Presentations

Presentations 2017/18/19/20/21/22/23

with involvement by Molly Arthur

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 Waking Up to Our Own History

June 15, 2023, hosted by Sonoma Petaluma Parks, Inc. (SPParks) in Sonoma Mission Chapel

Here are the presentation slides and script

Click the image above for the video

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 Breaking Open Our Hearts

For Schools of the Sacred Heart 9th grade religion class

on being an Associate, April 2023

Here are the presentation slides and script

Click the image above for the video

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A high example of humanity?  Fall 2022

Here are the presentation slides and script

Here are the recommended resources

My focus is on my family’s complicity with the California mission system since its inception, and the

growing exposure of its and my ancestors' perpetration of harms. As their descendant, I see my connection with Sonoma and Northern California in an intimate and personal way. I grapple with my cultural, personal and spiritual integrity because of it. 

I will talk about my own story of my family’s honoring and romanticizing of our Californio lineage and my growing exposure to an alternative, suppressed history. I will trace my realization that the Catholic faith in which I was raised initiated a system that was contrary to its values and beliefs and deeply destructive. 

I work to understand my ancestry and lineage's influence on where our society and our world is now and what that means for me in my accountability as a person of faith and a human being in deep connection with our Mother Earth and all our kin. 

Molly Fay Vallejo McGettigan Arthur is a fifth generation San Franciscan. She is a great, great granddaughter of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, “Californio Patron”, and General Patrick Edward Connor, “Father of Mining” of Utah and a lay associate with the Society of the Sacred Heart. She graduated from UC Berkeley and has worked as a professional sales person in advertising and tech. She and her husband of over 49 years have raised two children in Marin County and happily her twin granddaughters live close by in San Francisco. She curates Waking Up to Our Own History.

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Our Sacred Heart Story with the Potawatomi People in Kansas, 1841-1879 February, March 2022

Here are the videos and full materials from the online sessions.

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Sisters of Earth Emerging-- How do we embody the Dream of the Earth in this time of crises?

September 2020 to August 2021.

Here are the videos of the course and Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures materials used for the curriculum

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Presentation on Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures to the Paulo Friere Institute/Society of the Sacred Heart

July 2021

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

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The Society of the Sacred Heart Racism/Indigenous committee prepared a presentation on the Society's United States history as slave-owners, 1818-1865 and Native American cultural genocide through education in Kansas, 1841-1879. The presentation was given to c. 100 rscj from US, Central America and South America.

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

Click the image to watch the presentation

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Presentation at Convent of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco, October, 2020

for High School Juniors 
Presenter: Molly McGettigan Arthur, Associate of Society of the Sacred Heart

Here is the video #1 segment, 33 minutes

Here is the video #2 segment, 27 minutes

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script 

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Amah Mutsun Wellness Meeting Oct, 2020

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

click the above image for the video

Introduction by Val Lopez, Chairman of Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Sr Deanna Rose, rscj, Molly Arthur, ascj and Sr. Toni Nash, csj. As Catholic nuns and associate, we talked about our responses to the harm that the Catholic Church has perpetrated in our names, particularly through the California mission system and specifically to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

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Introduction to Extinction Rebellion, SFBay, for Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco, CA      June 28, 2020

Here is the Powerpoint to see presentation and script

click the above image for the video

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Presentation at Convent & Stuart Hall, San Francisco,  January, 2020

for High School Juniors and 7th Grade Boys
Presenters: Molly McGettigan Arthur, Associate -Society of the Sacred Heart
Mary Kay Hunyady, Religious-Society of the Sacred Heart

Decolonizing Our Hearts and Minds-
Waking up to Our Own Christian History

Here is the Powerpoint to see presentation and script 

Here are Questions to follow up on the presentation

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Presentation at St Mary's College, Moraga, CA, January, 2020

Ecofeminism and The Goddess Divine: 

Women, Land, and Resistance

Course Description:

