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Kevin Hofmann, Director of the Office of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion, chats with Rose Johnson during her presentation, Growing Up Me: A Native American’s Experience

July 26, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – Rose Johnson, a Native American woman who spent most of her life in Adrian, Michigan, shared with Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and the general public about her early life of being rejected by her mother, adopted by an older white couple, and finally reconnecting with her roots in the Native community.

Rose’s presentation, Growing Up Me: A Native American’s Experience, was part of a series of presentations by people of diverse races and cultures offered by the Adrian Dominican Sisters Office of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion. Kevin Hofmann, director of the office, interviewed Rose throughout the presentation, held July 13, 2023, at the Weber Retreat and Conference Center Auditorium.

After speaking about her early life and childhood with her foster family in Adrian, Rose recounted her eventual reconnection with the local Native community. “They brought me in and they told me I needed to be in the circle,” she said. “They taught me that I belonged somewhere, and that was an awesome feeling.” Rose said she and her husband became part of the Odawa people in Adrian, although her original heritage is Comanche and Aztec.

During the presentation, Rose gave her perspective as a Native American woman on four of the five Enactments approved by delegates at the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ 2022 General Chapter.

  • Diversity: “We have the medicine wheel, and the medicine wheel has all colors: the red, the yellow, the black, and the white,” Rose explained. She said the medicine wheel stands for all of the children God created. “We need each other to survive,” she said. 
  • Sustainability: Rose described Earth as the mother, and acting sustainably is “just like protecting our own mothers.” Earth is “part of us,” giving us life. “Her blood is in the rivers and the waters. Without that, we have no life.”
  • Women: Rose described most Native American communities as matriarchal. “Nothing is done without the woman’s permission,” she said. Men are the protectors of women. “Women are supposed to be the ones to raise the children,” she said, adding that women will fight to save the children.
  • Spirituality: “I can’t spend a day or take a breath without having God’s breath on me or saying anything that God hasn’t inspired in my thoughts,” Rose explained. She cited the Scriptural teaching that humans are made in God’s image. “So if we love ourselves, we’re going to love all of creation and everybody else,” she said. 

Watch the entire video to learn more about Native American traditions, including the Ghost Supper, pow-wows, and dance. 


May 30, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – During a recent presentation on Understanding Gender, guest speaker Socorro Sevilla offered a key recommendation for encountering gender expansive persons: common courtesy and respect.

Socorro Sevilla

A 25-year social services and social work professional and now a counselor with a private practice in Adrian, Socorro recently gave the opening presentation in a new series offered by the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Office of Racial Diversity and Cultural Inclusion. The series brings speakers from various racial, religious, cultural, and gender communities to the Adrian Dominican Motherhouse to present their world view. 

“My hope is through understanding and education, [the series] can bring compassion, and we can be better allies to so many communities that need help with their voice,” said Kevin Hofmann, Director of the Office of Racial Diversity and Cultural Inclusion.

Speaking to an audience of Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and community members, Socorro noted that many people experience “confusion, fear, anxiety, and questions” when working through the changing views of sex and gender: from traditional, binary, biological male and female to include transgender, non-binary, gender fluid, and other gender expansive identities.  

In recent years, Socorro said, the idea of binary gender shifted to seeing gender as a spectrum: a line along which people fall, with male on one end to female on the other. Yet more recently, they explained, gender is seen as a galaxy. “Every person’s gender is a star somewhere in this galaxy – unique, distinct, but maybe clustered in areas.” 

Socorro spoke from experience as a counselor primarily to youth, with 82% of their clients in the LGBTQI+ community. Many in the LGBTQI+ community experience “distinct and chronic stressors related to their sexual orientation and/or identity,” as well as to racial identity. Many of these stressors come from the assumptions that others make about their identity. The stress, they said, is “not so much what’s happening [inside you] … It’s dealing with everybody else’s stuff coming at you.” Young people and those who have been rejected by their families can easily internalize the messages they get from others, Socorro added.

Socorro suggested a simple way to help people in the LGBTQI+ community: common courtesy and respect, accepting them for who they are and using their preferred names and pronouns. This simple form of respect can decrease suicide in the LGBTQI+ community by half, Socorro said. “If that’s all we need to do to cut suicide rates in half, I don’t think it’s that much to ask.”

Watch the entire video of Socorro’s presentation below.

 


 

 

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