2018 Speakers – The Convergence

Sweetwater Nannauck Panel Bio

Convergence Program — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 23:30:42 +0000

Sweetwater Nannauck, Director of Idle No More Washington

Sweetwater Nannauck, founder of Idle No More Washington, is an activist who advocates for the protection of the fragile environment of the Northwest Coast, for tribal sovereignty rights, and for the traditional ways of life of Native people. She conducts ‘Decolonizing Our Activism’ workshops in a respectful way that is both healing and empowering.

Since January 2013, Sweetwater has led Idle No More Washington in over 80 events and nonviolent direct actions that address local and global issues. She went to Washington, DC to lobby to protect the Arctic; she was involved in the ‘Shell No’ actions in Seattle and Anchorage when President Obama was there. She helped organize the ‘Paddle to Standing Rock’ in September 2016 and was featured in the annual Seattle Weekly ‘Best of Seattle’ (2015) ‘Best Activism Idea’.

Speaking on: Building Indigenous Relations: A BioRegional and Social Permaculture Perspective Panel, Indigenous Voices Panel

Rolland Gregg

Magdelion Moondrop — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 06:56:05 +0000

Rolland Gregg

— Rolland Gregg of SymbioNet / Delphi VIllage / Imagin –

Founder of Imagine, Inc.

www.imagin.com

Realizing financial and business success in his mid twenties Rolland started searching for ways to contribute back to his community to help do his part in making the world a better place. After investigating what was within his power to positively effect changes locally and globally he quit his job and took a year off to live in Mexico to study sustainability and the 9 main human support systems which are; government, education, military, commerce, banking, religion, transportation, health and food production. Rolland then came back to Seattle and formed a clean technology incubator Imagin, Inc. with the mission to, “Empower communities with affordable and sustainable Energy, Water, Food, Health, Waste, Shelter, Transportation & Education solutions.” Since then Rolland has been part of the funding and development of various new clean energy technologies as he continues to support his primary mission.

2018 Convergence Panel:
Regenerative Technologies Revealed, Interactive Regenerative Technology Showcase

Interactive Regenerative Technology

Convergence Program — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 06:43:16 +0000

Join us for an interactive discussion and demonstration of multiple regenerative technologies. We will see how alcohol distilled from waste or low cost local sources, can burn clean and provide locally produced and consumed affordable clean fuels. We will learn about how to harvest, store and efficiently transform thermal energy into electricity and locomotive power through new high efficiency turbines, motors and generators. The team will share their experience taking Eco-resorts 100% off-grid as well as what can be done to improve your community, country or corporation’s energy, water, waste food and shelter systems.

Jason McKenzie

Convergence Program — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:44:29 +0000

Jason’s purpose is to co-create environments that unfurl, grow, and steward harmony. He co-builds spaces for people to feel themselves, understand their emotional intel, then embody their purpose to serve this world.
He has led men’s circles and retreats in the US, has co-organized men’s rites of passage initiations for hundreds of men, and regularly facilitates breathwork circles.
Jason is trained in shadow work and breathwork and uses the vehicles primarily to facilitate deeper embodiment and connection within groups and communities.
He is a steward, a protector, and celebrator of Life and is honored to have the privilege to lead this type of work.

2018 Convergence Workshop: Emergent Masculine

Cyrus Bacon

Convergence Program — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:35:13 +0000

Cyrus is a homesteader located in Northern California. He aims to minimize his impact on the planet by learning the skills necessary to provide for oneself outside of the context of industry and a monetary economic system. His work includes growing vegetables for his community, tending to a small goat her for dairy and meat, and developing strategies for wholistic resource management for various farmers and land-owners. He currently resides in the fifty-year floodplane of Little Lake Valley on top of 200 ft of solid blue clay.

