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Land Constellations

“Who we once Were” is a mixed media collage by artist Lindy Solomon. Limited edition fine art prints are available of this artwork. For a print contact lindy.astar@gmail.com. www.lindysolomon.com

Land Constellations 

(As developed by Tanja Meyburgh and Sue Davidoff) 

The Land has ancestors.  They are buried deep in the soil, in the archaeological layers that take digging to unearth. There are stories here in the land. Of people who lived through history in this place. The artefacts of generation after generation: from those that belonged to the land, through the slaves whose life force was used to dig, plant and to build to survive the earth, through to the traumatic dispossession and new ownership. Each place has a story, families and communities that lived and loved and lost there.  The graves of the forefathers remain long after their descendants have moved on. Those that lived on the land, were either buried to become part of the soil where our vegetables grow, or were disposed in an ill-gotten gain. By land grab, colonisation and forced removals, those who belonged to the land were ripped from the cradle of their belonging and identity.   

What are land constellations?

Land Constellations are a systemic tool to look at relationships and hidden dynamics related to a particular piece of land, or an individual or groups’ identity and belonging relating to legacies of land possession and dispossession.  The focus is on the emotional and spiritual, and the healing of loss of identity 

What are some of the things we are working with?  

Who lived on the land you live on now before you?  And before them?  Who were the first ones to place their feet on this soil? How did we come to cut pieces of the land and create borders as if the land can end and begin. What does it mean to restore our belonging to the land? To heal this interrupted reaching out that has us disconnected and disconnecting from nature and from each other? How do we acknowledge what happened and how do we compensate for the ill-gotten gains?  What does this mean systemically for the world? How can we as individuals and as a collective support change? 

How do you get involved?

+ Visit our upcoming events calendar to:

  • Join a Land Constellation workshop
  • Join a Land Constellation retreat
  • Get in touch with African Constellations about custom designing a Land Constellation process or ceremony for your institution, company or land. 

+ Sign up to the African Constellations Newsletter or Facebook to hear about upcoming events.

LAND CONSTELLATIONS TEAM

 

Tanja Meyburgh

Tanja Meyburgh, counselling psychologist, is a renowned Family and Systems Constellations trainer and supervisor and regular contributor to the international constellations journal, The Knowing Field. As founder of African Constellations, she has taken 15 groups through a full facilitator training and is the primary pioneer of constellations work in South Africa with 18 years of experience specialising in this field. She has assisted organisations in South Africa involved with addiction, adoption, trauma, political violence, community development and diversity. More recently Tanja has co-founded Ancestral Connections integrating dance and constellations, and the REAL Academy, an online resource for Embodied and Ancestral Learning. Tanja has also presented at the international intensives in Germany, South Africa and Australasia, and accepted invitations to teach at conferences and workshops in Germany, Austria, Belgium, United Kingdom, Kuwait, Netherlands, Portugal and the USA.
Tanja’s MA (Psych) in Narrative Therapy has had a big impact on how she views power relations and work with marginalised voices and communities. She also has training and experience in wilderness therapy, art therapy, expressive movement and Southern African lineage wisdom. Tanja provides a creative and experiential learning space that brings a sense of soul and spirit in a psychologically grounded way. Her interest in self-growth, personal & collective ritual and embodiment supports her to hold a broad and deep container for clients’ personal and professional process. Her work is described by those who know her as gentle and incisive. Tanja lives in Cape Town with her two children.

Sue Davidoff

I am a facilitator, teacher, and writer. As co-founder of The Proteus Initiative, I help to bring a Goethean-inspired phenomenology, understanding and method to the sphere of social and environmental change, activism and stewardship. I have taught three Masters programmes in Reflective Social Practice, and facilitated several programmes in Reflective Social Practice, and A Delicate Activism, in South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, several countries in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and many countries in Africa.

I live on Towerland, a wilderness retreat in the mountains in the southern Cape, South Africa. My deep passion lies in bringing natural (the wild) and social life together, where an immersion in the wild enables processes of searching for self and for the inner creativity and wholeness necessary to enable a future that is alive. My strong interest as a constellations facilitator is in working with land; listening to the memories that land holds, and working with those memories, and the current and trans-generational experiences and memories of exclusion and belonging.

You can reach me at sued@mweb.co.za