INVITATION TO COUNCIL
Join with fellow Bioneers in council, to explore this question: “How do we respond now, in these times, with our continued prayer and action to engage in the healing of ourselves, our relations with others and this Earth?” The circles offered will be identity-based and/or multicultural, multigenerational — all identities welcome — sessions to ask questions, listen deeply, share story, bear witness to changing times, and weave the world anew. Join for one day, or, ideally, join the same group each day in an arc of inquiry. On the fourth day, all participants will meet in one large circle, with the hosts centered, offering community witness, insights and highlights from the circles.
Bioneers 2020 will feature a variety of circle ways, including Talking Circles and the practice of council. The heart of these practices – listening, learning, living and thinking like a circle – are needed now, more than ever in our nation and around the world.
We envision these circles as spaces where people can gather for deep listening and emergent wisdom. Each circle will provide an opportunity to sit with others and share perspectives arising through this time of so much change and challenge. Our intent in centering identities is not to create separation, but instead to invoke wholeness and healing, through respecting the pluralism of experiences that coexist. Group sizes will vary as will circle forms, all with shared intention to speak and listen from the heart, one at a time. Bearing witness is essential in this practice and many may choose not to speak, instead offering their presence as participation. We will provide a space for being present with what is invoked in this time, and exploring our commitments to weave the fabric of the future.
Sessions will be co-hosted by experienced circle holders, traditional peoples and practitioners, including Ilarion Merculieff, Aleut traditional messenger; Sharon Shay Sloan, co-director of The Ojai Foundation; and Gigi Coyle of Beyond Boundaries.
“Circle is both an ancient way and a modern practice whose roots are found within the natural world, within diverse cultures, and in contemporary organizations. Circles have been called, inspired and informed by many cultures over time, with the aim of healing, learning, growing and transforming. Many people have forgotten how to listen, speak and co-create across divergent experiences. It seems no accident that circle practices have emerged, been remembered and reclaimed over and over again on different continents amongst different cultures and are reemerging as essential in modern times. From families to communities to schools to restorative justice to workplaces, circle practices are helping reshape how we relate to each other, in both new and old ways.
As pressures increase on all life systems, including human communities, we need to shift our consciousness to negotiate an unknown future. The collective wisdom found in circle is key to this process. By removing the social barriers that keep us separate, circle both honors our differences and elicits the kind of listening that brings instant recognition that we are all, in fact, related.”
~ Gigi Coyle, Ilarion Merculieff & Sharon Shay Sloan
Sessions
How do we respond now, in these times, with our continued prayer and action to engage in the healing of ourselves, our relations with others and this Earth?
- Indigenous
- BIPOC and Mixed Race
- LGBTQ+ and Gender Non-Binary
- Women and Female-Identified
- Men and Male-Identified
- White and White-Passing
- All Identities Welcome
- All Identities Welcome, with Intergenerational emphasis on Youth & Elders
Guides for our Council/Talking Circle Sessions
Indigenous: Jeannette Armstrong, Marlowe Sam, Paloma Flores
BIPOC and Mixed Race: Brendan Clarke, Luis Rodriguez, Ladybird Morgan
LGBTQ+ and Gender Non-Binary: Kristin Rothballer, Shlomo Pesach
Women and Female-Identified: Anita Sanchez, Pat McCabe, Samara Gaev
Men and Male-Identified: Jerry Tello, Will Scott
White and White-Passing: Dave Hage, Libby Roderick, Justine Epstein
All Identities Welcome: Ilarion Merculieff, Sharon Shay Sloan, China Soriano
All Identities Welcome, with Intergenerational emphasis on Youth & Elders: Gigi Coyle, Orland Bishop, Tokata (Future) Iron Eyes
Council Guides
Jeannette Armstrong
Associate Professor | UBC Okanagan
Jeannette Armstrong, Ph.D., fluent Okanagan/Nsyilxcən speaker and knowledge keeper of the Syilx Okanagan people, is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Knowledge at UBC Okanagan. She collaborates with Salish-speaking groups to re-establish Indigenous languages, historical relationships and food resource ceremonies through gatherings, trading, and protections of water and land practices. She is a recipient of the Eco Trust USA Buffett Award in Indigenous Leadership and serves on Canada’s Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee of COSEWIC.
