Matariki* Enspiral Winter Retreat, Riverslea Centre, Otaki, 2–4 July 2021

Invitation to members, contributors and invited guests/children/dependants**

You are warmly invited to register by Sunday 6 June for this year’s retreat.

Details:

Venue: Riverslea Retreat Centre, 733 Otaki George Road, 5582 Otaki

Date and time:

From Friday 2 July (beginning time to be decided by registered participants)

To Sunday 4 July (ending time to be decided by registered participants)

Registration fee: $240 GST incl. Applications for subsidy via the registration form (there is an option for provisional registration that includes an application for subsidy by Sunday 6 June)

This event will go ahead with 17 confirmed registrations received by 6 June (20 total, including 3 people crew). Decision on Monday 7 June***

Inspiration: Matariki* — embracing the cycles of life

“What has been and what wishes to happen? What to let go, and what is next? What have we lost and what we gained? Who has gone and who has come? Birth and death, Haere mai and Haere Ra — Welcome and Farewell.”

We are looking forward to some Matariki time together — a time to come together with the Enspiral whanau, to celebrate, witness, acknowledge, and to grieve; to review, observe, assess, let go and inspire and encourage each other to imagine new and plan for the year ahead. What a privilege to be able to plan and envision such a face to face gathering in the context of the on-going world-wide pandemic that prevents such gatherings in most other countries.

We imagine this Winter Retreat to be an Enspiral retreat for Enspiral members, contributors and invited friends who wish to co-create and contribute, in a self-responsible and committed manner.

The format and facilitation will be similar to the Enspiral Winter retreat 2020, honouring and building up the Enspiral retreat story.

The actual Matariki Enspiral Winter Retreat 2021 will be unique and one-of-a-kind as it is co-created by all those who show up this time!

Format and facilitation style:

Core elements (details collaboratively confirmed by participants):

· Facilitated opening and closing with check in round and check out round;

· Kawa/protocol/agreements for this retreat, collaboratively created by participants;

· Introduction to the tradition/story of this ‘thing called an Enspiral retreat’, honouring the story/’the being’ of Enspiral, and in particular the story of Enspiral retreats;

· Introduction/inspiration to the theme of Matariki for this retreat;

· Formation of home/whānau, group for individual check in’s, for sharing and caring throughout the weekend;

· Story sharing circle on Saturday evening (details to be decided by participants):

· Home cooked food created with help from all:

· Facilitated open space. This given form leaves a lot of freedom and possibility, for all to offer and/or to wish for ‘things to happen’! The registration form invites your offers, your wishes and your needs, for sharing with the registered participants before the retreat;

We are looking forward to receive your confirmed or provisional registration by Sunday 6 June (the latter for folks who wish to apply for registration or travel subsidy, or who can’t quite decide by 6 June). We will decide by Monday 7 June if the events can go ahead or not, depending on number of confirmed registrations (17).

Here is the link to registration .

Doris, John and Malcolm (running the books)

doris.zuur@gmail.com, john.gieryn@enspiral.com

Notes:

*In the Māori, language, Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also the season of its rising in late June or early July, this is a marker for the beginning of the new year.

**Children/dependants are warmly welcome, under parents’/caregivers’ responsibilities at all times. We trust the ‘village approach’ will kick in spontaneously and we will help each other with looking after children. However, this all depends on who shows up. We can’t pre-organise and pre-commit to firm childcare options and think it is better not to overpromise. Also, we suggest to make the ‘sharing circle’ on Saturday evening an adult only space as children may not be able to discern shared adult emotions. Children younger or older than 1–14 years are warmly welcome to the circle.

***This event will be cancelled if we go to Covid level 2, regionally or nationally. All registration fees will be returned fully, with an invitation to contribute to the non-refundable deposit of $650 for the venue (underwritten by Enspiral Foundation).