We broke new ground in April, running a Symposium in India from our San Francisco offices. Using freely available technology makes this very easy, in this case Skype. But the key isn’t in the technology, it’s in the people. Arun Wakhlu, our friend and partner in India, was moved to bring together 16 of his network and host the event in his offices. He also served as the perfect facilitator for the interactive sessions in the room even though this was his first Symposium. As a direct result we now have a small and committed team ready to take the ATD Initiative out into their own, very considerable networks across India.
The second amazing element of this story is how the world-wide family of Facilitators is supporting this expansion. Arun originally heard about ATD from Hong Kong-based Alan Stewart through their membership of a separate network. And now two U.S. Facilitators, Barb Galyen and Robert Kemter, have offered their own extensive networks in India. This illustrates the amazing reach of our global community into a huge web of like-minded people everywhere, which begs a few questions for us all;
Who do you know around the world who might host a Symposium where they live?
Which of your networks might be interested in the ATD message?
Specifically, do you have contacts in Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Spain and Thailand, who can support the expansion the Initiative in these countries?
So let's get weaving in support of the expansion of the ATD Initiative. Please direct all thoughts, ideas and contacts to
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Wonderful Developments Down Under
Earlier this year Tracy Apple and Jon Symes traveled to Australia to run a Training Leaders Program (TLP), the third ever and first outside of the U.S. The trip was successful in a number of wonderful ways.
This TLP means there are now 16 Training Leaders in training in Australia, preparing to be able to lead Facilitator Trainings independent of Pachamama Alliance staff. This is part of a huge de-bottlenecking in our world wide training program, helping the Initiative to become self-expanding around the world. To prove how this works, witness the Facilitator Training in Sydney run last month by first-timers Anne Curtis, Victoria Phillips, Jackie Buckingham and Mark Spain, with the assistance of Deane Belfield, a Training Leader for the last couple of years. Read more about it here.
TLP in Full Song
It seems like the whole of the Australian ATD community has been revitalized; more trainings are planned for coming months, in Victoria, Perth and Brisbane. We can see ever more clearly that trainings run by local community groups are a really powerful way to grow and strengthen the ATD Initiative.
The third and least predictable outcome was the refocusing of Be the Change Australia, the organization that has stewarded the ATD work down under since 2006. The Guardianship Council was willing and courageous enough to begin to look for new ways to collaborate and create a fresh role for themselves supporting the further growth of the ATD message in Australia. As they say down under, Go Aussie.
Generation Waking Up
2010 has been a watershed year for the Awakening the Dreamer Initiative and its work with young people. We have looked deeply into how the Initiative can best support the millennial generation to make their greatest contribution to the Great Turning.
Our enquiry took lead us into conversation with two remarkable young people. Zo Tobi has been a friend of ATD since he was first entranced by this message at a Lynne Twist presentation in Boston 3 years ago. He trained to deliver the Symposium, brought it to thousands of young people in his work as a youth organizer in the Sierra Student Coalition and has continued to be deeply inspired by it. Joshua Gorman has been holding a vision for the role of his generation for several years and developing an expression of that vision, as a message, a brand and an organization called Generation Waking Up. Their deep and creative partnership promises to help shape and shift the entire ATD Initiative.
We see that the most powerful way that ATD can reach and inspire today’s youth is through a partnership with Generation Waking Up (GenUp for short). We are now hard at work establishing this partnership and finalizing GenUp’s plan for 2010 and beyond. Expect to see the fruits of this planning very soon. In the meantime, here’s a sneak preview for you all of what GenUp will be up to:
The mission of Generation Waking Up is to ignite a generation-wide movement of young people helping to bring forth a thriving, just, sustainable world. In service to our mission, we strive to:
Awaken in young people a clear sense of identity and purpose within the story of our generation’s coming of age at this turning point in human history.
Empower young people with the training, mentoring, and support they need to thrive as global citizens, leaders, and change agents in the 21st century.
Connect youth-based social change efforts across issues, geography, and all lines of difference, unleashing the collaborative power and collective action of today’s younger generations.
Please address all of your questions, comments and requests to Zo Tobi,
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Special Rainforest Trip for ATD Facilitators
"It will change your life—profoundly!"Konda Mason, Facilitator, U.S.