Orland Bishop
Founder and Director | ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation
Orland Bishop, founder and Director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, an intentional community of mentors, elders, teachers, artists, healers and advocates for the healthy development of children and youth, has pioneered innovative approaches to urban truces and mentoring at-risk youth that draw from his extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology, and African Indigenous cosmologies.
Brendan Clarke
Co-Director | The Ojai Foundation
Brendan Clarke, a father, educator, writer and guide whose work focuses on healthy human relationships with self, community and the cosmos, especially at the intersection of social and ecological justice, resilience and response, currently serves as Co-Director of The Ojai Foundation with his wife, Shay.
Gigi Coyle
Co-Founder | Beyond Boudaries
Gigi Coyle is a community activist, council facilitator, rite-of-passage guide, and a mentor to a number of individuals, communities and organizations. She is currently working with several organizations, including: Youth Passageways, ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation, the Ojai Foundation, Weaving Earth, and Beyond Boundaries. Her work, which has included co-founding such initiatives as: Walking Water; A Practice of Council; and “The Box, Remembering the Gift,” has always been focused on healing ways through ceremony, inter-generational projects of prayer, action, and service.
Justine Epstein
Justine Epstein is a community organizer, rites of passage guide and council carrier in the lineage of Beyond Boundaries. Her work focuses on healing from inherited systems of colonization, white supremacy, cis-hetero patriarchy and global capitalism through community, practices, prayer, storytelling and relationship with the more than human world, with a particular focus on anti-racism and wealth redistribution.
Paloma Flores
| San Francisco Unified School District’s Indian Education Program
Paloma Flores, of California Indian Pit River Nation and P'urhépecha de Mexico ancestry, an activist and voice for her people, coordinates the San Francisco Unified School District’s Indian Education Program, co-directs the Bioneers Native Youth Leadership Program, and is a board member for the American Indian Cultural District San Francisco. She is also an artist, a Peace and Dignity Journeys intercontinental prayer runner, and a dancer.
Samara Gaev
Founder and Artistic Director | Truthworker Theatre Company
Samara Gaev, founder and Artistic Director of Truthworker Theatre Company, is a Brooklyn-based activist, educator, facilitator, theater director, and performer with 20 years' experience using performance as a tool for cross-cultural healing and social change. Her work, which has taken her to Zimbabwe, Senegal, Hawaii, Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Germany, Scotland, and throughout the U.S., examines and challenges constructions of power, privilege, the prison industrial complex, and other systems of oppression.
Dave Hage
Co-Founder | Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education
Dave Hage, co-founder of the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education and a member of the teaching team for the Weaving Earth Immersion program (and a white, cis-man of northern European descent from Southern Pomo territory, also known as Sonoma County) is a wilderness guide and nature connection mentor.
Pat McCabe
Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win/Woman Stands Shining), of Diné (Navajo) ancestry but also adopted into Lakota spiritual traditions, is a rural New Mexico-based mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. A voice for global peace, her multi-faceted work includes exploring issues of sustainability and balance and the reconciliation between the masculine and feminine.
Ladybird Morgan
Co-Founder and Executive Director | The Humane Prison Hospice Project
Ladybird Morgan, who has worked as a registered nurse, clinical social worker, healer and educator for 20+ years, is co-founder and Executive Director of The Humane Prison Hospice Project whose mission is to implement end-of-life care in prisons by training prisoners to be caregivers. Ladybird has worked with many organizations including The Zen Hospice Project and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and co-facilitates circles at Commonweal and UCSF/MERI Center's Last Acts of Kindness Program. Aside from her work for Humane (speaking on panels, presenting at various end of life events, general advocacy), Ladybird has also been going into San Quentin prison working with the prisoner-formed Brothers Keepers group on their crisis intervention and peer support programs.
