Workshops, Programs and Apprenticeship

Short workshops for children (presented in schools, camps, or home-learner groups), or private circles of children & parents:

• (1.5-2 hrs) Simple Motanka-making (wishing doll) along with storytelling

• (1.5-2 hrs) Embroidery and simple hand-sewing, binding our good wishes

• Any of the seasonal creations found in Child of Art, Child of Naturecan be presented as age-appropriate and seasonally-placed workshops.

The following seasonally-based learning and making can be adapted to the age, setting, and needs of the classroom, home-learners group, outdoor school, or private-group. While the creations are seasonally-placed, they can also be adapted to other times of the year, depending on the purpose and needs of the group.

• (1.5-2 hrs, Autumn) Krupyanitsa seed-keeper doll

• (1.5-2 hrs, Mid-Autumn) Vinyk Motanka (broom-doll) to help “sweep away” thoughts and energy that is not welcomed, and bring in fresh/ clear energy

• (1.5-2hrs) Winter Mother outdoor protectress made of sticks and other gathered materials, for placement outdoors near the home

• (1.5-2 hrs, Mid-Winter) Vorozkha/ Dolya‍ ‍Motanka, wishing doll accompanied by story-telling… Alternative: (1 hr) Wishing-Candle‍ made by drawing/ carving personal symbols into a candle, to be burned with adult accompanyment in the evening

• (1.5-2 hrs, Spring Equinox) simplified Pysanka (egg written with designs) making, exploring personal symbols as empowerment

• (1.5-2 hrs, Mid-Spring) Ladanka‍ (neck-work or belt-worn pouch) filled with items of personal-meaning

• (1.5-2 hrs, Summer Solstice) Vinok (wreath) making from flowers and grasses, released into waters for wish-making and water-blessing.

• (1.5-2 hrs, Mid-Summer) “Herbal” Dolya made of grasses, flowers and other gathered outdoor plants, to be placed outdoors for the remainder of the season… Alternative: (1-1.5 hr) Matka-Blessing (Mother Earth), pouring oil on the ground in the shape of a solar-cross (+) and earth-cross (x) and braiding the hair (grasses) of Matka, binding wishes for her well-being…

(3hrs) Ancestral work can be challenging. We may not know who our ancestors were, or if we know them, we may not like them or what they represent to us. We may be disconnected from our roots for reasons outside our control. Finding ways to heal ties with ancestors or creating room for root-resolution inside ourselves is the focus of this handcrafting workshop.

A Motanka is a talismanic vessel — vessel for our intentions as well as ancestral wisdom. Some participants may choose to work with an intention of root-resolution, -healing or -release. Others may choose to invite (re)connection to their ancestors and roots.

While crafting, we dialogue about the power and healing potential of ancestral handwork practices. What is the importance of centering ourselves in these practices?

Participants complete and take-home their own Motanka.

(3hrs) Bones are seemingly “unalterable.” They are the evidence that remains of our life-walk. Picking up a bone reminds us of the ancestors – those who have walked life and the lands before us. To write from the bones is to reach into the deepest parts of ourselves, to reach back (symbolically) through the spans of time, to the Bone Grandmothers – the first to walk life… And then to sense and feel along the lines of time – where have our relationships unbalanced – un-righted – themselves? Relationships to Mati Zemlya (Mother Earth), to one another, and to ourselves…

Accessing this deepest place, we write on the surface of bone (eggshell using beeswax and dye) a radical intention – to re-right relations in whatever ways we can. Learning to caretake the talisman means that we stay active with this intention, because writing is only the first step!

(2hrs weekly) The act of sewing, when done mindfully and ritually, is an act of binding. We are taught to only stich while in a “good mood” and to be aware of the thoughts, intentions, and feelings we are binding into the piece we are creating. With this awareness, we will “stitch together” stories and connections to one another, land, culture, history, and explore handwork traditions through sewing with good energy/ mood/ intent in our hands and peace in our hearts.

By gathering the varied threads of our life experiences together, we care for the earth, community, and one another as we co-create handcrafted blankets. Our time, efforts and blanket creations will be gifted to those who can use them through the local Women’s Shelter.

Participants will take home hand-stitch techniques, a sense of contribution, and new community connections.