Culturally we are taught early on that women are akin to nature, that Earth is our mother, that land and fertility are female. With the understanding that Western thought is laden with symbols of nature as woman, we can begin to unravel how the same forces of patriarchy that position man above nature, also position men above women. Ecofeminism is a concept coined in the 1970s that makes a direct connection between the destruction of the Earth and the oppression of women, and calls for a feminist approach to healing the planet. This course looks to spiritual traditions, myths, and stories of the Goddess (or Goddesses) from global perspectives, tracing the symbolic meaning of the loss of female divinity. Exploring the role of women and the interaction with the Earth across these belief systems, we will ask: How might we apply these practices today to address some of our most pressing social and environmental problems? What might it look like to lead from the feminine, to envision solutions to our environmental crisis from a feminist perspective? How can we radically shift our approach to food and nutrition, climate change, waterways, and caring for our own bodies in ways that reject patriarchal norms? Students will address these questions in our month-long, scholarly and personal inquiry, while creating their own unique impact through a community engagement project. Our partnership with community organizations will foster deep engagement with the local community, the land, and the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights and environmental justice.

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

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Waking Up to Our Own History, Lineage, and Legacy 

Molly McGettigan Arthur, ASCJ-Associate Sacre Coeur de Jesus, descendant of Mariano G Vallejo. This talk and slide show focuses on my Spanish Conquistador and Californio ancestry and my spiritual legacy from my Society of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco education. Its point is to tell the unvarnished truth of my ancestors’ perpetration of violence on the people indigenous to California, and, as an inheritor of these legacies, how I have been changed by knowing this history and its ongoing effects of destruction. It includes my personal apology. 

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

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Sr Deanna Rose Von Bargen, rscj, Molly Arthur, ascj, Sr Toni Nash, csj, 

and Val Lopez, Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

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We millennials are wondering if we should have children and

we know that our reproductive choices are essential to countering the climate crisis

How is the climate crisis affecting the capability of a woman to choose whether she wants or can have children? How does her decision help counter the destruction of our Earth, ourselves, our kin and all creation? How can the reproductive rights of the people most vulnerable to climate effects be guaranteed?

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

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 WEBINARS WITH ELDERS ACTION NETWORK         APRIL/MAY  2019

This interactive 4 session online workshop (2 hours each) with extensive interaction with other attendees, will be based on seeking right relationship to all peoples and our Mother Earth.  

This workshop has been developed by the Elder Activists for Social Justice group of CEN- as a group we turned out to be mostly descendants of settler/colonizers and immigrants from Europe. We have endeavored to learn the truth about our own family history so as to better understand our place now, in particular as elders and people dedicated to creating a better world for future generations. 

We wanted to understand how we got where we are embedded in a culture of continuing oppressions, and on-going harms, in crisis mode today. We will be using a social justice lens to look at the history of white supremacy and systemic racism in the US. We have noticed a disconnection with our own authentic sense of self, particularly as elders in this culture, but also in grasping what responsibility do we have for our own lifetimes and all the past lifetimes that created us today. 

What is our role as  elders in this current culture, facing the social injustices in our lifetimes and in our lineage, and proclaiming our moral voice for a better world? 

Here are the presentations and scripts 

Session 1, Session 2

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Presented to Convent of the Sacred Heart(7th grade classes)  and Stuart Hall Schools(Juniors) 

San Francisco, CA January, 2019

Decolonizing Our Hearts and Minds-Waking up to Our Own Christian History  January 2019

Presenters:  Molly Arthur, Associate-Society of the Sacred Heart ,
Mary Kay Hunyady, Religious-Society of the Sacred Heart

We as Christians have a responsibility to understand our role in today's planetary and moral crisis.
How do we redeem our own Christian spiritual lineage in order to act in right relationship with all life and Mother Earth?

An exploration by a vowed nun and a committed lay nun from the Society of the Sacred Heart,  of their own Catholic history that legitimized the cultural and physical extermination of the Indigenous Peoples of North America and the establishment and growth of US white supremacy with its continuing effects today. We are learning, some of us for the first time – about the  Doctrine of Christian Discovery/Domination  dating from the 15th century and, unbelievably, still enshrined in law today.

Over the past 500 years the Doctrine of Christian Discovery/Domination has established patterns of dehumanization that have become institutionalized in language, thought, and behavior in our cultural and legal systems. White privilege, patriarchy and climate disruption, are just some of the current harms legitimized by it. We are now coming to a fuller recognition of the deep trauma resulting from the enslavement and genocide perpetrated on the Indigenous peoples by the original settlers of this country and its connection to Christian actions.  These systems of oppression harm the bodies, hearts, minds and spirits of all with whom we share this country and threaten the sustainability of our future.

