"The whole earth is in jail and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak."
6th Annual Direct Action, Eco-Defense, & Rewilding Encampment in the Wild Rockies of Southwest Colorado, June 14-22, 2014
Site location & directions now announced!
Update:
Fundraiser live!
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 6th 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 14-22, 2014. 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 also
encourage general self-sufficiency, which lightens the burden on
communal supplies, and 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 frontline community members, 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. Please come prepared to pitch in and contribute to the
workload, according to your abilities. 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.
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/.
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/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WildRootsFeralFutures
Mailing List/Discussion Group:
http://groups.google.com/group/wild-roots-feral...
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, talks, discussions, skill shares, direct action and medic trainings, wild food
walks, conflict transformation, 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)
• Conflict transformation team (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), queer, genderqueer, gender-variant, gender-nonconforming and trans folk (etc.) on
both the Conflict Transformation 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), queer, genderqueer, gender-variant, gender-nonconforming and trans folk (etc.) 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), accountable space for all, including families and children, the sober, and those who identify as GLBTQI (etc.).
Please
do not make assumptions about an individual’s gender, and if you feel
unsure, do not be afraid to ask what someone’s 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 gender pronoun when first introducing yourself
to new people, if you feel the desire.
Accessibility
The WRFF organzers'
collective recognizes the dynamics of accessibility and ableism as a
form of societal oppression in our culture, and strive to select sites
with maximum accessibility, considering the context of an event located
in forest and wilderness areas. 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. This is a reality of the natural world that is beyond our
ability or desire to alter or control. We will, however, make very
effort to help folks of differing abilities get their gear into the
woods. Please contact us or ask an event organizers if you or someone in
your group needs assistance hauling gear. Together as a community we're
able to do anything!
Security Culture
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.
Consent
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.
Assault & Accountability
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
Anti-Oppression Policy & conflict
de-escalation/resolution workshop(s) or inquire with event organizers.
Conflict Transformation
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. A Conflict Transformation team will also be formed on the ground and in the woods. To get involved in the Conflict Transformation team,
click here.
Help Out/Volunteer!
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.
Camps/Fires
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.
Substance Use Policy
Drugs and alcohol are discouraged, but a
rowdy fire/area will be established, 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! (See our new and expanded policy [below the Anti-Oppression policy]
here.)
Dogs/Pets
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 organizers collective
feralfutures@riseup.net
http://feralfutures.blogspot.com/
http://feralfutures.proboards.com/
http://www.facebook.com/WildRootsFeralFutures
In order for us to become productive members of society, i.e, well oiled and functioning cogs in the wheels of the capitalist empire, we must undergo a compulsory process of alienation and domestication to make us docile and compliant to the demands of our future supervisors and bosses. This process begins in early childhood and continues more or less throughout our entire civilized lives. It is in part a process of forgetting, of learning to disregard our dreams and intuition and genetic memories of a time before mankind ascended the throne to lord over the rest of creation.
The myth of human centrism, that all of the world is here for our pleasure and our benefit, can only be called into question outside of the sprawling metropolises and suburbs where such ideas are constantly reinforced, often by the very landscape itself. The sanitized and domesticated landscapes created by modern industry stand in stark contrast to the wilderness, to the glorious chaos of life. The wilderness is where we find the idea of the all powerful human master called into question; it is a place we must periodically embed ourselves in to reconnect with authentic, non-synthetic reality outside of the scope of human constructs. It is a place we must visit once in a while for the perspective denied to us by human-centric, industrial society.
As someone who lives in a big city, Wild Roots Feral Futures (WRFF) has become a necessary yearly tradition, a way to retain a connection to (relatively) unspoiled wilderness and the deep human bonds such an environment fosters. WRFF is a loosely organized and decentralized gathering that takes place in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado (Ute territory). Working on less than a shoe string budget and with much of the supplies and food donated, a wonderful intentional community springs up for an all too brief period of time. Most people bring their own camping supplies and gear, but there are always extra sleeping bags and such things in case anyone needs them. Camp responsibilities are handled on a volunteer basis; everyone who wants to contribute can, and if you’re not in the mood to wash dishes, gather firewood or cook meals, there’s no pressure to.
One of the main reasons I keep coming back to WRFF is the people, the amazingly good-hearted and beautiful people. Sure, in past years there’s been some drama but it’s never really distracted me from the overall experience. The warmth, wisdom and sincerity I experience there nourishes me on a spiritual level; this gives me the strength and clarity I need to avoid falling into despair and nihilism concerning the nature of the human race. WRFF attracts a variety of people: college students, older hippies, drifters, radical faeries, liberals, anarchists, socialists, families with small children, musicians, train hoppers, activists, conservationists, farmers, and those who refuse to be categorized. The ethnic diversity is not quite what it could be, but the reasons for this are complex. I find it unfortunate that many POC have been seemingly irrevocably yoked to the city, pigeonholed into the category of permanent urban dwellers. Again, the reasons for this are complex and largely beyond our control, though hopefully this will begin to change in the near future. In any case, no matter what our backgrounds, we gather together at WRFF with our differences eclipsed by one common theme: a love for the land and a love of life.
This year was by far my favorite WRFF for several reasons. The hike in and out was so much easier than previous years; the vibe was incredibly relaxed and friendly with absolutely zero drama (at least none that I was aware of) and the location itself was just beyond magical. Mountain tops covered in pine, aspen stands and fields of dandelions, wild iris and a myriad of other wild flowers made each day like a waking dream. As always, the group discussions were thought provoking to the max, especially one we had on mental health in the context of living within a society that systematically destroys mental health. There were also primitive skills workshops, plant walks, an interesting discussion on natural child birthing, a solstice celebration, and clear guidelines for community practices and sober spaces for those who desired them. Outside of the planned activities there were plenty of opportunities to go hiking, splash around in the stream, or just lay on the soft grass underneath the sun listening to the birdsong.
As I reflect on my third year of attending this gathering, I realize how valuable the experience has been to both my personal and political development. Fireside chats under the stars with hardcore primitivists and nuclear power supporters alike have helped me broaden, sharpen and mold my own critiques of industrial society. Though we may not all agree on every single thing, simply being around like minded people with similar viewpoints is a welcome reprieve from constantly having to defend my position or either keep silent about it. Over the past few years at WRFF I have learned of struggles that I may not have come into contact with otherwise. In fact, I credit my first real introduction to indigenous solidarity to my first WRFF in 2012. It would not be an understatement to say that WRFF has been an important part of my life.
Because this year felt extra special, I must give thanks to all the wonderful people who shared time, space and food with me; thanks for all the chats, all the laughs, for all the memories. And a special thanks to those who let me practice my tarot reading skills on you – I hope it was helpful. So much love to the folks in Durango who do the hard work of scouting out locations and cleaning up after the gathering is done; thanks for all you do and for creating a space where so much magic happens. Thank you, thank you, thank you.