Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed. is recognized for her restorative facilitation of African Diasporic courses, processes, and performances, internationally. She uses drumming, rhythm, song, movement, storytelling, earth stewardship, ritual, and affirmative communication as vibrational vehicles for co-creating with nature a hearth for our bio-dynamic renewal, where we revitalize our indigeneity with mama earth.

2016 Convergence Workshops:  Here We Grow … DRUM!

An experiential workshop using meditation, Theater of the Oppressed, Nonviolent Communication, and Qi Gong to understand allyship as deepening our organic interconnectedness with the conscious intention to heal.

This workshop is an exploration of the ways that allyship can be understood as deepening our organic interconnectedness with the conscious intention to heal. Jihan will facilitate meditation, somatic exercises, and interpersonal practices to build skill in deconditioning ourselves from manifesting oppressive patterns in our interpersonal relationships and interrupting oppressive patterns with discernment and compassion.

Allies for Life workshops are experiential explorations of our internalized identities and how they shape our relationship to acting for a just and equitable shared reality. Our definition of allyship begins with redefining oneself as primarily an Earth-being, all others being subject to this one that calls for our alliance with forms of Life. Participants will gain clarity on their internalized notions of identity, skill in interrupting oppressive patterns of behavior in themselves and others, and tools for self-care to make engaging the hard work of allyship sustainable. We will be drawing from meditation, Family Constellations, Theater of the Oppressed, The Work That Reconnects, Qi Gong, and Nonviolent Communication. The structures of oppression, of humans as well as all other living things, are perpetrated by people, quite often unconsciously, and people primed in their healing capacities are needed to transition these structures into uplifting ones; human beings cooked them up, it will take humane beings to compost them.

Friday, Oct 6| 5pm| Mediteranean

Presented by Jihan McDonald

Bonita Ford – Permaculture Eastern Ontario & LivinghEARTH: Bonita aims to inspire people, giving them tools for healthier living. She teaches permaculture, Reiki and Nonviolent Communication, and has led workshops around the world for over 13 years. She facilitates community design projects and does design coaching with individuals and small businesses. She also does 1-on-1 Reiki and spiritual coaching for individuals. Bonita has written for the Permaculture Design Magazine (and The Activist). She co-founded Permaculture Eastern Ontario (formerly Permaculture Institute of Eastern Ontario) and Transition Perth. Bonita and her partner Sébastien live in Perth, Ontario, which is unceded Algonquin Territory on Turtle Island. The land they call home is 1/5 of an acre in town. They grow most of their own food and are active in their local community. www.livinghEARTH.net

2016 Presentation: Learning from Our Indigenous Friends, Teachers & Allies

Holding the worldview that the earth and all beings on it are alive and connected, this workshop combines the practice of Authentic Movement with Heart Field Perception to help us move with the rhythm of the trees. This process will hold not just other people but the tree and plant world as witness to our movement explorations to allow for the human animal and human mind be in full moving and being with ‘other’. This process will include a nature walk, opening ceremony with altar building and intention setting, heart perception meditation with the plant that calls you most, authentic movement triad exploration, group sharing and closing ceremony. This is a lab for discovery!

This practice is paramount to tapping into the living web of life of which we are all an integral part. It strives to return the human organism to that web by way of direct experience with the hopes that those who experience it will find communion, companionship, and allyship with the more than human world. Permies have an “in” already and this practice brings in spirit, creativity, self-care, the body, and a larger sense of awe and integration that will only deepen our relationship to place. It’s ancient wisdom in action.

Presented By: Tayla Ealom

Where Did the Witch Go and Why We Need Her Wisdom

Know how you came here, your birth rights in and out of the hospital setting, and tools to make pregnancy and birth a naturally smooth process. Open to all Genders~ we all came through this process.

How are we bringing the next generation onto this planet? Come to learn pregnancy & birth information all beings should know. All Genders encouraged to come…everyone came from this process! What you most likely didn’t learn in school about pregnancy & birth. Simple tools to make pregnancy, birth, and conception a naturally smooth transition. We will also address your rights in California hospitals and homes regarding the birth process.

I believe that how the next generation enters this world has great impact on the individual birthed into this world, the birthing person, and the community that being is birthed into. And how these being relate to the world, with interacts how each person interacts in the world. For example how sacred or un sacred tehy see and really feel/know the natural world and our interconnected ness with all of it. How are we choosing to support the initiation process into parent hood? How do we better honor this process, and what are tangible tools to make birth as natural as possible. By natural I mean little to no un necessary medical intervention. When needed how do we really nourish and support that intervention process in a way that minimalism trauma to all involved. In this work shop I would like to provide basic information that I feel all people (planning to get pregnant, already are pregnant, supporting pregnant people, or people who also came from this process) should know. For example how the fetus is nourished, the growing process, the process that occurs to the birthing person in labor, the recover after, that most people poop in labor (stuff we were mostly not taught in school). This will be quick but informative. Then I would like to go into California law and hospital info. What are standard proto call in hospitals, which do have right to say no to, when do you have a right but it won’t be presented to you that way. This is important to know way ahead of time! Finally a few small suggestions on simple things to help make the birth smooth. This will be interactive. For example Serving nettle and raspberry leaf tea, doing squats together, and other tools to support pregnancy into birth.

