Earth Rites

First Gathering for 2023 : : AUTUMN

Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 March 2023

In traditional cultures, the transition from childhood to adulthood is marked with Rites of Passage. Through ritual and celebration, challenge and connection, teenagers are supported to understand and develop their sense of self that will help them navigate the path to adulthood with awareness, strength and grace.

Earth Rites is Natureweavers’ offering of this tradition. It is an offering to our children, to our community and to earth.

Earth Rites is a program borne from experience, intuition and love. Informed and inspired by my practice as an earth mentor, earth lover, mother of a maiden, and a woman weaving conscious community, this program is a unique offering to girls and women in our region.

Who is it for?

Earth Rites will celebrate and honor the transition from child to maiden in our girls. It is for girls aged 11-15 years old, and their mothers, aunts, grandmothers and/or female carers.

What is it about?

As young children, we develop empathy with nature and bond with our family. During middle childhood, we move outwards from our family and explore the real physical world around us, bonding with earth. As adolescents, we are capable of moving even further out into and engaging with the physical world, with and without our family, and we are challenged to bond with our Selves.

The natural world provides the ideal setting for these Self-bonding challenges to occur.

Nature offers a reassuring rhythm to ground the dynamism – the chaos, the calm, the constancy – of growth during this time.

Nature entices us to engage and interact directly with her, thus enabling us to trust our own innate, body-based wisdom.

Nature is compassionate. She will soften our falls with moss underfoot, carry us gently forward on ocean waves and remind us of our sweetness with blossom and bloom.

Nature inspires us with beauty and strength; resilience and adaptability; peace and power; storms and stillness. She is the wisest mentor, the truest friend, the kindest counsel.

Earth Rites honors these qualities of nature, and has designed a specifically curated series of nature-based skills and experiences designed to alight these qualities in our girls.

Earth Rites girls will be

Prepared

Present

Passionate

Principled

and

Potent

as they move through adolescence and into adulthood.

What does it involve?

Three seasonal weekend gatherings and a Spring Retreat.

Each gathering is for learning seasonal skills, sharing stories, and activating the wondrous wisdom of the women within us. The Retreat is for us to drop deeper into community with one another and with nature.

Earth Rites girls will learn:

  • Bushcraft skills such as wood whittling, making rope from natural fibres, and creating primitive fire
  • Weaving (baskets and jewellry) including growing and harvesting their own plant fibres
  • Botanical dyeing and ink/pigment making
  • Wildcrafting, including bush tucker and wild food ID and uses, and herbs for medicinal use (including menstruation)
  • Wilderness awareness skills such as Bird Language, Tracking and Sit Spot
  • Book binding, paper making, wild clay making and wet felting
  • Permaculture, including food growing, soil health and wilderness gardens
  • Zero-waste life hacks such as beeswax wraps, visible mending, and make-your-own body products
  • Wild play experiences such as surfing, hiking, yoga and waterhole swimming

Earth Rites girls will create their own:

  • Materia Medica (plant medicine journal)
  • Journeystick (personal walking stick); 
  • Plant and Animal Allies
  • Bushcraft Kit (knife, saw, sewing needle, flint and steel)
  • Ecodyed silk scarf
  • Woven basket of natural fibres
  • Wet felted and personally bound journal
  • Zero-waste Body Products (creams, scrubs, moisturisers)
  • Herbal First Aid Kit (gels, dried herbal blends, balms)
  • Personalised tea blend
  • Wild clay pinch pot and moon cycle

When will we gather?

Autumn: Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March

Winter: Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 June

Spring (CAMP): Friday 15, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 September

Summer: Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 December

How much does it cost?

Autumn: $400

Winter: $400

Spring (CAMP): $550

Summer: $400

Girls are welcome to attend one weekend gathering, all weekend gatherings, or only the Camp.

Payment plans throughout the duration of the year are possible.

Discounts are available for single parent families, indigenous families and siblings from the same family. We also accept energy exchange in lieu of cash payment – please contact Carly for details.

Where will it be held?

All gatherings will be held on sacred Gubbi Gubbi country.

Seasonal gatherings are held at Natureweavers, based in the Noosa Hinterland on the Sunshine Coast.

Surf gathering (Autumn) is at Noosa Heads

Hike gathering (Winter) is in Tinbeerwah

Yoga gathering (Summer) is in Eumundi

The Camp (Spring) is in Cooran

 

 

Why should my girl do this with Natureweavers?

Natureweavers has been working with children in wildspace for over a decade, and specifically with young women for the past 7 years. As many of our Natureweavers’ children grow and transition from childhood to adolescence and beyond, so, too, do our offerings as we continue to nurture relationships between people and earth.

Earth Rites arose as I witnessed the unfolding of my own daughter, and the young women in her community, into the wild wonders of adolescence. It is an extension of the Forest Power for Girls workshops that Natureweavers has offered since 2015, honoring the widening circle we need to hold for our girls as they grow and develop. In holding space for the Earth Rites circle, it is apparent to me that this work is the beautiful collaboration of the past 25 years of my work in environmental advocacy, permaculture, education, deep ecology, yoga and TCM and nature pedagogy.

2023 sees the fifth cycle of this program. The need for this work, this circle, this approach, this gathering of girls and their mamas continues to hum it’s importance to me, and it is an honor to hold space for it in our community.

How can I find out more information?

Contact Carly via the website, or carly@natureweavers.com.au or 0403 133

How can I book?

Bookings for the Autumn Gathering are open now. Click here to book.

Contact us to book a place

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