2018 Convergence Workshop: Processing Wild Harvested Clay

blair phillips

Convergence Program — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:30:24 +0000

Blair Phillips, the founder of Abuela Gardens (2013), and Common Vision (1999) Has a BA in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Agroecology and education (2006). Blair is a certified permaculture designer and teacher who has studied with the best(2007). Teachers like Dr. Elaine Ingham, Geoff Lawton, Darren Doherty, Penny Livingston, Broc Dolmon, Ian Davidson, Steve Gliesman, Michael Flynn, Cal Earth, Michael Smith (2004-to present)

2018 Convergence Workshop: Forrest tending for fire prevention and watershed regeneration

Anna Simone Combi

Convergence Program — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:28:33 +0000

Bloom and Anahata are earth activist musicians, certified Permaculture teachers & designers, ecovillage educators, healers, artists and transformational paradigm shifters. They have facilitated community workshops, retreats, gatherings, concerts and Permaculture action events together in Costa Rica, Canada, California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Hawaii, Peru, Bali, Australia, New Zealand and beyond. They are co-organizers of Blooming Biodiversity Tour which spanned the North American West Coast, Fall 2015, offering events that brought together communities in transformational celebration to learn and practice permaculture. Anahata is certified Nosara yoga teacher, bodyworker and former herbalist apprentice at Herb Pharm. Bloom is a Generation Waking Up facilitator. They have worked as teacher assistants for Starhawk’s Earth Activist Training Permaculture Design Course, the Ecovillage Design Education. They are trained Work That Reconnects facilitators with Joanna Macy. They were interns Arkana Alliance, an indigenous rainforest activist organization in Peru. They have both have facilitated workshops, performed music and have had extensive, organization, volunteer, and staff coordination roles at transformational festivals, including: Envision Festival, Lightning in a Bottle, Once Upon a Festival, Lucidity, Global Eclipse, Bali Spirit Fest, Imagine, Big Surreal, Flow Festival, Earth Frequency, Singing Alive, Plants EnChant, Good Medicine, Mystic Rising, Enchanted Forest, and more. They are social/environmental activist filmmakers and have produced and presented a variety of their films. They have both participated in and presented at a variety of social and environmental conferences and convergences including: Bioneers, The NorCal Building Resilient Communities Permaculture Convergence, Pure Living Expo, Tribalize, Cumbre de Los Pueblos COP20 in Peru. They have both taught college courses at their perspective universities on Sustainability and Social Justice. They have facilitated Ecological Awareness workshops at Esalen Institute for the Integral Leadership Program. They worked as herbal medics and water protectors at Standing Rock in November and December of 2016. They recently co- taught a Permaculture Design Course, Aloha Aina Winter On Maui with Jenny Pell. Bloom and Anahata continue to lead Permaculture activation events and co-creative musical experiences globally.

To learn more about our Earth-activism and Permaculture work, visit: Blooming Biodiversity Permaculture Network www.BloomingBiodiversity.org
To listen to our music, visit: Bloom Music www.BloomSounds.org

2018 Convergence Workshop: Pollinating the Permaculture Paradigm: Blooming Biodiversity’s Global Perma-Journey

Robin Liepman (Bloom)

Convergence Program — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:28:20 +0000

Bloom and Anahata are earth activist musicians, certified Permaculture teachers & designers, ecovillage educators, healers, artists and transformational paradigm shifters. They have facilitated community workshops, retreats, gatherings, concerts and Permaculture action events together in Costa Rica, Canada, California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Hawaii, Peru, Bali, Australia, New Zealand and beyond. They are co-organizers of Blooming Biodiversity Tour which spanned the North American West Coast, Fall 2015, offering events that brought together communities in transformational celebration to learn and practice permaculture. Anahata is certified Nosara yoga teacher, bodyworker and former herbalist apprentice at Herb Pharm. Bloom is a Generation Waking Up facilitator. They have worked as teacher assistants for Starhawk’s Earth Activist Training Permaculture Design Course, the Ecovillage Design Education. They are trained Work That Reconnects facilitators with Joanna Macy. They were interns Arkana Alliance, an indigenous rainforest activist organization in Peru. They have both have facilitated workshops, performed music and have had extensive, organization, volunteer, and staff coordination roles at transformational festivals, including: Envision Festival, Lightning in a Bottle, Once Upon a Festival, Lucidity, Bali Spirit Fest, Imagine, Big Surreal, Flow Festival, Earth Frequency, Singing Alive, Plants EnChant, Good Medicine, Mystic Rising, Enchanted Forest, and more. They are social/environmental activist filmmakers and have produced and presented a variety of their films. They have both participated in and presented at a variety of social and environmental conferences and convergences including: Bioneers, The NorCal Building Resilient Communities Permaculture Convergence, Pure Living Expo, Tribalize, Cumbre de Los Pueblos COP20 in Peru. They have both taught college courses at their perspective universities on Sustainability and Social Justice. They have facilitated Ecological Awareness workshops at Esalen Institute for the Integral Leadership Program. They worked as herbal medics and water protectors at Standing Rock in November and December of 2016. They recently co- taught a Permaculture Design Course, Aloha Aina Winter On Maui with Jenny Pell. Bloom and Anahata continue to lead Permaculture activation events and co-creative musical experiences globally.

