WORKSHOP: Frame Drum and Chant Circle
Presenter: Jennifer Wust (fb/MountainRiverDrums)
We are our Heart. We sit within the Circle. We are present to Goddess and The Ancestors. We are witness to each other. The deep open Beauty of Heart. I invite those who are called to join the Sacred Circle of Drum, of Chant, of Joy, of Heart. No previous experience required.
Please bring a frame drum.
Biography
Joy Hunter. Bear of the North. Jennifer lives in the mountain country of Comara, NSW and has been a drum maker for 28 years She co-facilitated Women’s Frame Drum Circles on the mid north coast for 7 years and offers Drum Birthing workshops from her home and afar. Her passions are the Great Mother’s Critters and the land where she lives, and drums and their song. She is a Reiki Master and also plays a Native American Flute.
WORKSHOP: Exploring songs connecting us to Mother Earth and Spirit
Presenter: Marita Kennedy
This workshop includes a greeting ceremony, acknowledgement of Country, grounding exercises, vocal warmups and harmony coaching. There will be dance and movement in the workshop for a dynamic experience and concludes with a meditation and cool down. The workshop is quite physical and very uplifting; people have described Marita’s work as empowering, awesome, wonderful and fun.
Biography
Marita has had extensive experience performing in choirs and a cappella groups. She has been a practising professional musician for the past 6 years and is currently launching her own business in Music Therapy. As well as leading singing workshops, Marita also facilitates bluegrass and song writing workshops. It gives her great joy to be able to share her knowledge with others for their benefit and personal growth and that of their families and communities.
Workshop: Women at the Centre
—cultures of peace and the Goddess throughout time
Presenter: Jenny Cameron
Discover little-known information about our secret past—where, across the world, women were at the centre of the culture and worshipped as a Goddess who gives life and rebirth. No armies or police but consensus decisions led by a matriarch—the oldest woman of the clan. She is the custodian of the clan property and ensures the needs of everyone are met. Experience a meditation on life in such a village as a girl and your honoured place. What did it mean for men? Why did it change? What has survived—amazingly some such cultures have endured over thousands of years. Is this a model we could use to create a better world for everyone, and women in particular, in our own times? Together we explore the features that these ‘matrifocal’ cultures were based upon and dream a better future.
Biography
Jenny is a historian, writer and social activist, particularly for women’s rights and the rights of Nature. She has a lifelong interest in understanding the experience of women through the ages and, particularly in prehistory and through that, Goddess Spirituality. She has worked as a teacher, trainer, policy writer for government and management consultant to the not-for-profit sector. She is author of the play Out of Chaos—performed in Australia and England—and Co-Convenor of the Gaia Temple in Melbourne. After years of investigation Jenny has just completed a book on matrifocal cultures, also called matriarchies—Ancient Ways for Current Days: Women, Goddess and Communities of Peace, which will be launched at the conference.
WORKSHOP: Bone Woman Shamanic Mystic.
Conscious Eldering
Presenter: Yia Alias
To be able to express ourselves as the divine beings we are, we first need to take responsibility and release the old beliefs and stories we have been holding onto. The Great Mother, the Earth Herself, needs the advocacy/voices/passion/love of conscious elders who know why they are here and what they can contribute to their families and their communities. Bone Woman offers a Life Review process through the navigation of the septennials 7-year cycles to integrate our experiences through life. Yia will share her Bone Woman story and will offer some processes that can be utilised at one’s own pace.
Biography
Yia is a Ceremonialist, a Transpersonal Counsellor, Women’s Mystery Mentor, Writer, Artist and human trying to Walk her Talk. She holds ceremony and RED Tent circles at HearthGround on land at Colo. She has been a presenter for the Wise Woman Gathering, The Goddess Conference, Seven Sisters Festival, The Radiance Sistarhood Retreat and has offered her Goddess Course at many Sydney locations. Yia’s deepest learnings have come from sitting in circle and spending time with women for 40 years. She pays her respects to her many teachers, including: Minmia (Wiradjuri senior women’s law/lore woman), Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Jean Shinoda Bolen; and acknowledges the wisdom teachings of the Greek Village women of her mother E’Katerini’s lineage. And she gives thanks to the ultimate teacher, Mother Earth herself who has stripped her back, shaped her and cracked her heart open.
WORKSHOP: Welcome the Radical Rosary
Presenter: Andromada Word Medicine Woman
Welcome the Radical Rosary path, enlivening connection to the Ancient as ever now, Great Mother within all women. This oldest living sacred devotional tool was once known as the Jappa Mala, the muttering Garland as strings of flowers were strung together to honour her seasons whilst singing mantras. Rosary a garland of prayer and many other hidden symbols of the divine feminine. Create your own Rosary that ignites Mother Mary as a divine birth priestess and invoke the names of 56 other Goddesses. The mysteries of the Temple of the Global Goddess wheel uncovering the soul’s evolution through physical reality and a journey through the seven planes of existence.
