Gathering
in Ritual
to Connect
and Remember
Our longing for connection is leading us back to belonging. Gather is a place for you to return to your deep nature, in nature. In ritual we remember and reconnect to our soul, coming home to ourselves. The power though, comes in gathering together, to see our reflection and truly feel our connection to the web of life.
All are welcome here.
Regular Gatherings
We create community through sharing regular rituals in nature together. All of these gatherings are held at Gathering Place, my home amongst the gum trees in the Yarra Vally, Victoria. The first Saturday of the month we run a family friendly Earthdance and the first Sunday of the month is our free
rewilding community days.
Gathering Place
Rewilding Days
Come gather round the fire to share story, music and re-wilding skills as we rekindle our ancient ways and reweave connection in the bush, in the beauty of nature. For all those who yearn to deepen roots in community, in nature and in belonging.
Family friendly and free for our community.
First Sunday of the month
Earthdance
A ritual of dance, music and circle to connect us back to the Earth.
ToGather
Gathering to support each other through the journey of decolonising.
Courting the Sacred
A spoken word night to share our love for nature through poetry.
Ancestral Healing Circle
A circle to dive a little deeper into our healing journey as a collective.
Women Gather
Immersive journeys in the more wilder places for women to rekindle connection to the deep feminine. Connecting to Country and Custodians from the Yarra Valley, to the deserts and the Kimberley.
Kimberley Connection
Rekindling our feminine fire
You are invited into the heart of the Kimberley, to sit with local Indigenous women and embark on a journey of remembering. The Kimberley is ancient land where fire and water meet. With cascading waterfalls, dramatic gorges and wide rivers. For six days we will gather, sleeping under the stars, walking the land, sitting in circle and listening to Indigenous story.
Next Gathering 17th-24th August 2024
Kununurra, WA
Desert Pilgrimage
Meeting the truth through the heart
Join me in the central desert as we find the meeting point of the colonised and the ancient. We will sit in community with women, gather bush tucker together, explore the wilds, sit in circle and traverse vast landscapes out there and within. It’s a pilgrimage of decolonising, siting with the people to hear the truth, feel the truth, the grief and walk together.
Next Gathering 2nd-9th September 2024
Alice Springs, NT
Women Gather Campout
Rekindling Connection Together
We gather in circle, camp out under the stars, share around the fire and feel our bare feet on the Earth walking, dancing and reflecting together. This is a co-creation, in circle we are all equal, with our own wisdom to share. You can bring your music, your art or anything else that nourishes and nurtures.
Next Gathering, 26th-27th October 2024
Yarra Valley, VIC
Earthdance
Full Moon Ceremony
Women’s Full Moon Ceremony
A monthly ritual to sit in circle, dance and remember our way home. As our feet feel the Earth our hearts come back to the rhythm and the beat of our own drum. We come to rest more into our body to return to our deep feminine nature.
Next dance 16th November, 5.30pm-8pm
Yarra Valley, VIC
Upcoming Gatherings
About Karla
Hi,
I grew up walking bare feet in the red earth, on Kamilaroy country in western New South Wales. For me, I have always felt at home in the Australian bush. It’s this love for country that led me to the deserts of central Australia where I discovered the power of cultural lore holders and the devastation of colonisation. That was back in 2016, since that time I have walked alongside these people as an activist and a voice for Country and Custodians. My activism is expressed in a deep devotion to healing, reconnecting to country and spoken word. Gather is born from this devotion, it's a space for us all to walk this journey of healing together.
I spent my young adult years taking on the responsibility of becoming an Advanced Care Paramedic. After three intensive years of study I worked in many remote areas of Queensland. Alongside my Paramedic degree and work, I also studied Hawaiian healing and spent seven years learning this ancient art, cultivating my capacity for holding people within their own healing.
I see how the Earth holds us, heals us and teaches us. I see the power of gathering in ritual to remember this. Come join me, walk with me, remember with me.
Spoken Word
Poetry from the heart, from the desert, from the wilder places within.
Musings
Reflections as the outer world meets my inner world.
Autobiography
A vivid recollection of Paramedic life, Shamanic life and all the spaces between.
Sacred Huna Healing
A place to receive the nurture and rejuvenation of Ka Huna Massage. This is an ancient Hawaiian healing practice that works with basalt hot stones, sound, meditation and Lomi Lomi massage.
Karla has been working with this form of healing since 2011. For her, the power of the practice comes in the gift of nurture, when we are deeply held our nervous system returns to its natural state, from this state our body's natural healing capacity returns. When we are truly held, we come home to ourself.
Country & Custodians
Connecting to Country is vital for the survival of humanity. When we lose our way, we hunger for home. Modern culture lacks the wisdom of the ancient ones, and now we yearn to return to it.
“It’s time for all Australians to walk together and begin the healing.”
- Chris Peltherre Tomlins (Arrernte Elder)
It is in returning to the Custodians, the elders of humanity, that we may begin to find our way back to true belonging. I walk with key activists to support this healing and returning. My activism infused into everything I do in this world, from the choices I make in the day to day, to the spaces I hold and the words I speak. But by far, the greatest active hope we could give to humanity, is to reconnect to Country and Custodians and remember our deep nature.
An initiative of the central desert elders to facilitate connection to country for indigenous youth and project participants.
We make cross-cultural art in collaboration with visiting artists as a means to bring new skills and energy into the homeland communities and allow a safe space for the sharing of story and song. By doing so, we create the next generation of cultural ambassadors for a new Dreaming Australia.
Truth telling through the stories of the Desert Pea remembrance flower. Calling for the respectful, rightful and perpetual memorial of the colonial conflicts and massacres of this country and the ongoing effects.
“The beginning of healing is the acceptance of truth.”
- Aunty Wendal Pitchford Palawa Kani Elder
We gather on ancient lands that hold an ancient culture and acknowledge the Custodians that have taken care of these lands for over 100,000 years. We pay our respect to all Indigenous and acknowledge this always has been and always will be Aboriginal land. Sovereignty has never been ceded. May we listen and learn from the oldest living culture in the world and walk together.
