she currently provides grief and bereavement counseling. A Certified Nurses Aid, caring primarily for elders with Alzheimers disease and other infirmities of the aging and dying, Georgia is a recent graduate of the Alaya Institute of San Francisco, having received extensive training in compassionate companionship and death mid-wifery. Georgia has been a certified addiction counselor and worked extensively with persons with developmental disabilities, incest and abuse issues, eating disorders, mental illness and suicidal ideation. She is a Healing Touch Practitioner and uses her Jungian training in Thematic Apperception (exploring spontaneous drawings) as a tool for Healing. Georgia uses her skills and lifetime of experience to assist others in coming to terms with many of life's most difficult dilemmas. Emily DuBois, a professional artist and former university art teacher, has been learning, practicing and teaching qigong, nei gong, taiji and other traditional Chinese healing arts since 1978. She has received direct empowerments and official teaching certificates from her Sifu (teachers), including Tsuei Wei, Foo Wei Zhong, and Yu Tian Jian. Emily enjoys the healing power of her daily practices and likes to provide opportunities for others to connect with the harmonizing processes of the natural universe.

Qigong and Drawing

Our daily morning and evening practice sessions include gentle qigong movement, standing and chair-sitting meditation. Daily drawing sessions are held at a variety of beautiful nearby locations, with a mix of instruction, group and individual drawing times. Traditional media are combined with tools, surfaces, and pigments obtained from the Hawaiian land and sea.

Instructor: Emily DuBois. For professional bio, go to www.emilydubois.com home page.

Uluana'ana Lauhala

Uluana'ana: To Weave On and On. Lauhala: Leaves of the Hawai'ian native Hala (Pandanus odoratissimus). Journey into the living heart of Hawaiian culture with Kumu (teacher) Lynda Tu'a. Weaving skills are essential to Hawaiian culture: from lauhala are woven canoe sails, basket of all kinds, fans, hats, and much more -- even woven sleds for the ancient sacrificial sport he'e nalu opele ("riding the waves of Pele".) Auntie Lynda teaches weaving as a vehicle for Hawaiian concepts and language, with plenty of aloha and rich cultural experiences for children and adults alike.

Lynda Tu'a teaches at Kawaiokalehua Foundation, Kua o ka la Public Charter School, Launakila Learning Center, Kamemeha Schools, Malama Waldorf School, National Parks, and other locations. She has been selected as a representative to the 2008 World Indigenous Peoples Conference in Melbourne, Australia.