Biography
Andromada Word Medicine Woman is a Priestess of the Temple of the Global Goddess. She received her name after completing a four seasons journey with the School of Shamanic Womancrafts. Andromada has danced with the wild witches of the reclaiming tradition and now chooses to Alchemise her Rosary as words give us her presence like a whale taking a breath above the deep ocean stillness creating the ripples where two worlds meet.
WORKSHOP: Dance of Goddess Pele
Presenter: Eileen Kaufman
A celebration of the Goddess Pele as the Divine Feminine Creative Force through dance. A movement workshop of basic Hawaiian hula dance with graceful arm movements and simple steps suitable for all abilities. The beautiful feminine movements will connect you with your goddess self. We will learn a choreography for a five-minute dance piece.
Biography
Eileen trained in ballet from age seven to 15. As an adult she enjoyed learning many different cultural dance styles especially Middle Eastern dance. She taught belly dance and has a Certificate in Safe Dance Practice from Queensland University of Technology. At the Goddess conference on the Gold Coast honouring Gaia, Eileen performed with Yia Alias the dance of Demeter and Persephone.
Workshop: Working for the Goddess
Presenter: Jane Hardwicke Collings
I am Earthkeeper, I am Birthkeeper, I use long term thinking for my decision making.
I am also working on behalf of the great great grandchildren, to do what I can to ensure they will inherit a world in which they will thrive. What does working for the Goddess mean to me? as a concept? to others?
We will explore this concept and do processes to find and commit to our individual work.
Biography
Jane Hardwicke Collings is a grandmother, former homebirth midwife for 30 years, a teacher, writer and menstrual educator. She gives workshops on mother and daughter preparation for menstruation, the spiritual practice of menstruation, and the sacred dimensions of pregnancy, birth and menopause. Jane founded and runs The School of Shamanic Womancraft, an international Women’s Mysteries School.
Workshop: Reclaim the Witch
Presenter: Sequoia Glastonbury
insta :www.instagram.com/thewildestwitch
The Witch has been exiled, cast out, feared for centuries, years of this exile has created the witch wound that we all carry. Healing this would is an important part of healing ourselves.
This workshop/ritual will create a safe container for you to explore connect and
transform this wound with spellwork and magick.
We will hear stories, journey to meet the witch inside us and bring her back, reclaim her in all her power through a herbal spell. We anchor this spell with movement and song and we embody the healed, reclaimed witch back into our lives.
Biography
Sequoia is a Mother, a Witch, a Shamanic Craftswoman, a Doula and a Hearthkeeper. Sequoia is the founder of The Wild Witch, supporting women to claim their inner witch and live a wild and wonderful life. She offers in-person workshops, online courses and 1:1 support. A Teacher with the School of Shamanic Womancraft she brings her presence and skills to witnessing and supporting transformation, creating safe spaces and supporting women to find their inner knowing and reclaim their power.
She holds workshop in her community, at conferences and festivals, on Blood Magick, Reclaiming our Wild Selves, Honouring Women and Menstruation, Drum Making, and Seasonal Sabbats. She has co-created and held Red Tents and women’s spaces around Australia. She lives in the forest on Bundjalung Country in the Byron Hinterland with her family and animal companions, connecting daily with the earth and all the wild creatures she
shares her bush home with.
Sequoia holds the vision of the healed sisterhood and is dedicated to living in service to the Goddess.
Panelist (I am) Susan Moylan-Coombs
Susan Moylan-Coombs is a storyteller and wants to re-write and create a new story of connection and wellbeing for all Australians.
I Am a facilitator of the voice for our Elders in the contemporary social space, I AM an advocate for the empowerment of our youth to realise their full potential, and provide platforms for two-way cultural dialogue to bring individuals and communities together.
Susan’s ancestry is Woolwonga and Gurindji from the Northern Territory, now living on Gai-mariagal lands, Northern Beaches of Sydney
Sharing culture and knowledge and bringing together like minds and like spirits is important. Susan believes that the philosophies and teachings of the Original Peoples of Terra Australis, the way of life that has sustained the Oldest Living Culture on the planet for tens of thousands of years, is worth sharing, and that in doing so, we can create a new story of connection and wellbeing, respectfully.
Workshop: Connecting to your womb
Presenter: Myola Woods
Our wombs have innate wisdom for ourselves, our sisters, and the planet. When we connect in the group for healing, intuition and information we can transform old beliefs, patterns and habits into empowerment and knowledge.
Discover the ways you block and ignore your womb wisdom Connect with your own womb intuition
Create space in your being for a greater self knowledge and power.Find your way to connect with the greater womb wisdom for planetary healing
Biography
Myola Woods, is an Author, Certified Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Sex Educator, International Intimacy & Sex Coach.
Myola is a pioneer with courage who bravely speaks about the things that make most of us uncomfortable… Myola will gently lead you out of your comfort zone and into the zone of personal growth, pleasure and higher self awareness.
Myola specialises in teaching individuals and couples the art of connection, creating and cultivating the choice of arousal, to deepen intimacy, sensation and pleasure … even if it has been a very long time!
Workshop: Crone Wisdom
Presenter: Tricia Tzirom
I AM Her light in the world
This diverse panel of Goddess women of different ages, experiences and cultures will explore what it means to manifest, embody and represent Goddess in the world.
