Wild Roots Feral Futures

Basic Street Medic Training at Wild Roots Feral Futures 2012

2012-01-21T16:31:00.000-08:00

We're excited to announce that Colorado Street Medics will be facilitating a two-day Basic Street Medic Training this year at Wild Roots Feral Futures. The training will take place June 17th & 18th.

Who & What are Street Medics?

You’re among thousands at an antiwar demonstration when police start using pepper spray and firing tear-gas grenades. You’re choking and blinded. People around you are shouting and panicking. Ordinary fire and rescue services are standing idle–they are instructed never to enter areas until police declare them secured, and to tear-gas a crowd is to define it as insecure.

Who will help? The Street Medics. A band of volunteers with varying levels of medical credential but all specially trained in the treatment of the injuries most common at demonstrations. Street Medics walk purposefully alongside frightened crowds, urging them to “walk!”. They move in buddy pairs, carrying medical supplies and wearing eclectic uniforms–a fishing vest with MEDIC and a star of life emblazoned on the back or a jacket with a Red Cross made of duct tape.

Street Medics aren’t just at protests. We travel wherever we can to offer medical care. Be it an anti-war demonstration, a natural disaster or a war zone, the Street Medics will travel to help those in need.

Colorado Street Medics are one of the original street medic collectives organized to assert that healthcare is a human right. We band together as medical providers ranging from herbalists and paramedics to doctors and acupuncturists. We believe in participating in solidarity, not charity. We participate in events as community members, not saviors or heroes. We work to deconstruct oppression in ourselves and our communities as well as supporting social movements that work to do the same.

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2012

2011-07-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

"The whole earth is in jail
and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak."

June 16 - 24, 2012

San Juan Mountains, Southwest Colorado
(Exact location to be determined)

Greetings from the occupied Nuchu (Ute) territories of Turtle Island, colonially known as the "American Southwest"!

We are very happy to announce that, for the 4th year running, the Wild Roots Feral Futures (WRFF) eco-defense, direct action, and rewilding encampment will take place in the forests of Southwest Colorado this coming June, 2012. WRFF is an informal, completely free and non-commercial, and loosely organized camp-out operating on (less than a) shoe-string budget, formed entirely off of donated, scavenged, or liberated supplies and sustained through 100% volunteer effort. Though we foster a collective communality and pool resources, we encourage total self-sufficiency (which we find to be the very source and foundation of true mutual sharing and abundance).

We would like to invite groups and individuals engaged in struggles against the destruction of the Earth (and indeed all interconnected forms of oppression) to join us and share your stories, lessons, skills, and whatever else you may have to offer. In this spirit we would like to reach out to local environmental groups, coalitions, and alliances everywhere, as well as more readily recognizable groups like Earth First!, Rising Tide North America, and others to come collaborate on the future of radical environmentalism and eco-defense in our bio-regions and beyond.

We would also like to reach out to groups like EF!, RTNA, and the Ruckus Society (as well as other groups and individuals) in search of trainers and workshop facilitators who are willing to dedicate themselves to attending Wild Roots Feral Futures and sharing their skills and knowledge (in a setting that lacks the financial infrastructure to compensate them as they may have come to expect from other, more well-funded groups and events). We are specifically seeking direct action, blockade, tri-pod, and tree climbing/sitting trainers (as well as gear/supplies).

Regarding the rewilding and ancestral earth skills component of WRFF, we would like to extend a similar invitation to folks with skills, knowledge, talent, or specialization in these areas to join us in the facilitation of workshops and skill shares such as fire making, shelter building, edible and medicinal plants, stalking awareness, tool & implement making, etc. We are also seeking folks with less "ancestral" outdoor survival skills such as orienteering and navigation, etc.

Daily camp life, along with workshops, skill shares, great food, friends, and music, will also include the volunteer labor necessary to camp maintenance. In past years we've experiences a bit of resistance to requests for basic work volunteers, so we are making a point of it now to ask you to come prepared to pitch in and contribute to the work load. We encourage folks who would like to plug in further to show up a few days before the official start of the event to begin set-up and stay a few days after the official end to help clean up.

Site scouting will continue until mid-May, at which point scouts and other organizers will rendezvous, report-back their scouting recon, and come to a consensus regarding a site location (though we encourage and intend to foster the spread of this event beyond the region that initially spawned it, Southwest Colorado has once again been isolated as the event location region simply because no other communities stepped up with a solid and dedicated proposal to organize and host the event in their own area). We are also planning on choosing a secondary, back-up site location as a contingency plan for various potential scenarios. Email us for more info on getting involved with scouting and site selection processes.

WRFF is timed to take place before the Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, allowing eco-defenders to travel from one to the other. Thus we encourage the formation of a caravan from WRFF to the EF! RRR (caravans and ride shares can be coordinated through our message board at http://feralfutures.proboards.com/ or via our mailing list & discussion group at http://groups.google.com/groups/wild-roots-feral-futures).

We are currently accepting donations in the form of supplies and/or monetary contributions. Please email us for details.

Please forward this call widely, spread the word, and stay tuned for more updates!

For The Wild,

~The Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers' collective

Email: feralfutures(at)riseup(dot)net

Blog: http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/

Message Boards: http://feralfutures.proboards.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures (outdated)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144156462306036

Mailing List/Discussion Group: http://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral-futures

For the sake of comprehensiveness, we are including below our original call-out as used in years past, which is a living document, changing and evolving as we ourselves learn and grow:

We are looking for folks of all sorts to join us and help facilitate workshops, conflict resolution and management, direct action and medic trainings, wild food walks, and much more! We will be focusing on many things, including but by no means limited to anarchist theory and praxis, unpacking privilege, decolonization, rewilding, ancestral skills, indigenous solidarity, direct action, forest defense, earth liberation, animal liberation, security culture, civil disobedience, hand to hand combat, survival skills, evasion tactics, green anarchism, anti-civ, post-civ, star watching and navigation, maps and orienteering, shelter building, permaculture, and whatever YOU care to bring and provide. But we need everyone's help to make this as safe, positive, and productive a space as it can be. Our own knowledge, skills, and capacities are limited. We need YOUR help!

Roles we REALLY need filled:

• Kitchen! (last year's informal kitchen was supported by Durango Food Not Bombs and upheld communally by event participants, but this year we are once again reaching out to the likes of Seeds of Peace and Everybody's Kitchen in hopes they'll provide kitchen support this time around)

• CRAM team (conflict resolution and management: we need people of diverse gender/sexual orientations who know how to give support to survivors of sexual assault and to people with PTSD)*

• Medics! (especially WFRs, WEMTs, & EMTs of diverse gender/sexual orientations)

• Child care! (We will have a kids space and support parents in participating in communal child care)

*There is a need for both womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk on both the CRAM and Medic teams because many people in our communities aren't going to trust men, cis people, or heteros with their health or to help with conflicts. We do not expect womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk to do the support work, but seek to create and maintain a safe and welcoming space that allows for plenty of room for it.

We at the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective feel that white dominated spaces & racism within our communities are a significant problem, & feel the need to confront that. Due to the legacy of racism within our communities of resistance we will be holding workshops on white privilege, settler privilege, & cultural appropriation.

We also feel that cis-hetero, male dominated spaces and hetropatriarchy within our communities are equally problematic, and will also be holding workshops on patriarchy and (anti)sexism.

We would like to put out a request for workshops on white privilege, hetero privilege, cis privilege, and male privilege. We recognize that it's not the job of those of us oppressed by white supremacy and heteropatriarchy to facilitate those workshops. We don't expect oppressed people to attend, but you are welcome to. While it is not the responsibility or duty of queers, POC (People of Color), and other oppressed and marginalized people to assist white, cis-hetero, and privileged people unpack, deconstruct, and confront their own privilege, these processes will be open to all.

We intend to create clinic space with some privacy provided for patient care so that the bodies of trans people (and also cis womyn) aren't on display during vulnerable moments. We will also be implementing a safe(r) space policy to keep perpetrators of sexual/physical assault out of our community and support survivors by respecting any processes of accountability they initiate.

Womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk have full support of the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective to establish safer spaces for themselves, including spaces that are only for people who are oppressed by sexism, people who are queer, and people who are trans. We recognize the need for those spaces because no matter how much we work on our privilege, as recovering hetropatriarchists still in the process of mental and psychological decolonization and recovery, we're still going to be bringing heteropatriarchy into the space (hopefully unconsciously and unintentionally, which does little to change its effects).

We also intend to create family/child friendly space that includes multigenerational workshops and activities appropriate (and fun!) for kids.

Camp guidelines (in progress):

We seek to create safe(r) space for all, including families and children, the sober, and those who identify as GLBTQ.

Please do not make assumptions about an individual’s gender, and if you feel unsure, do not be afraid to ask what someone’s preferred gender pronoun is. If you use the incorrect gender pronoun, you will be corrected, but it is not something to be ashamed of. We have all been raised within a gender binary culture and breaking free of these false binaries is a process of learning and growing for all. It is also appropriate to introduce your preferred gender pronoun when first introducing yourself to new people, if you feel the desire.

Due to natural circumstances and the lay of the land (rocky trails on steep hills, etc.), ableism and “disability” may hinder accessibility for some to the inner reaches of the gathering, including the hot springs. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our ability or desire to alter or control.

We expect everyone to observe good security culture. If you are unfamiliar with security culture, check out our security culture workshop(s), check the zine library for security culture literature, or just ask an event organizer for a basic overview. Basically, don’t talk about your or someone else’s involvement in illegal activity, and don’t make jokes, because even jokes can be used in court as evidence against you. Keep in mind that ANYONE could be an infiltrator or informant. While we must act accordingly, it is also important to not let this reality sow seeds of distrust and suspicion within our communities that leads to self-repressive restrictions on our ability to form and build relationships with one another as human beings and creatures of this Earth. Following good security culture allows us to interact and build relationships without placing ourselves in unnecessary and risky situations because of potential surveillance.

When it comes to physical intimacy and sexual contact, ASK FIRST! No Compromise In Defense of Consent!

For more on consent, attend our consent workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

Violence, physical assault, emotional assault, and/or sexual assault will NOT be tolerated under any circumstances and anyone who engages in such assault will be asked to leave. In instances of assault we will trust and believe the survivor and respect any processes of accountability they initiate.

For more information on how our communities deal with assault and accountability, check out our conflict de-escalation/resolution workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

In attempting to manifest the world we desire, we will pursue non-coercive means of conflict resolution and non-coercive processes of accountability. Decisions affecting the group will be made horizontally through the utilization of consensus process. If you are unfamiliar with consensus process, check out consensus workshops.

We seek to create a temporary autonomous zone which functions as an egalitarian community. In this spirit of cooperation and mutual aid, we request that people attending the gathering sign up for work shifts such as cooking meals, cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes after meals, digging latrines, doing supply/water runs, security & welcoming, etc. A shift sign-up sheet will circulate at communal meals.

We ask that people establish communal fires in the various neighborhoods within the gathering and refrain from making personal fires. Communal latrines will also be constructed in the various villages and we ask that people refrain from digging personal cat holes. This will minimize our overall impact on the land.

Drugs and alcohol are discouraged, but a rowdy zone will be established at the parking area, where we request the partying be restricted. NO illegal drugs, please. All other space, including celebratory and ceremonial space, should be considered sober space. Your personal space is, of course, your personal space, and you may do what you wish within it. Please respect others. For safety reasons, we request total sobriety when attending workshops and trainings. Unlike many similar gatherings, a space IS being designated for partying. This is more than you will find at most gatherings of this sort. So let’s have some fun!

Dogs increase our impact on the land and local wildlife, and are thus discouraged, though we understand and accept the fact many human beings and their canine companions are inseparable, and they will undoubtedly remain a part of our rewilded and feral futures upon this planet. We request that if you bring your dog, you keep it on a leash. If your dog attacks wildlife, other dogs, or human beings, you will be asked to leave the gathering. Please bury your dog shit!

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. Also see the information from last year as much of it will remain applicable this year as well, though there are also many changes in store to make this year's gathering a much wilder experience than last year's. See you in the woods!

May the forest bewitch you,

—the Wild Roots Feral Futures crew:
-the Dirty Hands Collective http://www.myspace.com/dirtyhandscollective
-Earth First! Durango (a cell of HC.EF!) https://southwestearthfirst.wordpress.com/
-Root Force Durango http://www.rootforce.org/
-Rising Tide Durango http://risingtidenorthamerica.org/
-Durango Food Not Bombs https://durangofoodnotbombs.wordpress.com/

feralfutures@riseup.net
http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures
http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/
http://feralfutures.proboards.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral-futures

Ⓐ Ⓔ ✌ ☮ ☠

What to bring (suggestions):

Vital items we are seeking:

☆someone with a pickup truck with one of those giant water tanks!

