Bushmen Renaissance and Re-emergence

From Vision to Reality—Bushman Renaissance

May 2018 Project Update

Submitted May 3, 2018

Dear Donors,

As always, we are very grateful for the ongoing support we receive from you, our Donors, which makes our work with the Khomani San Bushmen of the Kalahari possible.

The Wisdom Weavers of the World conference on Hawaii (see January report) last quarter gave us an opportunity to meet with Khomani San Bushman Healer and Elder Lys to learn more about the current situation within her community. During our time together, we spoke with her about what her vision is for her people, especially the youth who are particularly vulnerable.

Because they were moved off their ancestral lands to lands with no water, no schools, etc. and because two liquor store owners were given permission to open stores in the midst of the community, selling booze for less than water in some cases, the problems of alcoholism, domestic violence, illness and more are escalating in the community. Lys and her husband provide a safe house to kids in the community who are in violent or abusive situations.

Lys’ vision is this: to bring the Khomani San youth out to their ancestral lands and to Bushmen lands in Namibia where the culture continues to live on their ancestral lands and has remained more intact. This will give the youth an opportunity to learn the trance dances of their ancestors and to see first hand what is possible through healing, through remembering. She also seeks to build a healing hut on their lands through which she will be able to teach the girls in the community the ancient practice of “smeer,” a healing massage of the Bushmen. Her husband Isak will also use the hut to show the male youth the medicinal plants used for healing, and both he and Lys will be able to receive international visitors in this hut.

WISN has provided Lys and her community with the funds to build this hut and the construction and clearing has begun. It should be completed in the next month or so. And though we will continue to raise funds for the Mobile Addictions Treatment program, in the meantime, we will support the Bushmen—on their own terms—to empower and build from within their community.

Thank you again for your support, dear Donors, and for helping us spread the word about this project and others.

Mobile Addictions Treatment for the Khomani San Bushmen

February 2018 Project Update

Submitted February 3, 2018

Dear Donors,

As always, we are very grateful for the ongoing support we receive from you, which makes our work with the Khomani San Bushmen of the Kalahari possible.

In October, through the generous support of the Wisdom Weavers of the World conference, we were able to bring an Indigenous Khomani San Elder and healer from the Kalahari in South Africa to Kauai, Hawaii to attend this conference. Lys Kruiper was one of 13 Elder Council members present at the event, which included Native Americans, Aboriginals from Australia, Arhuacos from Colombia, indigenous Hawaiians, and also one of our Indigenous Cultural Practitioners (ICPs) from Kyrgyzstan. The Elders met in council daily to discuss the state of the world from an indigenous perspective and what humanity needs to do during these times, and the event was filmed by an international film crew for a documentary film, release date TBD.  

After the gathering, we brought Lys to WISN’s headquarters, which is on a sacred site on Maui. We introduced her to a local Hawaiian ICP who teaches and performs an ancient type of healing massage called Lomi Lomi. As a healer who uses healing massage, we hoped the meeting would inspire Lys, and it did.

Lys indicated to us that much of this time on Hawaii inspired her. The filming helped give her a sense of her own significance in the world, important especially as isolation among ICPs around the world is such a huge problem. Also, in connecting with the Hawaiian ICP and Lomi Lomi instructor and seeing a teaching model for passing these healing modalities along to the next generation, Lys is now inspired to create a similar model for her community in the Kalahari, teaching young girls these ways with the hopes that having these skills will keep them off the streets and away from the problems of drug and alcohol abuse faced by her community, and sadly, much more frequently by younger and younger Khomani San.

She was also inspired to organize a trip with the youth to visit several sacred sites to the Bushmen with the hopes that visiting these sites will reconnect and empower not only Lys and other ICPs and Elders in the community, but the youth, showing them possibilities beyond their present day reality.

WISN will be supporting her efforts in building a training hut and treatment space so that this important work can happen. The space will also be used by her husband—also an ICP who works in traditional plant medicine and is a community leader—to conduct training sessions with the male youth as well as consultations with clients in need of his support.

Our continued hope is that we can support the Bushmen—on their terms—to reclaim their health, power, and identity for the healing of their community in the Kalahari and beyond.

Thank you again for your support and for helping us spread the word about this project and others.