Peacemaker Institute's Bearing Witness Retreat in Rwanda
In Partnership with Memos: Learning From History and many other Rwandan NGO partners, the Peacemaker Institute organized two Bearing Witness Retreats in Rwanda. In the tradition of the Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat co-founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman in 1996, hosted annually in the years since by the Zen Peacemakers and in 2007 and 2008 by the Peacemaker Institute, we conducted these five-day retreat, bearing witness to the horror and tragic impact of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide as well as the current state of healing and reconciliation efforts in Rwanda. Grounded in our Three Peacemaker Tenets – not knowing, bearing witness and loving action – the retreat offered Rwandans of all backgrounds and visitors from other countries new means for bearing witness to the realities and aftermath of genocide in ways that lead to healing, reconciliation, community-building and ultimately genocide and violence prevention.
Retreat Leaders
The Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat will be led by Sensei Grover Gauntt and Acharya Fleet Maull, who between them have led over twenty bearing witness retreats at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim, Poland, along with a group of Rwandan and foreign retreat facilitators who have been trained at the Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat.
Acharya Fleet Maull is the founder of the Peacemaker Institute, Prison Dharma Network and National Prison Hospice Association. He is an Acharya (senior teacher) in the Shambhala Buddhist community and also a Sensei (senior teacher) in the Zen Peacemaker community and lineage of Roshi Bernie Glassman. Acharya Maull has led the Auschwitz Bearing Witness retreat numerous times and leads meditation retreats, leadership trainings, street retreats and bearing witness throughout the world.
Roshi Grover Genro Gauntt is a dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman, a Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order and co-founder of the Hudson River Peacemaker Center. He helped staff the first Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat in 1996 has led the Auschwitz retreat numerous times. Sensei Gauntt leads meditation retreats, street retreats and bearing witness retreats throughout the world.
Participating NGO’s: (Rwandan NGO’s participating in the Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat)
Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat Organizing Committee: Issa Higiro (Memos – Learning From History), Dora Urujeni (Memos – Learning From History), Michael Brady (Peacemaker Institute & Bead For Life), Kate Crisp (Peacemaker Institute), Grover Gauntt (Hudson River Peacemaker Center) Fleet Maull (Peacemaker Institute) and Cassidy Murphy (Peacemaker Institute).
The Peacemaker Institute is a division of Peacemaker Community USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Peacemaker Institute is located in Providence, Rhode Island.
