In ecosystems, the ecotone is like a musical notation–indicating where the landscape’s song changes from one ecosystem to the next.

The second Monday of October in the United States officially celebrates both Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day. In looking at the history of this strange reality, the complexity of how and what we celebrate offers insight into where to go from here.

This celebration was designated a national holiday in 1894 in honor of all of the hardworking laborers in the country and the struggles they faced to secure fundamental human rights and safe working conditions. More than 100 years later, however, workers are still fighting these same kinds of battles.

Read more about this sacred time and it’s invitations for our present from Creative & Executive Director, Marissa Percoco.

By intentionally using our resources (and money), we redefine the terms of this social agreement for ourselves so that we might begin to shift as a whole. What is a resource after all, if not a REturn to SOURCE?

“Skills are fundamental. It is how we connect to our ancestors. It is how we connect to the seasons and the earth. It is how we actually connect to our life and not just go through the motions.”

“Rest and tender touch allow oppression to not be effective at depleting the talents, patience, kindness, and vitality of people of the global majority.”

“I believe there is always a standing invitation from the natural world for us to engage more fully with it… the amount of wealth and wellness I experience from being a forager is unequivocal for me. Who I am is my testimony.”

Get insights on how to stay hydrated, dry, and in frolicking-form at the Gathering with our First Aid and Safety Coordinator, Delaney Rae.

At Firefly, evening fires honor the connection to our human ancestors in community-centered circles to integrate and embody what we experienced that day. Learn more about the importance of our evenings together below!

Read our 2022 Annual Community Report to learn about Firefly’s work, including our Programs and Offerings, Goals, Overall Income and Expenses, and more.

Meet DeLesslin “Roo” George-Warren, a queer artist, researcher, and organizer from the Catawba Indian Nation joining us for his 4th year as an instructor this summer. Learn more about Roo’s path the teaching, and more about his offerings below.

Learn more about Jae Ortiz’s offerings at Firefly, and how intentional spaces like the Neighborhood build community resilience and reconnection in our pathways forward.

Whether its your first time or your fifteenth, this slice-of-life will help orient you to a week off the grid with us and get a few things on your preliminary pack list!

“Creativity and imagination go hand in hand, and without the cultivation of both, how can we begin to imagine a better world?

Building relationships with nature early on can make a huge difference in your child’s journey to getting to know themselves deeply, and in reclaiming their birthright: the ability to be in nature with ease. In this spirit, youth at Firefly are fully immersed in the goodness of nature at Youth Village during class time for adults and teens.

“I see Earthskills as a way for people to regain the grounding effects of being in nature, to hear again the sounds of birds, frogs and laughter; to use their hands to craft things from the natural world as all of our ancestors once survived upon…that is the village that we all seek to build, and Earthskills Gatherings are one way to feel that calling.”

Meet a few of our favorite homebrews from around the world with our resident brew chef and fermentation enthusiast, Marissa Percoco.

Although we live on an amazingly generous planet, we are inundated with messages of scarcity, greed and domination. At this time in our human experience, many feel a dire call for change.

Meet instructor Jason Drevanak, joining us for his 8th year at the Gathering this summer. Inspired by the joy of figuring out how our ancestors learned to thrive in their perspective environments, Jason is here to share survival and outdoor living skills for beginners and experts alike!

With exciting expansions in our Equity Committee, Equity Fund, and plans for what this work looks like at the Annual Gathering itself, we invite you to read more about our current equity work and how to support these efforts.

“As people who value life and feel the weight of responsibility for every life taken to continue our own, learning how to utilize every part we can of these animal bodies draws us deeper into ties of kinship with the more than human world.”

“As long as white supremacy goes unchecked in our cultural communication and educational systems, the dream of community will evade us.”