The Circle is a symbol of the movement of time (seasonal cycles and the solar year; lunar cycles; life cycles). In olde Slavic traditions, life activities were timed with the seasonal cycles. When harvest was complete and foods were stored in the pantry, winter preparations began which included bringing out the spinning wheel, loom and sewing equipment to begin mending, making clothing and household items, and interweaving prayers and symbols for health and protection into the handcrafts. When spring approached, the equipment was put away, offerings and songs to Matka were made to ensure a good growing season, and outdoor work began.

When we sit in a Circle, when we meet to share thoughts, experiences, and knowledge as a Circle, we acknowledge and practice inclusivity, value all voices, and decentralize learning. We work with a guided Circle format – the facilitator guides the process and ensures each person who wants to speak has an opportunity to share, and that values of respectful speech and empathetic listening are upheld.

Rather than following a customary pattern of course-start and course-end set by mainstream systems, we work with lunations set within seasonal-patterns and the 8-nodes of the solar year for course-timing.

This year-long program is experiential, seasonally-informed, and arts-based: a unique lens through which to develop cultural awareness.

The program is aimed primarily toward engaging settlers in a process of self-examination, while focusing on questions such as: “How do settlers connect “in a good way” with their own ancestral (handwork) practices on lands where they are (invited/ uninvited) guests?” Engagement with seasonal and cyclical sacred handwork (Ukrainian/ Slavic earth-traditions adapted as teaching tools and a template to investigate participants’ own ancestral practices and relationships with land) has the potential to be applied to any territories individuals find themselves within.

Courses will engage individuals in examining their relationship to:

o the lands and traditional territories they live within;

o the peoples, ancestors and spirits of the land;

o their own ancestors and ancestral traditions;

o ceremonial/ relational crafting as expression and exploration of connection, (re)membering, and reparation.

The program is aimed toward all individuals, though may be of greatest interest to:

- any generation of settler;

- people concerned with issues related to colonization, shared land, and respectful relations;

- people connected to or interested in ancestral and cultural traditions, folk knowledge and healing, and traditional crafting;

- artists, crafts-persons, and those interested in ceremonial/ relational art as expression and exploration of spirituality, connection, (re)membering, and reparation.

Outcomes for participants:

- Participants will be given an opportunity to reflect on the relationships mentioned above and develop deeper understanding/ experience of the following:

o Interdisciplinary nature of traditional folk-crafting with its ties to folk-knowledge and -healing.

o Meaning and importance of relational land-based art and ceremony.

o Personal relationship to land and how that informs inter-relationality.

o Land reparation and what that means/ extends to.

o Shared land, shared influences, and what it means to be a treaty member and/or to occupy unceded lands.

- Additionally, participants will:

o Learn hand-crafting skills.

o Partake in the creation of handcrafts with each course, producing items to take home or use in personal ceremony.

o Partake in co-creation of blankets that will be gifted to organizations for distribution to those in-need.

The program is comprised of 3 cycles, each containing 3 courses delivered over the length of 3 lunations.

For full program details, please click here for a downloadable pdf.

Rooted in the core-values of reverence, respect, reciprocity, responsibility and re-membering, this program is intended to support empowerment, healing, self-awareness, cultural-awareness, and connection through making.

Apprentices focus on 5 key skill areas:

• Incense-making

• Natural dyeing

• Regenerative gardening and ethical foraging

• Hand-sewing repurposed and naturally-dyed textiles into scarves, shawls, blankets, and other items

• ‍Mending skills

Learning these skills imparts far more than just technique. Each skill opens up other pathways of learning and exploration:

• care for the land = care for the community = care for the individual

• relational living

• sensory gateways as pathways of healing

• cultural associations with elements and plants

• ‍ importance of fibre-sheds & colour-sheds

• ‍reclamation, repurposing, and circular economy

• cultural memory, land memory, blood & bone memory

• community contribution

Apprentices have the option to donate products they make during the program to partner organizations for distribution, or partner stores with profits “paid forward” as sponsorship the next apprenticeship cohort.

Blankets made during the program are donated to partner organizations who distribute the blankets to those in-need.

For full program details, please click here for a downloadable pdf.