Are you hearing the call to the rainforest? We wholeheartedly invite you on our fourth Rainforest Journey for Symposium Facilitators (and family) this June 3-14, 2010, led by ATD Training Director, Ruel Walker. The previous three experiences have been truly life-changing and have created lifetime bonds between the participants. To feel and witness the birthplace of the Symposium is greatly impactful and will forever alter and deepen your relationship with the work, and the planet.
While we recognize that this is a significant resource investment of time, money and carbon, we have found that the return on investment is substantial in terms of how participants express their transformation in action. And our visit helps fulfill the request and vision of our Achuar partners – people learn from the immense wisdom of their forest and culture and a viable alternative to oil extraction in their territory. The Achuar have also said that our visits help them to see, value and appreciate their culture in new ways and gives them tremendous support and strength in their ongoing struggle and commitment to defending their forest on behalf of all humanity.
The trip will offer an immersion in a Quichua community in the Andean highlands with the opportunity to work with a revered elder Quichua shaman, a drive through the magnificent “Avenue of the Volcanoes” down to the hot springs town of Baños, and then flying into Achuar territory for five days in the rainforest, staying in Kapawi Lodge two nights and living in an Achuar community two nights (and an opportunity to work with an Achuar shaman one of those evenings).
Click HERE to learn more about this journey. Please contact Pat Jackson at
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to complete your registration by 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time on May 9 (the trip will close at that time). We hope you will join us!
"It was absolutely amazing, transformative in a deep cellular sense which I am profoundly grateful for. My sense of connection, interconnection with our Earth, has been multiplied, deepened, expanded."Crea Land, New Zealand.Mapping Our Community
Undoubtedly the most important element of the ATD Initiative is you, all of you: 2500 Facilitators in 40 or more countries around the world. Here in San Francisco our job is to support, nourish and help the community grow, particularly in these next four crucial years. Together we are bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on Earth.
There are three keys in this;
Each of you, deep in Blessed Unrest, engaged and active as Change Agents.
The local community groupsin which you can find inspiration and practical support close at hand.
The global family that provides learning, belonging and creativity for us all.
You recently helped us to understand more about your community groups. We had responses to more than 40 of the Facilitators who have volunteered as “community coordinators”. Here are some of our first gleanings as we begin to process these responses; feel free to use and adapt any of these in your own local group.
One of our strategic initiatives this year is to strengthen and grow the local community groups around the world. With more than 40 response to our recent Community Survey we have begun to understand better how to do this, here are some of the learnings;
You guys are amazing, diverse, talented, resourceful, visionary, creative and unstoppable; we applaud you all.
Meeting up seems to work, you energise each other to a whole new level when you are together in person
"We meet once a month and do Circle Work. Its very important and valued by the group. Some go to the meetings, share, learn but are not active doing Symposiums."
Together you are a genius, so share the work around. Your roles include; production, food-organizers, A/V, fundraisers, IT experts, community leaders, training leaders, materials coordinators, finance team, note-takers, grandmothers, pre-Symposium support team, post-Symposium support team and more
There is no "right way" to communicate with each other, different groups use different methods successfully; try email, phone trees, skype, text, in person, pot-lucks, circle meetings, just walking next door – each of these methods works for someone. One group even leave messages for each other in the local curry shop.
Hosting trainings is the most powerful activity you can commit to.
“Yes, we just had one. it was great, added a lot of new energy and revitalized the old facilitator body.”
Vision supports action.
“We are committed to spending time "visioning" the way we would like Calgary and our lives to BE. This has been the format at several meetings and is growing in power and popularity.”
"It's not easy. But it is possible, and rewarding, and fun."
"Our group is one year old, committed, but for most on our team ATD is something that members have been juggling along with full time jobs, families, other volunteer initiatives, etc."
"It has been a very nourishing collaboration."
"We need to grow and to be more involved in the community life."
"We have some rockin' folks!"
Thank you to all who participated in the survey, we will be using this to shape and inform our work in the months ahead.
Work of Art Inspired by a Rainforest Journey
One of the ATD Facilitators in Argentina, Silke Dross, is an internationally-recognized artist in works made of hand-sewn silk. She creates very large wall hangings of intense colors and unique emotional impact, all in three-dimensional silk fabric. She participated in the special Rainforest Journey for Facilitators in February 2009, and was so moved by her experience of interconnectedness in the rainforest that she created this inspiring work of art, called “Interdependence,” to express what she had experienced. Silke has graciously allowed the Pachamama Alliance to use an image of this work of art in its offices and publications, and offered this explanation:
"The work 'Interdependency' belongs to the series 'We are all one' deeply inspired in the Ecuadorian jungle through a fascinating experience of mutual relation and reciprocity between nature and human beings. This message, this certainty, was deeply inserted in my heart, with extreme intensity by my experience in the rainforest. The circle created by men and women both active and still, of different skin colors, holding hands, without hierarchies, being so well integrated in nature, are profound experiences that reached my deepest awareness."
