***This event has been cancelled due to increasingly high rates of COVID-19. Please reach out to Katie Young if you have questions or would like to stay in the loop about future gatherings.***
First Wisdom Within Gathering
This event is reserved for womxn and non-binary people of BIPOC identity in the conservation community.
Monday, September 20, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. (arrive by 9:45)
North Santiam Recreation Area (Near Salem, OR)
As we notice the cooler mornings in this transition to the fall season, our very first Wisdom Within gathering will celebrate a cherished summer element – WATER! We are excited to have Chandrika Francis, founder of Oshun Swim School, facilitate a gathering for our circle around water and healing.
Through Afro-Indigenous centered practices, this workshop offers a safer space to explore our relationship with water and land, ourselves, and each other. Community building, embodied mindfulness, self inquiry, and storytelling, support us into remembrance of our innate sacredness. Rest and play are centered!
Lunch and honorariums will be provided. We acknowledge your time in taking the day to be together for this gathering. In respectful consideration, we will provide a $100 honorarium to cover your expenses and travel for the day.
COVID Safety Procedures: We’ll be following CDC guidance as well as Oregon’s newest COVID protocols and mandates. Attendance is capped at 10 people maximum. Due to the nature of this workshop, this event will unfortunately not have a virtual adaptation if forces beyond our control require us to cancel gathering in-person.
About Chandrika Francis, this month’s facilitator
Chandrika is dedicated to supporting people of color to have a relationship to the earth grounded in remembrance, safety, connection, healing, and liberation! In 2018, she founded Oshun Swim School. Through Afro-Indigenous centered swim and water based workshops, Oshun Swim School offers BIPOC womxn and non-binary people a safer space to explore our relationship with water and grow into embodied, joyful swimmers. OSS supports students to gain swim skills, and also to heal personal and generational water trauma, build community, and practice embodiment.
Before 2018, Chandrika supported POC to reconnect with the earth for seven years in the form of environmental education, backpacking trips, camping trips, conservation work, classroom teaching, and youth development. She has a Masters in Education through the Islandwood Program at the University of Washington, with a focus in decolonizing environmental education. She is a bi-coastal baby at heart, having spent her life between Oakland, Seattle, and the east coast, and is excited to bring her work to the lands she loves!
About Wisdom Within
Wisdom Within is a circle for womxn and non-binary person of BIPOC identity engaging in conservation. It is about the gathering of the Indigenous feminine spirit, the sharing of stories and experiences of nature, ancestry, and identity, and the building of a community that can help sustain the environment and also feel spiritually nourished by it. Learn more.
Project Organizers
- Dez Ramirez: Community Engagement Manager, Columbia Land Trust, DRamirez@columbialandtrust.org
- Katie Young: Indigenous Peoples Collaboration Project Manager, Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts, katie@oregonlandtrusts.org
