7-Direction Lakota Teachings Prayer Circle
with Chief Marvin Swallow & Rev. Hiroko Matsuda
Saturday, June 8th, 2024 at 7-9PM PT
Hollywood Hills, California
About
Chief Marvin Swallow will begin the evening with an opening prayer. Following this, he will share the wisdom of the 7-Direction teachings.
7-Direction teachings, given by the White Buffalo Calf Woman, include Praying, Respect, Caring and Compassion, Honesty and Truth, Generosity and Caring, Humility, and Wisdom.
Chief Marvin Swallow will then offer a blessing to all participants.
Participants will have a special opportunity to actively participate in this sacred moment by including their own prayers with the cedar, a traditional practice that is used for purification, protection, and spiritual connection. Cedar is considered a sacred plant and is used to ward off negative energies and attract positive spiritual influences.
Rev. Hiroko Matsuda will continue the ceremony by sharing her deep wisdom of water teachings. She will also lead a Shinto water prayer, A Shinto water prayer, often referred to as "Misogi," is a purification ritual that involves the use of water to cleanse the body and spirit.
Water is considered as the most sacred element, one that has the power to give life and wash away impurities, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
Space is very limited for this event, so please register as soon as possible.
-
Chief Marvin Swallow
Lakota - United States
Born and raised on the Rosebud reservation, Chief Marvin Swallow has served as ceremonial and Sundance Chief in the Lakota tradition for the past 25+ years. Chief Swallow has been an active Roadman in the Native American Church for the past 20+ years, and regularly travels worldwide to Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and Japan along with his wife Hiroko Matsuda to share their prayers and healing ways. As a gifted artist, Chief Swallow is a lifelong visionary painter. The body of his artwork explores timeless themes of the Lakota ceremonial way of life, symbolism, cosmology, and mythology, offering profound picto-poetic narratives from the deep spiritual heart of the indigenous Native American culture in its modern expression. He is the President and co-founder of Lakota Small Farms working towards food sovereignty and bison rematriation for the Lakota communities.
-
Rev. Hiroko Matsuda
Japan
Rev. Hiroko Matsuda was born in Tokyo, Japan. Her father was a priest in the Shinto Buddhist tradition and influenced her early spiritual training. She came into Lakota culture in 1999 when she began her Sundance way of life, which she has been practicing ever since. Rev. Matsuda facilitates ceremonies in the Native American Church as well as the Sundance community in Japan, among many other sacred prayer services around the world along with her husband Chief Marvin Swallow. She has dedicated her life to being a peacebuilding bridge between the East and West, weaving Japanese and Lakota wisdom in service to the world. During her time living on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota, Rev. Matsuda learned how to survive on the land without electricity or water, as well as witnessing the beauty of the Lakota teachings and traditions amongst the profound struggles of reservation life. This experience formed the initial vision for co-founding Lakota Small Farms, which she is also co-creating with her family’s food sovereignty land project in Karatsu Saga, Japan. Rev. Matsuda has a blended family of 6 children, 19 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren with her husband.
The workshop will take place at a wellness oasis in the Hollywood Hills.
Contribution
Ticket
$60
Fundraiser: Lakota Small Farms
This event is a fundraiser for Chief Marvin & Rev. Hiroko’s Lakota Small Farms.
Lakota Small Farms is a multi-generational prayer to establish sustainable food sovereignty systems for native and non-native people alike by co-creating small scale regenerative farms and land practices in balance with the principles of eco-centric living.
The mission of their collective vision is to create spaces where people from all corners of the world can come together to learn about indigenous Lakota traditions in close proximity with the elements, to plant and grow healing foods, and to rematriate the Ta’tanka [buffalo] relations back to the ancestral lands.
In these ways, Lakota Small Farms aims to protect the traditional knowledge of the indigenous ways, and provide a beacon of hope to empower the people in these shifting times. They look to the leadership of the elders as well as the youth to implement systemic solutions on behalf of all living beings.
Donations
For those interested in making an additional donation, please contact us at info@huyaaniwa.org. We can provide tax write-offs for your contributions.
More Info
We look forward to having you join us on this evening. Should you have any further questions, please reach out to nikka@aniwa.co.
Address & Parking
This workshop is hosted in Hollywood Hills, CA.
Please be advised that the event's address and parking instructions will be sent via email closer to the event date.
Join us for this evening with Chief Marvin & Rev. Hiroko