To learn more about their Earth-Activism and Permaculture work, visit: Blooming Biodiversity Permaculture Network www.BloomingBiodiversity.org

To listen to their music, visit: Bloom Music www.BloomSounds.org

2018 Convergence Workshop: Pollinating the Permaculture Paradigm with Blooming Biodiversity

Alegría de la Cruz

Convergence Program — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 22:02:14 +0000

Alegría is responsible for Intergovernmental Tribal matters, cannabis policy development & regulation, Housing and Community Development, and general Infrastructure matters, by serving and advising Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors, Community Development Commission, and other County departments. She manages a team of 11 lawyers and supervises complex legal matters. She served as Spanish-language Public Information Officer during the Sonoma Complex Fires, and was awarded the Environmental Justice & Equity Award from Sonoma County Conservation Action for her community work during that time.

2018 Convergence Workshop: After the Fires: The power of community in disaster response, recovery and rebuilding

Max Meyers

Convergence Program — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 05:41:00 +0000

Maximillian Meyers is an experienced Ecological Designer, Permaculture Teacher, Consultant, Registered Aquaculturist, Aquaponic System Designer/Installer, Rainwater and Greywater System specialist, Farmer and Sustainable Living expert. He is Founder of Nor cal Aquaponics and the Executive Director of the Mendocino Ecological Learning Center a nonprofit educational organization and ecological reserve offering green job training and sustainable living skills to the public. Through his work as an instructor of Permaculture and Ecological Design he has successfully trained over a thousand students from more than 40 countries world wide. In addition to the work at MELC, Mr. Meyers provides Ecological design services to the public, organizations, and schools through Osiris Designs and Nor Cal Aquaponics. He is passionate about all things related to a more just and sustainable world. Recently Mr. Meyers helped write the guidelines for the newly formed California Fish and Wildlife Aquaponics subcommittee. He has been studying, practicing and teaching Permaculture and Ecological Design for 21 years.

Since graduating from College in 2000 with a B.A. degree in Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Communities, Max has become a certified Permaculture designer and teacher, water systems specialist, and working professional in his field. He has been fortunate enough to study and work with legends in this field, people like Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holzer, Paul Stamets, Dr. Elaine Ingham, Dr. James Rakocy, Tom Ward, Jude Hobbs, John Valenzuela, Dr. Elaine Ingham, Penny Livingston and many others in places like the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Hawaii. Some of his fields of study and practice include: Natural Building, Organic Farming, Integrated Rainwater Harvesting, Alternative Transportation, Mushroom Cultivation, Sustainable Forestry, Beekeeping, Animal Husbandry, Renewable Energy, Biogas Production and use, Greywater Systems design and installation, Vermiculture, seed saving and many other sustainable technologies, methods and skills. He has experience teaching Permaculture, Aquaponics, Natural Building, Cob Construction, Renewable Energy, Organic Farming, Beekeeping and others.

Mr. Meyers has designed and built Aquaponics systems in many countries around the world. From small backyard Aquaponics gardens, to Commercial Aquaponic Greenhouses, to running the world’s largest 222 acre “Flow Through Aquaponics farm” in Costa Rica. Max Meyers is one of the most experienced Aquaponics professional in the world!

He has created the most diverse and experienced teaching team in the world inviting renowned experts in the field to join his staff, including Jon Parr of SchoolGrown, http://www.schoolgrown.com/about-schoolgrown/ and Rob Nash of Austin Aquaponics, http://austinaquaponics.com/ and many more. Nor Cal Aquaponics holds 6 to 8 trainings and courses per year.

He and his work has been published in Gaia’s Garden, the world’s best selling book on Permaculture and featured in Time Magazine video as well as a variety of other publications, radio and television programs.

Some of His Work Experience

Co-founder Mendocino Ecological Learning Center, 2003 to present. Non-profit organization dedicated to providing Permaculture education, green jobs and green living skills training and forest restoration.

