Unwinding Whiteness: a White Affinity Group
An eight-month group with meetings every 3-5 weeks, providing facilitated and peer support for European heritage/white people to explore and unwind racist conditioning. These affinity groups have been identified as one of the key and powerful actions that the white community can take in this journey. Each session will be 2 hours, except for the opening session, which is 3 hours, with a special guest presenting foundational Insight Dialogue skills. Our intention is to form core groups of 6-8 within the larger group, each supported by peer leaders, who are in turn supported by Jeanne Corrigal. Our exploration will be based in a Canadian context, with diverse readings, other resources, and guest teachers, and include mindfulness practices in each meeting, lead by Jeanne.
There is no fee for this group, but purchase or accessibility to 1-2 books will be required. There will be an opportunity to offer dana/donation to Jeanne and the guest speakers.
The group will start Saturday, October 2, 2021, with a special three-hour session, with guest Nolitha Tsengiwe, an Insight Dialogue and Insight Meditation teacher. She will present a workshop called “Race Talk” which will support us in our capacity to speak about race issues. 9:30 am – 12:30 pm (Saskatchewan time – click here for other time zones), online. For subsequent meetings, sessions will be 10:30 am – 12:30 pm Saskatchewan time.
Registration for the 2021-2022 offering is now closed. If you are interested in participating in a future offering, please email us to be added to a waitlist.
Meeting Dates:
October 2, October 30, November 27, January 8, February 5, March 5, March 26, and April 30.
Read “Guidelines for Forming Racial Affinity Groups”, an excerpt from Mindful Of Race by Ruth King, here
https://ruthking.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/AffinityGroupGuidelinesRevDec2016-1.pdf
Please register here, and we will send a Zoom meeting link and further details closer to the first meeting:
https://saskatooninsight.com/forms/view.php?id=41635
If you want to learn more about the Unwinding Whiteness program, you can check out this interview that was aired April 16, 2022, on CBC Saskatchewan’s Saskatchewan Weekend with Shauna Powers. Thanks Jeanne and Mars for sharing your experience!
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-205-saskatchewan-weekend/clip/15907093-unwinding-whiteness-white-affinity-group
Update: this link is no longer available.