Join us for a two day workshop and exploration of Active Sufi meditation by Ashira Darwish, hosted in collaboration with Xa Kako Dile, an Indigenous women-led and directed non-profit organization on ancestral Northern Pomo land in Northern California. You will be led into a trauma informed healing journey with Ashira where we will explore intergenerational trauma stored in the body and unlock intergenerational resilience tools for healing. We will whirl together in a sacred healing dance, release stress, build resilience and re-energize our minds, bodies and souls.
Screening Synapsis
Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice.
We follow, among others, Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass. We witness Dr. Gabor Maté offering trauma-healing work for a group of women seeking understanding and healing and offer his insights into intergenerational trauma.
Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience—deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives.
This emotional journey bares the humanity of the oppressed while grappling with the question: what makes the oppressor so ruthlessly blind to its own cruelty?
Ashira Darwish is the founder of Catharsis holistic healing, a trauma therapy project in Palestine. She is known for pioneering Sufi active meditation to help people suffering from continuous trauma. This type of active meditation draws its roots from ancestral and Indigenous knowledge. Her personal journey of healing from full body paralysis with a severed spinal cord in 2012 has given her a deep insight into the process of recovery and healing. This unique perspective allows her to offer a highly specialized and culturally sensitive approach to trauma healing.
In 2021, she received the "ISABS Honours" from the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science for her contribution to positive societal transformation through the application of behavioral science principles and practices.
Ashira started her career in Palestine as a journalist; she worked for 15 years as TV & Radio journalist and researcher for the BBC, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.