I wrote this in 2021 and feel called to share it with you now!
I wonder if you’ve read The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff?
I read it in 1992, and it was a big turning point in my understanding of the disconnected domination culture.
I was doing my Ph.D. at the time, on post-natal depression and the mother-baby relationship, at Cambridge University.
It was this interesting combination of learning more about attachment theory and Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth – because I was at The Winnicott Research Unit, where there was a set-up for the Strange Situation, where a child’s attachment status is measured –
Whilst also learning all about the cycle of interventions during birthing so common at the time, because I was interviewing mothers in the maternity wards –
Whilst reading The Continuum Concept.
What I’ve come to realise is, that whilst I refer to The Continuum Concept and Jean Liedloff whenever I tell this story, I’ve never once mentioned the name of the indigenous people she stayed with and learnt from.
They are the Ye’quana people.
And to me, this is part of colonisation and how I have been colonised.
I talk about attachment theory and John Bowlby’s work.
Aware Parenting is based on attachment theory and is a form of attachment parenting.
And yet I haven’t acknowledged the Ye’kuana people.
I would like to do that now.
I would thank the Ye’quana people.
Thank you.
I deeply acknowledge all that I learnt from learning about their culture, and how much that has informed my inner processing and self-understanding, my parenting, and my offerings in the world.
I apologise for not acknowledging them.
I am sorry.
And I’m so deeply willing to keep learning and becoming more aware of how I’m still so deeply affected by the colonised, disconnected, domination culture.
Yesterday, I re-read Jean Liedloff’s book, and then I went to find out what has happened to the Ye’quana people now.
So far, on Ecosia, I haven’t found out much, past a few snippets.
I found lots and lots about The Continuum Concept book, but so little about the people who made it possible.
I’d love to hear if any of you know.