Tahnee Wolf, a wonderful facilitator in Australia, and Marcia Martin, an equally bright light from LA, delivered a symposium in Bali recently (tough job, someone had to do it) and so inspired 4 folk from Hong Kong that when I offered to stop over for 24 hours on my way from mainland China to New Zealand my offer was taken very seriously.
Led by the amazing Jo Fok, they organised 2 symposiums and an Introduction to the Symposium Training, all in the short time I was on the ground.
Jo and her huge-hearted hubby Paul met me from the airport train and whisked me off to a room they had found for Symposium #1, a children.s nursery no less. Fifteen people joined us and 4 hours later we knew we were a team with work to do. Rayne had stepped up to help get the translation finished for the Mandarin sub-titled DVD, Vicky took 60+ business cards I'd collected in Hangzhou, each representing a Chinese speaker who wants to play, and promiesed to transcribe them into a data base which Juan has set up for us. Other people offered their networks or design sevices. Something was starting for HK but as part of the mainland China venture too.
Then Jo and Paul whisked me off to my new Hong Kong pad, a friend's apartmentshe had arranged for me to use. Early the next day Jo and I took breakfast (including the famous "ladies stocking coffee" which tasted great either despite or because it had been drained through someone's hose!!!!). Refreshments apart I could tell I was sat with a very special person, someone who is prepared to commit herself to the work of healing the world, knowing full well this is work we do on the inside just as much as the outside. Pachamama was with us so strongly amidst the concrete, glass and steel of this amazing city.
Without pause we headed off to Serena's, another wonderful friend of Jo's hosted a symposium for 5 in her 16th floor apartment, beautifull comfortable with staggering views over the city. Another 5 people conected with our message and we bagan to hatch plans for a big symposium later this year for 00's of people that these wonderful folk can bring together.
Off again, to lunch, where we met up with Fiona Matthews, founder of Earth Champions, who I had last met at Be the Change in Londn in 2005; an extra-ordianry force for change and a potential ally of ours, we just have to work out how. Then we went back to my pad for an Introduction Training - lo and behold 9 people had been unreasonable enough to get the afternoon off work to attend and the Dream Makers were born. Pascal, Sarah, Jon, Eva, Chelsea, Merrin, Mani, Les ad Jo, welcome to the world-wide facilitator body. An intense, profound and beautiful afternoon ended with all-to-brief hugs then a taxi to a train to a plane and away.
I had invited Jo to make the fullest use of my time in HK, and she certainly did that. And Jo and Paul wouldn't let me even visit a bank, they escorted me everywhere, paid for everything, fed and housed me and I saw in this their hearts (thank you guys, I love you both), I understood how Jo has become such a successful TV producer and I knew in these moments that big things will follow in Hong Kong and through HK also, on the mainland.
To everyone I met in Hong Kong a huge thank you, whatever emerges from this I know we have wonderful partners in you all, and together we can create new dreams in many, many ways. Here's to all that will unfold.
Pudong Airport in Shanghai would rival any modern airport in the world for scale, modernity and efficiency.
I'm supping Italian coffee, chatting online and watching a somewhat up-market crowd move through the airport. Clearly here the flights are out of reach of the poorer folk (or they are consigned to another airport of their own) and we could be in Paris or Geneva. The crowd is ah-so-bored Western buisness folk, travellers from the more developed world clutching bargains and tourist guides, plus seemingly wealthy Chinese wearing the latest fashions. The airport offers the normal diversions, food, drink and lusting after material excess. Why did I think I might get a pair of cheap trainers here, the $100 sneaker is alive and well - and not even a brand I know. The more familiar brands are here too and then the wanna be local brands borrowing look and feel to up their own perceived value. So what . . . . . why would it be any different? Its only my preconception or projection which would make this airport different from any other. And I do want to se it different, I do want to see an ancient culture reflected somehow, I do want to resist the McChina effect. For sentimental reasons, for environmental reasons, for the love of diversity and in hope for our future.
