Building in Public - Curators Workshop. Curating a series of stories to unlock more regeneration, collective creativity, coherence, and healing of people and place in Erie Niagara

Let's do this

Awakening Lands began as a podcast to broadcast the human stories, the lessons, the challenges, and the aspirations of folks whom we call regenerative leaders and weavers.

Humanity’s evolution towards becoming a more ecological species can easily become a daunting thing to consider. Look at the rising disease epidemic, the biodiversity crisis, the contamination and pollution everywhere, how the hand of industrialization is evident in almost all landscapes. It seems reasonable to say that we have quite a shift to make…

But similar to any other enormous and complex change, it helps to identify simple steps we can take now. In our podcast, amplifying the voices of people who are on leading edges of ecological and spiritual learning seemed like a worthwhile step for Anna and me to take to contribute. What do the most proven and devoted healers of landscapes and communities have to teach us? How can we be inspired by their integrity, their grit, their visions of brighter possibilities? What becomes possible when we all see them and they see each other more clearly? What is there to learn? How might their lessons and perspectives inform next steps more of us can take together towards healing our places and planet?

In the last episodes of our first season, we interviewed several leaders and weavers from a particular region, Erie Niagara. Through those conversations we started to develop a sense of a whole place. We began to hear some of its key narratives of regeneration and saw glimpses of the many storied organizations and people in the movement, as well as the varied relationships that connect it all.

We learned that it is a storied, dynamic, and maturing movement. This one has been around for a while. It is largely defined by industrial and economic boom and collapse, by resulting challenge and sacrifice. It has also persisted as a place of peace, which was born out of the Indigenous people long before European settlement. Erie Niagara is a significant point of connection between the Great Lakes, the Eastern Seaboard, and the Appalachian Mountains. With the Niagara River being part of a watershed that holds 20% of the world’s freshwater, this is a place with an enormous amount of both water and life flowing through it.

We heard stories of contaminated river renewal, a dynamic network of community stewarded urban gardens, an epicenter of bird migration experiencing a decline in species, a local Indigenous tribe standing up against new industrial development to preserve and protect their Big Woods, an awakening dream of wildways once again enabling the flow of life across the land. We started to hear living stories of place speaking through leaders and weavers. We sensed a unifying voice of Erie Niagara wanting to be amplified above the noise of a more globalized, fragmented, and place-incoherent world.

It’s not just in Erie Niagara that this wants to happen. As we’ve shared this story with other friends, other leaders and weavers from across the planet, it’s become abundantly clear that whether it’s part of a clear vision or something more intuitive, ecologically minded people are resonating with the need for us to cultivate voices for our places, bringing coherence to the how of becoming ecological humans.

Now, we at Awakening Lands are holding a collective creative and learning process to bring a LOT of clarity to the how, and vitally, also the why…

exploring why

So what’s all this talk of “coherence,” you might be wondering. Well, if we are to become a truly ecological species, this will be an important pattern to know, even an important pattern for all of us to intentionally become…

Coherence is the expression of order in a chaotic world. It’s sort of life’s specialty. When we witness nature’s many patterns of coherence, we experience them as beautiful. We may be lying on our backs under a tree looking up towards the sky in wonder at the even distribution of its leaves. It may be the way that our bodies feel when our spirit is full and present, we’ve had great rest and nutrient rich foods, we’ve exercised our bodies, and we’re feeling full of gratitude for life. It may be the way a flower is ingeniously formed to draw in pollinators, to fertilize and to be fertilized.

Coherence represents systems that are integrating the otherwise chaotic particles and waves of existence into something connected and organized, something alive, something beautiful.

In many of the conversations we’ve been having, we talk about the living realities of whole landscapes. When we look at watersheds, we see coherence. But the systems and worldviews of the global industrial and reductionist paradigms that dominate our lives and lands have demonstrated that they don’t see in this way. This has lead us into incoherence, into blind fragmentation, and to collapse of living systems everywhere.

