Come to Gather.

We have been gathering for thousands of years. We gather to connect and reconnect. We gather to build & weave community, to celebrate, encourage and ensure cultural continuity and sort out important issues. We gather because at the core of our species stroyline, we are social. A creature that does not survive solo. Women have unique biology that puts them at the centre of this evolutionary process.

How and with whom we gather.

In the company of women, under the shelter of the moon, a story begins.

While it looks like women are often hanging out together, chatting away about this and that, it is also true that the deeper more powerful gatherings are less frequented, along with their immense potential. We know because it has always been so, but also from recent research, that when women get together regularly in groups to support one another, their wellbeing and capacity increases.

A simple truth exists, for women, our wellbeing is deeply and innately tied together. Yet, for many reasons, likely all due to our innate survival mechanisms, over the centuries we have also seen the development of toxic relational field between women. We have the ability to choose our own way. Gathering to heal and grow together is available to all of us and has profound affects on ourselves, our families and communities.

Where we gather.

Gathering in spaces that promote wellbeing and connection is vital. Spaces that facilitate ease and flow of conversation such as around a fire, in a warm softly lit room, at the community gardens, walking along the quiet coastline, are powerful and simple ways to enhance community wellbeing and sense of belonging.

While the common spaces of offices and board rooms have their place, convening in ways that are conducive with individual, group and community whole-health in mind is game-changing. These often lead to wildly different experiences and outcomes for the group and the purpose of the gathering.

“Every human society that we know whether past or present, has ceremonies.”

— Professor Dimitris Xygalatas, an anthropologist and cognitive scientist.

Why do we gather? “Every human society that we know whether past or present, has ceremonies.” Humans gather because we are social mammals and gathering in the various forms we gather, is integral to our survival and to the critical inner and outer need of our sense of belonging - individual and collective. We are unique among mammals in that we can organise in groups larger than is the norm. In many ways we are also governed by powerful evolutionary forces that we have little control over that dictate the way we act as groups. In my work many hours are spent recognising the ways in which healthy and meaningful connection to ourselves, each other, our community and environments can be supported. Troubleshooting and skills-building when things inevitably become complex, alongside building on exiting time-tested knowledge, is integral to this understating.

A female sea turtle will lay its eggs in the sand some way from her habitat region (although likely at a similar location to where she was born), almost certain never to meet or see her offspring. These offspring spring into life, without the help of a single fellow sea turtle aside from their first collective rush post birth, and may live up to a few hundred years.

Conversely, the human mammal requires an inordinate number of fellow human mammals, indeed a village is often cited, in order to support its vital life and integration process into its various tribes (most humans ends up with several of these) and meaning-make, without which, it has very little chance of survival and capacity to thrive.

While these are quite simple concepts to understand, nowadays we often behave in ways that are antithetical to these imperatives. This plays out in our individual lives, in family, communities and society as a whole. We stick children from as young as 6 months old all through to University, in same-aged groups, peer-orienting them to no end, with destructive consequences. Each age group dealing with its own issues, often having to (re)discover some of our most basic premise.

Women arrive into childbirth alienated from their body’s natural inclinations, sometimes having never held a baby before. Boys become lost on their way into manhood. Children are left to secure their own boundaries, and our elders treated as old rags as opposed to Golden treasured weavings. So much lost potential, both collectively and personally.

Whether we are tackling mothers mental health, community disaster relief, protecting our environment or healing birth trauma, Gathering is one of the most powerful tools to address some of the most complex issues communities face today.