We drove here on wonderful roads that shame the infrastructure of the Bay Area, past an endless parade of huge hoardings erected 20 metres or so above the ground, advertising with huge Chinese characters, cars, textiles, washing machines. A few companies had arranged an English strap line on the ads, quite who for I can't figure, but thank you to the kind folk at Kalibo Gear Hobbing Machines, International Automotive Electromechanical Plaza and Global Home Furnishings Centre. And I wonder if Sunkey Aluminium will achieve the sales boost they envisage from their investment.
The outlook, underneath a hazy smog or a smoggy haze (could tell which), was the same for the entire 200 km drive; clusters of apartment blocks 6 or so stories high surrounded by fields being farmed in small parcels of different crops, mile after mile, this is a huge country.
I was somehow reminded of being in Puyo, which Pachamama rainforest visitors will know is the last town before the forest, and yet seems to already represent all the trappings of the old dream, alive and well on the very edge of the unspoilt wilderness of the Amazon basin. Is China already one massive Puyo expanding westward and gobbling up the wisdom of their ancients, replacing it with our exported culture?
What this is really about, for me, is knowing our work in Awakening the Dreamer is every bit as important here. And I've been blessed to meet a host of great people who see the trap that we've laid for them. Some even see the irony that it is baited with Made in China goods, but all want to find a way to avoid further descent into the unsustainable dream of the modern world.
My travel bag is full of business cards I can't even read, each piece in its incomprehensible characters represents another soul alive right now to how bad it is and how much basis for hope exists. Every one of these people will do something, they might want help to see what to do or how to join their efforts to ours, but they are with us just the same. Open minded, open hearted and ready to act even more for a world which is environmentally sistainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just: partners in blessed unrest.
OK Folks - we did it!
Yesterday we ran a symposium for 800+ people predominantly Chinese but with a few from Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and other Pacific Rim countries. I worked with a simultaneous interpreter who also voiced over the videos in Chinese, and the wonderful team from Doers, our host organisation here.. The result was truly wonderful. The message landed in the way we all know and love, I was besieged by people wanting to get involved - "Do you have a branch office in China?" one guy asked. I said No, he said "You do now!" In a couple of hours I will have a meeting with the people who want to get involved. I also hope we will have the continuing support of Doers, a training company who work with DC Cordova (of TLC fame) to produce business education here and throughout the region. And we have about 10 people here who will be bringing folk to the 2 symposiums I am running in Hong Kong on Sunday and Monday. There is much excitement in the air about this, and an invitation to take the work to Singapore, a Japanese friend for Hide and even more I'm sure when we can sit (with a translator) and find out how else people want to contribute.And there has been heaps (really heaps) of learning and plenty of challenges to overcome, no sub-titled DVD, a "rough" translation, technical hiccups before and during the event, a distracted, exhausted and non-English speaking support team, going on after a speaker "as famous in China as Oprah in USA" had overrun by nearly an hour; I really saw and experienced the force of spirit at work in helping ensure a 'perfect' outcome despite the circumstances, it was as if we could transcend any problem [the interpreter said to me AS I was being introduced "I can't translate the videos (because of a technical hitch) - you'll need to do it without any video" - and even then I just knew it would fly].
And . . . I think there is some great video and some wonderful stills, plus several interviews, maybe even more today, so we've got valuable material to use, I'll be getting that shipped back to the team ASAP - (where to?).
DC and her business partner, Willson, have been generous and supportive in all of this, we owe them a huge thank you too.
Most of all I have discovered for myself the brothers and sisters we have who are Chinese, every bit as concerned, creative, inspired and inspiring as the audiences we meet in other countries. I have seen that our message can appeal to them (adaptations and translations required of course) and I can feel our work taking root here as this expression of life's call spreads.
In an ever-expanding Blessed Unrest
Jon
We broke new ground in April, running a Symposium in India from our San Francisco offices. Using freely available technology makes this very easy, in this case Skype. But the key isn’t in the technology, it’s in the people. Arun Wakhlu, our friend and partner in India, was moved to bring together 16 of his network and host the event in his offices. He also served as the perfect facilitator for the interactive sessions in the room even though this was his first Symposium. As a direct result we now have a small and committed team ready to take the ATD Initiative out into their own, very considerable networks across India.
"It will change your life—profoundly!" Konda Mason, Facilitator, U.S.
