Gaia Passages invokes what is ancient and natural yet it feels revolutionary during these times
– Coming of Age Mother Participant
ABOUT US
Thank you for visiting Gaia Passages!
After 10 amazing years of nourishing nature connection with girls and youth, we are excited to share that Gaia Passages is in a phase of reorienting and revisioning in order to meet the changing needs of these times.
Gaia Passages continues to be committed to supporting nature connection activities for people of all ages, genders, cultures, and ethnicities. We believe in the healing power of nature to cultivate emotional and ecological literacy which are essential to community resilience.
As we vision how best to continue serving our community and the earth we are pausing our programming. We are taking time to compost what has come before in order to generate good soil for what is coming next.
We are so deeply grateful for our amazing community and staff and will let you know once we’re ready to gather together to share ideas and visions for the future.
During this time of transition, Gaia Passages needs your support to fund the basic operating costs of keeping the organization alive; website fees, banking, taxes, etc. Please consider donating whatever you can so that we can continue to serve the nature connection community and the earth.
Thank you,
The Gaia Passages Board of Directors: Constance Washburn, Emily Swanson, Lauren Dietrich-Chavez, and Michelle Sauceda.
HONORING WHERE WE STAND
Our program circles gather in over 9 distinct watersheds on the unceded lands of several Native Californian Tribes. With respect and gratitude for thousands of years of sovereignty and care of these lands, Gaia Passages recognizes the ancestors of these First Californians, their living descendants, and the more-than-human kin of these places.
We seek to actively support these tribes’ efforts for rematriation of territories, cultural healing, alliance building, as well as regeneration of the land and waters. Gaia Passages includes a land acknowledgement as a standard component of circle introductions. We pay annual land tax to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and contribute to the Amah Mutsun Land Trust. As we take these small actions in repair, we actively seek more meaningful ways to be in support and collaboration. (photo credit: Amah Mutsun Land Trust)
Gaia Passages is not rooted in the teachings of any single ancestral or indigenous lineage, but draws from the wisdom embedded in all earth-based cultures that cultivate honor and connection, the raising of healthy children, and the tending of the wildlands. We share traditions which we have been given permission to share, honoring lineages as we have been taught. Our programs are based on building culture from the ground up – rooted in a lived relationship with the lands on which we conduct our programs, the living communities with whom we share those lands, and with each other. We encourage participants and staff to share the stories, songs, practices, foods and other arts from their own ancestral traditions. All are respected, honored, and welcomed peacefully. We strive to center the inherent wisdom and creative beauty of all cultural traditions in our community.
DEEP NATURE CONNECTION
A Core Ingredient for Empowering Youth and Creating a Just World
Gaia Passages was created with an understanding that the root cause of many challenges that girls and gender expansive youth face–including low self-confidence, fractured relationships with peers and family, and self-harming behaviors–stem from the disconnection modern humans have with the natural earth cycles and the more-than-human world. We believe it is our essential role as humans to be caretakers, celebrators, and great adorners of Gaia. The development of deep integration with more-than-human life is an antidote to the mental, emotional and spiritual imbalances of our time, Gaia Passages empowers youth into their sense of belonging and supports their journey towards deeper connection with their authentic and sacred purpose. Together, we are in the emergent creation of an exquisite and ancient story.