Personal items:

• tent
• sleeping bag
• hammocks
• food & water
• water filter (suggested)
• toilet paper
• adequate clothing for hot days, cold nights, rain, etc.
• your own bowl, cup, utensils, etc.
• flashlight/headlamp & extra batteries
• sunscreen and bug repellent if you use it
• swimsuit & towel (there are swimming holes & hot springs! who wants to skinny dip?)
• fishing gear & license (world-class fly fishing!)
• musical instruments
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Communal items (to share or donate):

• tools (like shovels for digging shitters and hatchets/axes/saws for cutting up fire wood)
• food and water (a communal kitchen will form)
• kitchen gear (large pots, pans, water containers, etc.)
• extra tents, easy-ups, etc. (the larger the better)
• tarps and rope
• hammocks, hacky-sacks, frisbees, etc.
• climbing gear (harnesses, ropes, etc.) for tree climbing/sitting trainings
• First Aid gear!
• random primitive skills supplies (you know better than we do!)
• arts and crafts supplies (think of the children!)
• radical environmental, primitive, and rewilding literature
• local plant and animal identification guides, etc.
• local topographical maps
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Things NOT to bring:

• firearms and other weapons (there's a difference between a TOOL and a WEAPON)
• parasitic or predatory human beings
• a bad attitude (including racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativity, homophobia, speciesism, ageism, ableism, etc.)
• the pigs and/or feddies
• a wire (we will be holding mandatory naked security culture workshops in the hot springs. No just kidding, only with your consent!)

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2011: Site location/directions!

2011-06-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

After much deliberation, we've consented to once again utilizing the Piedra location (same directions as below).

Despite the location of many amazing possible sites, we have concluded that Piedra is by far the most resilient to our impact, and offers many other pros that outweigh the cons.

We are, however, this year focusing on encouraging folks to spread out a lot more than in years past, deeper into the Weminuche Wilderness, which is Colorado's largest and wildest.

See you in the woods!

PS - There's a ride share at http://feralfutures.proboards.com/

—

The time has come to openly release the directions to the site of this year's Wild Roots Feral Futures gathering. Though the gathering takes place for a one week duration, we invite everyone to arrive a little early and leave a little late. After all, we need help setting up and cleaning up!

Base camp is located in the Piedra Area along the Piedra River (below the Wiminuchee Wilderness north of Highway 160 between Durango/Bayfeild and Pagosa Springs, CO. Turn left when headed east from Durango to Pagosa on 1st Fork Road (FR 622) which is on the east side of the Piedra river.

The site is 5 or 6 miles up. You'll see a T in the road sign with a right hand turn but right after the sign and before the turn there's a parking area to the left with a sign by the trailhead that's labeled Sheep Creek Trail Head. That's the main parking/entrance and there's LOTS of camping and extra parking up top and LOTS of camping up above or down below on the way down the mountain side, or all the way down by the river.

The site features a natural hot springs along the side of the river, but we'll save those directions for those of you who show up in the woods!

Site directions/location:

Drive East from Durango, CO on US Hwy 160 for approximately 35 miles (West from Pagosa Springs). Turn left (if headed East from Durango) on FS622, the dirt road on the East side of the Piedra river, NOT the one on the West side of the river. Drive for about 5 to 5 1/2 miles until you see the turn-out & parking area on your left, which is pretty obvious. There should be a sign that says Sheep Creek trailhead, and a trail going down the hill. If you come to a bridge that the road crosses, you've gone way too far. That's the definite turn-around point.

At the turn off of HWY 160 onto FS622 is a sign that says 'Piedra Resort,' and the first road sign you see DOES have a 622 sign, a little forest service colored one, but the bigger road sign says Archuleta County 166.

The first half-mile or so of the road has washboards right now, but the rest is okay. You cross two cattle guards on the way in and right at the site there's a yellow T-in-the-road sign.

Most of the space is up top, but the trail goes down the hill to another meadow or two and then down to the river where there's another spacious meadow, and then upriver to the hot springs. The river is still high (but peaked and dropping) but as of yesterday at least one hot spring is uncovered and good for soaking. The trail pretty much ends at the springs, and sorta restarts on the other side of the river, so you know you've reached the springs if the trail ends. they're little pools down along-side the edge of the river, with camping spots above the bank a little ways.

This is the FS map, but it doesn't show the exact FS road (it's right at the bottom tip of where it says "Piedra Area," right on the edge of the wilderness): http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/sanjuan/maps/sjnf-map.htm (Search "Devil Mountain, Colorado," or "Piedra, Colorado" on Google Earth and/or other map websites.)

It's a good site, because we have two towns to hit up for town runs, Pagosa and Durango, and then also little Bayfield in between. It's close to both NM and the San Luis Valley (just over Wolf Creek Pass from Pagosa). Please be kind to the locals!

Let us know if there's anything confusing about these directions, or anything else we can do.

More site information:

The Feral Futures rewilding gathering is taking place along the Piedra River in the San Juan National Forest of Southwest Colorado. Nearby is the Weminuche Wilderness Area, Colorado’s largest Wilderness Area. This is high elevation so those coming from lower elevations should be aware that time is often needed to adjust.

The Piedra Area and its adjacent roadless areas may be the largest expanse of contiguous, undeveloped forest remaining in Colorado. Only the nearby Hermosa Roadless Area may compare. The greater Piedra Roadless Area includes the mid-elevation stretches of the Piedra River and a half-dozen major tributaries. Piedra contains a large amount of the remaining old-growth ponderosa pine in the San Juans along the Piedra River and the lower reaches of its tributaries. River otters were successfully reintroduced into the river in the 1980s. The River and its tributaries provide excellent habitat for native Colorado River cutthroat trout, and Piedra also harbors some of the San Juan's best habitat for the northern goshawk.

The 1993 Colorado Wilderness Act designated a 60,000-acre portion of the 114,000-acre Piedra roadless area as a special management area equivalent to wilderness in all respects other than reservation of wilderness water rights. Approximately 12,000 acres of the RARE II roadless area have been modified by timber harvest and road construction in the last twenty years. This leaves 40,000 acres of remaining roadless lands contiguous to the existing Piedra Area.

(Info from the San Juan Citizens Alliance website)

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2011: Updates & Call for Workshop (& Other) Confirmations

2011-04-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

WRFF Summer Solstice celebration featuring music from holy!holy!holy! & more! June 22, 2011 (Wanna play? Now booking bands/performances!)

"The whole earth is in jail and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak."

The Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers' collective is formally requesting confirmations for workshops, discussions, presentations, performances, and more at this year's Wild Roots Feral Futures, the 3rd annual direct action, eco-defense, & rewilding encampment this June in Southwest Colorado.

Don't like the focus of our event? We're open to more! Got ideas? We want to hear them!

Send ideas, suggestions, proposals, and confirmations to feralfutures@riseup.net and/or post them to our message/discussion board at http://feralfutures.proboards.com/ (also post announcements as comments wherever you're seeing this post!)

Scouting & site selection:

Open site scouting has begun. Consensus scout council will convene at an undisclosed location on Saturday, May 28th. Contact feralfutures@riseup.net for more information.

Scouting considerations:

• National Forest land  
• Roads accessible to non-4WD vehicles and large vehicles like busses  
• Parking adequate for 50-100 vehicles, where all four tires can get  off the road  
• Adequate gathering/camping space (the more spread out, the better!)  
• Water! (Springs? Filtration? Haul it in?)  
• Preferably large trees (like Ponderosa Pine) for climbing trainings
(We are open to other suggestions/considerations…)

The 3rd annual Wild Roots Feral Futures direct action/eco-defense/climate camp will take place during June 14-22, 2011 in the foothills of the mighty and wild San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

Up for discussion and consensus is the site location. Autonomous and independent scouting is encouraged.

Contact feralfutures@riseup.net to provide input and/or get involved.

We are looking for folks of all sorts to join us and help facilitate workshops, conflict resolution and management, direct action and medic trainings, wild food walks, and much more! We will be focusing on many things, including but by no means limited to anarchist theory and praxis, unpacking privilege, decolonization, rewilding, ancestral skills, indigenous solidarity, direct action, forest defense, earth liberation, animal liberation, security culture, civil disobedience, hand to hand combat, survival skills, evasion tactics, green anarchism, anti-civ, post-civ, star watching and navigation, maps and orienteering, shelter building, permaculture, and whatever YOU care to bring and provide. But we need everyone's help to make this as safe, positive, and productive a space as it can be. Our own knowledge, skills, and capacities are limited. We need YOUR help!

http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/

http://feralfutures.proboards.com/

https://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral-futures

http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144156462306036

More info:

Roles we REALLY need filled:

• Kitchen! (last year's informal kitchen was facilitated by Food Not Bombs chapters from Taos, NM and Durango, CO and upheld communally by event participants, but this year we are once again reaching out to the likes of Seeds of Peace and Everybody's Kitchen in hopes they'll provide kitchen support this time around)

• CRAM team (conflict resolution and management: we need people of diverse gender/sexual orientations who know how to give support to survivors of sexual assault and to people with PTSD)*

• Medics! (especially WFRs, WEMTs, & EMTs of diverse gender/sexual orientations)

• Child care! (We will have a kids space and support parents in participating in communal child care)

*There is a need for both womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk on both the CRAM and Medic teams because many people in our communities aren't going to trust men, cis people, or heteros with their health or to help with conflicts. We do not expect womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk to do the support work, but seek to create and maintain a safe and welcoming space that allows for plenty of room for it.

We at the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective feel that white dominated spaces & racism within our communities are a significant problem, & feel the need to confront that. Due to the legacy of racism within our communities of resistance we will be holding workshops on white privilege, settler privilege, & cultural appropriation.

We also feel that cis-hetero, male dominated spaces and hetropatriarchy within our communities are equally problematic, and will also be holding workshops on patriarchy and (anti)sexism.

We would like to put out a request for workshops on white privilege, hetero privilege, cis privilege, and male privilege. We recognize that it's not the job of those of us oppressed by white supremacy and heteropatriarchy to facilitate those workshops. We don't expect oppressed people to attend, but you are welcome to. While it is not the responsibility or duty of queers, POC (People of Color), and other oppressed and marginalized people to assist white, cis-hetero, and privileged people unpack, deconstruct, and confront their own privilege, these processes will be open to all.*

*The above statements are, of course, over-simplified and over-generalized. It is highly important to operate from an awareness that these are not monolithic, static categories and that individuals do not so easily fit into a simplistic "either/or" scenario of oppressed/oppressor. Rather, there are many layers and intersections of oppression and privilege interwoven and intermixed (and often colliding) within the conglomerate we call the self, formed through the reciprocal processes of social construction and autonomous individuality. "Privilege" and "oppress" are situational verbs and constructed social qualities, not inherent and hegemonic qualities of individual human beings. (For more insights into the failures and limitations of dogmatic "anti-oppression" rooted in the false fight against alleged "identity politics", we recommend the three "Lines In The Sand" articles regarding identity politics, anti-oppression activism, and social war. The first, "You Have to Do It My Way," confronts the dismissal of identity-focused struggle or activism by many anarchists; the second, "So Fucked Up," analyzes the dynamics of guilt, disempowerment, and marginalization built into common practices of anti-oppression activism; and the final, "Some suggestions for real solidarity," proposes ways to improve mutual support between conflictive and supportive anti-authoritarian practices. They can be found on http://AnarchistNews.org as well as a printable zine on http://ZineLibrary.info)

We intend to create clinic space with some privacy provided for patient care so that the bodies of trans people (and also cis womyn) aren't on display during vulnerable moments. We will also be implementing a safe(r) space policy to keep perpetrators of sexual/physical assault out of our community and support survivors by respecting any processes of accountability they initiate.

Womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk have full support of the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective to establish safer spaces for themselves, including spaces that are only for people who are oppressed by sexism, people who are queer, and people who are trans. We recognize the need for those spaces because no matter how much we work on our privilege, as recovering hetropatriarchists still in the process of mental and psychological decolonization and recovery, we're still going to be bringing heteropatriarchy into the space (hopefully unconsciously and unintentionally, which does little to change its effects).

We also intend to create family/child friendly space that includes multigenerational workshops and activities appropriate (and fun!) for kids.

Camp guidelines (in progress):

We seek to create safe(r) space for all, including families and children, the sober, and those who identify as GLBTQ.

Please do not make assumptions about an individual’s gender, and if you feel unsure, do not be afraid to ask what someone’s preferred gender pronoun is. If you use the incorrect gender pronoun, you will be corrected, but it is not something to be ashamed of. We have all been raised within a gender binary culture and breaking free of these false binaries is a process of learning and growing for all. It is also appropriate to introduce your preferred gender pronoun when first introducing yourself to new people, if you feel the desire.

Due to natural circumstances and the lay of the land (rocky trails on steep hills, etc.), ableism and “disability” may hinder accessibility for some to the inner reaches of the gathering, including the hot springs. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our ability or desire to alter or control.