Founder Osiris Designs, 2006 to present. Permaculture Design, consultation and implementation service located in Willits, CA.

Founder Nor Cal Aquaponics, 2009 to present. Closed loop Aquaponics specialists. Offering trainings, consultations, design and implementation services. Specializing in Permaculture based Aquaponics. www.norcalaquaponics.com

Project Director at Living Mandala. Living Mandala designs, facilitates and produces courses, workshops and events as well as offers consultation services that implement ecologically and socially regenerative practices. www.livingmandala.com

Nearly 15 years of working with clients and organization designing and building projects relating to Sustainable Living, Ecological Design, Renewable Energy, Regenerative Food Systems, etc. (References and examples of Mr. Meyers’ work avaiable upon request)
Additional Resources Featuring Mr. Meyers Work:
Books – Gaia’s Garden; A guide to home scale Permaculture, by: Toby Hemenway
Cover story on Aquaponics Magazine, February 2016
Time Magazine video documentary, http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,658160623001_2030619,00.html
A sample of Mr. Meyers’ Aquaponics work, http://www.norcalaquaponics.com/our-work.html
A video featuring Mr. Meyers’ Permaculture work can be found here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhHLZesjZRU
Webinar – Closed Loop Aquaponics Combining the Sciences of Permaculture & Aquaponics, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv2kLAK73Vs&t=1520s

2018 Convergence Workshop: Climate Change is Real, But What are the Various Causes?

Ojan Mobedshahi

Convergence Program — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 05:27:42 +0000

Ojan is a second generation Iranian American born and raised in the Bay Area. Working as both a landscape designer and a finance director for a real estate cooperative, Ojan sees social and environmental justice as integrally linked and interdependent. Learning from his own process and grief, as well as the work of scholars such as Joanna Macy, Ojan holds space for folks to engage with the complex emotions that come up when confronting our impacts on the planet and on each other by facilitating ecological grief circles.

2018 Convergence Workshop: Ecological Grief Circle

Chaz Peling

Convergence Program — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 04:50:12 +0000

“Chaz Peling founded and runs SolSolutions, focused on personal empowerment and education around solar, energy use, and efficient designs in homes, farms and communities. He has been involved in community building, environmental and social activism, and the transition movement for quite awhile as a call to passion, and also loves to keep gardening and getting his hands in the earth.”

2018 Convergence Workshop: Empowerment and Enlightenment in Disasters

Samantha Sweetwater

Convergence Program — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 01:52:40 +0000

Author, Educator, Integrated Brilliance Coach & Soul Guide, Samantha has has spent 25 years creating businesses and communities at the intersection of embodiment, regenerative design, leadership and ecocosmic spirituality. She is committed to the emergence of the Ancient Future – a world that works for all of life. She helps people to remember, live and create what they know to be True. As the founder and director of One Life Circle, she stewards a community of practice and prayer dedicated to the evolution of humanness, happiness and consciousness. She is currently working on a new book, Everyone Comes Home, due to release in 2019.

2018 Convergence Workshop: EcoKosm & How is Blockchain Driving Regenerative Solutions?

Alaina Hernandez

Convergence Program — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 01:40:26 +0000

Alaina Hernandez is a ceremonialist, group facilitator and ritual artist. Alaina brings her experience as a Wilderness Therapy guide, her training in ceremonial arts from the Pachakuti Mesa Shamanic tradition, and her life-long love of visual arts to facilitate group and individual experiences that bring healing through beauty and connection.

2018 Convergence Workshop: Autumn Equinox Despacho Ceremony

Ana Lugo

Convergence Program — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 01:36:11 +0000

Ana Lugo has called Santa Rosa home for the last 17 years and has devoted her time to making our community better through her participation in various community projects. Ana is passionate about bringing people together and inspiring them to take action to ensure that the most vulnerable in our communities can be uplifted and protected. Ana helped found UndocuFund, a fund created to bridge the gap in financial support for undocumented members of our community affected by the fires. She currently serves as Co-Chair of Sonoma County Rises, a group of community leaders committed to uplifting community voice and the need for placing equity at the center of the recovery process. Ana currently works at Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County as Director of Communications and Community Relations.

