Ancestral Healing Through Bioarchaeology

Sabine Shannon Start Date: Apr 20, 2022 - End Date: Aug 19, 2022
  • London, United Kingdom
  • Berlin, Germany

My Travel Story

by: Sabine Shannon Start Date: Apr 20, 2022 - End Date: Aug 19, 2022
I am an independent, "non-traditional" online student campaigning to raise funds for a study abroad program through ASU this summer in London. I will be learning about the history of disease in the city and exploring skeletal and mummy collections of the great museums. This study abroad opportunity will offer me a rich contrast to my usually isolated online learning experience. After this program in London ends, I will make a pilgrimage to Stonehenge to honor my ancient ancestors of the isles and partake in summer Solstice ritual. From there I will travel to Berlin where I hope to dig into genealogy databases to uncover lost threads of my ancestry from Germany and Eastern Europe.

Through my studies in global health, I have discovered my calling towards bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. Part of this calling stems from my fascination with the human body and health. I have been a dancer all my life and have worked as a bodyworker for seven years. In my own life I have explored various modalities of alternative healing and have navigated my way through various health conditions. No doubt these experiences have been written in my bones, for some bioarchaeologist to decipher someday! Bioarchaeology is another avenue for me to understand embodiment, what our bodies do in our lifetimes and what traces of that are left behind once only our bones remain.

Along with my healing and embodiment practices, ancestral healing and genealogy have been a huge part of my life and understanding my place in this time. Many of my ancestors come from England and Germany. To be walking the places they have walked and to be viewing things through a historical framework will give me deep insights to their lives. Along with pursuing my academic work in global health, I will also be pursuing personal genealogy research, as I will have access to genealogy records otherwise hard to access in the states. Hopefully, I will be able to fill in some puzzle pieces to my genealogy and draw deeper connections to my ancestors. (The family photo above is of some of my French-Canadian ancestors. I could find some gems like this of my English and German ancestors.)

 

I intend to return to the states with a richer understanding of history, the body, and my own ancestry. I intend for this knowledge to deepen my healing and embodiment practices and to open doors for more holistic offerings for my community that positions personal, physical, and spiritual healing within the context of healing historical trauma and ancestral wounds. 
  • London, United Kingdom
  • Berlin, Germany