We expect everyone to observe good security culture. If you are unfamiliar with security culture, check out our security culture workshop(s), check the zine library for security culture literature, or just ask an event organizer for a basic overview. Basically, don’t talk about your or someone else’s involvement in illegal activity, and don’t make jokes, because even jokes can be used in court as evidence against you. Keep in mind that ANYONE could be an infiltrator or informant. While we must act accordingly, it is also important to not let this reality sow seeds of distrust and suspicion within our communities that leads to self-repressive restrictions on our ability to form and build relationships with one another as human beings and creatures of this Earth. Following good security culture allows us to interact and build relationships without placing ourselves in unnecessary and risky situations because of potential surveillance.

When it comes to physical intimacy and sexual contact, ASK FIRST! No Compromise In Defense of Consent!

For more on consent, attend our consent workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

Violence, physical assault, emotional assault, and/or sexual assault will NOT be tolerated under any circumstances and anyone who engages in such assault will be asked to leave. In instances of assault we will trust and believe the survivor and respect any processes of accountability they initiate.

For more information on how our communities deal with assault and accountability, check out our conflict de-escalation/resolution workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

In attempting to manifest the world we desire, we will pursue non-coercive means of conflict resolution and non-coercive processes of accountability. Decisions affecting the group will be made horizontally through the utilization of consensus process. If you are unfamiliar with consensus process, check out consensus workshops.

We seek to create a temporary autonomous zone which functions as an egalitarian community. In this spirit of cooperation and mutual aid, we request that people attending the gathering sign up for work shifts such as cooking meals, cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes after meals, digging latrines, doing supply/water runs, security & welcoming, etc. A shift sign-up sheet will circulate at communal meals.

We ask that people establish communal fires in the various neighborhoods within the gathering and refrain from making personal fires. Communal latrines will also be constructed in the various villages and we ask that people refrain from digging personal cat holes. This will minimize our overall impact on the land.

Drugs and alcohol are discouraged, but a rowdy zone will be established at the parking area, where we request the partying be restricted. NO illegal drugs, please. All other space, including celebratory and ceremonial space, should be considered sober space. Your personal space is, of course, your personal space, and you may do what you wish within it. Please respect others. For safety reasons, we request total sobriety when attending workshops and trainings. Unlike many similar gatherings, a space IS being designated for partying. This is more than you will find at most gatherings of this sort. So let’s have some fun!

Dogs increase our impact on the land and local wildlife, and are thus discouraged, though we understand and accept the fact many human beings and their canine companions are inseparable, and they will undoubtedly remain a part of our rewilded and feral futures upon this planet. We request that if you bring your dog, you keep it on a leash. If your dog attacks wildlife, other dogs, or human beings, you will be asked to leave the gathering. Please bury your dog shit!

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. Also see the information from last year as much of it will remain applicable this year as well, though there are also many changes in store to make this year's gathering a much wilder experience than last year's. See you in the woods!

May the forest bewitch you,

—the Wild Roots Feral Futures crew:
-the Dirty Hands Collective http://www.myspace.com/dirtyhandscollective
-Earth First! Durango (a cell of HC.EF!) http://earthfirst.org/
-Root Force Durango http://www.rootforce.org/
-Rising Tide Durango http://risingtidenorthamerica.org/
-Durango Food Not Bombs http://www.myspace.com/durangofoodnotbombs

feralfutures@riseup.net
http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures
http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/
http://feralfutures.proboards.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral-futures

Ⓐ Ⓔ ✌ ☮ ☠

What to bring (suggestions):

Vital items we are seeking:

☆someone with a pickup truck with one of those giant water tanks!

Personal items:

• tent
• sleeping bag
• hammocks
• food & water
• water filter (suggested)
• toilet paper
• adequate clothing for hot days, cold nights, rain, etc.
• your own bowl, cup, utensils, etc.
• flashlight/headlamp & extra batteries
• sunscreen and bug repellent if you use it
• swimsuit & towel (there are swimming holes & hot springs! who wants to skinny dip?)
• musical instruments
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Communal items (to share or donate):

• tools (like shovels for digging shitters and hatchets/axes/saws for cutting up fire wood)
• food and water (a communal kitchen will form)
• kitchen gear (large pots, pans, water containers, etc.)
• extra tents, easy-ups, etc. (the larger the better)
• tarps and rope
• hammocks, hacky-sacks, frisbees, etc.
• climbing gear (harnesses, ropes, etc.) for tree climbing/sitting trainings
• First Aid gear!
• random primitive skills supplies (you know better than we do!)
• arts and crafts supplies (think of the children!)
• radical environmental, primitive, and rewilding literature
• local plant and animal identification guides, etc.
• local topographical maps
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Things NOT to bring:

• firearms and other weapons (there's a difference between a TOOL and a WEAPON)
• parasitic or predatory human beings
• a bad attitude (including racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativity, homophobia, speciesism, ageism, ableism, etc.)
• the pigs and/or feddies
• a wire (we will be holding mandatory naked security culture workshops. No just kidding, only with your consent!)

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2011

2011-01-19T13:47:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the occupied Ute territories of Turtle Island, colonially known as the "American Southwest"!

We are very happy to announce that, for the third year running, the Wild Roots Feral Futures (WRFF) eco-defense, direct action, and rewilding encampment will take place in the forests of Southwest Colorado this coming June, 2011. WRFF is an informal, completely free and non-commercial, and loosely organized camp-out operating on (less than a) shoe-string budget, formed entirely off of donated, scavenged, or liberated supplies and sustained through 100% volunteer effort. Though we foster a collective communality and pool resources, we encourage total self-sufficiency (which we find to be the very source and foundation of true mutual sharing and abundance).

We would like to invite groups and individuals engaged in struggles against the destruction of the Earth (and indeed all interconnected forms of oppression) to join us and share your stories, lessons, skills, and whatever else you may have to offer. In this spirit we would like to reach out to local environmental groups, coalitions, and alliances everywhere, as well as more readily recognizable groups like Earth First!, Rising Tide North America, and others to come collaborate on the future of radical environmentalism and eco-defense in our bio-regions and beyond.

We would also like to reach out to groups like EF!, RTNA, and the Ruckus Society (as well as other groups and individuals) in search of trainers and workshop facilitators who are willing to dedicate themselves to attending Wild Roots Feral Futures and sharing their skills and knowledge (in a setting that lacks the financial infrastructure to compensate them as they may have come to expect from other, more well-funded groups and events). We are specifically seeking direct action, blockade, tri-pod, and tree climbing/sitting trainers (as well as gear/supplies).

Regarding the rewilding and ancestral earth skills component of WRFF, we would like to extend a similar invitation to folks with skills, knowledge, talent, or specialization in these areas to join us in the facilitation of workshops and skill shares such as fire making, shelter building, edible and medicinal plants, stalking awareness, tool & implement making, etc. We are also seeking folks with less "ancestral" outdoor survival skills such as orienteering and navigation, etc.

Daily camp life, along with workshops, skill shares, great food, friends, and music, will also include the volunteer labor necessary to camp maintenance. In past years we've experiences a bit of resistance to requests for basic work volunteers, so we are making a point of it now to ask you to come prepared to pitch in and contribute to the work load. We encourage folks who would like to plug in further to show up a few days before the official start of the event to begin set-up and stay a few days after the official end to help clean up.

Site scouting will continue until mid-May, at which point scouts and other organizers will rendezvous, report-back their scouting recon, and come to a consensus regarding a site location (though we encourage and intend to foster the spread of this event beyond the region that initially spawned it, Southwest Colorado has once again been isolated as the event location region simply because no other communities stepped up with a solid and dedicated proposal to organize and host the event in their own area). We are also planning on choosing a secondary, back-up site location as a contingency plan for various potential scenarios. Email us for more info on getting involved with scouting and site selection processes.

WRFF is timed to take place before the Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, taking place this year in Montana, allowing eco-defenders to travel from one to the other. Thus we encourage the formation of a caravan from WRFF to the EF! RRR (caravans and ride shares can be coordinated through our message board at http://feralfutures.proboards.com/ or via our mailing list & discussion group at http://groups.google.com/groups/wild-roots-feral-futures).

We are currently accepting donations in the form of supplies and/or monetary contributions. Please email us for details.

Please forward this call widely, spread the word, and stay tuned for more updates!

For The Wild,

~The Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers' collective

Email: feralfutures(at)riseup(dot)net

Blog: http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/

Message Boards: http://feralfutures.proboards.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144156462306036

Mailing List/Discussion Group: http://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral-futures

For the sake of comprehensiveness, we are including below our original call-out as used in years past, which is a living document, changing and evolving as we ourselves learn and grow:

We are looking for folks of all sorts to join us and help facilitate workshops, conflict resolution and management, direct action and medic trainings, wild food walks, and much more! We will be focusing on many things, including but by no means limited to anarchist theory and praxis, unpacking privilege, decolonization, rewilding, ancestral skills, indigenous solidarity, direct action, forest defense, earth liberation, animal liberation, security culture, civil disobedience, hand to hand combat, survival skills, evasion tactics, green anarchism, anti-civ, post-civ, star watching and navigation, maps and orienteering, shelter building, permaculture, and whatever YOU care to bring and provide. But we need everyone's help to make this as safe, positive, and productive a space as it can be. Our own knowledge, skills, and capacities are limited. We need YOUR help!

Roles we REALLY need filled:

• Kitchen! (last year's informal kitchen was facilitated by Food Not Bombs chapters from Taos, NM and Durango, CO and upheld communally by event participants, but this year we are once again reaching out to the likes of Seeds of Peace and Everybody's Kitchen in hopes they'll provide kitchen support this time around)

• CRAM team (conflict resolution and management: we need people of diverse gender/sexual orientations who know how to give support to survivors of sexual assault and to people with PTSD)*

• Medics! (especially WFRs, WEMTs, & EMTs of diverse gender/sexual orientations)

• Child care! (We will have a kids space and support parents in participating in communal child care)

*There is a need for both womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk on both the CRAM and Medic teams because many people in our communities aren't going to trust men, cis people, or heteros with their health or to help with conflicts. We do not expect womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk to do the support work, but seek to create and maintain a safe and welcoming space that allows for plenty of room for it.

We at the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective feel that white dominated spaces & racism within our communities are a significant problem, & feel the need to confront that. Due to the legacy of racism within our communities of resistance we will be holding workshops on white privilege, settler privilege, & cultural appropriation.

We also feel that cis-hetero, male dominated spaces and hetropatriarchy within our communities are equally problematic, and will also be holding workshops on patriarchy and (anti)sexism.

We would like to put out a request for workshops on white privilege, hetero privilege, cis privilege, and male privilege. We recognize that it's not the job of those of us oppressed by white supremacy and heteropatriarchy to facilitate those workshops. We don't expect oppressed people to attend, but you are welcome to. While it is not the responsibility or duty of queers, POC (People of Color), and other oppressed and marginalized people to assist white, cis-hetero, and privileged people unpack, deconstruct, and confront their own privilege, these processes will be open to all.

We intend to create clinic space with some privacy provided for patient care so that the bodies of trans people (and also cis womyn) aren't on display during vulnerable moments. We will also be implementing a safe(r) space policy to keep perpetrators of sexual/physical assault out of our community and support survivors by respecting any processes of accountability they initiate.

Womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk have full support of the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective to establish safer spaces for themselves, including spaces that are only for people who are oppressed by sexism, people who are queer, and people who are trans. We recognize the need for those spaces because no matter how much we work on our privilege, as recovering hetropatriarchists still in the process of mental and psychological decolonization and recovery, we're still going to be bringing heteropatriarchy into the space (hopefully unconsciously and unintentionally, which does little to change its effects).

We also intend to create family/child friendly space that includes multigenerational workshops and activities appropriate (and fun!) for kids.

Camp guidelines (in progress):

We seek to create safe(r) space for all, including families and children, the sober, and those who identify as GLBTQ.

Please do not make assumptions about an individual’s gender, and if you feel unsure, do not be afraid to ask what someone’s preferred gender pronoun is. If you use the incorrect gender pronoun, you will be corrected, but it is not something to be ashamed of. We have all been raised within a gender binary culture and breaking free of these false binaries is a process of learning and growing for all. It is also appropriate to introduce your preferred gender pronoun when first introducing yourself to new people, if you feel the desire.

Due to natural circumstances and the lay of the land (rocky trails on steep hills, etc.), ableism and “disability” may hinder accessibility for some to the inner reaches of the gathering, including the hot springs. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our ability or desire to alter or control.

We expect everyone to observe good security culture. If you are unfamiliar with security culture, check out our security culture workshop(s), check the zine library for security culture literature, or just ask an event organizer for a basic overview. Basically, don’t talk about your or someone else’s involvement in illegal activity, and don’t make jokes, because even jokes can be used in court as evidence against you. Keep in mind that ANYONE could be an infiltrator or informant. While we must act accordingly, it is also important to not let this reality sow seeds of distrust and suspicion within our communities that leads to self-repressive restrictions on our ability to form and build relationships with one another as human beings and creatures of this Earth. Following good security culture allows us to interact and build relationships without placing ourselves in unnecessary and risky situations because of potential surveillance.

