Mycelial Resilience: a WTR Network Webinar with Hector Aristizabal and Claudia González

Event Overview

We have received a few requests from members of our community to postpone Saturday’s Mycelial Resilience webinar because of the “Hands Off” protests that are scheduled on the same day across the United States. 

We have decided NOT to postpone. 

The webinar will go on as planned from 10am-12pm PDT on Saturday April 5. 

These two events are directly linked and in response to some of the same egregious actions of the United States government. While many people around the United States will be in the streets, engaged in the Holding Action of direct protest, we will gather online as a global community with Hector Aristizabal and Claudia González to engage in the other essential dimensions of the Great Turning. 

We will learn about how the dissolution of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Inter-American Foundation (IAF) has impacted Re-Conectando, ECCO and their colleagues in other organizations throughout Latin America as they respond to the sudden loss of organizational funds and the cancellation of vital projects. We will also hear about and experience the unwavering mycelial resilience and community strength that members of these various organizations are enacting to ground more deeply into their purpose and commitment to doing their work in care of community and the Earth.

There will be an invitation to engage in this work  collaboratively in person and an opportunity to donate in support of this important work. 

The webinar will be recorded. We encourage anyone who can’t make it live to register so you can receive the followup email with the recording and contribute to this important project. 

***

In these times of increasing unraveling of the structures of Business As Usual we must come together in creative resilience – like mycelium moving beneath the soil, strengthening our connections, developing our skills and practicing mutual support, creativity and active care of Life.

Saturday, April 5, 10am – 12pm PDT (UTC-7)

**Check your time zone here.**

For over seven years, Hector Aristizabal and his colleagues at Fundación Re-Conectando have been contributing to peace-building in Colombia from the perspective of Deep Ecology, using the Work That Reconnects and other healing methodologies. During four years of work with the Truth Commission, they approached reconciliation from an ecocentric perspective, understanding that conflicts between humans have their deepest roots in the trauma of separation between humans and other beings and living forces on the planet.

They were in the process of weaving these profound learnings and practices into a generative in-person gathering of WTR practitioners in the sacred lands of Colombia when a large portion of the funds that their organization relies on were cut along with the dissolution of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Inter-American Foundation (IAF) by the current administration of the United States. The last several weeks have been a maelstrom of meetings and discussions among the Re-Conectando team and their colleagues in other organizations throughout Latin America as they respond to the sudden loss of organizational funds and the cancellation of vital projects.

Within all the chaos caused by these drastic measures, an unwavering strength and resilience is shining through as members of various organizations meet with each other to ground more deeply into their purpose and commitment to doing their work in care of community and the Earth. Despite the financial setbacks, Re-Conectando is more committed than ever to bringing this gathering to fruition as an experience where we can heal, co-create and celebrate our capacities to sustain and regenerate life. Just as mycelium forms an underground network connecting and nourishing life, we envision this gathering as a living, breathing mycelial web of shared wisdom, healing, and regeneration.

We warmly invite you to learn about and support this sacred work with your participation at this webinar, making a donation directly to Re-Conectando and, if possible, your presence at The Soul’s Mycelium week-long intensive in Colombia.

The whole group portions of this webinar will be recorded. Activities and sharing that occur within breakout rooms will not be recorded. The recording will be available three days after the live webinar and will be sent by email to all those who are registered.

If you are in China and find that you are having issues accessing the registration form and please contact Helen Sui to register for this event.

Héctor Aristizabal combines his experience as a psychotherapist, with his artistic work and activism. During his exile he worked in war zones and post-conflict using theater of the oppressed and other methodologies to explore alternatives to conflict and for the creation of community healing rituals. For many years, his work focused on training psychosocial teams in more than 50 countries such as Nepal, India, China, Northern Ireland, Senegal, Ukraine, Croatia, Afghanistan, Guatemala, and especially Syria and Colombia. In 2017 he returned to his native Colombia and with WTR practitioner Helena ter Ellen developed Re-Conectando a project that accompanied the work of The Truth Commission using deep ecology, social theater and healing rituals while working with victims, ex-combatants and others involved in the war. He is also co-founder of DreamingAction dedicated to creating a bridge between the best social and organizational practices. Hector was honored with the prestigious Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theatre and he is co-author with Diane Lefer of The Blessing Next to the Wound: A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation.

Claudia González is an entrepreneur, facilitator, and consultant in collective change processes rooted in living systems thinking, reconnection with the Earth, and deep transformation. She is the founder of ECCO, an organization that supports human groups in awakening their ecosystemic consciousness to co-create regenerative pathways.