The panel, who have walked with Goddess ranging from one year to forty years, will present their thoughts and experiences and provide opportunities for all participants to think through their own understandings.
Goddess manifests differently for each of us, from the deeply personal to the outwardly political. Stepping into the ‘I AM’, we embody Her as we feel Her presence within, between and around us. At that point we are at one with Her. She empowers us to be Her light and take that light into the world.
Biography
Tricia Tzirom is a wise Elder of the Australian Goddess Community. She has written many books, organised an extensive number of Goddess events and is the co-founder of Gaia’s Garden. She is one of the founders of The Gaia Temple in Melbourne, which offers a Goddess Studies program.
Workshop FROM A ROCK TO A HeART PLACE
Presenter: Nina Angelo
A Women’s Story, Art & Healing Journey.
Nina invites you on a creative story art & healing journey where, using music and blindfolded, you will surrender from your left analytical to the right creative side of your brain, then using your chosen art ( five 40 second pieces of music, five small pieces of paper) you will translate your design onto your rock with your love and intention.Through the power of art & music you will transmute your story & ignite your #creativity.
Biography
Nina Angelo was born in Athens, Greece in 1947 straight after WW2. Both her parents were holocaust survivors having met in Auschwitz concentration camp. She arrived on earth with stars in her eyes and a forever joy and optimism. She was their first new life, after the losses of both her parent’s families.
She always knew she was on a mission from the Stars and as a child would go out at night and wave to her starry home. A deep faith and knowing of the sacred feminine were always within her and the importance of our role in the grand story of life.
Nina is an artist, a published author, a connector, a mentor, a storyteller, a poet and a celebrant who works with ceremony and ritual, honouring our sacred earth, humanity and love. She lives on Darkinyung and Guringai Country.
Nina has worked closely with the Aboriginal people of this land for almost 40 years working in rural, regional and remote locations, as well as the indigenous people from the Pacific islands of Fiji , Tuvalu and in the Greek Islands.
Nina’s parents spoke 14 languages between them and she believes we are all one humanity connected by our hearts and LOVE, and that this is a most important time for us all to be walking and working together in the spirit of truth and peace.
Workshop Dancing in the Echelons:
Jacqueline Dreessens
A reference point for meeting the Goddess in a mangrove ecosystem.
In this workshop you will develop your own wild moves through the learning of a traditional song, drumming and dance about the river goddess, Oshun from the Yuroba people of Nigeria, West Africa. I will then share with you my own perfor-mance ritual of Echelons and how I embodied the sacred space between spaces within the mangrove forest of Lake Connewarre on Wadawurrung country in Barwon Heads, Victoria. We will then co create our sense of Oneness in the Sacred Feminine through poetry, photography, music and dance and in so doing deepen our understanding of the nature of water, earth and light.
Biography
An ethnochoreologist and multidisciplinary artist in choreography and percussion, Jacqueline draws her inspiration from nature and the environment, exploring the ecology of place and embodied experience. She is inspired by Indigenous World Dance cultures and their expression of connection to ancestral spirit and the land and how this connection fosters a sense of place. In 2017, Jacqueline received a Stepping Stones Scholarship for the Masters of Arts in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland (First Class Honors) where she developed a model for investigating sensory methodologies in her exploration and embodiment of the River Shannon through sound, movement, film and poetry; resulting in a meeting with the Goddess Sianno. Jacqueline is a community arts practitioner, dancer, drummer and Director of Wild Moves International since 1991 and was lecturer in Dance Education at Deakin
University, Melbourne between 1999 – 2016.
Workshop Vaudeville of the Vulva
Presenter: Laura-Doe
Dripping with tongue-in-cheek humour, Laura-Doe’s canny characters and unusually vocal velvet vulvae illuminate and entertain on the fertile topic of female genitalia. A missionary with a position, she leads us giggling and gasping into a deeper appreciation of this much maligned and misunderstood body part. Taking the baton from the ground breaking work of V (pka Eve Ensler) in the Vagina Monologues, Vaudeville of the Vulva, is a series of light-hearted sketches that inform by entertaining. However its motivation is also serious. It seeks to gently lift taboos, using comedy and song to release tension and create the freedom to speak about, understand and appreciate the amazing portal through which we are all designed to enter the world.
Biography
Laura-Doe is an award-winning somatic sex educator, comedienne and singer/songwriter. She works internationally using humour, song and science to support people to connect with the wisdom and pleasure within their own bodies and to discover their unique erotic nature. In 2008 Laura-Doe founded The yOniversity and has presented the workshops in her yOniversity curriculum and her comic cabaret ‘Vaudeville of the Vulva’ in Australia, Bali, USA and the UK. In order to educate about sexual anatomy in people with vulvas, effectively and without embarrassment, she created The Vulvalicious Cushions, beautiful anatomically accurate fabric sculptures. Her current projects include The Happy Pelvis Project, an online programme supporting women to take charge of their pelvic health and wellbeing. For more about Laura-Doe please visit her website yOni.com