Presented by Rachel Hinds

Connect – Nourish – Grow – Activate – Release – Sustain concepts are alive in the prinicples of Permaculture. Drumming has been an integral part of human experience and must now be re-ignited in movements of today and for our future. Join us in an intentional held circle of Sacred Community Play, Songs, Movement. Learn drum-specific techniques, culturally specific rhythms, songs and dances for the Djembe, Dunun, Conga, Shekere, Bell, Cajun, Ashiko. All levels welcome – Bring your Drums or Use Ours

We DRUM to GROW into new parts of our unconscious for necessary life force reinforcement. We DRUM to ACTIVATE all evolutionary movements, including and not limited to– gender, environmental, racial, economic, and food justice. Let’s DRUM to NOURISH community wellness and regeneration together. DRUM nourishment provides powerful opportunities for women, men, and children who have experienced trauma. We will utilize drumming in an embodied interactive circle, with each person’s intention of AWAKENING together to release post traumatic stress/slave syndrome, deep trauma supported by deep breathing and movement, engaged listening and restoration.

Presented By: Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed

Jihan has received the Alpha Delta Leadership Award and a Changemaker Fellowship Award for their work in developing Allies for Life for people to learn pro-active interpersonal allyship. Jihan has worked with people ages 8-80 on learning skills, tools, and capacities for assertiveness, empathy, self-realization, spiritual grounding and social change in contexts ranging from the redwoods to seminaries and college campuses.

Friday, Oct 6| 4:30| Mediteranean

Allyship as Humane Symbiosis

Stalking the Wild Mind

Kat Steele is a permaculture activist, designer, educator and founder of the Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland, CA. She facilitates workshops on ecological design, sustainability, facilitation, permaculture and holistic healing. Kat speaks publicly about eco-social design, city repair, social permaculture and the power of placemaking. She has played a leadership role in developing women’s permaculture gatherings and support circles.

Trained in Ecovillage Design with the Findhorn Foundation of Scotland, Natural Building with Kleiwerks International, and Permaculture Design with the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, she also holds an MA in Creative Arts from San Francisco State University. She is the former Sustainable Development Manager for the Esalen Institute in Big Sur California and now resides in Oakland, California where she co-teaches Permaculture Design in the Landscape Horticulture Department of Merritt Community College.  She is recently engaged in counseling and coaching via the Interchange Counseling Institute and continues to be devoted to promoting inclusivity, localization, personal and community resiliency, believing these to be key strategies towards sustainability and “thrive-ability”. Reach her at katsteelenow@gmail.com.

2016 Convergence Panel: Widening the Circle – Eco-Conscious Leadership in Practice

The People’s Medicine: Herbal Allies for Social Movements

Presented by Abigail Hinds

Padma Koppula of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, host of the next International Permaculture Convergence, will speak about her work organizing thousands of poor village women in food self sufficiency. Women in India are the heart of equitable distribution of all resources for families and agricultural needs. Padma will share about how she supports underprivileged women’s motivation, strength and capacities. She leads women in organizing cooperative fodder forests for animals, food forests for people, community herbal gardens, and cooperative food preservation systems. Padma is an incredible permaculture and women’s activist with 25 years of experience in grassroots organizing to share with participants.

Presented By: Padma Koppula

Padma Koppula is the cofounder of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, a 17 year old permaculture nonprofit organization in India. Aranya is the host of the next International Permaculture Convergence in November 2017. India has a large government watershed program, in which Aranya has been responsible for facilitating the implementation of rain water harvesting and vegetative plantings on 37 500 acres of land. She works with small farmers in her state who grow GMO cotton monocrops, teaching them the benefits of diversified cropping systems, and supports them in changing over to these permaculture practices. She works with tribal communities who are displaced from the forest,and,helps them to develop food forests and do rain water harvesting on the farm land the government has allocated them. Padma gives trainings in and uses participatory rural development techniques to work with villagers. She engages capacity building activities and education for rural people in water resource management, farm management, diversified annual crops and tree based farming systems. She teaches seed preservation of local and native seeds and helps establish seed banks in many villages. Padma is engaged in many other incredible works including helping the landless poor access land, creating women’s cooperative groups and does trainings for government employees.

