Events

Taking workshops in the morning, sharing in small groups, and participating in a variety of recreational activities in the evening - that's what our Seventh through Ninth Graders do in Junior Gathering.

Water play, ball play, and riding tricycles, cars, fire engines, singing songs, listening to stories, and making crafts - these are some of the activities our Preschoolers do in Junior Gathering... all with abundant staffing.

Gathering begins on Sunday with our All-Gathering Worship & Welcome for attendees of all ages, led by the 2018 Gathering Clerks & Gathering Committee.

As part of the opening, we'll be led in a water ceremony by Panoka Walker. Panoka is of mixed French and Anishinabe decent from the Deer Clan. Panoka strongly identifies with her Indian roots as a traditional storyteller, song carrier, hand drum maker and traditional craftswoman. Encouraged by her elders after years of apprenticeship inside the sacred circle of life, Panoka is a facilitator of women’s ceremonies. She also leads workshops and presentations for adults and youth. Panoka is affiliated with the Mother Earth Water Walkers, who bring awareness to the Water, the Lifeblood of the Earth.

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, plant ecologist, writer and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. She serves as the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. Her research interests include the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and the ecology of mosses. In collaboration with tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science education for Native students, and to create new models for integration of indigenous philosophy and scientific tools on behalf of land and culture. She is engaged in programs which introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community, in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge.