Elder Janice Barbee

Janice's passion is learning and teaching about her culture and its roots, building community with others doing this work, and learning how to have healthy relationships with people of other cultures. In doing this work, we dialogue together about the things that matter most in life in order to change our society for the better, to bring balance, peace and spirit to the world.

Beginning with an interest in her mother?s native Welsh culture, Janice developed a life-long interest in European American cultural study. Her undergraduate degree is in world religion, with studies in Christian mysticism, shamanism, Catholicism, and Protestantism, as well as other world religions, particularly Asian. She has also studied European thought, history, mythology and philosophy (including ethics and epistemology), Celtic spirituality, European immigration, genealogy and the cultural anthropology of the United States. Janice has traveled to Europe several times to connect with her heritage and to learn more about the roots of her own culture. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in public affairs at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.

For the past ten years Janice has been leading discussions and teaching classes on European American culture and its roots. She has taught classes on the Celtic tradition (including mythology, symbolism and spirituality), European American identity and responsibility, and various topics regarding the connections between our culture and health, among others. She also teaches classes to health professionals on European American culture and its roots, and how to use culture as a resource for health.

Most of her cultural grounding which gives her the support to do this work comes from her sense of roots in her own Celtic culture. The deep connection to the land, the rich symbolism, the stories and myths about the spiritual path, the love of poetry and music, and the sense of spirit within everything helps her to see the world in multiple dimensions, with an appreciation for mystery and paradox, and an openness to continually learn and expand her understanding.

Several years ago, Janice was approached by several women from a community of people who had been doing cultural study for several years and was asked to be an elder in the community. Members of the community recognized the need for elders in the European American community -- people who would think about and act from the interests of the entire community, not from their own self-interest. She was very honored by this request and took it very seriously, although she was quite tentative about accepting this role, because she knew she was walking into very unfamiliar territory and at times she couldn't see the path before me. However, she realized -- and continues realize -- that it takes a community to create elders, that she is not alone, and that the people making the request have as much responsibility as she has: they are walking this path together and creating a process for new elders to step forward and lead the community. To be named an elder in her community continues to be an honor, and is a title that means more than any initials she could place after her name.

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