When it comes to physical intimacy and sexual contact, ASK FIRST! No Compromise In Defense of Consent!

For more on consent, attend our consent workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

Violence, physical assault, emotional assault, and/or sexual assault will NOT be tolerated under any circumstances and anyone who engages in such assault will be asked to leave. In instances of assault we will trust and believe the survivor and respect any processes of accountability they initiate.

For more information on how our communities deal with assault and accountability, check out our conflict de-escalation/resolution workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

In attempting to manifest the world we desire, we will pursue non-coercive means of conflict resolution and non-coercive processes of accountability. Decisions affecting the group will be made horizontally through the utilization of consensus process. If you are unfamiliar with consensus process, check out consensus workshops.

We seek to create a temporary autonomous zone which functions as an egalitarian community. In this spirit of cooperation and mutual aid, we request that people attending the gathering sign up for work shifts such as cooking meals, cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes after meals, digging latrines, doing supply/water runs, security & welcoming, etc. A shift sign-up sheet will circulate at communal meals.

We ask that people establish communal fires in the various neighborhoods within the gathering and refrain from making personal fires. Communal latrines will also be constructed in the various villages and we ask that people refrain from digging personal cat holes. This will minimize our overall impact on the land.

Drugs and alcohol are discouraged, but a rowdy zone will be established at the parking area, where we request the partying be restricted. NO illegal drugs, please. All other space, including celebratory and ceremonial space, should be considered sober space. Your personal space is, of course, your personal space, and you may do what you wish within it. Please respect others. For safety reasons, we request total sobriety when attending workshops and trainings. Unlike many similar gatherings, a space IS being designated for partying. This is more than you will find at most gatherings of this sort. So let’s have some fun!

Dogs increase our impact on the land and local wildlife, and are thus discouraged, though we understand and accept the fact many human beings and their canine companions are inseparable, and they will undoubtedly remain a part of our rewilded and feral futures upon this planet. We request that if you bring your dog, you keep it on a leash. If your dog attacks wildlife, other dogs, or human beings, you will be asked to leave the gathering. Please bury your dog shit!

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. Also see the information from last year as much of it will remain applicable this year as well, though there are also many changes in store to make this year's gathering a much wilder experience than last year's. See you in the woods!

May the forest bewitch you,

—the Wild Roots Feral Futures crew:
-the Dirty Hands Collective http://www.myspace.com/dirtyhandscollective
-Earth First! Durango (a cell of HC.EF!) http://earthfirst.org/
-Root Force Durango http://www.rootforce.org/
-Rising Tide Durango http://risingtidenorthamerica.org/
-Durango Food Not Bombs http://www.myspace.com/durangofoodnotbombs

feralfutures@riseup.net
http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures
http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/
http://feralfutures.proboards.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral-futures

Ⓐ Ⓔ ✌ ☮ ☠

What to bring (suggestions):

Vital items we are seeking:

☆someone with a pickup truck with one of those giant water tanks!

Personal items:

• tent
• sleeping bag
• hammocks
• food & water
• water filter (suggested)
• toilet paper
• adequate clothing for hot days, cold nights, rain, etc.
• your own bowl, cup, utensils, etc.
• flashlight/headlamp & extra batteries
• sunscreen and bug repellent if you use it
• swimsuit & towel (there are swimming holes & hot springs! who wants to skinny dip?)
• fishing gear & license (world-class fly fishing!)
• musical instruments
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Communal items (to share or donate):

• tools (like shovels for digging shitters and hatchets/axes/saws for cutting up fire wood)
• food and water (a communal kitchen will form)
• kitchen gear (large pots, pans, water containers, etc.)
• extra tents, easy-ups, etc. (the larger the better)
• tarps and rope
• hammocks, hacky-sacks, frisbees, etc.
• climbing gear (harnesses, ropes, etc.) for tree climbing/sitting trainings
• First Aid gear!
• random primitive skills supplies (you know better than we do!)
• arts and crafts supplies (think of the children!)
• radical environmental, primitive, and rewilding literature
• local plant and animal identification guides, etc.
• local topographical maps
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Things NOT to bring:

• firearms and other weapons (there's a difference between a TOOL and a WEAPON)
• parasitic or predatory human beings
• a bad attitude (including racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativity, homophobia, speciesism, ageism, ableism, etc.)
• the pigs and/or feddies
• a wire (we will be holding mandatory naked security culture workshops in the hot springs. No just kidding, only with your consent!)

An Organizer's Report-Back from Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010

2010-07-19T19:02:00.001-07:00

The second annual Wild Roots Feral Futures, a small, free, and informal eco-defense & earth skills gathering on the shores of the Piedra River in the San Juan National Forest of Southwest Colorado—which we consider occupied Ute territories—took place from June 19th through 26th, 2010. Many attendees arrived days before the official start of the gathering, and others stayed on after the official end to help break down and clean up. Nestled in one of the largest and last remaining stands of old growth Ponderosa Pine, amongst the meadows of many-colored wild-flowers and the natural hot springs along the Piedra River, on the edge of Colorado's largest Wilderness area, folks from coast to coast converged to share skills, stories, music, adventures, and much more...

For my part as a locally-based event organizer, the tasks and lessons of co-organizing such an event proved to be quite challenging, not to mention draining (to the point that it's taken me weeks of r&r to even get around to writing this report-back, sorry!). Pre-event organizing—which mostly consisted of promotion online and around town—wasn't as taxing, but once in the woods, I found very little time to participate in the many amazing activities and workshops, and spent much of my time filling roles no one else had stepped up and volunteered for. Naturally, tasks like digging or burying latrines, or graveyard welcoming/security shifts, are quite often difficult to get folks to volunteer for, but towards the end, it became very difficult to get anyone to sign up for any of the shifts whatsoever, and a handful of people ended up carrying a disproportionately large amount of responsibility (many thanks to all those who did volunteer, and extra special thanks to those of you who did something multiple times when others wouldn't step up!).

There were many amazing workshops and activities, but I feel the diversity was in some contexts lacking (not enough real direct action and forest defense stuff, for example). In the future getting a more solid and diverse list of actual commitments for workshops beforehand, and a more effective and efficient system of announcing and listing them in the woods, will be receiving greater attention from event organizers and facilitators.

Many of the intentions expressed in the language of our original call-outs and in the camp zine failed to manifest themselves, and many who had previously dedicated themselves to filling certain vital roles were simply unable to make it. We apologize for the lack of certain spaces we intended to have present but may not be empowered to create ourselves, such as a safe medical clinic space for womyn and trans people, a more solid, experienced, and dedicated medic and conflict resolution team, etc.

Inter-persynal conflicts and medical situations certainly did arise, sometimes over-lapping, and it is my opinion that these situations were exacerbated by the lack of a medical and conflict resolution infrastructure adequately prepared to handle such situations. At least one conflict was ultimately left unresolved. Luckily, the medical situations and inter-persynal conflicts that arose were not of an extremely critical or dangerous nature (though others may disagree). I ultimately feel that in this respect, things went pretty smoothly, or at the very least could have been a lot worse, as we were never faced with a situation I would describe as an emergency or even a crisis. Fear of complete and utter catastrophe is never far from the minds of those who carry and feel the weight of organizing such an event.

Often, for myself at least, the weight of perceived obligation, as an event organizer, often manifested itself negatively and unproductively in an over-bearing attempt to facilitate certain daily tasks such as morning circle, where camp basics are reviewed and workshops are announced, along with security sign-up and other announcements. At a certain point much of the camp expressed discontent with the power dynamics of these discussions, which is a heady way of saying that too few people were talking too much and dominating too much of the discourse. Such feedback is vitally important for organizers who may be taking on too much "responsibility" out of a perceived obligation to make sure certain tasks are accomplished, and gives us space to step back and re-evaluate the dynamics of the communities we spontaneously form in the woods or in the streets, collective houses, and squats. And so that's exactly what I did: step back.

And guess what? Things still happened. Others stepped up to fill the spaces I vacated. Spontaneously, folks would call for workshop announcements or make a security sign-up board and call for volunteers. Instead of the event organizers talking at other attendees, it was everyone's circle and anyone could say what they wanted to, which was, of course, the original intent (many thanks to everyone who stepped up to help facilitate morning circle and other daily camp tasks, you rock!). The overbearing weight of the role of the organizer often interferes with this, which is, of course, why it must be abolished as such. This is not to say that being an organizer or a facilitator isn't an important role, but rather, one that we must revision and remove from any separation of importance from the active roles others take on, on the ground and in the woods. Otherwise organizers suffer unnecessary stress and the weight of too much responsibility (most often self-imposed through a false perception of necessity and obligation), while animosity and separation is created between event attendees and the organizers the attendees begin to feel are trying to put themselves in a position of leadership or authority (something anarchists and anti-authoritarians often respond to with knee-jerk, reactionary virulence). Sometimes certain people take on the task of getting something going and keeping it going, but once we're all there together in the woods or in the streets, we all need to be organizers and facilitators. So step up and step back.

We as locally-based organizers were also inadequately prepared with certain infrastructural gear such as adequate radios for security/welcoming and medics, and towards the end of the gathering, as some people collected the gear they'd lent out and went on their way, we found ourselves without adequate radio communications and thus faced a total breakdown of communication between the welcoming and the main camp down the hill. Luckily, this was never a significant problem, but it certainly could have been.

Our high-capacity water storage and water filtration system also suffered a bit of a breakdown, but through innovation and a combination of boiling and personal water filters, there was, for the most part, enough drinking water to be had, though the situation was admittedly precarious at times. Securing the drinking water system will be more of a central and primary concern in organizing future events.

We were perhaps overly-optimistic in our hopes and ill-formed expectations that the gear and skills that we ourselves personally lacked would simply come together spontaneously and autonomously through the collective contributions of the greater community we all formed together. I would like to personally apologize for any such lack on our part as local event organizers.

A note on law enforcement: last year, due to the National Rainbow Gathering near-by in New Mexico and the presence of a handful of Rainbows at Wild Roots Feral Futures, we had one visit from Forest Service law enforcement officers who appeared to be looking to harass Rainbows (and thought part of a bow drill for making fire was a pipe, etc.). The incident was nominal and didn't result in confrontation (aside from minimal harassment and intimidation tactics) or arrests.

This year, we had no overt visits from uniformed law enforcement officers. One local Forest Service truck was spotted driving by and seen leaving as well, and no other sightings were recorded by the security team. This is in stark contrast to the treatment received by our predecessor event, Feral Visions, which faced heavy repression from the State towards the end, as well as other similar events in the US and abroad.

Of course, this lack of law enforcement presence only applies to uniformed officers. We will probably never know who else may have been walking amongst us, talking to us, and listening to us. And if proper security culture was observed, that doesn't matter (on that note, there was at least once incident brought to my attention of blatant disregard for and violation of security culture basics that consisted of open bragging regarding alleged participation in an illegal action, which is a definite security culture no-no!).

Though active feedback is certainly preferable, we as organizers also value retro-active feed-back and are thus calling on event organizers and attendees to write their own report-backs about their experiences at Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010 and send them to feralfutures@riseup.net (let us know if you'd like to to be kept private or if you'd like it published on our blog, etc.). Please, be honest, and be harsh. We need criticism and critique in order to learn and grow, not puffed-up glorification and congratulatory back-patting. These report-backs, however, are not spaces for the continuation of inter-persynal conflicts, so please, no calling people out directly or making direct accusations against individuals. Though such conflicts require accountability and hopefully resolution, we cannot facilitate that, and these report-backs are not the place for it.

I would like to thank the many wild and amazing folks who helped organize Wild Roots Feral Futures, who came out, attended the event, plugged in, helped out, and made the event the amazing learning and growing experience that it was. We very literally couldn't have done it without you. See you next year!

May the Forest Bewitch You,

-Nathan Negation, Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers' collective & the Dirty Hands Collective (Durango, CO)

Retro-active feedback and report-backs

2010-07-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Hey folks! We know getting back into the flow of techo-industrial civilization is never fun after a good stint in the woods, but we're hoping y'all have had a bit of time to process and reflect upon your experiences at Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010.

Though active feedback is preferable to retro-active feedback, we value both, and are thus soliciting event attendees and organizers alike to submit feedback and report-backs about your experiences at the gathering, both good AND bad.

We'd love to publish folks' report-backs, so please let us know if that is or is not okay with you. If not, that's fine, but we still value and want your feedback. Just let us know to keep it private, and we will respect that.

For our part as local organizers, we've been very busy since the event ended, and have yet to find the time and energy to write report-backs of our own. But we promise we will do so, and soon. Please submit feedback to feralfutures@riseup.net. To get the ball rolling we're reposting the first report-back we've received. Thanks!

