The first event on the Beloved Emergence project will be a three-day retreat for Indigenous youth and young people of color which focuses on Indigenous-led ecology and wellness education for fifty young people and their community of caring adults. Through principles of reciprocity,  healing the land becomes an avenue for healing those most impacted by systemic oppressions.  Proximity to food sources, practice of ancestral skills, and use of narrative approaches are means to explore active decolonization.

This offering is the first of many to begin programming for the eventual establishment of a center for decolonization and community healing: a space to be constructed as partners with Indigenous leadership who will be directing the content and structure of the retreats. 

Camas Lily photo by Melissa Robin Photography

Program Overview

Indigenously informed and led, this weekend workshop is an experiment in turning the concept of decolonization, especially of the mind, into practice. Over three days starting September 30th, 2022, we will be on the land and work to restore Camas prairie, while grounding ourselves in an embodied sense of wholeness and being. 

Camas lily bulb fields have been a staple food for indigenous peoples for millennia, and its cultivation was suppressed by colonization. This program aims to reclaim this traditional lifeway while exploring various embodied therapy models and land practices that are designed to connect and support trauma healing, specifically historic racialized trauma, and familial trauma. 

Participants will explore indigenous, ecological, and somatic models that support collective intelligence, collaboration, connectivity, and consciousness to create an information base that supports the body and the spirit/mind. Using a framework of the seasonal round, participants will strive for balance between work, rest and play.

Participants will work and play together in a balanced environment that includes theoretical information, practical application and direct experience, with information that you can use as a solid ground for healing trauma.

Participants will experience a menu of activities, each designed to strengthen the nervous system, and restore resiliency: play and movement, mindfulness and silence, writing and mind/body work, as well as an actual land based practice of indigenous ecology restoration. Participants will do these things together in community. Participants will act to restore the land, and thus restore all that is connected, be it cougar, camas, salamander, stone or self. 

By weekend’s end, participants will construct a draft plan for implementing your chosen path to wellness in a context that has meaning for you.

Program Team

A multi-racial cohort of trauma-informed therapists, healers, ecologists and volunteers will be working together to center Indigenous leadership, land-based trauma healing, and resiliency for indigenous young people and youth of color, as well as economically disadvantaged young people. The project director and ecologist are both enrolled Cowlitz leaders, with a deep background in cultural activities and service. The facilitators are multi racial and Indigenous in descent and the volunteers are 56% Indigenous. 

Program Vision

Our collective vision is to support the expansion of this retreat to become seasonal and part of several programs offered through the development of an on-site center for Indigenous and community wellness. To get updates, including information on how to sign up for future versions of this retreat, please join our newsletter.

Support Needed

While ecological restoration on the 700 acres of land has been underway for months, we are now ready to create the physical infrastructure necessary for program implementation. We are now actively seeking participants in what we affectionately call “Making Camp” – groups of people meeting on the property to sustainably prepare the land, build ecologically-sensitive structures, kitchens, meeting spaces, and more. We welcome anyone who can offer their labor to learn new skills and be foundational members of the project. Come meet the land, camp on site, and make this collaborative vision a reality. Join us!

Gratitude

We are grateful beyond measure to be able to co-create this kind of offering. May it be of benefit to the collective. May we learn the ways of restoration and repair, may we be led by the ones whose steps we follow: the ones who have been here since time immeasurable.

Workshop Lead: Christine Dupres, CSWA, Ph.D.

Christine has her PhD in Narrative study from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, she has an associate license as a mental health professional and educator who has had experience with mindfulness, EMDR Therapy, and other Somatic-Oriented Therapies, and Narrative Therapy.

I am a Native American (enrolled Cowlitz and Cree) and white woman, with a dedication to social justice and a sensitivity to the complex race, culture, and identity issues that many of us carry and strive to understand. I bring a lifetime of experience to bear in my practice and a generous dose of humor and tenacity. I believe peace, well being and safety are human rights. I believe creativity is essential to the healing process. 

Therapy is a partnership that can help to support and advance your healing, well-being, and empowerment. The therapeutic process is grounded in openness and collaboration and should be as unique as you.

As a therapist my approach is to create a safe and respectful space and build a foundation of trust. I am a creative practitioner and recognize that each person brings with them intrinsic ability toward self-healing and resilience.

My approach is holistically geared toward assisting people in finding and regaining balance in their lives. My process in therapy is trauma informed and strengths based, utilizing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness, narrative, and somatic therapy approaches, including hypnosis. Because addictions and mental health are often related, I also work with dual diagnoses clients to help them in their recovery. I have a special affinity and many years of experience working with Indigenous and BiPOC population.

Enrollment for this retreat is full. For future retreat updates, please join our newsletter.

Camas Lily photo by Melissa Robin Photography