In this workshop, we will look at the Doctrine of Christian Discovery/Domination and its impact; we will see 2-3 videos which include Indigenous voices and experiences and share our responses in small groups. We’ll move back and forth between whole group presentations and breakout groups for more personal sharing.

Understanding that we are not professional historians, we will share what we have learned about the ideologies that were imported from Europe of superiority, divine providence and the historical narratives used to legitimize those beliefs and actions across the world, particularly in North America. Contributing to our endeavor to look at more than the linear story commonly told about our country’s origin , we will look at some parts of our histories that are not usually exposed, but are suppressed by the dominant power structure.

We will be looking at the truth about our own family histories so as to better understand our place now, in particular as people of faith. We want to understand how we got where we are embedded in a culture of continuing oppressions, and on-going harms, in crisis mode today. Who are we, how did we get here, and where are we now? How can we live in right relationship within today’s world?

We have noticed a disconnection with our own authentic sense of self, particularly as elders and people of faith in this culture, but also in grasping what responsibility do we have for our own lifetimes and all the past lifetimes that created us today? We are committed to fully understanding today's systems of oppression and racism and the roots of the injustice within the foundations of our own American and Christian history.

We will honor our very valid feelings of pain, grief, horror, anger- with compassionate acceptance so that our self-identity may change in the process.  We understand that by facing the full dimensions of our histories, with the sense of loss and disconnection that comes to the dominant group in the US, we might feel shame. Instead, let us reconnect to our capabilities of empathy, moral principles and spiritual values. We try to hold to the larger story of connection that is justice and care-oriented with the responsibilities and obligations of being in right relationship with today's world.

What connection is there between the social justice focus within our Sacred Heart spirituality now with the current truth of the status of Indigenous today? What actions and reparations are we responsible for as a part of the family of the Sacred Heart, given the Society of the Sacred Heart's  historical record of slave-holding and impact on Indigenous culture and lifestyle? How do we Christian whites respond to the intimate history that we are part of and its results still seen today? How do I reconcile my family history and my spiritual heritage with my own integrity and self-identity and act within my precious Sacred Heart values to create a loving, caring world?

Bios:

Molly McGettigan Arthur ASCJ: Since the 1890s three generations of the women of my family were educated by Religious of the Sacred Heart in Northern California.  The Sacred Heart charism is an intimate part of my lineage and spiritual heritage, and for the last 15 years, I have been an Associate of the Society of the Sacred Heart. I have explored my own family story  that adulterated our Mother Earth and poisoned our bodies through generations and its connection  to  contemporary white privilege and racist oppression and Native American genocide. I am the convener of EcoBirth- Women for Earth and Birth. I explore the spiritual, biological and social aspects of how women can claim their authority to make a better world for future generations.  I am the mother of two adult children and have twin 8-year old granddaughters who live in San Francisco, so I get to be with them often! My husband and I have been married over 45 years. I am a 6th generation Californian and I work with Elders Action Network and Sisters of Earth. I have had extensive experience working with startups and growing networks in my professional sales career. 

Mary Kay Hunyady, RSCJ:  Since I was young, I have experienced the pull to work for social justice, beginning with the anti-Vietnam war movement and the Civil Rights movement.  In 1985, I started working with social justice groups doing community- and political organizing.  I was arrested at a demonstration to free Leonard Peltier in the early 1990s.  Currently, I work as a psychotherapist. The Doctrine of Discovery turns my stomach and my heart, and I want to stand with my sisters and brothers in Native communities to bring an end to this.  I want to stand with my sisters and brothers in the Roman Catholic church to ensure that the Papal Bulls are renounced.