-Wild Root Feral Futures organizers' collective

———

Following the Call of the Woods: Some Impressions of Wild Roots/Feral Futures 2010

The Wild Roots/Feral Futures gathering took place nestled in the rugged San Juan National Forest of southwestern Colorado, stretching from the first quarter moon on Saturday, June 19th, through the Summer Solstice on the 21st, to the full moon on Saturday the 26th, although many camped out days prior and stayed past the “official” end of the gathering. Billed as “a rewilding gathering of rebel tribes and Earth warriors”, Feral Futures essentially an opportunity to unplug from the consumerist, urban milieu in which most of us live and struggle from day to day, and instead visualize and practice living in communal simplicity, freed from Civilization's technology and social hierarchy and in connection with the rhythms of Nature.

After driving or walking the long, winding red dirt road up the Piedra River Valley, the first sign of the gathering is the upper meadow with its parking spaces and the Welcome Tent, where the volunteer detail greet visitors with the ol' Red-and-Black and Skull-and-Crossbones, stacks of zines and other literature held down by rocks (always in natural abundance), and suggestions on where to put down supplies. In most cases, this means taking a long hike downhill from the parking pasture, past meadows and the deer skeleton hung on a tree and through a series of zigzagging switchbacks, until you reached the sprawling river clearing below. Here amidst the green grass and the towering pines sprawls the entire camp: a fire circle, multiple tents, the “homeless shelter” built of logs, tarps, and pine needle insulation, even a massage table and cache of art supplies, as well as the obligatory shitter trench dug out at the treeline. Unlike your typical weekend car camping site, this is clearly a space that had been occupied, however temporarily, by a community of people determined to live in sharing with one another.

Approaching the fire, one hears a discussion of the recent goat slaughter, of whether or not it was natural, ethical, and compassionate to bring an animal raised on a farm to an unfamiliar environment by truck, kill it under the intent gaze of several onlookers, yet thereby expose many who may have never seen meat and blood aside from a shrink-wrapped grocery store package to the reality of life and death. Meanwhile, several hundred yards upstream at “carnivore camp”, nonchalant meat-eaters share in the rambunctious pleasures of stretching the hide and eating “Rocky Mountain oysters”, bonafide goat testicles hot off the fire griddle.

Throughout the week you could partake in various workshops, freely offered and freely attended. There were opportunities to learn about bowdrilling to start a fire, tying knots to climb and defend trees, get tattoos, participate in the trading blanket (which inspired its own discussions on the comparative merits of gift, barter, and market economics), learn how to defend oneself from the cops using the Russian martial arts discipline, Systema, how to run an underground newspaper like the scrappy Red Pill Journal out of Grand Junction, and many other skills besides. One of the more compelling workshops was on establishing Rites of Passage for the nascent anarchist/primitivist community, filling the vacuum filled by consumerist society's suppression of traditional cutlures while avoiding the co-option of indigenous practices and ways. This sparked a conversation on how adolescents in the “mainstream” find their own “Rites of Passages” through sex, drugs, and alcohol; how anarchists may often replace those with mosh pits, solos in the woods, ideological awakening and forming a countercultural community; and whether there really even is such a community, and how well-rooted and long-lasting it might be. It would seem these are some of the biggest questions facing us in making the anti-authoritarian, pro-autonomy movement cohesive, meaningful, and effective over the long term.

Besides mutual education were many joys and pleasures of living in non-hierarchical community: volunteering to help cook or gather and split firewood; sharing meals, literature, and basic tools; singing along with the banjo to old folk and hobo standbys like “Rattlin' Bog” and “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”; dancing and drumming in campfire celebration of the Solstice. And magical moments, too, especially under the beautiful, bewitching wax of the moon: the crystal river shimmering over rocks in the streambed, pine trees somehow towering even taller and more majestic over the meadows under the gentle gaze of Luna, of Diana.

Feral Futures was not for everyone; unfortunately, at least one person had to be taken back to “Civilization”, to leave a situation which was clearly outside their comfort zone. This was a reminder of how deeply embedded we can become in the cheap conveniences and false securities of mainstream society, and of how truly unplugging oneself from the dominant order, whether from its grocery stores or its electronic gadgets, its hospitals or its police, takes practice, time, the acquisition of skills for interdependent self-sufficiency and real, conscious patience and intent.

Other challenges also arose. Having sufficient clean water was an issue, as no one volunteered to bring in the hoped-for water tanks, although a combination of boiling and bleaching largely solved this problem, and could be greatly alleviated with the greater presence of personal water filtration systems. There were occasional tense dynamics between different subgroups, highlighting the need to pursue and discuss mutual understanding and respect. At one point, concerns about a prescribed forest burn possibly getting out of hand were addressed by directly calling the US Forest Service. There were even some who participated yet expressed dissatisfaction or doubts about the real commitment to “primitivism”, as campers relied almost entirely on store-bought foods, soaps, and hand sanitizers. Despite any of these particular issues, though, everyone got along fairly well, and most seemed to enjoy their time in the woods.

The premise of primitivism and anti-civ/post-civ, the call to “visualize vast wilderness” and “actualize industrial collapse”, is interesting, and sure to lead debates as elsewhere in the anti-authoritarian movement, as in markets vs. communes, or insurrection vs. gradual institution-building; and total anti-civ primitivism may (or may not) be more than even many anarchists would pursue. Yet with the camaraderie of hiking to volunteer for the security/welcome watch, or sharing in good conversation, song, and cooking around the campfire, it is easy to see, and to feel, the appeal of being in a tribe, far away from the monotony of Mallworld, the everyday life of alienated work and consumption, and attending much closer to the call of the Wild.

Written by Sean Sanford, Denver

Thanks to the many organizers and participants of Wild Roots, Feral Futures 2010!

Wild Roots Feral Futures Site Location and Directions!

2010-06-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

The time has come to openly release the directions to the site of this year's Wild Roots Feral Futures gathering. Though the gathering takes place for a one week duration, we invite everyone to arrive a little early and leave a little late. After all, we need help setting up and cleaning up!

Base camp is located in the Piedra Area along the Piedra River, below the Wiminuchee Wilderness north of Highway 160 between Durango/Bayfeild and Pagosa Springs, CO. Turn left when headed east from Durango to Pagosa on 1st Fork Road (FR 622) which is on the east side of the Piedra river.

The site is 5 or 6 miles up. You'll see a T in the road sign with a right hand turn but right after the sign and before the turn there's a parking area to the left with a sign by the trailhead that's labeled Sheep Creek Trail Head. That's the main parking/entrance and there's LOTS of camping and extra parking up top and LOTS of camping up above or down below on the way down the mountain side, or all the way down by the river.

The site features a natural hot springs along the side of the river, but we'll save those directions for those of you who show up in the woods!

Here are some maps that may help a bit:

http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=jy67bc7f
http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=ql6vpff5
http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=bt64zyy8

Site directions/location:

Drive East from Durango, CO on US Hwy 160 for approximately 35 miles (West from Pagosa Springs). Turn left (if headed East from Durango) on FS622, the dirt road on the East side of the Piedra river, NOT the one on the West side of the river. Drive for about 5 to 5 1/2 miles until you see the turn-out & parking area on your left, which is pretty obvious. There should be a sign that says Sheep Creek trailhead, and a trail going down the hill. If you come to a bridge that the road crosses, you've gone way too far. That's the definite turn-around point.

At the turn off of HWY 160 onto FS622 is a sign that says 'Piedra Resort,' and the first road sign you see DOES have a 622 sign, a little forest service colored one, but the bigger road sign says Archuleta County 166.

The first half-mile or so of the road has washboards right now, but the rest is okay. Last year full sized school buses had and RVs made it in fine. You cross two cattle guards on the way in and right at the site there's a yellow T-in-the-road sign.

Most of the space is up top, but the trail goes down the hill to another meadow or two and then down to the river where there's another spacious meadow, and then upriver to the hot springs.

This is the FS map, but it doesn't show the exact FS road (it's right at the bottom tip of where it says "Piedra Area," right on the edge of the wilderness): http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/sanjuan/maps/sjnf-map.htm (Search "Devil Mountain, Colorado," or "Piedra, Colorado" on Google Earth and/or other map websites.)

It's a good site, because we have two towns to hit up for town runs, Pagosa and Durango, and then also little Bayfield in between. It's close to both NM and the San Luis Valley (just over Wolf Creek Pass from Pagosa). Please be kind to the locals!

Let us know if there's anything confusing about these directions, or anything else we can do.

More site information:

The Wild Roots Feral Futures rewilding & eco-defense gathering is taking place along the Piedra River in the San Juan National Forest of Southwest Colorado. Nearby is the Weminuche Wilderness Area, Colorado’s largest Wilderness Area. This is high elevation so those coming from lower elevations should be aware that time is often needed to adjust.

The Piedra Area and its adjacent roadless areas may be the largest expanse of contiguous, undeveloped forest remaining in Colorado. Only the nearby Hermosa Roadless Area may compare. The greater Piedra Roadless Area includes the mid-elevation stretches of the Piedra River and a half-dozen major tributaries. Piedra contains a large amount of the remaining old-growth ponderosa pine in the San Juans along the Piedra River and the lower reaches of its tributaries. River otters were successfully reintroduced into the river in the 1980s. The River and its tributaries provide excellent habitat for native Colorado River cutthroat trout, and Piedra also harbors some of the San Juan's best habitat for the northern goshawk.

The 1993 Colorado Wilderness Act designated a 60,000-acre portion of the 114,000-acre Piedra roadless area as a special management area equivalent to wilderness in all respects other than reservation of wilderness water rights. Approximately 12,000 acres of the RARE II roadless area have been modified by timber harvest and road construction in the last twenty years. This leaves 40,000 acres of remaining roadless lands contiguous to the existing Piedra Area.

(Info from the San Juan Citizens Alliance website)

Wild Roots Feral Futures: News & Updates!

2010-05-22T19:53:00.001-07:00

Greetings from the Ute territories of occupied Turtle Island, known (for now) as the American Southwest.

The Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective has been hard at work preparing for this year's event, which is shaping up to be one wild time! Many things have come together, many things continue to do so, and many thing still need to. At this time, less than one month before the gathering, we felt it was worthwhile to update you all on some of the recent developments surrounding the event, as well as provide various other random notes, thoughts, and observations. Please re-post and forward far and wide.

Ride Share:

We've set up a new discussion board (INCLUDING RIDE SHARE BOARD!) at feralfutures.proboards.com

Site Location:

The exact location and directions to Wild Roots Feral Futures, taking place in the San Juan mountains of Southwest Colorado (in National Forest), will be announced some time in early June. The site is along a river and features old growth Ponderosa Pines, natural hot springs, and much more. Close-by towns to shoot for would include Pagosa Springs, Bayfield, and Durango, Colorado. For more information, email the organizers at feralfutures@riseup.net.

Organizer's Meetings:

Semi-public meetings for folks interested in getting involved are taking place on a weekly basis in Durango, Colorado, every Wednesday. Contact the organizers at feralfutures@riseup.net for more information.

High Country Earth First! Bioregional Rendezvous & Organizer's Conference, June 24th & 25th at WRFF:

At the 2009 EF! Winter Rondy/OC in the Sky Island ecosystem of the Santa Rita mountains or Sonoran Arizona, several Colorado-based eco-warriors came together to (re)form a Colorado state-wide Earth First! network under the name High Country Earth First! (HC.EF!). Consisting of many relatively new and inexperienced EF!ers, many feel there is a lack of the knowledge and skills needed to defend our land bases and what remains of the wilderness. Due to the decentralized and geographically spread-out nature of the various HC.EF! regional sub-chapters, communication and collaboration has perhaps been lacking. For these reasons and more, Grand Junction and Durango-based HC.EF!ers have taken the initiative to call for a two day rendezvous and organizer's conference on June 24th and 25th, to take place at Wild Roots Feral Futures. We invite all EF!ers and anyone interested to join us to discuss and envision the future of Earth First! in Colorado, the Southwest, and beyond.

WRFF to EF! RRR caravan:

Many planning to attend Wild Roots Feral Futures have expressed interest in the formation of a caravan to the Earth First! Round River Rendezvous (RRR) taking place from June 29th through July 6th in the Northwoods of Maine. While this caravan is self-organizing we encourage folks to utilize our mailing list and discussion group to make plans (perhaps making contact with others interested in sharing rides and then taking the discussion to private, more secure means of communication).

Workshops:

We have many wonderful and skilled people traveling from far and wide to share with us, and we thank everyone who has committed so far!

Planned workshops, presentations, and discussions include: decolonization, radical mycology, wild food, wild medicine, radical midwivery, midwitchery, making fire, shelter building, orienteering, star navigation, evasion, stalking and tracking, wild fermentation, roadkill/animal processing, dumpster diving, composting, worm composting, guerrilla gardening, seed bombing, permaculture, independent media, and much much more! But the real question is, what can YOU provide?

We are also planning for tactical war games (like capture the flag!), so get ready for some strategic nighttime madness and fun on the run!

If you can commit to facilitating a workshop, presentation, talk, game, etc., please email us at feralfutures@riseup.net and let us know. We are also asking those who have already done so to re-commit. Also let us know if you have possibilities you are not yet fully committed to facilitating. We'd like to develop and publish a list of both. Thank you!