An ecological human species is one who’s fundamental way of being is that of continually seeking coherence at the many scales of life; in our hearts and spirits, in the health of our bodies, in our families, in our communities, in our living landscapes and places, and across the planet. Doesn’t that sound beautiful? Coherence is beautiful. At it’s most poetic, this is all about learning how to create something beautiful together.

It’s important to note here that human communities achieving patterns of coherence in their place is not new to our species. Our Indigenous brothers and sisters have long evolved Natural and Ancestral Law practices that amongst many other factors have enabled beauty in the relationships between people and land. How does our species honor, reconcile, and integrate wisdoms of the past in our steps towards a more beautiful future?

How do we come together to curate and create stories that enable us to become witness to and active participants in growing coherence and beauty across Erie Niagara? What can we do together to see potential more clearly? How can we lift up and add color to the dreams that are inspired? What inner and outer transformations will we come to understand are necessary in order to awaken more beauty? Talk about high art…

But pragmatism and appropriate expectations are important. What’s a next step we can take to learn a thing or two?

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exploring how - An Erie Niagara Curators Workshop

Let’s curate a series of 10 stories that can help us to witness, connect, and form coherence around regeneration happening across Erie Niagara. How do we inspire a sense of regenerative possibility through more clearly seeing things like histories, present realities, examples of the regenerative things already happening, and greater inner and outer transformations required?

Awakening Lands is designing and hosting this workshop with the Western New York Environmental Alliance, with Robert Styles of Prosocial World, and with several other friends of ours. Also with you! We’re making it a high priority to learn how to skillfully Build in Public (BIP) and to create more opportunities for more people to join along the way.

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So, here’s the high level structure of the Curators Workshop at the time of this writing…

Phase 1 - Participant Selections and Invitations

We will be hosting a discussion with the Western New York Environmental Alliance on May 15 to come up with criteria to guide participant selections. How do we identify people who can come together to collaboratively curate these 10 stories? What selection process will allow us to identify and select ~10 participants quickly and gracefully without getting too bogged down in developing the “perfect” way to decide?

Let’s get to the process of creation. Let’s see this as a game to play, an important one, but a game nonetheless. Let’s not take ourselves too seriously. Let’s have fun.

We also need to keep in mind the importance of bringing in a diversity of voices that can begin to represent the human diversity of Erie Niagara. Let’s think like ecosystems. Ecosystems thrive with biodiversity. It’s also important to remember here that we won’t be “perfect.” Relationships take time and mutual interest. Given the history and culture of the Western New York Environmental Alliance, I feel confident we’ll navigate this all important topic skillfully.

We’ll also explore the number of participants we feel is appropriate for this workshop. My gut is telling me somewhere around 10, but we’ll see what this first conversation reveals.

Invitations - Once we have a list of potential participants, it’ll be time to explore how we invite their participation. It’s always nice for there to be art and relationship in this.

Exploring the invitation process will surface all sorts of details we need to figure out; how we invite people into a shared purpose of exploring regeneration in Erie Niagara through curating stories, how to finalize dates, what value to bring participants in return, who should be monetarily compensated in all of this and how, and I’m sure more…

Phase 2 - Onboarding

This phase is critical to establishing trust and transparency with and between participants. This process involves interviewing participants to learn more about them, their organizations, and the larger socio-cultural system they are embedded in. All of this information will be shared transparently amongst all participants to ensure they are aware of each other and the overall process.

This aims to form recognition of the complexity of the systems we all operate in, and can ease participants into an understanding of each others’ perspectives. When this is made clear from the beginning, the need for competition is limited and collaborative relationships are made easier.

The other portion of this orientation process involves sharing background information about Awakening Lands and the project they are about to step into.

Lastly we’ll share all of the maps and stories of Erie Niagara we will have collected by then to begin the practice of seeing and hearing place. We will frame this as a “gift” to the people and the overall process.

Phase 3 - The Sessions

We’re thinking to host these over 4 consecutive Saturdays. Perhaps each Saturday will include a light breakfast and time to arrive together, a morning session, lunch, and an afternoon session. We’ll be looking to move around Erie Niagara to different landscapes throughout our time together. It will be essential to invite place into participation the best we can.

