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After the #NotAgainSU protests in 2019, a group of Indigenous students approached Syracuse University’s administration with several requests, including hiring an Indigenous healer. 

Many students saw a lack of support provided to communities with marginalized identities, Ionah Scully, a fourth-year Ph.D. student, said.

“Having a healer who can hold that space for us is really important,” they said.

On July 15, Diane Schenandoah began her role as SU’s first Indigenous healer. The position is aimed to provide a safe space for Indigenous students to heal from emotional trauma, connect to their spirituality and educate the campus community about Indigenous culture.

Her role is only part time, but students can book one-hour sessions with Schenandoah on Mondays and Tuesdays through the Barnes Center at The Arch, Schenandoah said. 

Mario “Ma’ii” Villa, a first-year Ph.D. student in the School of Information Studies, said he’s glad the resource exists and wants SU to promote it more. 

Villa applied to SU due to the school’s proximity to the Onondaga Nation. He grew up in southern New Mexico and is a part of the Chiricahua Apache Nation. He’s excited to use Schenandoah’s resources but said the healing practices he grew up with are different from those of the Haudenosaunee culture.  

“There are some similarities because of traditions,” he said. “But at the same time, we each have solely different ways of dealing with the universe.” 

Schenandoah hopes that she can empower students and help them recognize their inner strength in her new role. 

“We believe that everybody comes here with a duty, a purpose and a gift,” Schenandoah said. “A lot of times we are very unsure or insecure and are just trying to discover ourselves. I think to empower students and give them the support and confidence is how we establish peace.”     

Schenandoah is a Faithkeeper of Oneida Nation, Wolf Clan. (Oneida Nation is one of the six nations that comprise the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.) She is an alumna of SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, receiving a degree in sculpting in 2011. She’s been a sculptor for 40 years, portraying her culture through her artwork. 

Regina Jones, the assistant director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, was on a search committee for the position. She said that it was a difficult decision but that Schenandoah is a great fit.

Jones envisions Schenandoah’s role to be to support Indigenous students on campus and educate the community about their values. 

“We think about community, care, love and helping others — that’s what we’re all about,” Jones said. “I think part of that will also be part of Diane’s hope. I think she has a lot of valuable tools to help not only Indigenous students, but within our community as a whole to help them get grounded, balanced and centered.”  

Schenandoah’s healing work is based on traditional Haudenosaunee teachings. Much of her work deals with energy, she said. She uses hands-on modalities such as tuning forks, art therapy, acupressure and dream interpretations.

“Clap your hands together and run your hands really fast, and then hold them an inch apart,” Schenandoah said. “Can you feel the energy between them? That is our energy. That’s how I use people’s energy.”

Indigenous healing has always been a part of Schenandoah’s life, and she’s never really looked at it as a practice until she got older, Schenandoah said. After her son developed cancer around 2002, she met a local woman who offered to teach her Reiki, an energy healing technique. Learning the style of healing was an eye-opening experience for her in working with energy, she said. 

“I use my own energy, which I’ve been doing since I was a young child,” Schenandoah said. “My entire family did this. If anyone was in pain or had any aches we’d gather around them, rub our hands together, create energy and put it around them.”  

When she found out about SU’s Indigenous healer position, her family encouraged her to apply. She was both honored and surprised when she was offered the job. 

“We are all energy. People don’t realize how powerful we are as human beings on this earth. We all have incredible gifts and minds and are so unaware of how amazingly created we are,” Schenandoah said.  

On Aug. 29, the Sunday before fall 2021 classes started, Schenandoah held an Edge of the Woods Gathering welcome event for the Syracuse community, an event she said her people would traditionally hold for visitors. Schenandoah felt it was necessary to bring the tradition to campus and welcome students and faculty from all over the world back into the Haudenosaunee territories. 

Around 38 people — including faculty, staff, students and community members — joined, making it small but also meaningful, Schenandoah said. During the event, people performed traditional dances including the stomp dance and round dance. The Outdoor Education Center within the Barnes Center also opened the zipline for attendees. 

“It turned out beautiful,” she said. “The sun was shining. It was just lovely.”

Kateleen Ellis, a senior at SU, called the Barnes Center last week to make an appointment with Schenandoah. She is interested to see what Schenandoah can offer her when it comes to stress, anxiety, feelings of missing home and other experiences – all of which Ellis said she has never talked to anyone about before.

As an Indigenous woman, Ellis said she felt like she could be comfortable with an Indigenous healer. 

Schenandoah believes that almost everybody has trauma somewhere back in their DNA that needs to be healed. To help people heal, she is currently working on planning a number of other events for the SU community focusing on healing, as well as events to educate people on Indigenous history in the United States that isn’t taught in schools. If you don’t know the history it will repeat itself, she said. 

But while Schenandoah’s official title at SU is Indigenous healer, she considers herself more of a Faithkeeper.

“The title is an Indigenous healer, but we say the creator is the only healer there is,” Schenandoah said.  

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MORE COVERAGE:

• Indigenous students say flying Haudenosaunee flag is step in right direction for SU
• SU finalizing plans for art installation honoring Onondaga Nation
• Community members, SU students advocate for rights of Indigenous people
• Indigenous, Jewish, international students continue work on groups’ demands

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Published on October 3, 2021 at 11:35 pm