39 Practice: Condolence Ceremony with Jonel Beauvais

Published June 25, 2019

This week Jonel Beauvais of the Akwesasne people in Mohawk territory offers us practice from her people. It's a ritual for condolence, inspired by the way her own community welcomed her back as she came home from prison. You can use this ritual to mark a meaningful return, death or loss, or a moment of transformation and change.

Jonel uses a deerskin, eagle plume, and water for this ritual, and invites you to use objects that feel appropriate and accessible to you. She has only shared things here that she welcomes others to try - she has left out intimate details that are specific to the Akwesasne people that she wouldn't want other peoples replicating. So what you hear here, you are welcomed to try on and of course, share where you learned it from.

Note: This episode was published under Irresistible’s previous name, Healing Justice Podcast.

About our guest

Jonel Beauvais is an indigenous sister, Mohawk woman, a witness of imprisonment, adversity survivor, spirit lover, working to end violence, and living for the next generation. She is a descendant of women of the wolf clan lineage and is rooted in the community of Akwesasne where she works with the Seven Dancers Coalition.

Conversation: “Thriving After Incarceration”

Check out the previous conversation episode between Jonel and Aida Cuadrado Bozzo from the Women’s Fellowship at Community Change, which exists to hone the organizing skills of formerly incarcerated women of color or those otherwise directly impacted by incarceration and the criminal justice system. In that conversation, Jonel shares more about her story, including the trauma of incarceration and her return to her community, the resilience of women of color, frontline leadership, and her community’s role in welcoming her home.

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