2016 Convergence Workshop: Organizing Indian Women in Permaculture Food Self Sufficiency Systems

Resilient Birth

An Ayurvedic perspective of lymphatic and breast health self-care practices for Women.

In this class we will explore Lymphatic Breast Health though the lens of Ayurvedic self care. We will dive into our inner oceans and begin to understand the importance the lymphatic system plays in self care and immunity as well as teach some tools to help support lymph flow and blood circulation. We will discuss anatomy and physiology, common health concerns for women as well as contributing lifestyle factors. Together we will come up with creative solutions to our blockages around self- care as well as mind body medicine techniques to infuse into our daily practice. This will be an exciting and inspiring journey into the juiciness that is Ayurvedic self care and Women’s Health!

Womans health, and understanding of lymphatic health in general is a vital part of sustaining resilient communities. We need to take our health and healing back into our own hands, and be empowered in our knowledge of our bodies. If we want to be vital, healthy humans working for change we need our bodies to remain healthy and resilient too. Being able to learn about how we can take good care of our bodies, minds and spirits ensures that we will be able to fully show up in all other areas of our lives. This will be presented as a skill share, a new way of looking at our health and immunity that we can take home and apply to our own daily practices. This information can and ought to be shared throughout our communities to help individuals find their best expression of health and vitality.

Presented by Anja Robinson

Finding our wild mind and heart in a colonized world

There is a growing conversation about “decolonizing”, but in this discussion we will ask what this really means, especially from those still steeped in a ‘white’, western way of doing things. How do we better learn from our Indigenous relatives and live closer to our connection to the earth and to our own hearts? And how do we do this while yet utilizing the technologies and living in the structures that our colonized world has created. We are in a transitional and precarious time, but also exciting for those ready to build bridges of healing that are crucial for the survival of our species.

Those who are reconnecting to natural systems through various projects may not be as familiar with how their very way of thinking needs to also become a natural system.

Presented by Jul Bystrova

Tayla Ealom is a yoga instructor, embodiment warrior, earthling, and celebrator of life. She recently entered her second year in the Somatic Psychotherapy Master’s program at CIIS, an innovative, forward-thinking university in the heart of San Francisco. She spends a lot of time thinking about embodiment and what it means to be of this earth as a human Animal Being. In the time around that, she’s busy with her hands crafting medicines, playing with herbs, and making up workshops about the things she learns. She strives to get everyone back into their bodies and get those bodies back into the web of life.

2016 Convergence Workshop: Dancing with the Trees : Exploring an Authentic Relationship with the More than Human World

Learn how herbal medicine is bringing the power of healing into the hands of the people and building culture in diverse social movements around the world, and gain hands-on experience with new herbal allies in this workshop.

Herbal medicine brings the power of healing into the hands of the people. Come learn how people around the world, from the MST in Brazil, to activists on the streets of Oakland, to the guardians at Standing Rock, have been using herbal medicine to nourish, heal, and strengthen our social movements. Participants will gain a deeper appreciation of women’s role in working with these plant allies, and of the historic, mythic and magical elements of folk herbalism. The facilitators will share introductions to some of our favorite herbs for healing and protection, as well as offer participants hands-on experiences building a relationship with these allies and making medicine.

We are three young permaculturists, farmers, activists, and herbal medicine students. We will weave stories from our diverse experiences with social movements around the world and empower participants to strengthen themselves and their communities using the powerful and accessible tools of herbal medicine. None of us are clinical herbalists but we have a passion for healing and would like to share an inspiring context to understand herbal medicine, and community-care, as a vital part of today’s social movements. We will use an interactive format that allows for participants to share their experiences throughout, as well as a chance for all participants to connect to selected plant allies through short powerful plant meditations and a hands-on medicine making portion of the workshop.

Presented by Mallika Nair

How do we embody a holistic approach that Includes, shares and integrates masculine, feminine and the whole spectrum of gender perspectives and approaches in our Permaculture practices and leadership? Join Kat Steele and Benjamin Fahrer as they share from their experience co-teaching Permaculture for many years as well as some of their own recent experiences in leadership positions. Based on the success of last year’s (un)panel on “Women in Permaculture: Celebrating Our Successes and Honoring Our Challenges” this year Kat invites Benjamin to join her in expanding on the theme. They will co-focalize a fish bowl exercise. Join them in the practice of listening deeply to the intimate conversations between Permaculture practitioners on their variety, depth and breadth of personal experiences. How do they do it? What works for them? How do they partner with, recognize, empower themselves and uplift the marginalized approaches, voices, people in our communities? How do they do it while still honoring the masculine and their own gender identity? What approaches are there to Un Learning the Patrix and raising consciousness within our communities? What needs to be improved, transformed, integrated?

2016 Convergence Panel: Koreen Brennan, Magalie Bonneau-Marcil. Moderated by: Kat Steele