At this time we would like to renew our call and request for trainers, teachers, and workshop facilitators, particularly in the areas of direct action and civil disobedience, with an (non-exclusive) emphasis on eco-defense. We are calling on all direct action trainers, especially tree climbers/sitters, to join us to share their knowledge and skills. The site features old growth Ponderosa Pine perfect for climbing and tree sitting training. But we need your help!

Solstice celebration:

The temporal mid-point and center of Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010 is June 21st, the Summer Solstice. Though regular workshop time/space will take place throughout the day, much of the afternoon as well as the evening will be dedicated to revelry and celebration. We envision a feast of wild and local food, a masked and costumed masquerade ball, bonfire, music, fire spinners, performing artists, and much more! But as with the rest of this event, it will only be what YOU choose make of it.

Call for artists, performing artists, and musicians:

Wild Roots Feral Futures is a temporary autonomous zone that seeks to create an atmosphere of fun, creativity, and artistic expression. In this spirit we invite and indeed call upon all revolutionary artists, performing artists, and musicians to join us and share the creations of their hands, hearts, and minds.

Kitchen/food:

We are pleased to announce that the free communal kitchen at Wild Roots Feral Futures will be co-facilitated by Food Not Bombs chapters from Taos (thanks Keith!) and Durango, and perhaps beyond (ay yo Denver, where you at?). Please bring donations of food and money for the kitchen, and volunteer to help out! Sharing creates abundance!

Medics/Conflict Resolution and Management (CRAM):

We have many highly skilled and knowledgeable folks joining us who have expressed willingness to openly identify as medics, conflict resolution team members, or both. We are and will continue to be seeking others to do the same. Medics will have radios and a dedicated comms channel. Though many logistics will be worked out on the ground and in the woods, we encourage folks to utilize our mailing list and discussion group to get connected.

Security/lookout:

We are (and will be) seeking folks willing to identify (either in shifts or for the duration of the event) as police and media liaisons, and we will be asking for volunteers every day to sign up for four hour security shifts. Security volunteers will carry radios, have a dedicated comms channel, and be stationed at the entrance with a partner. We ask that everyone contribute and volunteer for shifts. (Note: security shifts do NOT make you a police liaison, unless you yourself make that decision. Security radios the police liaison in the event of police presence, and the police liaison talks to them.) We must be careful with each other so we can be dangerous together.

Kid's Camp:

We seek to create child-appropriate space as well as multi-generational workshops and activities. We encourage communal child care and the formation of a children's camp and arts and crafts station. We ask those interested to bring supplies for kid's activities and get involved in the formation and duration of a kid's camp.

Other notes:

Wild Roots Feral Futures is an un-permitted, completely free, and non-commercial event. We ask everyone to bring a monetary donation (aside from kitchen donations), but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds. If you would like to donate ahead of time or cannot attend but would still like to pitch in, contact the organizers at feralfutures@riseup.net for a street address where well-concealed cash can be sent.

We will allow for space, near the parking, for radical groups to set up distro tables, which we recognize as internal movement self-funding, rather than for-profit commercialism (which is not welcome). There will also be space for free literature distro.

For more on Wild Roots Feral Futures, including notes on security culture, accessibility, consent, assault, substances, supplies, etc., please refer to the original invitation & call-out, particularly the camp guidelines section, reposted below for your convenience.

For more information on grassroots groups and events in Durango, check out the new local underground events listing, AnimaSubTerra.

See you in the woods!

-Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective
feralfutures@riseup.net

—————————————————————————————————

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010 - Call-Out & Invitation:

The 2010 Wild Roots Feral Futures will take place for a seven-day duration, a quarter moon cycle, from June 19th-26th (from the First Quarter Moon on the 19th through the Summer Solstice on the the 21st to the Full Moon on the 26th) in the foothills of the mighty and wild San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

We are looking for folks of all sorts to join us and help facilitate workshops, conflict resolution and management, direct action and medic trainings, wild food walks, and much more! We will be focusing on many things, including but by no means limited to anarchist theory and praxis, unpacking privilege, decolonization, rewilding, ancestral skills, indigenous solidarity, direct action, forest defense, earth liberation, animal liberation, security culture, civil disobedience, hand to hand combat, survival skills, evasion tactics, green anarchism, anti-civ, post-civ, star watching and navigation, maps and orienteering, shelter building, permaculture, and whatever YOU care to bring and provide. But we need everyone's help to make this as safe, positive, and productive a space as it can be. Our own knowledge, skills, and capacities are limited. We need YOUR help!

Roles we REALLY need filled:

• Kitchen! (facilitated by Food Not Bombs chapters from Taos, NM and Durango, CO)

• CRAM team (conflict resolution and management: we need people of diverse gender/sexual orientations who know how to give support to survivors of sexual assault and to people with PTSD)*

• Medics! (especially WFRs, WEMTs, & EMTs of diverse gender/sexual orientations)

• Child care! (We will have a kids space and support parents in participating in communal child care)

*There is a need for both womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk on both the CRAM and Medic teams because many people in our communities aren't going to trust men, cis people, or heteros with their health or to help with conflicts. We do not expect womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk to do the support work, but seek to create and maintain a safe and welcoming space that allows for plenty of room for it.

We at the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective feel that white dominated spaces & racism within our communities are a significant problem, & feel the need to confront that. Due to the legacy of racism within our communities of resistance we will be holding workshops on white privilege, settler privilege, & cultural appropriation.

We also feel that cis-hetero, male dominated spaces and hetropatriarchy within our communities are equally problematic, and will also be holding workshops on patriarchy and (anti)sexism.

We would like to put out a request for workshops on white privilege, hetero privilege, cis privilege, and male privilege. We recognize that it's not the job of those of us oppressed by white supremacy and heteropatriarchy to facilitate those workshops. We don't expect oppressed people to attend, but you are welcome to. While it is not the responsibility or duty of queers, POC (People of Color), and other oppressed and marginalized people to assist white, cis-hetero, and privileged people unpack, deconstruct, and confront their own privilege, these processes will be open to all.

We intend to create clinic space with some privacy provided for patient care so that the bodies of trans people (and also cis womyn) aren't on display during vulnerable moments. We will also be implementing a safe(r) space policy to keep perpetrators of sexual/physical assault out of our community and support survivors by respecting any processes of accountability they initiate.

Womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk have full support of the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective to establish safer spaces for themselves, including spaces that are only for people who are oppressed by sexism, people who are queer, and people who are trans. We recognize the need for those spaces because no matter how much we work on our privilege, as recovering hetropatriarchists still in the process of mental and psychological decolonization and recovery, we're still going to be bringing heteropatriarchy into the space (hopefully unconsciously and unintentionally, which does little to change its effects).

We also intend to create family/child friendly space that includes multigenerational workshops and activities appropriate (and fun!) for kids.

Camp guidelines (in progress):

We seek to create safe(r) space for all, including families and children, the sober, and those who identify as GLBTQ.

Please do not make assumptions about an individual’s gender, and if you feel unsure, do not be afraid to ask what someone’s preferred gender pronoun is. If you use the incorrect gender pronoun, you will be corrected, but it is not something to be ashamed of. We have all been raised within a gender binary culture and breaking free of these false binaries is a process of learning and growing for all. It is also appropriate to introduce your preferred gender pronoun when first introducing yourself to new people, if you feel the desire.

Due to natural circumstances and the lay of the land (rocky trails on steep hills, etc.), ableism and “disability” may hinder accessibility for some to the inner reaches of the gathering, including the hot springs. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our ability or desire to alter or control.

We expect everyone to observe good security culture. If you are unfamiliar with security culture, check out our security culture workshop(s), check the zine library for security culture literature, or just ask an event organizer for a basic overview. Basically, don’t talk about your or someone else’s involvement in illegal activity, and don’t make jokes, because even jokes can be used in court as evidence against you. Keep in mind that ANYONE could be an infiltrator or informant. While we must act accordingly, it is also important to not let this reality sow seeds of distrust and suspicion within our communities that leads to self-repressive restrictions on our ability to form and build relationships with one another as human beings and creatures of this Earth. Following good security culture allows us to interact and build relationships without placing ourselves in unnecessary and risky situations because of potential surveillance.

When it comes to physical intimacy and sexual contact, ASK FIRST! No Compromise In Defense of Consent!

For more on consent, attend our consent workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

Violence, physical assault, emotional assault, and/or sexual assault will NOT be tolerated under any circumstances and anyone who engages in such assault will be asked to leave. In instances of assault we will trust and believe the survivor and respect any processes of accountability they initiate.

For more information on how our communities deal with assault and accountability, check out our conflict de-escalation/resolution workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

In attempting to manifest the world we desire, we will pursue non-coercive means of conflict resolution and non-coercive processes of accountability. Decisions affecting the group will be made horizontally through the utilization of consensus process. If you are unfamiliar with consensus process, check out consensus workshops.

We seek to create a temporary autonomous zone which functions as an egalitarian community. In this spirit of cooperation and mutual aid, we request that people attending the gathering sign up for work shifts such as cooking meals, cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes after meals, digging latrines, doing supply/water runs, security & welcoming, etc. A shift sign-up sheet will circulate at communal meals.

We ask that people establish communal fires in the various neighborhoods within the gathering and refrain from making personal fires. Communal latrines will also be constructed in the various villages and we ask that people refrain from digging personal cat holes. This will minimize our overall impact on the land.

Drugs and alcohol are discouraged, but a rowdy zone will be established at the parking area, where we request the partying be restricted. NO illegal drugs, please. All other space, including celebratory and ceremonial space, should be considered sober space. Your personal space is, of course, your personal space, and you may do what you wish within it. Please respect others. For safety reasons, we request total sobriety when attending workshops and trainings. Unlike many similar gatherings, a space IS being designated for partying. This is more than you will find at most gatherings of this sort. So let’s have some fun!

Dogs increase our impact on the land and local wildlife, and are thus discouraged, though we understand and accept the fact many human beings and their canine companions are inseparable, and they will undoubtedly remain a part of our rewilded and feral futures upon this planet. We request that if you bring your dog, you keep it on a leash. If your dog attacks wildlife, other dogs, or human beings, you will be asked to leave the gathering. Please bury your dog shit!

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. Also see the information from last year as much of it will remain applicable this year as well, though there are also many changes in store to make this year's gathering a much wilder experience than last year's. See you in the woods!

May the forest bewitch you,

—the Wild Roots Feral Futures crew:
-the Dirty Hands Collective http://www.myspace.com/dirtyhandscollective
-Earth First! Durango (a cell of HC.EF!) http://earthfirst.org/
-Root Force Durango http://www.rootforce.org/
-Rising Tide Durango http://risingtidenorthamerica.org/
-Durango Food Not Bombs http://www.myspace.com/durangofoodnotbombs

feralfutures@riseup.net
http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures
http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/
http://feralfutures.proboards.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral-futures

Ⓐ Ⓔ ✌ ☮ ☠

What to bring (suggestions):

Vital items we are seeking:

☆someone with a pickup truck with one of those giant water tanks!

Personal items:

• tent
• sleeping bag
• hammocks
• food & water
• water filter (suggested)
• toilet paper
• adequate clothing for hot days, cold nights, rain, etc.
• your own bowl, cup, utensils, etc.
• flashlight/headlamp & extra batteries
• sunscreen and bug repellent if you use it
• swimsuit & towel (there are swimming holes & hot springs! who wants to skinny dip?)
• fishing gear & license (world-class fly fishing!)
• musical instruments
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Communal items (to share or donate):

• tools (like shovels for digging shitters and hatchets/axes/saws for cutting up fire wood)
• food and water (a communal kitchen will form)
• kitchen gear (large pots, pans, water containers, etc.)
• extra tents, easy-ups, etc. (the larger the better)
• tarps and rope
• hammocks, hacky-sacks, frisbees, etc.
• climbing gear (harnesses, ropes, etc.) for tree climbing/sitting trainings
• First Aid gear!
• random primitive skills supplies (you know better than we do!)
• arts and crafts supplies (think of the children!)
• radical environmental, primitive, and rewilding literature
• local plant and animal identification guides, etc.
• local topographical maps
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Things NOT to bring:

• firearms and other weapons (there's a difference between a TOOL and a WEAPON)
• parasitic or predatory human beings
• a bad attitude (including racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativity, homophobia, speciesism, ageism, ableism, etc.)
• the pigs and/or feddies
• a wire (we will be holding mandatory naked security culture workshops in the hot springs. No just kidding, only with your consent!)

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010: Call for Workshops

2010-01-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Wild Roots Feral Futures will take place for a seven-day duration, a quarter moon cycle, from June 19th-26th (from the First Quarter Moon on the 19th through the Summer Solstice on the the 21st to the Full Moon on the 26th) in the foothills of the mighty and wild San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

We are looking for folks of all sorts to join us and help facilitate workshops, conflict resolution and management, direct action and medic trainings, wild food walks, and much more! We will be focusing on many things, including but by no means limited to anarchist theory and praxis, unpacking privilege, decolonization, rewilding, ancestral skills, indigenous solidarity, direct action, forest defense, security culture, civil disobedience, hand to hand combat, survival skills, evasion tactics, green anarchism, anti-civ, post-civ, star watching and navigation, maps and orienteering, shelter building, and whatever YOU care to bring and provide. But we need everyone's help to make this as safe, positive, and productive a space as it can be. Our own knowledge, skills, and capacities are limited. We need YOUR help!

