Wakonda

The Essential Mindfulness Practice of Honoring Earth

Reciprocity as Our Ethical Ground

Karen Waconda

Thursday, March 12, 12noon-1pm US EST; 6-7pm CET (time zone converter)

Please join us as we welcome Karen Waconda, Native Medicine leader/healer and dharma teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition. In this talk, Karen will weave together the intersection of native streams of knowledge and mindful awareness. She will speak to the power of establishing reciprocity with our Earth as a basis for ethics in one’s own life and in guiding others. Karen will give guidance for mindfulness teachers on respectfully referencing native sources of wisdom and knowledge.

Themes:

Ways to cultivate awareness of our interconnectedness with Mother Earth and all her beings
Sustaining right relationship with land and our more-than-human kin
Practicing cultural appreciation in teaching, and how to avoid cultural appropriation

Your generous donations help support the important work of our speakers

Benefactor: $100; Supporter $50; Sustaining: $25; Developing Nations Economies $1

Please contact us here if payment is a barrier to participation; we will be happy to register you at any donation level, including $0.

About Karen Waconda:

Karen is a tribal native of the Isleta and Laguna Pueblos. After her initiation into Native Medicine, she introduced traditional healing practices into an urban American Indian health clinic in Albuquerque, NM. She continues to expand this program into local hospitals, the Indian Health Service, the VA Hospital, and surrounding organizations. Karen integrates Western medicine with Native healing in preventive health, mental health, and overall well-being. She is the founder and director of the Center for Native American Integrative Healing, LLC, located in Albuquerque, where healers from various tribal nations practice their traditional medicine and extend their services to the community.

Karen is a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader program graduate and has been practicing mindfulness from a young age, guided by her grandparents in her traditional tribal practices of caring for the land, gardening, cooking and animals. She regularly provides dharma teachings incorporating Native teachings in her community and nationally. She has intertwined Native teachings with Vipassana meditation, incorporating these practices into ceremonies, sweat lodges, and her community at Laguna Pueblo. At Laguna Pueblo, the ancestral teachings of mindfulness have complemented the Buddhist teachings at the Detention Center, providing insight and wellness to inmates and their families.

Additionally, Karen co-founded the Annual Indigenous and Native Healers Silent Retreat and the Albuquerque People of Color and Allies Sangha. She has also been appointed volunteer faculty at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine, where she guides faculty and staff on tribal health issues and wellness support to medical students and residents.

In her personal life, Karen enjoys spending time with her family, including her daughter and two grandchildren. She manages the family ranch and loves spending time with ancestral lands and caring for its inhabitants.

Want to join our email list?

Let us know!

In partnership with the

Questions? Contact Us!