Here is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script

Here are Resources 

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September, 2018  presented at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 

for Global Climate Summit Faith-Rooted Affiliated Workshops

Confronting Complicity with Climate Genocide

Presenters:  Molly Arthur and Mary Kay Hunyady, Society of the Sacred Heart

An exploration by women religious and associates of the Society of the Sacred Heart of the Catholic history that legitimized the cultural and physical extermination of the Indigenous Peoples of North America and white supremacy with its continuing effects today, particularly climate change. We will look at how the Papal Bulls, which have not yet been repealed, have spawned 500 years of colonization throughout the globe and how the Doctrine of Discovery has repressive influence today. http://diocal.org/global-climate-action-summit-faith-rooted-affiliated-workshops

HERE  is the Powerpoint to see the presentation and script 

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August 2018 (2)-2 hour webinars for Conscious Elders Network 

Elders Activists for Social Justice Committee

Presenters: Molly Arthur and Molly Brown

What is needed of us -- as elders -- in today's world? In a time and society that has lost its connection with Nature and our original earth-centered traditions and lineages, where do we find the role models that will guide us in discovering our roles and responsibilities as elders?  How can we use our years of life experience, our perspective, wisdom, and resources to contribute to the healing of our world?

As we wrestle with these questions, we commit ourselves to understanding how we got here -- the explicit truth of our history as Americans. To determine the best way forward, we must understand our past -- the colonists, missionaries, slave-holders and capitalists that have built our American empire. We will look at the unvarnished truth of what we are living today -- so that we can activate ourselves to compel a caring and thriving future.

"Raícism, or rootedness, is the choice to bear witness to our specific, contradictory historical identities in relationship to one another. It is an accounting of the debts and assets we have inherited, and acknowledging the precise nature of that inheritance is an act of spiritual and political integrity."   Aurora Levins Morales

We will open our eyes and hearts, and discover how we can work together to be true Elders and stand up for what is morally needed of us.  This is the moment to reclaim our moral voice -- the voice that speaks for the welfare of all, and holds accountable those who perpetuate a long continuing history of dominance, division, exploitation, and greed. This is our Sacred Activism -- which springs from our inner urging to create our legacy for future generations -- protecting all our children and grandchildren, restoring Mother Earth and regenerating a flourishing world.  

Our time together will be framed by the exploration of current social injustices and their effects on people, especially communities most at risk from climate chaos and our planetary life support systems, questioning: How did we get here? Where are we now? How is this affecting us as Elders in our service to the world? How can we reconnect with all beings within the web of life?  

Come join a deep examination of our elderhood and our needed, pivotal role in restoring our legacy to our children and grandchildren and to all life. How can we elders find truly right relationship with today's crisis-ridden world? 

Here is Aug 12, 2018 Presentation and script

Here are the Resources for Session 1
Here are Secondary Resources for Session 1

Here is Aug 26, 2018, Presentation and script

Here are the Resources for Session 2
Here are Secondary Resources for Session 2

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October, 2017, one-day workshop given by Conscious Elders Network/Elders Activists for Social Justice.  In person one day workshop in Berkeley, CA at Berkeley Quaker Meeting Hall

The morning will feature a 2-hour experiential program exploring the original relationships and actions of Europeans with the Native people of Turtle Island; tracing the historic and ongoing impacts of the Doctrine of Discovery, the 15th-century justification for European subjugation of non-Christian peoples.  This script was adapted from one that was created by First Nations peoples and the ecumenical organization, KAIROS, in Canada, with their permission. It was developed by the Indigenous Peoples Concerns committee of the Quaker Meeting in Boulder, Colorado, with advice and encouragement from Native American educators. Facilitators will offer suggestions for continued study, reflection, and action.  

The afternoon program will continue this exploration, under the skilled facilitation of Patricia St Onge, of Six Nations (Mohawk), adopted Cheyenne River Lakota and Quebecois descent, reflecting upon how the original actions of European settlers with their Native neighbors have impacted relationships with other People of Color. Those of us of European settler ancestry will explore how we can own this history – as elders, millennials, Bay Area residents-- in our lives, experiences, actions and relationships –and how we can take actions towards “right relationship."

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September 2017, 2 hour webinar,  Conscious Elders Network/Elder Activists for Social Justice

Conveners: Molly Brown and Molly Arthur

As elders we know that we stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history with the unprecedented opportunity to co-create new paradigms that will provide for the well being of all – which has been the “traditional voice” of the elder in society. We can only go forth to fulfill our vision when we fully understand the systems of oppression and racism and the roots of the injustice within the foundations of American history.