Shlomo Pesach
Shlomo Pesach is a community organizer, queer mentor and Jewish ritualist devoted to cultivating flourishing fugitive queer futures.
Luis Rodriguez
Author
Luis J. Rodriguez has spent 40 years doing poetry readings, talks, and leading healing circles as well as creative writing classes in prisons, juvenile lockups, and jails. He has written 16 books in all genres, including the bestselling memoir: Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. His latest book is: From Our Land to Our Land: Essays, Journeys and Imaginings from a Native Xicanx Writer. From 2014-2016 Luis served as Los Angeles’ Poet Laureate.
Libby Roderick
Director | Difficult Dialogues Initiative
Libby Roderick, Director of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative and co-founder of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center, is the co-author/editor of many books and articles and works with universities across the U.S. and in South Africa to increase their capacity to effectively conduct difficult dialogues and apply Indigenous ways of teaching and learning. Libby is also an internationally recognized singer/songwriter whose six recordings have received extensive airplay on Earth and, in 2003, NASA played her song "Dig Down Deep" on the planet Mars as encouragement to the robot "Spirit."
Kristin Rothballer
Senior Fellow | Center for Whole Communities
Kristin Rothballer, a social change leader focused on the intersection of personal, social and ecological healing and transformation, consults on strategy, programs, equity and organizational development for nonprofits, foundations, social and land-based enterprises. Her current projects include serving as a Senior Fellow for Center for Whole Communities and pursuing a Masters in Social Transformation at Pacific School of Religion (at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA). Kristin's previous roles and projects included: co-founding and directing Green for All, working to build an inclusive green economy; helping design FIREROCK, a musical to engage people around climate change; guiding wilderness-based retreats for Ecology of Awakening; helping manage the Bell Valley Retreat and Tunitas Creek Ranch retreat centers; and working as Director of Programs at Bioneers. Kristin has also stewarded the Tyler Rigg Foundation for 20+ years.
Marlowe Sam
Marlowe Sam, Ph.D., a Wenatchi/Lakes descendant from the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington State, is a longtime Indigenous Rights activist and a scholar/researcher in Indigenous Studies with a special focus on Indigenous Water Rights in Canada.
Anita Sanchez
Author
Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., of Aztec and Latina ancestry, has drawn from Indigenous wisdom and modern science to guide thousands of leaders in corporations and nonprofits in creating diverse and inclusive workplaces and communities. She is the author of six books, including the international bestselling: Success University for Women in Business, and the International Latino Book Award winner: The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times.
Will Scott
Co-Founder and Facilitator | Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education
Will Scott is a co-founder and facilitator at the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, which works to create systems change through education at the confluences of social and environmental justice.
Sharon Shay Sloan
Co-Director | Ojai Foundation
Sharon Shay Sloan, Co-Director of the Ojai Foundation, is a rites-of-passage guide and council trainer who has worked with a number of organizations over the years, including: Beyond Boundaries, Wilderness Reflections, School of Lost Borders, Global Passageways, and Youth Passageways. She also worked in international conservation for a decade, including as founding Director for the Indigenous & Community Lands & Seas program for The WILD Foundation and with the World Wilderness Congress.
China Soriano
Jerry Tello
Director of Training and Technical Assistance | National Compadres Network
Jerry Tello of Mexican, Texan and Coahuiltecan ancestry, raised in South Central Los Angeles, has worked for 40+ years as a leading expert in transformational healing for men and boys of color; racial justice; peaceful community mobilization; and providing domestic violence awareness, healing, and support services to war veterans and their spouses. Director of Training and Technical Assistance for the National Compadres Network and an award-winning author of many publications (including, most recently: Recovering Your Sacredness), he also leads a weekly podcast, Healing Generations.