We look to begin by setting a good tone. We’ll do our best to create a space that is welcoming, open, fun, and where we’ve let ourselves come out of the matrix of the modern world to locate everything we do within Erie Niagara.

Setting an intention for deep listening is a big deal (for the facilitators too). As our friends Robert Styles and Paul Atkins from ProSocial World have said, “This one skill of listening more deeply to others (and oneself) is THE CENTRAL SKILL we need to develop a better world.”

We’re also planning a fun exercise that gets us into an embodied relationship with place. This is a surprise so I’m a little tight lipped on this one at the moment.

Another potent way to kick-off the first day is with future visioning. We’ll go through an exercise that will generally explore the inquiry:

Imagine it is 20 years in the future and the whole region is working together nobly in the pursuit of regeneration. What were the inner and outer transformations that happened along the way? What would you notice people and groups doing?

By exploring this question, we will position ourselves in the mindset of what we want to work towards, not just what we want to avoid. This is a powerful, values-based way of thinking that can inspire and sustain us long term.

Place mapping will be critical to rooting our stories in place. What mapping exercises will be most helpful in unlocking a deeper shared sense of Erie Niagara? What exercises can orient us to where we are, who we are, what we do well, as well as how to move forward as a people of place aiming to stimulate and support an enormous amount of regenerating activities?

With the first two sessions forming foundations of shared purpose and deeper familiarity with Erie Niagara and its greater potential, it’ll be time to curate 10 stories intended to bring greater coherence to regenerating Erie Niagara. Let’s curate something beautiful.

The Action Plan session is essential in ensuring that the storylines can be developed and told by the voice of the community. What established local groups and resources are already telling stories and providing inspiration? How can we connect with existing local networks to bring these stories to life through things like community art, multimedia, open public dialogs, and social gatherings? How might we facilitate collaborations with local storytellers and artists to bring these 10 stories to life with lots of inspiration and coherence?

Phase 4 - Follow-up

Following up with participants and stakeholders will be part of the evaluation of our project. Did workshop participants find the experience valuable? Are we able to engage with the community in a way that builds movement? What did the workshop and the following facilitation bring to life?

By using tools provided by ProSocial World, we can evaluate challenges and successes through a “psychologically flexible” lens and work together to identify and overcome barriers to maintain collaborative ideating. Through follow-up evaluations, we will be able to make adjustments for future iterations of this project in Erie Niagara and other communities on other parts of the planet.

Beginning to think of themes for the 10 story series

In the recent Awakening Lands virtual regenerative storytelling workshops, we’ve been learning a lot about mapping the regenerative stories and movements of different places. We now have an ever-evolving diagram with themes that together offer something of a whole picture. We want to be careful not to lead the witness, but the lessons we’ve learned may offer a good starting point to begin thinking about what a set of 10 stories that are bringing coherence to regenerating Erie Niagara might include.

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Bringing it all to life!

With 10 stories in hand, curated by local leaders and weavers, formed in the dynamic and collaborative process detailed above, the idea is that we will then have something potent and valuable. The next step will be inviting and igniting the local storytelling and arts community to help us bring these stories to life.

Much more on this part to come…

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If you’d like to support Anna and Benji in this work, we would greatly appreciate it. We are getting ready to put a lot more energy into raising the funds we need to make this workshop and the work to follow a reality. We’re still a long ways from our goal. If this inspires you and you’d like to support, you can subscribe by hitting the button below and select an amount to donate. You can also subscribe for free, we don’t want money to limit anyone from participating.

If you’d like to make a one-time donation, you can do so here.

Perhaps the best way you could support us is by sharing this with friends who you feel might be aligned and also inspired.

We also have dreams of bringing resources to regenerative storytellers, artists, workshop facilitators, producers, grassroots media, weavers, leaders, and more. We so badly want to build Awakening Lands into a richly dynamic ecosystem of learning and inspiration sharing.

Many thanks to Kula Applied Research Institute for helping us to unlock funding sources and providing wisdom, collaboration, and friendship.