Advocacy Work

Spirit Weavers Gathering recognizes the importance of Solidarity and Allyship work.  Over the last eight years we have welcomed women from Australia, Indonesia, Spain, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Chile,  Canada, Singapore, Kenya, South Korea, Japan, China, Israel, United Arab Emirates, UK, Netherlands, and Latvia. We share this work and our Social Advocacy efforts as an Organization, in hopes to lead with clear intentions and transparency, as well as encourage our community to take part in this vital work for themselves.

Creating availability and inclusion within the gathering has been a key focus for us.  Building the gathering from the ground up has brought forth lots of learning curves, as does anything that is planted as a small seed.  We recognize that this work is life long and we are committed to continual growth and shifts within the gathering.

Below you will find a few of the programs we have created over the last ten years, and are continually developing and deepening. The gathering itself is truly an ever-changing and evolving workshop. We have a beautiful opportunity each year to work directly with women within the SW Community for shifts and focus. Thank you for believing in these small but sincere offerings as we strive to create an empowering gathering for all walks of life.

ONGOING ALLYSHIP WORK IMPLEMENTED AT SPIRIT WEAVERS

• Continue to provide and nurture specific spaces within the gathering led for and by Beings of Color to gather, create and share together. You can learn more about these spaces and who they are tended by in the Village section of the website, including our ComeUnity Village, Empowerment Center, Healing Village and more.
• Anyone holding space within the structure of the gathering including all instructors, staff and seva volunteers must commit to reading through our Allyship guide book and facilitation guide book in order to participate. Learn more about these guides below.
• Each bodywork practitioner chosen to share in our Healing Village donates a free session to a BIPOC community member at the gathering, and sliding scale pricing is always offered to BIPOC members of the community throughout the event.
• Herbalists and practitioners in our Wellness Den make and donate tinctures each year for the Come-Unity Village
• A number of attendee tickets are reserved each year for BIPOC attendees, made available at a sliding scale price
• Partial and full scholarships are offered each year to attend the gathering
• Practitioner spaces are reserved and prioritized for BIPOC practitioners in all of our community hubs, including the Adornment Area, Artist Village, Healing Village, and Vendor Marketplace.

You can find more in-depth info about these ongoing allyship efforts below:

ALLYSHIP BOOKLET

Each year we offer almost 200 volunteer exchange positions for the gatherings through our SEVA Program.  This means that in exchange for seva (selfless service), you receive a free ticket to the session of your choice.  This ticket includes all meals, camping, and your choice of early arrival or to stay later on the land.  Priority is given to those who would otherwise be unable to attend the gathering on their own.  Through our seva program, many women end up returning year after year, increasing their involvement in the community and production of the gathering itself.

If you are interested in joining our Seva Program, please visit the Seva Page in our Village Section of the website.

The Spirit Weavers community was honored to host DJ Bibi Mcgill, our SWG guest DJ,  and her event “Women of Color in the Wilderness” at Cedar Bloom.   The event is a more intimate version of Spirit Weavers, with the intention to connect in the wilderness and find comfort in camping and gathering in the presence of other WOC.

We have been honored to share the land with Bibi and community and look forward to hosting more intimate events supporting our BIPOC community in the future.

In 2016 we partnered with our sister community Sisters Bonded in Action and created a 6 part webinar series focusing on Social Justice Issues.  We hosted special guests such as Barbara Jefferson, Lyla June, Jade Begay, Yasmine Christopher, Mollie Crittenden, Malia Hulleman and Joanna Macey.   We dove into topics such as Power, Oppression and Intersectionality, Decolonizing and reclaiming Indigeneity, Dismantling Systemic White Supremacy, Exerting and Expanding our Rights, Direct Action from the Grass Roots, and Keeping sane and active among mass Psychosis.

Sisters Bonded in Action is a national network of local groups committed to the intellectual, emotional and tangible work of being an activist amid a languishing paradigm birthed at the Spirit Weavers Gathering. The intention behind this webinar is to provide emerging activists with a foundation for their craft, and/or to prepare any interested women to lead a local group of their own. Our prayer is that through these talks we can create a safe, held space for women to listen and learn from our incredible panel of unique guests.  Each segment of the Webinar is 1 hour and 15 minutes. The first hour features interview-style presentations by outstanding guests speakers, followed by audience questions and comments.

Sisters Bonded in Action is a network of local groups of women working in service of the Earth, social justice and indigenous rights and sovereignty.  The organization emerged from a seminar given by Ayana Young at the fourth annual Spirit Weavers Gathering, where alliances began to take shape around common passions and complementary processes. A series of actions and projects have already begun in the spirit of unseating the narratives of exploitation of land and livelihood. In August 2016, a group of 10 dedicated women initiated a film and campaign to halt the logging of old growth forests in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. That following Fall, several women ventured to Standing Rock in support of the water protectors. From there Mea Woodruff, Ayana Young, and Jade Begay collaborated with Idle No More SF to organize a powerful woman-led March on San Francisco’s financial district demanding the divestment of the banks involved in the Dakota Access pipeline project. As solidarity actions arose in other American cities, principal financier Wells Fargo agreed to meet with Standing Rock Sioux elders, a major inroad in this ongoing resistance to colonialism and fossil fuels.

Each year we offer a variety of classes that can support and empower the Spirit Weavers Community and beyond.

Classes from previous years include:

• Allyship & Reconciliation
• Sisters Bonded in Action
• Sacred Activism
• White Women as Allies
• Allyship & Collective Healing
• Between the Frontlines
• Cultural Exchange
• Earth is Ohana
• Spiritual Activism
• Ending extractive storytelling
• Honoring the gifts of our Ancestors
• Love Light & Whiteness
• Empathy & Allyship

The Spirit Weavers community extends beyond the annual Gathering in June. Every year Spirit Weavers Gathering chooses a number of different organizations to support with a financial donation.

Here are some of the specific organizations we have supported over the years:

• Cow Creek Band of Umqua Tribe of Indians
• Seven Seed Farms
•  Happy Period
• Grandmother Agnes and the Takelma Tribe
•  Save the Redwoods
• Call of the Forests
• Restoration of Camp Navarro
• Standing Rock
• Purple W.I.N.G.S
• Save Little Lake

Since purchasing the Cedar Bloom land, we continue to make a yearly donation to the Takelma people, the first nations people of the Illinois River Valley.

We are always inspired to expand and develop these advocacy efforts.

This work is ongoing and dynamic as our world is always shifting and we learn and grow alongside it.