2018 Convergence Workshop:After the Fires: The power of community in disaster response, recovery and rebuilding

Hannah Apricot Eckberg

Convergence Program — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 01:34:03 +0000

Hannah Apricot Eckberg has studied permaculture for over 20 years and toured many sites around the world. Permaculture has inspired her media career, and in 2016 she co-founded Permaculture Magazine, North America. Now, she helps run the Abundant Earth Foundation, promoting regenerative grassroots philanthropy to support projects around the world using permaculture and regenerative practices.

2018 Convergence Workshop: The Weaver Network – Happy Hour Networking & Gathering

David Shaw

Convergence Program — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:39:28 +0000

David Shaw
Santa Cruz Permaculture
www.santacruzpermaculture.com

David Shaw, a permaculture and whole systems designer, facilitator, and educator, founded Santa Cruz Permaculture, and the UCSC Right Livelihood College, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” He supports communities locally and globally to transform their shared future through strategic dialogue and collective action.

2018 Convergence Workshop: Bioregional Networking found at the HUB

Sweetwater Nannauck (Healing Bio)

Convergence Program — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 01:40:31 +0000

Sweetwater Nannauck (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian)

Sweetwater’s (Tlingit) great-grandmother was a traditional medicine woman. Sweetwater was called to be a healer in December 1997, during which time she was bed-ridden with four slipped discs in her lower back. She has twenty-one years of extensive training and experience in traditional Native healing. She was taught how to do healing work from her ancestors and ‘Spirit’. From them she inherited or learned how to do dream work, energy work, work with herbs, work with the weather, how to spiritually cleanse a person and/or home to facilitate healing, learned how to pray or sing to call ancestors, Spirit, and do spirit healing. She specializes in historical trauma healing, PTSD, and helping others from spiritual attacks. Sweetwater’s approach to healing is holistic in nature incorporating the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects to help access what the patient needs to facilitate their healing process.

Sweetwater learned about and participated in traditional sweat lodges with Gilbert Walking Bull (Lakota) and from Clifford Allen (Nez Perce) she learned how ‘the Creator, created creators’ which basically means we as human beings have an active role in creating our reality. She has been to almost every hospital in the Seattle area over the years praying for people and helping them on their healing path. She has served as a traditional consultant to other mental health providers in Seattle and outlying areas that serve Native American populations. She assists in providing Native healing in conjunction with conventional western psychiatric medical treatment.

Publications:

Tsosie U, Nannauck S, Buchwald D, et al. Staying connected: a feasibility study linking American Indian and Alaska Native trauma survivors to their tribal communities. Psychiatry 2011 Winter; 74(4):349–61.

http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/psyc.2011.74.4.349

Deborah Bassett, Ursula Tsosie, Sweetwater Nannauck. “Our Culture is Medicine”: Perspectives of Native Healers on Posttrauma Recovery Among American Indian and Alaska Native Patients. The Permanente Journal Winter 2012 – Volume 16 Number 1

http://www.thepermanentejournal.org/issues/2012/winter/4253-pts.html

Annie-Rose London

Convergence Program — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:48:24 +0000

Annie-Rose London is a social artist who seeks to create raucous experiences of joy and pleasure to counteract systems of oppressive mind control. She draws together the fields of ecological design, community arts, and social justice through facilitation and performance. She has called herself a performance artist, a clown, a ritualist, an educator, an activist, a healer – today she calls herself happy to meet you. She has served as the executive director of Berrett-Koehler Foundation and currently facilitates leadership development and creative practice in partnership with InterPlay, The Arts and Social Change Jam, and Earth Activist Training Social Permaculture Trainings.

2018 Convergence Workshop: Social Permaculture Playshop: Clowning Theory and Praxis for Earth Activists

Cheryl Angel

Convergence Program — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 21:37:51 +0000

Cheryl Angel is a Sicangu Lakota spiritual activist dedicated to non-violent direct action and environmental justice.

Years of activism led Cheryl to Standing Rock in 2016, where she became a community member of Sacred Stone Camp. She led prayer and ceremonies during the almost year-long occupation to stop the Dakota Access pipeline from infringing on Native rights, and destroying both fragile cultural treasures and clean water.

Now she travels the world to share the message of decolonizing Unci Mahka, or Grandmother Earth and protecting her watersheds.

2018 Convergence Panel: Indigenous Voices, Cultivating Resilience Through Defending the Sacred, Access to Water, Access to Life,