Ober war dro
What is a language Healing Circle?
The “Ober war dro” Language Healing Circles is a program inspired by Speaking Circles, Restorative Circles© from Dominic Barter, Marshall Rosenberg NonViolent Communication© (NVC) principles, coaching practices, group facilitation & games,games and sophrology in order to help :
The aim is to reconnect with an intimate part of ourselves, open a new door, get a new puzzle piece of our identities.
“Ober war dro” in Breton means “watching over children”, “taking care of” when it comes to childcare, literally “encircling”. This is exactly what we need when it comes to our indigenous, immigrant, or sign minority languages.
This project has been developed with the support of the Endangered Languages Project (ELP) within the Ready to Revitalize Workshop. ELP is a worldwide collaboration to strengthen endangered languages.
This protocol was initially designed for the Breton language but can be extended worldwide to any linguistic minority, whether of indigenous, immigrant or LSF origin. It can be adapted and the protocols translated in any language.
The latest figures for the Breton language (as well as Gallo, the other Brittany language) show an extremely rapid decline in speakers.
In fact, the “Ober war dro” Language Healing Circles aim to repair but also support international language revitalization processes. One of the driving forces behind the program is to be able to support parents who decide to learn their heritage language to pass it on to their children. This aims to recreate native and therefore bilingual speakers in places where a language is dramatically endangered, threatened, oppressed, or immigrated, and where speakers strive to maintain their linguistic and cultural rights & identity.
Therefore, the Language Healing Circles are part of a larger project : “1000 familh, 1000 huñvre” (1000 families, 1000 dreams), inspired by the project used in New Zealand by Māori communities called Kotahi Mano Kāika, Kotahi Mano Wawata and started in 2000 over a period of 25 years with the idea of reintroducing Te Reo Māori (the Māori language) to 1000 families. By January 2025, the total number had significantly exceeded 1000 families.
Speaking circles are powerful tools for connection, communication, and justice between humans, present since time immemorial in most cultures around the world.
The circular, infinite shape establishes the unconscious assumption that everyone has the same place and the same respect for all, symbolically abolishing the notion of hierarchy. Social psychology has shown that this configuration allows for the most optimal exchanges and therefore the most fruitful discussions.
The Language Healing Circles are inspired by the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” of Canada held between 2010 and 2015 within Native canadian communities with Boarding Schools survivors.
Who was inspired by the same process held before in South-Africa by Desmund Tutu & Neslon Mandela.
https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/
In the contemporary world, peer circles are used in a growing number of methods aimed at helping individuals repair, evolve, or change their behaviour through the awareness they bring as well as the emotional release that empathic listening can create.
Here, it is the group that brings its perspective and kindness to the individual to aid their growth. We now know that empathy is an important factor in brain repair in post-traumatic cases.
There is no magic other than being able to heal the living with the energy that connects us all: Love with a capital L. The kind that soothes, respects, listens, and repairs, that connects us to one another.
The circle is about taking the time to listen to stories, respecting each one and each individual as they are, with all the emotions and reactions that arise.
The objective of the Language Healing Circle “Ober war dro” is to open a space where people can express their stories, their feelings, their emotions, what they felt by not receiving the language or by being forced to abandon it (school acculturation, violence or punishments, humiliations or denunciations, relocations linked to questions of survival, etc.), that is to say everything that one can feel ans then say.
A Full Circle takes place over 3 separate Sessions of several hours, days or weeks depending on the needs of the host structures, and lasts between 2 and 4 hours depending on the number of participants.
The 3 Sessions each have a different function but follow a very specific path to nourish the link with the language(s) on which we wish to work:
SESSION 1 — Take stock of the current situation by sharing a language-related story > TALKING CIRCLE.
SESSION 2 — Identify and address the issue within our family or outside of it > REPAIR CIRCLE.
SESSION 3 — Imagine a shared future and make commitments > VISION CIRCLE.
We identify needs that have not been addressed in our linguistic history. A Circle Security phase is offered at the beginning of each session to create a safe space for all participants.
We identify needs that have not been addressed in our linguistic history. A Circle Security phase is offered at the beginning of each session to create a safe space for all participants.