Remaining Unbiased in Hmong Shaman Practice

In my years of being a young, Hmong American, a once "child of God," and a gay shaman, I've had to force myself, whether I wanted to or not, to examine my own biases that I had and challenged the bias in my own culture. When you try to entangle such an old traditional practice like Hmong shamanism into the affairs of today, things can get a little messy. What I mean by this is, I faced and still continue to face hard questions when performing shaman rituals for families. For example, can a Hmong shaman perform healing rituals for Christians who no longer have household spirits? Can we perform rituals for a household with two moms? What about two gay dads? Can we perform rituals for households with different fathers and mothers? What about non-Hmong households? Can we perform rituals for adopted children, and what about non-Hmong adopted children? What about Hmong children adopted by non-Hmong parents? Can we perform healing rituals for Hmong women who are divorced? These are all questions I've had to examine and ask myself what my role is as a shaman...

When Hmong shamans perform any type of ritual, we access through the husband or patriarch of family ancestors and family lineage. For example, in a traditional hetero-marriage between a Hmong man and woman, whatever the husband's last name is, the woman leaves her birth ancestral lineage and joins him. She is no longer considered a part of her birth family lineage and lose all rights to go back to her family ancestors or lineage. If they have children, they automatically belong to the father's ancestors and take on his clan name. Now, for the case that the couple get a divorce, tradition says she cannot go back to her family's ancestor and she does not belong to her ex-husbands. Hmong people use the term, "in life she is not our person, in death she is not our ancestor." By losing all connections to any family lineage or ancestral spirits, where does this leave her?

In terms of LGBTQIA spouses, what is the main ancestral lineage? Can we incorporate both? Say for example two Hmong men who are married, can they have two household lineages and ancestral spirits in the home? What about two Hmong women? Can they still claim their birth ancestors and family lineage? Say for example a Hmong man who identifies as trans*, born female but now identifies as male, can they claim right to their father's lineage and ancestral path? If these queer couples are told they can't claim their family's ancestral lineage or spirits, how can they possibly ask a Hmong shaman for spiritual help? Or say, if the trans* man is told they can't claim their birth ancestral lineage, what then are they to do? These are all examples that LGBTQIA Hmong people are forced to reckon with.

I've also had situations where Hmong Christians have needed help from Hmong shamans. If they do not have spiritual households or ancestor spirits, can shamans still perform these rituals? If so, how can we access through their family spirits if they don't have any?

These are very complex case examples that have come up in my practice. The most important thing to remember, at least for me, is that it is the destiny of a Hmong shaman to help anyone in need of healing. We are born as healers for all people, not just the men, not just married women, and not just people who are Hmong or believe in spirits. It is crucial to remain as unbiased as possible in our practice. If you find yourself being judgemental or having bias, understand that this bias in your practice changes how we view and heal people. It changes how we look at ourselves as superior to those that are oppressed in our culture (i.e Hmong women who are divorced, LGBTQIA people, etc). The strict cultural views and handling of a divorced Hmong woman is a man made and human made concept and creation. It is followed by these strict regulations that include spirituality and concepts of the afterlife to prevent women from leaving abusive marriages. Spirits on the other side are not concerned about whether or not a woman is divorced. Spirits on the other side do not discourage healing rituals for a trans* womyn. These are biases and suppression methods taught and created in our culture and we must actively try to dismantle it if we call ourselves healers. By doing so we are not being political, rather, we are being healers.

In short, it's important to remain unbias and to not let our political views or cultural policies affect how we help others. It is not my role to tell another person that I can't do a ritual for them because they are divorced or that their children have different fathers. Who gets to make that decision? Who gets to decide who is worthy of family spirits? Certainly not me. It is also not my place to tell someone that since they believe in God, their ancestors do not protect them, and vise versa. It is not my role to tell someone that their identity is conflicting with ancestral spirits when really, it's not. Spirits do not concern themselves with human made creations of right or wrong, politics, or social practice. Spirits do not judge someone because they are divorced or queer or have children out of wedlock, only people pass these judgements.

As a young Hmong shaman, we must work to dismantle these oppressive styles of family affairs when it comes to our practice. We must work not to enforce these traditional and some-what outdated methods, but to do what is ethically and morally right. Imagine for a minute that a divorced woman seeks help from a physician and the physician says, "Since you are divorced, I can't help treat your stroke..." That would sound ridiculous. Remaining unbiased secures that we are doing what we were destined to do. As the times change, we need to be innovative and find ways to make sure everyone who needs help or seeks service receive that. If there are no traditional ways to go about it, then we need to find a more inclusive way to do so.