Gathering With Intention
Our hope for this space is to share knowledge, seeds, food and build relationships. Please come into this space happy and with a good heart willing to meet folks and build relations through these food and seed ways.
The purpose of this gathering is to honor our indigenous ancestral connections and trade routes by sharing space to build relationships, share skills, knowledge, resources and seed.
Featured Workshops
Soil and Microbes Workshop featuring Jaiden Willeto
Jaiden will share their knowledge on examining soil samples with microscopes and show us now to identify the types of microbes in your soils and assess its overall health. If you wish to have your soil part of the workshop please bring a soil sample.
Choose your sample sites based on where you plan to grow or to look at the rhizosphere of trees, bushes, perennial plants etc. and try to include some of the root hairs of those plants into your sample. Always label your sample by location. A small handful of soil in the plastic bag will be good.
Plant Medicines
featuring Chasity Salvador
Chasity has offered to share how to make various plant medicines from her homelands. We will talk about the medicinal properties of the plants and how to process them into medicine.
Meals by Sewa Yuli
Please note that breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided exclusively for registered participants.
However, registered participants are welcome to bring guests to dinner if it was indicated on their registration form.
Final guest counts have been provided to our chef, and therefore, we cannot accommodate changes to the food count at this time.
Thank you for your understanding.
Featured Activities
Barter Blanket
Last year ISKN staff had the opportunity to participate in a barter blanket with our relatives at Oneida Nation with the Webster family. It was a beautiful memory and practice we want to bring to this gathering. Please bring an item you wish you trade or barter. This item could include but not limited to, seeds, foods, textiles, pottery, homemade goods, medicines, art, plants. The barter blanket will have a circle where everyone will take turns putting down an item for trade and will tell the story of that item. Anyone that wants that item will put down an offer and if this offer is acceptable there will be a trade. If the offer is not acceptable, the original person may ask to “sweeten the pot” and up the offer or say no “trade”. Everyone will have a turn to trade an item and go home with something memorable.
Seed Swap
In our first southwest gathering, there was a beautiful seed exchange with so much biodiversity of precious indigenous seed varieties from across the southwest. If you have seed to offer please bring this some to share and be prepared to share your knowledge on the seeds. Many of us do not want our seed commodified or sold so please be sure to note how you may want this seed to be stewarded if you offer any. We will provide seed packaging and the space to share.
Featured Facilitators
Jaiden Willeto
Food Sovereignty Coordinator, Uplift Climate & Dragonfly Farm
Shi éí Tódich’iinii nishłí, Maiideeshghizhnii bashishchiin, Nu’ Eta dóó hiraacá dashicheii, aadóó Tábąąhí dashinalí. Akot’eego asdzaní nishłí. Tł’izí Tóó’í dę́ę́’ naashá.
Jaiden Willeto is the Uplift co-director and food sovereignty coordinator. They are bitter water born for coyote pass, their maternal grandfather is Nueta and Hiraacá of the MHA nation, and their paternal grandfather is waters edge clan. They come from the community of Fort Defiance and Window Rock in so-called Arizona.
They co-operate a small scale regenerative farm called Dragonfly Farm and are working towards creating a healthy future for their community by offering traditional and healthy foods at no cost. They’re also a community organizer with the K’é infoshop.
Chasity Salvador
Food Sovereignty Coordinator, Uplift Climate & Dragonfly Farm
Chasity Salvador is a young farmer, traditional/heirloom seed keeper, a community doula and expanding indigenous birth keeper, and a life long learner of plant medicine in her community of Acoma Pueblo.