We are now coming to a fuller recognition of the deep trauma resulting from the enslavement and genocide intended to exterminate the Indigenous peoples and their culture by the original settlers of this country.   We are learning, some of us for the first time – about the Doctrine of "Christian"Discovery dating from the 15th century and, unbelievably, still enshrined in law today. Over the past 500 years the Doctrine of Discovery has established patterns of domination and dehumanization that have become institutionalized in language, thought, and behavior in our cultural and legal systems. White privilege, patriarchy and climate disruption, are just some of the current harms legitimized by the Doctrine of Discovery/Domination.These systems of oppression harm the bodies, hearts, minds and spirits of all with whom we share this country and threaten the sustainability of our future.

In this webinar, we will look at the Doctrine of Discovery and its impact; we will see 1-2 videos which include Indigenous voices and experiences and share our responses in small groups. We will honor our very valid feelings of pain, grief, horror, anger- with compassionate acceptance so that our self-identity may change in the process.  

Here is the Presentation and Script

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August, 2017, one hour webinar for Conscious Elders Network

Elders Activists for Social Justice Committee 

This past year our EASJ focus has been exploring the history and legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery and how it has affected Indigenous peoples and European colonists since 1492. 

Our guests will be Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel of Breakthrough Communities.

Carl Anthony will talk about the history of slavery and its relationship to the Doctrine of Discovery, largely an untold story in US history, through his unique lens of cosmology and race. Paloma Pavel will touch on practical stories from the frontline communities plus promising initiatives and tools for community involvement. Our goal is to stimulate reflection, conversation, deeper understanding and appropriate action toward justice and healing.  

Video of one hour conversation

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July 2017, 2 hours at the Society of the Sacred Heart Spirituality Forum in St Louis, MO

Colonization & Genocide of 

Indigenous Peoples have Christian Roots

Conveners: Molly McGettigan Arthur ASCJ, Ginny Dennehy RSCJ, 

Mary Kay Hunyady RSCJ, Deanna Rose Von Bargen RSCJ 

Designed as a brief exploration of the legal “Doctrine of Discovery” that facilitated conquest, genocide, chattel slavery, and the structure of settler colonialism, this workshop focuses specifically on Indigenous Peoples in North America over the past 200-300 years.  We will look at how this “doctrine”, which came to be codified in several papal bulls from the Middle Ages onwards, led to the 1823 majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court which found that "Indians" (Native Peoples/Indigenous Peoples) could not own the ancestral homelands where their people had “lived, loved, worshipped, married, mourned and died for millennia” (Johnson vs. M'Intosh). This doctrine has been used as recently as 2005 to deny a land claim brought before the US Supreme Court by the Oneida Nation. The workshop will feature 2-3 select videos, which include an overview of the effects of the doctrine now, as well as stories about life at the Indian boarding schools, with printed hand-outs designed to entice participants to further self-education and exploration of the subject.  Expected during this full 2-hour workshop is the opportunity for reflection as well as questions and conversation with Indigenous keynote speaker, Sr. Priscilla Solomon, CSJ. 

Here is the Powerpoint presentation and script 

Here are Resources 

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April and June 2017, (2)- 3 hour workshops presented at the retirement space of Religious of the Sacred Heart, for Sisters of Earth of the Bay Area

Implications of the Doctrine of Discovery 

for Social and Environmental Justice

Presenters: Sr. Toni Nash, CSJ, Molly Arthur, ASCJ

In 2014 the Leadership Conference of Women's Religious National Assembly passed a resolution on the Doctrine of Discovery in the form of a letter to Pope Francis, asking him to repudiate it. Now, two and a half years later, most members of religious communities and Christian parishes still do not know about the Doctrine and the effects it continues to have on the lives of contemporary indigenous peoples, nor has action been taken at the papal level. It is time for further action.

We invite you to a three-hour education experience for any people involved in justice, peace and integrity of creation committees of congregations and parishes  in the Bay Area:

·         To deepen understanding of Christian roots of current oppressions

·         To explore the background and implications of the Doctrine of Discovery and accept this destructive part of our Catholic missionary history.

·         To analyze these oppressions through the lens of the emerging evolutionary worldview

·         To connect this history with other social and environmental justice issues on which we are working.