Growing Elder
Season 1
An Ancient Future Argument for Elders - Part I
by Oceana Sawyer
We kick off the podcast with a deep dive into eldership with Awo Fatokun (also known as Bill Calhoun). This is a two-part episode. In the first part he unpacks the historical basis of the current state of these Times from an Afro-Indigenous perspective. In part two, he discuss the role of elder for in the current context. Note: it is such an honor that Awo Fatokun has continued to call me Iya since our intensive time together during an intimate gathering of people in African descended bodies hosted by the GTDF. It means "mother' in Yoruba as in the Earth or elder. It is a name I humbly try to live into. There is some Yoruba terms used in this episode that you may not be familiar. I suggest that you open a digital translator like this one to make your way through the episode as desired. It is, however, fairly easy to discern meaning in the context that he paints so well. Awo Fatokun Bio: Bill Calhoun’s journey through life reads like an epic woven with threads of courage, curiosity, and connection. From walking alongside the Black Panthers to studying in a Franciscan seminary, from the courtroom as a human rights lawyer to the grassroots as an educator, Bill embodies the art of bridging worlds. With over three decades spent coordinating transformative study abroad programs, Bill has guided students—many from the Global North’s most elite institutions—into profound encounters with Indigenous, peasant, and favela communities in Brazil. Long before “decolonization” became an academic buzzword, Bill was cultivating learning spaces that challenged the assumptions of modernity and coloniality, placing relational accountability and community wisdom at the heart of education. Carrying the ceremonial name Awo Fatokun as an Elder of the Yoruba Ifa tradition, Bill integrates deep spiritual insight with his lived experience. To him, the Orisa are not distant deities but relational forces of wisdom and responsibility, calling humanity to cultivate self-love and entanglement with all life. In his work with the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures (GTDF) collective, Bill navigates the spaces between—between modernity’s collapse and the emergence of new paradigms, between ego-driven individualism and a renewed ethic of collective care, between humans and the more-than-human world. Bill is not only a knowledge keeper but also a weaver of futures. Whether mentoring students, co-authoring groundbreaking decolonial curricula, or cultivating dialogues between Indigenous and academic communities, his work invites others to step into the complexity of entanglement. His current focus is on practices of "introspective study within" and “depth education,” centering the consciousness of the land and the Orisa to explore pathways for coexistence in a world that has forgotten its interdependence. Bill’s unique background, which spans law, spiritual traditions, and global education, has prepared him to tackle the urgent questions of our time: How do we dismantle the illusion of separability? How do we unlearn the violence of modernity? And how do we cultivate relational ethics in the face of permanent crises? With Bill as a guide, the GTDF collective engages these challenges with humility, creativity, and a fierce commitment to healing the web of life. Show Notes: Awo Fatokun will be leading an experience of Ifa in Brazil next year. You can find out the details here. https://cla.umn.edu/aaas/undergraduate/learning-abroad
Hello and welcome to the conversation. In this introductory episode, I give a bit of the backstory about how I arrived in this inquiry and what it means to me. Show Notes: "Come of Age" by Stephen Jenkinson "Eldership Blown Open" inspired by Bayo Akomolafe "Some Thoughts on Eldering Inspired by Leny Strobel"