Roles we REALLY need filled:

• Kitchen! (we've reached out to Everybody's Kitchen and Seeds of Peace)

• CRAM team (conflict resolution and management: we need people of diverse gender/sexual orientations who know how to give support to survivors of sexual assault and to people with PTSD)*

• Medics! (especially WFRs, WEMTs, & EMTs of diverse gender/sexual orientations)

• Child care! (We will have a kids space and support parents in participating in communal child care)

*There is a need for both womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk on both the CRAM and Medic teams because many people in our communities aren't going to trust men, cis people, or heteros with their health or to help with conflicts. We do not expect womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk to do the support work, but seek to create and maintain a safe and welcoming space that allows for plenty of room for it.

We at the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective feel that white dominated spaces & racism within our communities are a significant problem, & feel the need to confront that. Due to the legacy of racism within our communities of resistance we will be holding workshops on white privilege, settler privilege, & cultural appropriation.

We also feel that cis-hetero, male dominated spaces and hetropatriarchy within our communities are equally problematic, and will also be holding workshops on patriarchy and (anti)sexism.

We would like to put out a request for workshops on white privilege, hetero privilege, cis privilege, and male privilege. We recognize that it's not the job of those of us oppressed by white supremacy and heteropatriarchy to facilitate those workshops. We don't expect oppressed people to attend, but you are welcome to. While it is not the responsibility or duty of queers, POC (People of Color), and other oppressed and marginalized people to assist white, cis-hetero, and privileged people unpack, deconstruct, and confront their own privilege, these processes will be open to all.

We intend to create clinic space with some privacy provided for patient care so that the bodies of trans people (and also cis womyn) aren't on display during vulnerable moments. We will also be implementing a safe(r) space policy to keep perpetrators of sexual/physical assault out of our community and support survivors by respecting any processes of accountability they initiate.

Womyn (cis and trans), queers, and trans folk have full support of the Wild Roots Feral Futures organizers collective to establish safer spaces for themselves, including spaces that are only for people who are oppressed by sexism, people who are queer, and people who are trans. We recognize the need for those spaces because no matter how much we work on our privilege, as recovering hetropatriarchists still in the process of mental and psychological decolonization and recovery, we're still going to be bringing heteropatriarchy into the space (hopefully unconsciously and unintentionally, which does little to change its effects).

We also intend to create family/child friendly space that includes multigenerational workshops and activities appropriate (and fun!) for kids.

Camp guidelines (in progress):

We seek to create safe(r) space for all, including families and children, the sober, and those who identify as GLBTQ.

Please do not make assumptions about an individual’s gender, and if you feel unsure, do not be afraid to ask what someone’s preferred gender pronoun is. If you use the incorrect gender pronoun, you will be corrected, but it is not something to be ashamed of. We have all been raised within a gender binary culture and breaking free of these false binaries is a process of learning and growing for all. It is also appropriate to introduce your preferred gender pronoun when first introducing yourself to new people, if you feel the desire.

Due to natural circumstances and the lay of the land (rocky trails on steep hills, etc.), ableism and “disability” may hinder accessibility for some to the inner reaches of the gathering, including the hot springs. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our ability or desire to alter or control.

We expect everyone to observe good security culture. If you are unfamiliar with security culture, check out our security culture workshop(s), check the zine library for security culture literature, or just ask an event organizer for a basic overview. Basically, don’t talk about your or someone else’s involvement in illegal activity, and don’t make jokes, because even jokes can be used in court as evidence against you. Keep in mind that ANYONE could be an infiltrator or informant. While we must act accordingly, it is also important to not let this reality sow seeds of distrust and suspicion within our communities that leads to self-repressive restrictions on our ability to form and build relationships with one another as human beings and creatures of this Earth. Following good security culture allows us to interact and build relationships without placing ourselves in unnecessary and risky situations because of potential surveillance.

When it comes to physical intimacy and sexual contact, ASK FIRST! No Compromise In Defense of Consent!

For more on consent, attend our consent workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

Violence, physical assault, emotional assault, and/or sexual assault will NOT be tolerated under any circumstances and anyone who engages in such assault will be asked to leave. In instances of assault we will trust and believe the survivor and respect any processes of accountability they initiate.

For more information on how our communities deal with assault and accountability, check out our conflict de-escalation/resolution workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.

In attempting to manifest the world we desire, we will pursue non-coercive means of conflict resolution and non-coercive processes of accountability. Decisions affecting the group will be made horizontally through the utilization of consensus process. If you are unfamiliar with consensus process, check out consensus workshops(s).

We seek to create a temporary autonomous zone which functions as an egalitarian community. In this spirit of cooperation and mutual aid, we request that people attending the gathering sign up for work shifts such as cooking meals, cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes after meals, digging latrines, doing supply/water runs, security & welcoming, etc. A shift sign-up sheet will circulate at communal meals.

We ask that people establish communal fires in the various neighborhoods within the gathering and refrain from making personal fires. Communal latrines will also be constructed in the various villages and we ask that people refrain from digging personal cat holes. This will minimize our overall impact on the land.

Drugs and alcohol are discouraged, but a rowdy zone will be established at the parking area, where we request the partying be restricted. NO illegal drugs, please. All other space, including celebratory and ceremonial space, should be considered sober space. Your personal space is, of course, your personal space, and you may do what you wish within it. Please respect others. For safety reasons, we request total sobriety when attending workshops and trainings. Unlike many similar gatherings, a space IS being designated for partying. This is more than you will find at most gatherings of this sort. So let’s have some fun!

Dogs increase our impact on the land and local wildlife, and are thus discouraged, though we understand and accept the fact many human beings and their canine companions are inseparable, and they will undoubtedly remain a part of our rewilded and feral futures upon this planet. We request that if you bring your dog, you keep it on a leash. If your dog attacks wildlife, other dogs, or human beings, you will be asked to leave the gathering. Please bury your dog shit!

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. Also see the information from last year as much of it will remain applicable this year as well, though there are also many changes in store to make this year's gathering a much wilder experience than last year's. See you in the woods!

May the forest bewitch you,

-Wild Roots Feral Futures crew, the Dirty Hands Collective, and the Durango cell of High Country Earth First! (Colorado)

feralfutures@riseup.net
http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures
http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/

Ⓐ Ⓔ ✌ ☮ ☠

What to bring (suggestions):

Personal items:

• tent
• sleeping bag
• hammocks
• food & water
• water filter (suggested)
• toilet paper
• adequate clothing for hot days, cold nights, rain, etc.
• your own bowl, cup, utensils, etc.
• flashlight/headlamp & extra batteries
• sunscreen and bug repellent if you use it
• swimsuit & towel (there are swimming holes & hot springs! who wants to skinny dip?)
• fishing gear & license (world-class fly fishing!)
• musical instruments
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Communal items (to share or donate):

• tools (like shovels for digging shitters and hatchets/axes/saws for cutting up fire wood)
• food and water (a communal kitchen will form)
• kitchen gear (large pots, pans, water containers, etc.)
• tarps and rope
• hammocks, hacky-sacks, frisbees, etc.
• climbing gear (harnesses, ropes, etc.) for tree climbing/sitting trainings
• First Aid gear!
• climbing gear for tree climbing workshops (harnesses, ropes, etc.)
• random primitive skills supplies (you know better than we do!)
• radical environmental, primitive, and rewilding literature
• local plant and animal identification guides, etc.
• local topographical maps
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Things NOT to bring:

• firearms and other weapons (there's a difference between a TOOL and a WEAPON)
• parasitic or predatory human beings
• a bad attitude (including racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativity, homophobia, speciesism, ageism, ableism, etc.)
• the pigs and/or feddies
• a wire (we will be holding mandatory naked security culture workshops in the hot springs. No just kidding, only with your consent!)

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010: Dates!

2010-01-03T23:43:00.000-08:00

Wild Roots Feral Futures 2010

2009-12-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

The second annual Wild Roots Feral Futures gathering will take place in Southwest Colorado some time in June 2010, timed to be on the way to the 2010 EF! RRR in Maine.

There are many changes in store this year and we hope to make this year's WRFF wildly more successful than last year's. But WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Please contact us if you are interested in getting involved or hosting workshops.

feralfutures@riseup.net

Feral Futures Organizers’ Report Back

2009-06-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

The process of returning from the wilderness to civilization—of “re-entry”—is never a pleasant or easy one. As we leave the free and Wild Earth behind us and return to the shackles of an omnicidal system, we reflect upon the lessons learned and the face-to-face relationships built in the process, as well as our role as insurgents within the heart of the empire. Our hearts look forward to returning to the freedom of the forest.

First, we would like to thank all the organizers, affinity group members, teachers, trainers, musicians, storytellers, wisdom keepers, and other attendees that made this event possible and successful. We couldn’t have done it without you!

For our part as “organizers” (a label we use with reservations) and participants, Feral Futures was an experiment in temporary autonomy conducted with minimal experience, from which great lesson have been drawn. As organizers we feel that we have learned a lot about networking and organizing such events, and despite our shortcomings and outright failures, we know we can only improve from here. Primarily, we seek to expend our collective to ease the burden on individual collective members. Please contact feralfutures@riseup.net if you would like to help organize future gatherings.

Workshops included self-defense, rabbit stick, the art of fire-making (bow drill, etc.), stalking, camouflage, wild edible/medicinal identification, sustainable harvesting, and preparation, cordage and slings, shelter, stone tools, star & moon gazing, humanure (human composting), and more. We are also very grateful to have had the Earth First! Roadshow stop by, who conducted trainings and workshops in areas varying from direct action to facilitation and consensus, from tree climbing to anti-oppression and security culture. Discussions around issues such as the revolutionary redistribution of resources (FNB, etc.), local struggles such as the Village at Wolf Creek, Desert Rock, Black Mesa, the San Francisco Peaks, indigenous resistance and solidarity, climate, wilderness, biodiversity, justice, and sustainability also took place, as well as political prisoner letter writing sessions.

More important that the specific skills learned and issues discussed are the real-life and face-to-face connections and relationships build with one another and our land base. For those who live in the area, intimacy with the immediate land base may have been, to a certain degree, pre-existent. But for those hailing from elsewhere, the task is now to return home, wherever that may be, and familiarize oneself with the land where they live.

A major area of needed improvement—on our part, as organizers—is getting more solid commitments for workshops, trainings, etc., beforehand. In retrospect, the momentum would also be sustained better throughout a quarter moon gathering, rather than a half moon gathering. The half moon cycle timeframe was good in that it allowed greater temporal flexibility for folks to attend, but bad in that it also dispersed attendance throughout time rather than concentrating it for a shorter period. Next year’s Feral Futures will thus take place for a quarter moon cycle, or one week.

Feral Futures aspires to become a global rewilding collective as well as an annual gathering, if not more often and in various bioregional locales around Wild Earth. We invite and encourage other Wild Earthlings to create Feral Futures in your neck of the woods. Please contact feralfutures@riseup.net if you would like to help organize future gatherings.

We would also like to solicit attendees for feedback, critiques, criticisms, etc., so that we can more effectively learn from this experience and incorporate those lessons into our praxis for future organizing.

Stay Wild & Free…

—Feral Futures Collective, Wild Earth

PS - SEE YOU IN CASCADIA!!!

Earth First! Roadshow coming to Feral Futures rewilding gathering!

2009-05-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

“Wild Roots, Feral Futures,” a rewilding gathering in Southwest Colorado, is extremely excited to announce that the Earth First! Roadshow will be joining us from around the 27th to the 29th of May. More on the EF! Roadshow at earthfirstroadshow.wordpress.com. For more on Wild Roots, Feral Futures, check out Colorado Indymedia.

Earth First! Roadshow: A cross-county tour aimed at renewing the Earth First! movement, from Spring to Summer 2009

From the Earth First! Organizers’ Conference & Winter Rendezvous in the Sonoran desert this February to Wild Roots, Feral Futures in Southwest Colorado in late May, to the Round River Rendezvous in Cascadia this summer, a band of eco-rebels will be crossing the US Empire to renew a fighting movement that can stop this industrial nightmare from choking the life out of the earth.

The need for resistance in solidarity with the wild has never been louder or clearer than it is today; the roadshow is a great tool for cultivating resistance. There are countless examples to draw from in the story of radical movements before us: militant labor organizing tours, anti-fascist resistance recruitment and international speaking tours to build cross-border solidarity. The origin of Earth First! is credited to a few roadshows that kicked it all off in the early 1980s. We are building on this tradition; akin to a fellowship crossing Middle Earth to amass insurgents to face Mordor head-on.

List-serves and websites aren’t enough

This Roadshow’s primary intention is to strengthen our radical grassroots ecological network. For almost 30 years, we have been an organized voice bridging conservation biology with grassroots community organizing, road blockading and eco-sabotage. In the past 5 years we have seen numbers and experience-level in the EF! movement decline drastically. Yet, our place has never been more urgent. New groups are popping up across the country, but they are detached from many of the groups, history, and skills that preceded them. We can’t afford to stumble and repeat the same mistakes.

We are at the tail end of a decade where corporate globalization rooted itself in the US and spread across the planet like a plague. And now that the reality of climate change is finally sinking into the mainstream consciousness, the same superpowers that pushed so-called ‘free trade’ policies to exploit wild nature more efficiently are promoting carbon trading in attempt to make a profitable industry out of the disasters they’ve created. The spineless Big Green environmental NGOs are scrambling for crumbs and cutting deals with the industry for shallow public relations victories. Earth First! must rise and recognize that it’s presence is a strong component of making the broader environmental movement truly effective. We are its spine, or as an EF! co-founder, Howie Wolke, has put it, we are the lions of a movement ‘ecosystem’. Our niche is critical, and its presence (or absence) is felt deeply by our surroundings.

We need to reconnect the multi-generational aspect of Earth First! that has fallen by the wayside in recent years. We need to broaden our network’s base—from radical rural grandparents to revolutionary urban youth. We must re-establish lost relationships with scholars and scientists who resonate with us. We must re-inspire musicians and artists to contribute their passion to our battles.

When it comes down to it, solid movements are based on strong personal relationships; and real relationships don’t go very far over the internet. We need face-to-face interaction to build trust with—and support for—each other.

For the life of the Earth First! Journal

In a time where internet communication is facilitating the end of print media, including many mainstream news outlets, we are challenged to sustain our movement’s basic, primary medium of communication: the printed Earth First! Journal. Doing this means boosting the subscription/distribution base, plain and simple. And the roadshow is a chance to do that across the country.

If, or when, the lights go out, we will have the inspiration of photos and stories spanning 3 decades that we can hold in our hands and read out loud to each other by fire light, and pass on to the next generations. We shouldn’t let go of that (at least not until the lights go out!), no matter how tempting the allure of free online publishing might get.

The EF! Journal has survived where other activist publications have faded, because there is a base of community support and movement input that is rare in other print media projects. If this publication is lost, it will be a blow to all of our efforts in defense our land, our water, our neighborhoods, our animal-relations and the entire amazing wild process of life’s evolution on this planet.

Where are we going?

If you live in the US, there is a good chance that we will be coming close enough to your home for you to get involved. The roadshow will be starting at the Organizers’ Conference in Arizona and ending at the Round River Rendezvous in Cascadia.

Do you want to set up a quick stop at the local community center of college campus? Does your community want to plan a 3-day regional weekend gathering with direct action trainings and sessions on Earth First! history, vision and strategy? Or maybe something in between? Is there pending action plans that we could lend support to en route?

The Roadshow will be traveling with a variety of skills, topics and resources, including: forming affinity groups and planning direct action; blockading, climbing and occupations; bioregional news from campaigns and projects around the country; tools for challenging oppression; up-to-date news on resisting the Greenscare; independent and corporate media work; community organizing strategies; and more. A primary goal of the tour is to build the skill-base of our network. If you want specific areas of interests covered, let us know and we can tailor the stops to meet local/regional desires.

We also will be traveling with an array of art and culture, including musicians, puppet shows, and merchandise (stickers, books, shirts, etc.), to promote the vibrancy and visibility of radical ecological resistance.

Get involved, get more info, get in touch earthfirstroadshow@riseup.net

Feral Futures: Updated Info

2009-04-29T08:28:00.001-07:00

feral [a. existing in a wild or untamed state. b. having escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to a wild state]

futures [a. all that is to be. b. the indefinite and infinite times yet to come]

Calling All Wild Earthlings!

'Feral Futures' is a free, informal, and loosely structured rewilding, anarcho-primitivist, anti-civ/post-civ gathering taking place in Southwest Colorado from the New Moon at the end of May (around the 24th) to the Full Moon at the beginning of June (around the 6th or 7th). Dates are approximate. Folks are free to come and go as they please. The site is at a sacred hot springs along a wild river in National Forest bordered by Wilderness Area.

'Feral Futures' is not a gathering of anti-civ/primitivist purists. We believe in Red, Black, and Green solidarity and unity, and in that spirit of revolt, we would like to provide space at 'Feral Futures,' closer to the parking, for a direct action camp encompassing things that are not necessarily within the traditional framework of "primitivism" and/or "rewilding," but can nonetheless be utilized in an anti-civ praxis.

We are seeking folks who would like to facilitate workshops and skills shares in rewilding, survival skills, and earth skills, as well as folks who can facilitate direct action trainings, civil disobedience workshops, know your rights trainings, anti-oppression trainings, etc. We are also seeking medics, healers, storytellers, wisdom keepers, and anyone else who has something to offer.

Because Feral Futures is a free and informal gathering of equals, rather than a for-profit event with an entrance fee and "experts" who provide one-way transmission of knowledge, what "we" have to offer is much more about what you are able to provide and offer. We cannot do this without you.

We are extremely excited to announce that the Earth First! Roadshow will be joining us! (Dates and schedule of workshops forthcoming...) More on the EF! Roadshow at http://earthfirstroadshow.wordpress.com/

We invite all indigenous activists and elders to join us at Feral Futures to provide guidance in cultural sensitivity and appropriate means of solidarity with indigenous struggles without co-optation or the imposition of unwanted external struggles. We recognize that our minds and spirits have been colonized and mined, and that the struggle to free ourselves is not an easy one. We seek guidance and friends who are also on the path of decolonization.

We envision various villages/camps at Feral Futures, including (but certainly not limited to) at least one communal kitchen, a reading library & lounge, a direct action camp, a first aid/medic/healer’s village, and a sacred space at the hot springs themselves.

If you are interested, and for site directions, contact feralfutures@riseup.net

Directions will only be released openly online a few days before the gathering begins, and will be posted here and on Colorado Indymedia, so stay tuned! http://colorado.indymedia.org/node/1583

Please also post ride share listings to craigslist.org to help others get to the gathering!

See you in the woods!

http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures
http://feralfutures.blogspot.com

Workshops will include:

• wild food identification, sustainable harvesting, and preparation workshops courtesy of Durango’s own Turtle tribe: http://www.turtlelakerefuge.org/

• tree climbing: how to safely ascend a rope and mid-line rappel down, traversing or ziplining if we can set it up.

• tree life: advanced skills such as how to weave dreamcatchers, anchor ropes, double-line rappel, tree tarpology and tie in trees, getting in with a p-cord shot or maybe a bow and then tying traverses. this one would take place in the canopy so we'd need several harnesses.

• ground missions: how to be stealthy in the woods, know human, animal and vehicle tracks, practice blocking roads, concealment etc.

(It would be awesome if people could bring harnesses or other climbing gear. If anyone is into tree climbing already, you can check out the climbing guides at http://efclimbers.net for details on how we climb and the gear that's needed.)

• primitive skills

• decolonizing/rewilding work

• self-defense

• group process skills

• consensus process

• conflict resolution, de-escalation, and processes of accountability

• "magical activism"

* whatever you are willing and able to provide!

What to bring (suggestions):

Personal items:

• tent
• sleeping bag
• hammocks
• food & water
• water filter (suggested)
• toilet paper
• adequate clothing for hot days, cold nights, rain, etc.
• your own bowl, cup, utensils, etc.
• flashlight/headlamp & extra batteries
• sunscreen and bug repellent if you use it
• swimsuit & towel (there are swimming holes & hot springs! who wants to skinny dip?)
• fishing gear & license (world-class fly fishing!)
• musical instruments
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Communal items (to share or donate):

• tools (like shovels for digging shitters and hatchets/axes/saws for cutting up fire wood)
• food and water (a communal kitchen will form)
• kitchen gear (large pots, pans, water containers, etc.)
• tarps and rope
• hammocks, hacky-sacks, frisbees, etc.
• climbing gear (harnesses, ropes, etc.) for tree climbing/sitting trainings
• First Aid gear!
• climbing gear for tree climbing workshops (harnesses, ropes, etc.)
• random primitive skills supplies (you know better than we do!)
• radical environmental, primitive, and rewilding literature
• local plant and animal identification guides, etc.
• local topographical maps
• your knowledge, wisdom, and skills
• your friends!

Things NOT to bring:

• firearms and other weapons (there's a difference between a TOOL and a WEAPON)
• parasitic or predatory human beings
• a bad attitude (including racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativity, homophobia, speciesism, ageism, ableism, etc.)
• the pigs and/or feddies
• a wire (we will be holding mandatory naked security culture workshops in the hot springs. No just kidding, only with your consent!)

Weekly supply runs will take place on Sunday mornings in conjunction with Durango Food Not Bombs. Surplus donated supplies from Durango FNB will be sent to the Feral Futures communal kitchen. Monetary donations for supplies will be collected at the Feral Futures communal kitchen. The Dirty Hands Collective will be providing Durango logistics and minimal services including laundry (bring your own soap!) and wireless internet access (also on Sundays in conjunction with FNB & supply runs for Feral Futures).

Camp guidelines (in progress):

We seek to create safe(r) space for all, including families and children, the sober, and those who identify as GLBTQ.

Due to natural circumstances and the lay of the land (rocky trails on steep hills, etc.), ableism and "disability" may hinder access for some to the inner reaches of the gathering, including the hot springs. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our ability or desire to alter or control.

We expect everyone to observe good security culture. If you are unfamiliar with security culture, please read http://aia.mahost.org/sec_basics.html

We ask that people establish communal fires in the various neighborhoods within the gathering and refrain from making personal fires. Communal latrines will also be constructed in the various villages and we ask that people refrain from digging personal cat holes. This will minimize our overall impact on the land.

Drugs and alcohol are discouraged, but a rowdy zone will be established at the parking area, where we request the partying be restricted. All other space, including celebratory and ceremonial space, should be considered sober space. Your personal space is, of course, your personal space, and you may do what you wish within it. Please respect others. Unlike many similar gatherings, a space IS being designated for partying. This is more than you will find at most gatherings of this sort. So let's have some fun!

Dogs increase our impact on the land and local wildlife, and are thus discouraged, though we understand and accept the fact many human beings and their canine companions are inseparable, and they will undoubtedly remain a part of our rewilded and feral futures upon this planet. We request that if you bring your dog, you keep it on a leash. If your dog attacks wildlife, other dogs, or human beings, you will be asked to leave the gathering. Please bury your dog shit!

When it comes to physical intimacy and sexual contact, ASK FIRST! No Compromise In Defense of Consent!

Violence, physical assault, emotional assault, and/or sexual assault will NOT be tolerated under any circumstances and anyone who engages in such assault will be asked to leave, and if necessary, removed physically.

In attempting to manifest the world we desire, we will pursue non-coercive means of conflict resolution and non-coercive processes of accountability. Decisions affecting the group will be made horizontally through the utilization of consensus process.

————————————————————————————————

“In all my travels, the only time I ever slept deeply was when I was with wolves… The days with my wolf family multiplied. I have no idea how many months I spent with them but I wanted it to last forever - it was far better than returning to the world of my own kind. Today, though most memories of my long journey are etched in tones of grey, the time spent with the wolves… is drenched in colour. Those were the most beautiful days I had ever experienced.”

Quote from Misha Defonseca, a Jewish orphan who, from the ages of seven to 11, wandered through occupied Europe in World War II, living on wild berries, raw meat and food stolen from farmhouses, and occasionally teaming up with wolves.

Feral Futures flier

2009-04-25T19:01:00.001-07:00

Call for Direct Action Camp at 'Feral Futures' Gathering in Colorado

2009-04-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

'Feral Futures' is a free, informal, and loosely structured anarcho-primitivist/anti-civ gathering taking place in Southwest Colorado from the New Moon at the end of May (around the 24th) to the Full Moon at the beginning of June (around the 6th or 7th). Dates are approximate. Folks are free to come and go as they please. The site is at a sacred hot springs along a wild river in National Forest bordered by Wilderness Area.

We would like to provide space at 'Feral Futures,' closer to the parking, for a direct action camp encompassing things that are not necessarily within the traditional framework of "primitivism" and/or "rewilding," but can nonetheless be utilized in an anti-civ praxis, if folks are interested in facilitating such workshops. We are also hoping the Earth First! Road Show will be stopping by!

Right now we are seeking folks who would like to facilitate workshops and skills shares either deeper in the woods at the anarcho-primitivist part of the gathering or closer to the parking in the action camp part of the gathering. We are seeking folks who can facilitate trainings in rewilding, survival, and earth skills, as well as folks who can facilitate direct action trainings, civil disobedience workshops, know your rights trainings, anti-oppression trainings, etc.

If you are interested, and for site directions, contact feralfutures@riseup.net

http://www.myspace.com/feralfutures